Enterprise Library feature voting: The results are in!

We had a fantastic response to the Enterprise Library for .NET Framework 3.0 feature prioritization survey, with over 300 people sharing their ideas. I wanted to share the results, as we found them to be pretty interesting.

But first, it's important for everyone to understand that while customer feedback such as this is the most important factor in determining what we build, it's not the only factor. We also need to consider things like project resources, the skills we have on our team, alignment with current and future Microsoft products and p&p guidance, and so on. At this stage we haven't been able to consider all of these factors, so we can't say exactly what will actually make it into the new release of Enterprise Library - but it is safe to say that it will be heavily inflenced by the results of this survey.

And now, the results:

The first graph shows the number of points allocated to each feature in the survey. We used a simple algorithm giving 20 points for a Priority 1 vote, 19 for a Priority 2 vote, down to 1 point for a Priority 20 vote. (If there are any statisticians in the audience who would like to suggest a different approach for analyzing the results, let me know :-). Here's what you told us:

Here is the legend to help you decipher this chart:

Library Management LM1: Simple Strong-naming LM2: Ability to create custom developer installs LM3: Ability to create custom production installs LM4: Mini-Factory for building your own blocks and providers New Blocks NB1: Validation NB2: Data/XML aggregation NB3: User settings NB4: Business Rules NB5: Workflow NB6: Plug-ins NB7: Event Broker Core Architecture AR1: Manageability extensions for configuration (WMI, Group Policy) AR2: Hardened SQL Configuration Source AR3: Support for different configuration sources for each section AR4: Default behavior for blocks with no configuration AR5: ObjectBuilder / IOC enhancements AR6: User of typed parameters instead of strings Configuration Tool CT1: Environmental Overrides CT2: Support for encryption from the tool CT3: Edit AppSettings and other .NET settings from the configuration tool CT4: Config tool embedded in the Visual Studio IDE CT5: Web-based configuration tool CT6: Improved type loading behavior when assemblies can't be found Caching Application Block CA1: Configurable expirations Cryptography Application Block CR1: Asymmetric crypto support CR2: Tools for key management in a web farm Data Access Application Block DA1: Batch support DA2: ODP.NET provider support DA3: Richer transactions support DA4: Test database connections from the configuration tool Exception Handling Application Block EH1: Localization of exception messages EH2: WCF integration (exception shielding / fault mapping) Logging Application Block LO1: Support for localized log messages LO2: WCF pipeline integration LO3: Strongly-typed event log entries LO4: Per-source filtering LO5: Local or UTC timestamps in formatted log messages LO6: Reflected property tokens LO7: Reliability enhancements using Critical Finalizers LO8: Rolling flat file TraceListener LO9: Log viewer tool LO10: Improved performance and locking behavior for FlatFile LO11: Create event sources from tool Security Application Block SE1: Finer-grained authorization Docs and Samples DS1: Docs and scripts to get all unit tests to pass DS2: Detailed documentation for ObjectBuilder DS3: More code samples DS4: ASP.NET QuickStarts/Samples DS5: Hands-On Labs in the box

I also did another graph that shows the totals for each feature area by combining all of votes for each individual feature. This graph isn't quite as useful for prioritization as it's highly unlikely we'll get to everything on the list - but it does show which feature areas people are most interested in:

I hope you found this interesting - as we get a more detailed picture on what will actually make the cut, we'll keep you in the loop.

Comments

• Anonymous
  September 05, 2006
  After over 300 people responded to the Enterprise Library Survey, you can see the results here.
  It seems...
• Anonymous
  September 05, 2006
  Hi Tom, this sounds really cool and at the same time depressing :-). Im still in the Entlib 1.1 world and looking to move to 2.0 and now 3.0 planning is already underway. (feeling rather left behind) . Still, its all good stuff and am delighted that PAG and other groups are doing so much for the developers.
  
  Btw, hope im not asking about something already there in 2.0 (as i said im going to start reading up on that) but what happened to the Async invocation app block, Aggregation app block etc from the old days ? and has UIP app block moved into CAB? also, how about a block or provider to make it easy to use AD or ADAM for authentication. Theres an MSDN article discussing the use of AzMan with WSE3 and the author points out that performance could be an issue with this provider.
  
  Rgds,
  Benjy
  
• Anonymous
  September 18, 2006
  Hiya All!
  
  Could I suggest that the Enterprise Library 3.0 Install comes complete with app.config files for the VSTS projects that allow you to run all the unit tests successfully first time?
  
  Currently, with a fresh install of the Enterprise Library Jan 2006, a fair percentage on the unit tests fail, and there are even some files missing from the solution file.
  
  Cheers,
  
  Antony
• Anonymous
  September 27, 2006
  Back in June, the Microsoft patterns & practices team began soliciting feedback for what features...
• Anonymous
  April 05, 2007
  Yes, it's finally here. The patterns & practices team is pleased to announce the official release