Visual Studio 2008 SP1: New Assemblies in .Net Framework 3.5 SP1

Visual Studio 2008 SP1: New Assemblies in .Net Framework 3.5 SP1

There are several new assemblies in Service Pack 1 of .Net Framework 3.5 and Visual Studio 2008, I though I should be familiar with:

ADO.Net Entity Framework

• System.Data.Entity.dll - Contains the implementation of the ADO.Net Entity Framework as we've known it from previous Beta versions.
• System.Data.Entity.Design.dll - The Design-Time support for the Entity Data Model Designer and the entities code generation.
• System.Web.Entity.dll - Contains a new Data Source provider for ASP.Net called EntityDataSource.
• System.Web.Entity.Design.dll - The Design-Time support for the EntityDataSource.

ADO.Net Data Services Framework (project "Astoria")

• System.Data.Services.dll (was called Microsoft.Data.Web.dll when it was part of the ASP.Net 3.5 Extensions) - Contains the implementation of ADO.Net Data Services.
• System.Data.Services.Design.dll (previously Microsoft.Data.Web.Design.dll) - Since there is no visual designer for ADO.Net Data Services, this assembly contains the implementation of the datasvcutil.exe tool (previously webdatagen.exe) that creates the client side entities of a data service.
• System.Data.Services.Client.dll (previously Microsoft.Data.WebClient.dll) - Client side support for consuming data services from a .Net application.

ASP.Net Dynamic Data

• System.Web.DynamicData.dll - Contains the implementation of the Dynamic Data Framework for ASP.Net with support for both LINQ to SQL objects and ADO.Net Entity Framework entities.
• System.Web.DynamicData.Design.dll - Contains the Design-Time support for the Dynamic Data Controls.
• System.ComponentModel.DataAnnotations.dll - Metadata and customization support for Dynamic Data Pages and Controls.

ASP.Net MVC Framework / Routing Engine

The ASP.Net MVC Framework is not part of Visual Studio 2008 SP1 Beta1.

• System.Web.Routing.dll - The Routing Engine that was originally part of it, was refactored to be an independent component that can be used regardless of the MVC Framework (For example - the Dynamic Data Framework uses it).
• System.Web.Abstractions.dll - Contains several wrapper classes such as HttpContextBase that are being used by the Routing Engine.

General ASP.Net Extensions Support

• System.Web.Extensions.dll - Contains several extensions to ASP.Net 3.5 that were already been introduced in the ASP.Net Extensions Preview, such as the new ScriptManager for ASP.Net Ajax.
• System.Web.Extensions.Design.dll - Contains the Design-Time support for the new ASP.Net Extensions.

Enjoy!