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patterns & practices Developer Center
June 2008
Summary
The Composite Application Guidance for WPF is designed to help you more easily build enterprise-level Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) client applications. This guidance will help you design and build flexible composite WPF client applications-composite applications use loosely coupled, independently evolvable pieces that work together in the overall application.
The Composite Application Guidance for WPF can help you develop your WPF client application in a modular fashion. With this approach, you manage the complexity of a large application by breaking it down into smaller, simpler modules. The module can evolve independently while working together as a unified application. The guidance includes a reference implementation, reusable library code (named the Composite Application Library), documentation, QuickStart tutorials, and hands-on labs.
Intended Audience
This guidance is intended for software architects and developers who are building enterprise WPF client applications. The guidance uses a number of design patterns. Familiarity with these technologies and patterns is useful for evaluating and adopting the Composite Application Library.
System Requirements
This guidance was designed to run on the Microsoft Windows Vista, Windows XP Professional, or Windows Server 2003 operating system. Applications built using this guidance will require the .NET Framework 3.5 to run.
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This version has been smoke tested on Windows Server 2008, but it has not been exhaustively tested.
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Before you can use the Composite Application Library, the following must be installed:
Resources
The following table contains links to download the Composite Application Guidance or review information about the release:
Assets Included in the Composite Application Guidance
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Asset
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Description
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Stock Trader Reference Implementation (Stock Trader RI)
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This is a sample composite application that is based on a real-world scenario. This intentionally incomplete application illustrates the Composite Application baseline architecture. This is a good reference to see how many of the challenges are addressed by this guidance when building composite applications.
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Composite Application Library source code
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Developers can use the Composite Application Library to develop WPF applications that are composed of independent and collaborating modules. The library includes extensions to support the integration of the Unity Application Block.
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QuickStarts
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These include the source code for several small, focused applications that illustrate user interface (UI) composition, dynamic modularity, commanding, and event aggregation. The Hello World QuickStart provides a step-by-step hands-on lab to create your first application using the Composite Application Library.
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Documentation
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This includes the architectural overview, Stock Trader RI overview, design and technical concepts for composite applications, applied patterns, How-to topics, QuickStarts, and deployment topics. Much of this guidance is applicable even if you are not using the Composite Application Library, but you want to know best practices for creating composite applications.
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Figure 1 illustrates the Stock Trader RI included with the Composite Application Guidance.
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Figure 1
Stock Trader RI
Feedback and Support
Questions? Comments? Suggestions? To provide feedback about this deliverable, or to get help with any problems, visit the CodePlex Community site.
The Composite Application Guidance for WPF is designed to be reused, customized, and extended. It is not a Microsoft product. Code-based guidance is shipped "as is" and without warranties. Customers can obtain support through Microsoft Support Services for a fee, but the code is considered user-written.
Future Plans
The patterns & practices team is currently working on creating guidance that will help you build composite applications that target both WPF and Silverlight. Download early drops from the CodePlex Community site. To provide feedback, please create and vote on work items in the CodePlex issue tracker.
Related Titles
Authors and Contributors
The Composite Application Guidance for WPF was produced by the following individuals:
patterns & practices Team:
Blaine Wastell, Bob Brumfield, David Hill, Erwin van der Valk, Francis Cheung, Glenn Block, Larry Brader, Nelly Delgado, Alex Homer (Microsoft Corporation)
Brian Noyes (iDesign)
Adam Calderon (Interknowlogy LLC)
Arun Subramonian Namboothiri, Gokul Janardhanan, Padmavathy Bharathy Jambunathan, Prashant Javiya, Prasad Paluri (Infosys Technologies Ltd)
Damian Schenkelman, Diego Poza, Ezequiel Jadib, Ignacio Baumann Fonay, Jonathan Cisneros, Julian Dominguez, Mariano Converti, Mariano Szklanny, Matias Woloski (Southworks)
Tina Burden McGrayne (TinaTech, Inc.)
Veronica Ruiz (CXR Design)
Many thanks to the following advisors who provided invaluable assistance:
Bil Simser, Brad Abrams (Microsoft Corporation), Chad Myers, Clifford Tiltman (Morgan Stanley), David S Platt (Rolling Thunder Computing, Inc.), Derek Greer, Ian Ellison-Taylor (Microsoft Corporation), Ivo Manolov (Microsoft Corporation), Jamie Rodriguez (Microsoft Corporation), Jeremy D. Miller (Dovetail Software), John Gossman (Microsoft Corporation), Josh Twist (Microsoft Corporation), Matt Smith (AltiMotion Corporation), Mark Feinholz (Microsoft Corporation), Mark Tucker (JDA Software Group, Inc.), Michael D. Brown (Software Engineering Professionals, Inc.), Michael Kenyon (IHS, Inc.), Michael Sparks (RDA Corp), Ohad Israeli (Hewlett-Packard), Oren Eini (aka Ayende Rahien), Peter Lindes (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints), Rob Eisenberg (Blue Spire Consulting, Inc.), Shanku Niyogi (Microsoft Corporation), Scott Bellware, Szymon Kobalczyk (InterKnowlogy), Udi Dahan (The Software Simplist), Varghese John (UBS), Ward Bell (IdeaBlade)