The Definitive Guide to the Microsoft Enterprise Library (Expert's Voice in .NET) [Hardcover]

Keenan Newton (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 1590596552 | ISBN-13: 978-1590596555 | Publication Date: November 28, 2007 | Edition: 1

The Definitive Guide to the Microsoft Enterprise Library introduces one of the most exciting and popular .NET-oriented initiatives; the Enterprise Application Library, which offers nine classes of reusable code used to solve a variety of common problem spaces. These problems cover a number of topics, including configuration, data access, exception management, caching, application updates, UI separation, asynchronous invocation, logging, security, and XML-based information aggregation.

Author Keenan Newton, a senior consultant for noted Microsoft Partner Magenic (http://www.magenic.com/), begins with an introduction to the challenges faced by today’s developers, explaining the conditions which brought about the creation of this initiative. Following an overview of the Enterprise Application Library, subsequent chapters are devoted to detailed introductions to each block, concluding with an overview of the framework available for creating custom application blocks.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Keenan Newton has over eight years experience designing, architecting, and developing N-tier applications for both the Windows and Web environments, with an emphasis on Web Services, ADO.NET, and SOA. He is a speaker at local .NET user groups, and has been published in CoDe Magazine. Keenan is employed as a Senior Consultant for Magenic Technologies. We want to identify as many opportunities as possible surrounding this book and its technology cluster, events, resources, themes, broadcast opportunities, websites, etc. that could help promote the book and get it seen by the end-customer.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 520 pages
• Publisher: Apress; 1 edition (November 28, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1590596552
• ISBN-13: 978-1590596555
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 7.3 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #995,102 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Could be better, could be worse, April 20, 2008

By 

D. Norton (Nashville, TN) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Definitive Guide to the Microsoft Enterprise Library (Expert's Voice in .NET) (Hardcover)

This book does a fairly good job of introducing the Enterprise Library. I found it to be a preferable alternative to the documentation that ships with the product, and it is the only book I could find that covered the newer libraries (3.0 and 3.1). The author chose to focus his attention on two things. Firstly, he does a pretty good job enumerating the API. I can't count the times I have looked into the product documentation only to find a blank skeleton with no help or description. He also does a very thorough job of putting together a comprehensive set of exercises for the reader to practice his / her new chops.

My first criticism is more for the publisher than the author. I think the price is a little high for what you get. I am guessing that the hard cover contributes to the price. I would be very happy to trade in the hard cover for a cheaper price. I am happy to shell out for a premium binding of a Martin Fowler or Eric Evans book or other similar "timeless" books of the trade, but I might think twice next time about spending so much on a guide to a versioned release of a minor product.

It took me a few chapters to figure out the author's method for organizing his thoughts. Each chapter describes a single application block. The first few pages jump right in to the API, describing most of the classes and highlighting important members. Then ... after that ... he describes a few ways (certainly not an exhaustive list) to put these ideas together. The last third of the chapter is a step-by-step guide through the practices. The end result for me was to do a lot of flipping back and forth in each chapter. I would:

- skim over the first section
- read the middle section, referring back to the first section
- look at the product documentation for more information
- find nothing of use
- go back to the book
- do my own sample code, completely bypassing the practices

Thus, the greatest strength of this book is the sheer fact that it really doesn't have any viable competition. The author does an admirable job attempting to document a product that has no other good documentation and is in a pretty rapid state of flux. With Enterprise Library 4.0 on the horizon, I am sure that the second edition of this book will be a worthy resource if the author can convince the publisher to get rid of the hard cover and bring the price down.

5 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Truly the definitive guide!, March 27, 2008

By 

Keith D. Harvey "Changing the world one pixel... (Huntsville, AL, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Definitive Guide to the Microsoft Enterprise Library (Expert's Voice in .NET) (Hardcover)

If you are wanting to utilize the Microsoft Enterprise Library in your organization, this is the book you need. I have found it to be extremely useful - walking me through each application block clearly.

The sample code is very useful and I have been able to get up to speed very quickly. Much more quickly than if I tried to navigate the offical Enterprise Library documentation.

If you are a developer with some basic experience in .NET - this book will be very useful. If you are new to development or are at a junior level - this book may be a bit much for you - similar to the other reviewer that gave this book a single star.

Good reading!

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Nice intro, March 2, 2009

By 

J. E. Werba (Buenos Aires, ARG) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Definitive Guide to the Microsoft Enterprise Library (Expert's Voice in .NET) (Hardcover)

It's a nice intro to the basic use of the framework. The first chapters were the most interestings for me because they talk about how the framework was conceived and around what patterns the framework has been built on (Dependency injection,Inversion of control, Factories and others).