The Enterprise Library Core

Enterprise Library contains a set of core features that integrate the application blocks with the configuration system, support alternative configuration systems, and provide common utilities used across all of the application blocks. The following are some examples of the contents of the Enterprise Library core:

• Run-time configuration classes and providers that expose configuration data to the library, the application blocks, and users' applications at run time
• Common utility functions for tasks such as serialization, used in many places throughout the library and the application blocks and available for developers to use in their code
• Instrumentation features that allow developers and administrators to monitor the behavior and performance of the application blocks at run time
• Design-time configuration classes that support the configuration tools and allow developers to specify and persist configuration information for the library and the application blocks

For more details about the design of the Enterprise Library core features, see The Enterprise Library Core in the Design of Enterprise Library section of this guidance.