DotNetKicks.com - published architecture stories

When to throw exceptions

Thu, 24 May 2012 15:06:37 GMT

Explains what "exceptional" means and when you should throw exceptions.

Behaviour-Driven Development in .NET with SpecFlow and White

Tue, 22 May 2012 13:42:58 GMT

This article gives an overview of behaviour-driven development (BDD), talks about .NET tools for BDD (SpecFlow) and UI testing (White) and proceeds with a working example giving hands on BDD in .NET

Semantic Versioning 2.0.0-rc.1

Thu, 12 Apr 2012 06:24:19 GMT

I propose a simple set of rules and requirements that dictate how version numbers are assigned and incremented.

Some XSockets and SisoDb fun - Part 2 of 2

Wed, 11 Apr 2012 13:43:24 GMT

This is a continuation of Some XSockets and SisoDb fun. This post is about putting SisoDb to use and we will look how to implement Insert, Gets, Updates, Queries and Deletes in JavaScript against a socket handler.

TempHire reference: Best practice architecture for biz apps

Thu, 15 Mar 2012 15:34:52 GMT

Cocktail ships with a reference application called TempHire, a line-of-business application for an imaginary temporary hiring agency. TempHire is available as Silverlight 4 and WPF solutions, sharing most of the code between the two solutions.

Restful WCF / EF POCO / UnitOfWork / Repository / MEF : 1 of 2

Thu, 19 Jan 2012 15:13:12 GMT

Sacha Barber, creator of the Cinch MVVM framework (http://cinch.codeplex.com/), has written a wonderful article in response to the requests of Cinch users. Sacha sets out to create a LOB application demonstrating how Restful WCF, EF, and the UnitOfWork and Repository patterns can be used together. The application is an excellent example of Domain Driven Design.

Simple explanation of the Repository pattern

Wed, 11 Jan 2012 15:36:50 GMT

One of my favorite design patterns is the 'repository pattern'. That's why I decided to dedicate a complete blog post to it. Using the repository pattern in your application can yield a lot of benefits, such as improved testability, easier ways to implement caching and transactions, avoidance of code duplication and it allows you to replace the data source easier (although that probably won't happen too often).

Dodgy Coder: Modern Cross Platform Development

Fri, 06 Jan 2012 01:57:26 GMT

Why isn't there a modern technology available for using the same codebase to produce native apps on all of the currently popular platforms - I'm talking iOS (iPhone/iPad/iPod Touch), Android, Windows, Mac and Linux? That was my original question before I started looking, and since then I've discovered there actually are plenty of new options out there for cross platform development catering for all of the above platforms.

Ayende on Infinite Scalability

Thu, 05 Jan 2012 15:00:27 GMT

Ayende Rahien shares his thoughts on an excellent article by Udi Dahan on the myth of infinite scalability (http://www.udidahan.com/2011/12/29/the-myth-of-infinite-scalability/). He adds his own 2 cents by setting a goal for scalability when designing a system. By setting a goal that is an order of magnitude above your projected requirements, you can be sure to design a system that can scale comfortably without overengineering a solution that doesn't meet your users requirements (or fails to launch).

Multiparadigmatic .NET

Wed, 21 Dec 2011 17:17:31 GMT

Over the years, many of us in the .NET community have heard of Microsoft's "personas" for the Visual Studio environment: Einstein (the genius), Elvis (the rock star), and Mort (the "average" developer). As useful as these personas might be for Microsoft in trying to figure out precisely for whom they're building Visual Studio and the Microsoft .NET platform, I've found them to be less helpful. In fact, I've come to realize that for the vast majority of the .NET ecosystem, developers mostly fall into one of two basic (and highly stereotypical) camps

Clean Architecture with Bob Martin

Wed, 23 Nov 2011 15:36:07 GMT

"Uncle" Bob Martin discusses some of the finer points of clean architecture and what it is to decouple your layers without duplicating data or code.

Is Continuous Delivery the Key to Software Success?

Fri, 18 Nov 2011 15:54:30 GMT

Paul Stack discusses the importance of Continuous Delivery, the method of delivering software early and often. This is akin to Continuous Integration, and may be the key to success in selling and shipping your software. Paul also puts to bed the concept that shipping early means sacrificing quality.

Managed Extensibility Framework: What It is and Where It is Going

Wed, 12 Oct 2011 15:23:34 GMT

Johnathan Allen aims to set the record straight on what MEF is, what it's used for, how it's being abused/misused today, and what the future holds.

Do you really need an ORM?

Wed, 05 Oct 2011 13:41:53 GMT

Attempts to convince developers and architects that - often - an ORM is over-engineering.

My take on what CQRS is -- and what it isn't

Thu, 29 Sep 2011 14:09:13 GMT

First and foremost: CQRS as an architectural pattern has nothing to do with event sourcing, eventual consistency, messaging, pub/sub, denormalized views and whatever other patterns are being confused with the term CQRS nowadays. CQRS is simply having two separate models for each reads and writes, that are being accessed via queries and commands respectively. [...]

A first encounter with Windows8 Development (C#, XAML, JavaScript)

Thu, 15 Sep 2011 13:58:04 GMT

First thoughts on developing in Windows8

New videos from Microsoft on the Async CTP

Sun, 21 Aug 2011 15:36:55 GMT

Microsoft has posted 5 new videos on using the Async CTP, with C# and VB versions of each. The Async CTP seems pretty awesome so far, check out these videos to learn about it!

Exposing internal methods in 3rd party assemblies for external use

Tue, 16 Aug 2011 18:08:41 GMT

This article shows how you can expose internal methods in 3rd party assemblies for external consumption using PostSharp

Have ORMs introduced extra complexity into our codebase?

Mon, 15 Aug 2011 22:49:22 GMT

Thinktank article to make us think about whether ORMs are a good thing or a bad thing for our codebases

LINQ to HPC (Formerly known as DryadLINQ) Tutorial: Part 2-Data Partit

Tue, 09 Aug 2011 16:23:03 GMT

A new beta has been released since I wrote part 1 of this tutorial. While very little was changed in the product, we have a new name. Another thing held me back personally from publishing this part was the fact that LINQ to HPC is not a part of Windows HPC R2 SP2. So without farther ado I am proud to present the second part of my tutorial about LINQ to HPC.

Fluent validation with reflection, lambda, and expression magic

Sat, 06 Aug 2011 15:44:03 GMT

Jeremy Likness shares his take on a fluent validation framework much like http://fluentvalidation.codeplex.com/ . While even more alternative exist, there's value in the methods Jeremy employs to create his framework. These methods can be applied to other problems in this domain, where perhaps other solutions do not exist or do not meet your needs.

Service & Scheduler: Using Topshelf, Quartz, & Other OSS Bits Part 2 «

Sat, 06 Aug 2011 01:44:28 GMT

In the previous entry in this series I setup a service using TopShelf. Now it is time to jump into scheduling with Quartz. I've started an entirely new service to work through an example of this service functionality. To read more about Quartz.NET from the source, check out the Quartz.NET Project Site or the Github Repo. Open up Visual Studio and create another Windows Console Project. Next add a reference to Quartz.NET with Nuget. Adding Quartz. Next add a class called SomeJob as shown. using System...

Introducing NDecision.Aspects

Tue, 02 Aug 2011 19:46:25 GMT

NDecision is a business logic execution layer that uses Fluent programming techniques and BDD language to simplify the authoring and encapsulation of business rules. NDecision.Aspects adds AOP support for the execution of the specifications and allows for autonomous specification application whenever you need it.

Announcing the Release of NDecision

Fri, 29 Jul 2011 03:56:27 GMT

NDecision is a Fluent decisioning engine written with Behavior Driven Development principles in mind. It makes business logic easy, allows the encapsulation of logic flow into chainable statements that can be set up and executed on object instances using Lambda syntax. Get it as a NuGet package right now!

Applying aspects to 3rd party assemblies using PostSharp

Wed, 27 Jul 2011 19:40:17 GMT

There is undocumented functionality in PostSharp 2.1 (2.1.2.3 or higher) that allows us to apply aspects to assemblies that we don't have the source code for. It is also very, very nifty and demonstrates the power of PostSharp, even when the code isn't available.