Developing Application Frameworks in .NET

Application frameworks, which provide a base of common services on which applications are built, offer the benefits of extensibility, modularity, and reusability of both code and design to your applications. This book explains what frameworks are and how they fit into applications, and offers many object-oriented techniques used in application frameworks. This book also shows you actually how to develop application frameworks through a concrete framework example called Simplified Application Framework (SAF). The SAF framework was developed by author **Xin Chen** in C#. It consists of common services needed by many applications, such as a class factory service, configuration service, event notification service, security service, and transaction service. This book goes into detail on each of these services to explain its benefits, as well as its design and implementation in C#. Through a discussion of each service, you will also learn about many advanced .NET techniques employed by the framework, such as .NET remoting, reflection, custom attributes, multithreading, and serviced components. Many of the services discussed in the book also use design patterns as their blueprints. This book discusses these design patterns in-depth and shows how to implement them in a real-world scenario. Accompanying the book are the complete source code of the sample framework and sample executable projects (downloadable via the Internet), allowing readers to actually test out each framework service/component of SAF and learn about the development of frameworks, .NET technologies, and design patterns in a more interactive fashion. **Special Note** This book covers .NET 1.0 and 1.1. and assumes knowledge of the .NET Framework and C#.

Application frameworks, which provide a base of common services on which applications are built, offer the benefits of extensibility, modularity, and reusability of both code and design to your applications. This book explains what frameworks are and how they fit into applications, and offers many object-oriented techniques used in application frameworks.

This book also shows you actually how to develop application frameworks through a concrete framework example called Simplified Application Framework (SAF). The SAF framework was developed by authorXin Chen in C#. It consists of common services needed by many applications, such as a class factory service, configuration service, event notification service, security service, and transaction service. This book goes into detail on each of these services to explain its benefits, as well as its design and implementation in C#. Through a discussion of each service, you will also learn about many advanced .NET techniques employed by the framework, such as .NET remoting, reflection, custom attributes, multithreading, and serviced components.

Many of the services discussed in the book also use design patterns as their blueprints. This book discusses these design patterns in-depth and shows how to implement them in a real-world scenario. Accompanying the book are the complete source code of the sample framework and sample executable projects (downloadable via the Internet), allowing readers to actually test out each framework service/component of SAF and learn about the development of frameworks, .NET technologies, and design patterns in a more interactive fashion.

Special Note This book covers .NET 1.0 and 1.1. and assumes knowledge of the .NET Framework and C#.

Table of Contents

1. Introduction to Application Frameworks
2. Dissection of an Application Framework
3. An Overview of the Simplified Application Framework
4. Class Factories
5. Caching Service
6. The SAF.Configuration Service
7. SAF.EventNotification
8. Windows Services
9. Message Queue Services
10. Authorization Service
11. Authentication Service
12. Cryptography Service
13. Transaction Service
14. DocumentLayer Service
15. The Workflow Service

* Provides ready-to-run code for some of the most common tasks that .NET applications need to perform, which readers can incorporate directly into their own applications * Shows how to develop an extensible application framework that will greatly simplify development using the Microsoft .NET Framework * Provides examples of advanced object-oriented techniques such as design patterns in the context of real applications * The complete source code for SAF, which is ready for use and can be modified freely, is available for download * Deepens knowledge of .NET by showing many different .NET technologies (e.g. Remoting) in action, in a real application not just illustrative samples Front Matter....Pages i-xviii Introduction to Application Frameworks....Pages 1-10 Dissection of an Application Framework....Pages 11-38 An Overview of the Simplified Application Framework....Pages 39-50 Class Factories....Pages 51-81 Caching Service....Pages 83-108 The SAF.Configuration Service....Pages 109-130 SAF.EventNotification....Pages 131-162 Windows Services....Pages 163-188 Message Queue Services....Pages 189-208 Authorization Service....Pages 209-227 Authentication Service....Pages 229-243 Cryptography Service....Pages 245-288 Transaction Service....Pages 289-321 DocumentLayer Service....Pages 323-333 The Workflow Service....Pages 335-345 Back Matter....Pages 347-370 This book explains what frameworks are, how they fit into actual applications, and why we need them during application development. Xin Chen concentrates on the Simplified Application Framework, or SAF, an implementation of a framework he built for .NET applications