Prism (Composite Application Guidance for WPF)

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patterns & practices Developer Center

June 2008

Summary

Prism (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.

Prism (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.

Note

This version has been smoke tested on Windows Server 2008, but it has not been exhaustively tested.

Before you can use the Composite Application Library, the following must be installed:

• Microsoft Visual Studio 2008
• Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 (the .NET Framework 3.5 includes WPF)

Resources

The following table contains links to download the Composite Application Guidance or review information about the release:

Downloads	Prism (Composite Application Guidance for WPF) 1.0 Prism (Composite Application Guidance for WPF) 1.0 Documentation in CHM format (also included with the above download) Prism (Composite Application Guidance for WPF) 1.0 Documentation in PDF format
Related Download	ManifestManagerUtility for ClickOnce
Getting Started	Prism: Getting Started with the Composite Application Guidance Overview Stock Trader Reference Implementation QuickStarts Hands-On Lab
Community Feedback and Support	CodePlex Community Site
Learn More	[Content link no longer available, original URL:"http://www.mstechedonline.com/library/(S(f3gfzme2vdjnou550ix5l155))/Library.aspx"] Tech-Ed Online Library: Building Composite Applications in WPF .NET Rocks! Glenn Block and Brian Noyes on Prism Prism: Patterns For Building Composite Applications With WPF
License	End User Licensing Agreement (EULA)

Assets Included in Prism (Composite Application Guidance for WPF)

Asset	Description
Stock Trader Reference Implementation (Stock Trader RI)	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.
Composite Application Library source code	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.
QuickStarts	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.
Documentation	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.

Figure 1 illustrates the Stock Trader RI included with the Composite Application Guidance.

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.

Prism (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

• Web Client Software Factory
• Composite UI Application Block
• Smart Client Software Factory
• Enterprise Library

Authors and Contributors

Prism (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)

Retired Content
This content is outdated and is no longer being maintained. It is provided as a courtesy for individuals who are still using these technologies. This page may contain URLs that were valid when originally published, but now link to sites or pages that no longer exist.