Smart Client Software Factory – May 2007 Release

Although the star, these days, is being “Acropolis” it is worth to mention that a new release of the Smart Client Software Factory was recently released.

These release provides:

• Windows Presentation Foundation interoperability CAB extensions and View with presenter recipe
• Offline application blocks and recipes; the application blocks support asynchronous calls to WCF web services.
• Richer ClickOnce Deployment capabilities 
• Enhanced guidance packages which includes code generation Visual Basic .NET 2005 
• Improved installation with a new dependency checker

Plan for next update to Smart Client Software Factory

The Client Team at patterns & practices is planning an update of the Smart Client Software Factory to be released in late April of this year.

Some of the highlighted features are:

• WPF Interoperability
• Offline Block & Service Agent
• Windows Workflow Block

For more information please check Blaine Wastell blog.

Installing Enterprise Library, GAT/GAX, CAB and factories under Windows Vista

Tom Hollander has posted some usefull tips for installing GAT/GAX and factories under Windows Vista. The same applies to Enterprise Library and CAB

Basically you need to run everything as Administrator.

Another important aspect is that, if you accept the default installation paths of Enterprise Library and CAB, you need also to run Visual Studio 2005 as Administrator when building this solutions. This is because Windows Vista restricts the access to ”Program Files” folder.

For more related information see also this post from Hugo Ribeiro.

HelloWorld with CAB and SCSF

A simple walkthroug that’s a good start to understand the basis of CAB and SCSF.

Note: Before you start there’s some pre-requisits that should be observed.

CAB and SCSF resources

Eugenio Pace, product manager at Microsoft Patterns & Practices, has compiled a list of resources about the CAB and the SCSF. This can be really useful if you are using these technologies or want to know more.

CAB & Smart Client Software Factory real world experiences

Mario Szpuszta from Microsoft Austria has written a good whitepaper that captures his experiences in the Austrian Raiffeisen Bank with CAB and the Smart Client Software Factory.

Download it from here.