Johnny Halife’s Blog

Acropolis is a set of components and tools that make it easier for developers to build and manage modular, business focused, client .NET applications. Acropolis is part of the “.NET Client Futures” wave of releases, our preview of upcoming technologies for Windows client development.

Acropolis builds on the rich capabilities of Microsoft Windows and the .NET Framework, including Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF), by providing tools and pre-built components that help developers quickly assemble applications from loosely-coupled parts and services. With Acropolis you will be able to:

• Quickly create WPF enabled user experiences for your client applications.
• Build client applications from reusable, connectable, modules that allow you to easily create complex, business-focused applications in less time.
• Integrate and host your modules in applications such as Microsoft Office, or quickly build stand-alone client interfaces.
• Change the look and feel of your application quickly using built-in themes, or custom designs using XAML.
• Add features such as workflow navigation and user-specific views with minimal coding.
• Manage, update, and deploy your application modules quickly and easily.

If you read the description above it seems to be very similar to Smart Client Software Factory. What's the relationship between them, how does the future of SCSF looks like? If you have this questions, your planning to use SCSF or you are using SCSF check out this post on Glenn's Block (P&P Product Planner) about P&P, SCSF & Acropolis.

If you wanna play around with Acropolis bits download them from here. For a preview of Acropolis and to get involved I recommend you this video Getting started with code-name “Acropolis”.

thanks,
~johnny

DinnerNow.net v1.3 was published and also there's an Orcas version showing the enhancements to WCF+WF , Syndication, Linq, among other Orcas features.

What's new on DinnerNow.net?

• New Service Portfolio. The DinnerNow.net services had been completely re written. This new solution consists on: Service Interfaces, Data Access, Workflow, and Business Logic.
• Unit Testing. The new service portfolio includes the Unit Test for it's components.
• Documentation. Now the Service Portfolio includes ///XML documentation, and we're shipping with a CHM file generated with SandCastle.
• Mobile Application. The delivery application had been completely rewritten using Windows Mobile 6.0 Professional SDK. This application completes the Order Delivery workflow.
• New demo walkthrought. Demo documentation was been updated including the Mobile Application information.
• Improved setup. The C:\DinnerNow is no longer mandatory, now you can install DinnerNow.net sample application wherever you want.

The v1.3 version is based on Microsoft .net Framework 3.0 and it has been tested on Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 (Longhorn Server Beta 3).

DinnerNow.net Orcas version

In addition to v1.3, we're also releasing a version of DinnerNow.net that has been developed using Visual Studio “Orcas” and the .NET Framework 3.5 beta 1. This version takes advantage Orcas features like:

• Linq. Data Access layer has been re written using Language Integrated Query for .net and LINQ-TO-SQL.
• Silver. On the service portfolio we got rid of plumbing code used on v1.3 with the new Workflow Services feature of Orcas.
• Syndication. We implemented the RSS Services using the WCF Syndication capabilities.

The Orcas version of DinnerNow.net has a couple of known issues, so please review the Known Issues document

Besides DinnerNow.net sample application we're releasing five new hands-on-labs for Orcas beta 1. The labs are based on DinnerNow.net sample application, but you do *NOT* need to download and install DinnerNow.net sample application in order to use them.

So, what are you waiting for get the bits now! And visit our codeplex community site in order to get the hands-on-lab.

thanks,
~johnny