Glenn Block of Microsoft Patterns & Practices is asking the developer community what they want to see in the next version of the Web Client Software Factory.

He has a list published for your thoughts, but of course you can come up with your own ideas:

• Entlib 3.0 support (VAB, PIAB), etc.
• ASP.NET AJAX Support
• Silverlight [WPF/E] Support
• Complex Page Flows
• UI Composablity
• Less manual coding, more configuration, i.e. Service Registration via config, etc.
• Making the factory model driven. (Supports adding, removing and editing existing artifacts)
• Visual tools for navigating the factory solution projects and class files.
• Code snippets for repetitive tasks
• Richer debugging i.e. visual tools.
• Performance enhancements

I am not ready to officially cast my vote, because we have to be careful about what we ask for as we just might get it :) I think as a community we need to sit back and discuss our strategy before we just individually respond to Glenn's request. I bet if we work out a plan collectively we can get a better WCSF vNext.

Personally, I am not sure I like any of the above ideas or at least the way they are worded. Here are some things I would like to see which are a bit bigger picture but I haven't quite worked out in detail yet.

Model-View-Controller Framework as opposed to Model-View-Presenter

Maybe we want a Model-View-Controller Framework instead of the current Model-View-Presenter. Perhaps we want the Patterns & Practices Team to contact Scott Guthrie and learn a little more about this MVC Prototype that was discussed at the MVP Summit. I mentioned this to Scott in an email and was actually quite serious. I think the Web Client Software Factory may be a good way to launch a Model-View-Controller Framework.

Dependency-Injection Application Block

All this talk of integration with the Policy Injection Application Block in Enterprise Library 3.0 and Service Registration via configuration smells like a Dependency-Injection Application Block. How long has the community been crying for this from the ObjectBuilder Team? If we get this functionality in application block form with integration with the Enterprise Library Configuration Tool we can get something we can use in all our projects. This makes total sense and I am not sure why the ObjectBuilder Team hasn't provided it.

Validation Application Block Support

I think the Validation Application Block in Enterprise Library 3.0 rocks! Only one minor complaint - it requires a postback for validation. Well :), how about we say we want Validation Application Block Support in WCSF but we want the WCSF Team to work out the details of getting it (ProxyPropertyValidator) to emit javascript like the ASP.NET Validation Controls without requiring a PostBack or AJAX?

You see where I am going with this? We need to be very specific with Glenn and ask for functionality in a way that makes real sense. These are just a few thoughts and I would love to hear others. I say we put them to the test :)

by David Hayden