Visual Studio 2005 Premieres (Continued)

Using the Class Designer is not the only way you can view a Visual Studio application. The document outline view, available in ASP.NET applications, provides a treeview of HTML documents that makes it easier to navigate complex Web applications. The Design view shows the elements in the body of the HTML file, and the Source view shows the body elements as well as elements in the head, the page directive, the script, and code elements.

Visual Studio 2005’s Object Browser lets you examine and expand system objects in a treeview (see Figure 5). In addition to understanding and working with the class structure and methods within each class, it displays the description for all Framework classes and where they reside within the class hierarchy. And it now lets you filter and sort data by namespace, object type, alphabetically, and other characteristics.

Framework Enhancements
While the .NET Framework is not a formal part of Visual Studio, the IDE provides easy access to its features. The Framework 2.0 has a number of incremental features, including new controls, new databinding, support for generics (implemented in both languages), improved FTP and HTTP support, ClickOnce deployment, a variety of improvements to ASP.NET, and many more.

In fact, there are too many additions and improvements to detail at any length. Instead, I’ll pull out a few for specific mention (see Figure 6). The BindingSource class improves the manipulation of data. It simplifies the process of databinding between control and data, sitting in between the bound control and the target data source. It helps in managing many databinding issues such as currency, data-related events, and target data source changes.

The DataGridView control provides a useful and flexible way to display data in a tabular format. ToolStrip controls are toolbars that can host menus, controls, and user controls in WinForms applications. And the WinForms SplitContainer is two panels separated by a movable bar, useful for displaying and browsing information.

For anyone who has to take their application out of Visual Studio and deploy it independently, ClickOnce deployment tries to address issues with versioning of common files, updating of specific files within applications, and permissions issues during application installation. ClickOnce is based on an application manifest and a deployment manifest, both of which are implemented as XML files. As the names imply, the application manifest describes the characteristics of the application itself, and the deployment manifest describes the location and versioning of files.

Developers often wonder about application compatibility across versions of the Framework. Microsoft claims to try to maintain both forward and backward compatibility across Framework versions, but it occasionally makes changes or deprecates APIs in the name of security, function, or simply because it didn’t work right the first time.

For Framework 2.0, Microsoft has made some APIs obsolete, and makes available a reference for those interfaces. However, to be on the safe side, it makes sense to install the Framework version with which your application was built. I’ve run both the Framework 2.0 and 1.0 for almost a year with no difficulty in compatibility between applications using different versions.

Of course, the Framework and the languages work together, as the Framework implements classes and other features the languages are able to call upon (see the sidebars, “A Taste of Language” and “Back to the Future With Visual Basic,” for a broader discussion of Visual Studio languages in general).

Of course, Visual Studio 2005 goes hand in hand with Visual Studio Team System (VSTS), the application development lifecycle platform that complements and integrates with Visual Studio in a team development environment. VSTS adds source-code control (not Visual SourceSafe), static code analysis (FxCop), performance analysis, load testing, and other features to smooth the development process and improve quality.

One innovation is the use of the rules engine in conjunction with the source-code control system. This makes it possible to enforce best practices as a part of the development process. For example, you can require team members to perform a static code review with FxCop prior to checking in a file.

While the client portion of VSTS will be available at the same time as Visual Studio, the all-important Team Foundation Server won’t ship until next spring. Those seeking to integrate their existing development processes with VSTS will have to wait for the arrival of the server.