Migration Information

The Enterprise Library – January 2006 is a new release that has been designed to take advantage of features in Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0. Although this is a new release, it follows the architecture and design principles of the original Enterprise Library. Many of the changes are internal—they reflect implementation decisions necessary to take advantage of the .NET Framework 2.0 capabilities—and do not require you to modify your existing applications. However, this release also includes changes that can prevent applications written for previous versions from executing if you attempt to use them with the new version. For example, application block configuration data is handled differently in this version. This release also includes new features and enhancements. As a result, you must migrate existing applications to allow them to use the Enterprise Library – January 2006.

However, note that migration is optional. The Enterprise Library application blocks support side-by-side execution. Therefore, you can choose to migrate your application gradually, one assembly at a time; migrate only part of your application; or leave your application as it is, and use the new configuration capabilities exclusively for new features that you add.

Side-by-Side Execution

The Enterprise Library for .NET Framework 2.0 – January 2006 can be installed side-by-side with previous versions of Enterprise Library. You can deploy new applications written for Enterprise Library for .NET Framework 2.0 – January 2006 along with applications written for previous versions. In addition, you can choose to migrate existing applications, one assembly at a time, to the new version.

If you decide to use side-by-side execution, you must deploy the different Enterprise Library versions in different directories. In any given directory, you cannot mix and match assemblies from different versions. For example, you cannot have Data Access Application Block version 1.1 in the same directory with Caching Application Block version 2.0.

The shipped project files use data in the AssemblyInfo.cs file to build assemblies that have different version information. This allows you to use strong names and to add different versions to the global assembly cache for side-by-side execution.

Partial Migration

Each assembly in an application can refer to only one version of the Enterprise Library, but an application that has multiple assemblies can refer to more than one version. For example, you could have an application with two assemblies, both using Enterprise Library 1.1. One assembly can be migrated to use Enterprise Library for .NET Framework 2.0, and the other left alone. This means you can gradually migrate your application, one assembly at a time.

While partial migration is supported, it is somewhat complicated to implement, and is therefore not recommended.

Migrating Application Code

The Enterprise Library for .NET Framework – January 2006 release has been redesigned and differs from previous releases of Enterprise Library in a number of ways. This release uses the new features of the .NET Framework 2.0, and as a result, some Enterprise Library features have been simplified or eliminated altogether. However, most of the changes to the application blocks are internal. For the most part, the public APIs are the same as they were in the previous release.

Changes to the APIs are discussed in the documentation for a particular application block. For more information about the APIs changed and the requirements for migrating code built with these APIs, see the Introduction topic for each block.

Migrating Configuration Information

This release of Enterprise Library stores configuration information in a different location than did previous versions. The default storage location is now the application configuration file. The June 2005 version stored each application block’s configuration data in a separate configuration file. For example, configuration information for the Caching Application Block was stored in the cachingConfiguration.config file.

The configuration schema for the application blocks is similar, but not identical to the June 2005 version. You will need to migrate your configuration data to the new schema and to the new location (the application configuration file). The easiest way to do this is to use the Enterprise Library Configuration Console to recreate your application configuration. Alternatively, you can migrate the configuration data manually. See the Source Schema section of the application block documentation for more information about the XML configuration schema.