Developing Applications with the Enterprise Library

The Enterprise Library can be useful in a variety of situations:

• The Enterprise Library provides enough functionality to support many common scenarios that enterprise-level applications must address.
• The Enterprise Library can serve as the basis for a custom library. You can take advantage of the extensibility points incorporated in each application block and extend the application block by supplying new providers. You can also modify the source code for the existing application blocks to incorporate new functionality. Finally, you can add new application blocks to the Enterprise Library. You can either develop extensions for existing application blocks and new application blocks yourself, or you can use extensions and application blocks developed by others.
• The Enterprise Library is designed so that its application blocks can function independently of each other. You have to add only the application blocks that your application will use; you do not have to add the entire library.
• The Enterprise Library includes the source code for the application blocks. This means you can modify the application blocks to merge into your existing library or you can use parts of the Enterprise Library source code in other application blocks or applications that you build.
• The Enterprise Library includes documentation, QuickStart samples, and source code. This means that you can use the library as a tool for learning architectural, design, and coding best practices.