Today the Microsoft Patterns & Practices team released a download aimed to help Visual Basic developers use the Composite Application Library. It includes VB versions of the QuickStarts, Hands-On-Labs, and How-To topics:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=537da1cd-43e1-4799-88e7-a1da9166fb46

I’ve included some more information about the Composite Application Guidance below . You can also find more resources on MSDN and on CodePlex.

Please post feedback on the current VB release to Blaine’s blog. (Blaine is a Program Manager on the Microsoft Patterns & Practices team.)

http://blogs.msdn.com/blaine/archive/2009/03/25/vb-quickstarts-and-how-to-s-now-available-for-prism.aspx

Cheers,
Lisa

What’s PRISM?

The Composite Client Application Guidance (formerly codenamed “Prism”) is designed to help you more easily build modular Windows Presentation Foundation  (WPF) and Silverlight client line of business applications.

These types of applications typically feature multiple screens, rich, flexible user interaction and data visualization, and role-determined behavior. They are built to last and built for change. This means that the application’s expected lifetime is measured in years and that it will change in response to new, unforeseen requirements. This application may start small and over time evolve into a composite client—composite applications use loosely coupled, independently evolvable pieces that work together in the overall application.

Included in this release:

· Composite Application Library

· Reference Implementation (Stock Traders application in WPF and Silverlight)

· Quick starts (9)

· How-Tos (26) and

· Lots of documentation for everything you want to know about UI patterns  and client architectures

Goals of This Release

Prism 1.0 shipped in July 2008 with support for WPF. This release takes the composite line of business scenarios and provides guidance on how to extend the scenario to Silverlight by:

· Providing guidance on building modular and composite Silverlight applications.

· Simplifying the composition of the user interface.

· Providing guidance and light tooling on reusing code between Silverlight and WPF.

Getting Started

The Composite Application Guidance is for building modular applications using WPF or Silverlight. You should consider using the Composite Application Guidance in any of the following scenarios:

· You are building a application that presents information from multiple sources through an integrated user interface.

· You are developing, testing, and deploying modules independently of the other modules.

· Your application will add more views and more functionality over the coming years.

· You must be able to change the application quickly and safely to meet emergent business requirements.

· Your application is being developed by multiple collaborating teams.

· Your application targets both WPF and Silverlight, and you want to share as much code as possible between the two platforms.

The following topics may help in understanding the guidance and how it applies to your scenarios:

· When to use this guidance

· Intended audience

· Evaluating the Composite Application Guidance

· Modularity design concept

· UI composition design concept

About patterns & practices

The Microsoft patterns & practices (p&p) team is responsible for delivering applied engineering guidance that helps software architects, developers, and their teams take full advantage of Microsoft’s platform technologies in their custom application development efforts.

Their goal is to help software development teams be more successful with the Microsoft application platform. They do this by delivering guidance that:

· Helps to simplify the Microsoft application platform.

· Provides solution guidance to common problems.

· Helps development teams grow their skills and learn.

For more information: http://msdn.microsoft.com/practices