Product Overview for Visual Studio .NET 2003 Enterprise Developer

  • Article

Visual Studio .NET 2003 provides developers with powerful tools and servers for rapidly building XML Web services and enterprise applications. Visual Studio .NET 2003 Enterprise Developer builds on the power of Visual Studio .NET 2003 Professional by including additional capabilities for enterprise development teams building mission-critical applications that target any device and integrate with any platform.

Developers using Visual Studio .NET 2003 Enterprise Developer will benefit from:

  • A productive team development environment.
    Development teams can safely version and share source code and documentation using Microsoft Visual SourceSafe®. Development guidelines and best practices can be shared across development teams using XML-based Template Description Language and Enterprise Template projects. Development teams can analyze performance and scalability of XML Web services and applications using Application Center Test (ACT).
  • The ability to build scalable and secure XML Web services and applications.
    Rapidly build, test, and deploy scalable and reliable enterprise applications that harness the power of servers, including full-featured developer versions of Microsoft Windows Server 2003 and Microsoft SQL Server™. Visually build server-side and database components using Server Explorer, Component Designer, and Visual Database Tools. Use the new Web Services Development Kit (WSDK) to support several core Web service scenarios, including message-based security (WS-Security).
  • A scalable, dependable platform for distributed applications.
    Create secure, reliable, high-performance applications using the Visual Studio .NET 2003 integrated development environment (IDE) and the Windows Server 2003 programming model. Choose from a broad range of integrated third-party tools.

Boost Team Productivity

While Visual Studio .NET 2003 Enterprise Architect provides the tools for software architects to create sound architectural guidance for development teams, Visual Studio .NET 2003 Enterprise Developer enables developers to build on these best practices and use this architectural guidance for building dependable enterprise applications. This guidance is provided in the form of enterprise templates and corresponding application policies.

Enterprise templates provide an innovative set of services and features for providing architectural guidance within the Visual Studio .NET IDE. Using XML-based Template Description Language and Enterprise Template projects, you can leverage previous experiences for defining development guidance and policies that can be easily used by developers building applications. Instead of being limited to documentation, this guidance takes the form of architectural blueprints, reusable components, and policies or instructions for building applications using Visual Studio .NET 2003 that can be tailored to the specific needs of your organization.

Enterprise development teams can safely share source code and other project artifacts by using the integrated Visual SourceSafe version control system. Quickly view the changes you have made since the last check-in by using the Pending Changes Window, which makes it easier to track development progress.

With Visual Studio .NET 2003 Enterprise Developer, development teams can choose from a variety of programming languages and can test XML Web services and applications for performance and functionality using ACT. Use the browser record features to quickly create performance test scripts that can be modified and run from within the Visual Studio .NET 2003 environment. All the test parameters and test results are saved as XML documents. This makes the test, parameters, scripts, and results very portable. ACT provides a full automation model so developers can create suites of tests to be run automatically when new project builds are available, increasing the efficiency and accuracy of development and testing.

Connect Your Enterprise with XML Web Services and Applications

Visual Studio .NET 2003 enables seamless creation and consumption of XML Web services for building and integrating enterprise-class applications on any platform or device.

Rapidly build, test, and deploy scalable and reliable enterprise applications that harness the power of servers. Visual Studio .NET 2003 Enterprise Developer includes full-featured developer versions of Windows Server 2003, SQL Server, Microsoft Exchange Server, Microsoft Commerce Server, and Microsoft Host Integration Server, making it easier to build and test robust applications prior to deployment.

The new WSDK, included with Visual Studio .NET 2003, will enable developers to build on their investment in XML Web services by providing support for several core Web services scenarios, including:

  • Message-based security (as defined in WS-Security).
  • Network topology independence and routing (WS-Routing).
  • File attachments in SOAP messages (WS-Attatchments).

Server-based development is also simplified with Visual Studio .NET 2003 Enterprise Developer. Use the ultimate developer toolset—which includes visual designers for Windows, the Web, data, and server-based components—to accomplish tasks more efficiently than ever before. Use Server Explorer and Visual Component Designer to build components quickly and easily. Server Explorer provides easier access to databases, mail servers, system resources, event logs, message queues, performance counters, and reporting services—all within the Visual Studio .NET 2003 environment. The Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) Server Explorer component, available for separate download, provides a simple and consistent programming model to query and develop against a rich set of system resources. The Visual Database Tools make it easier to work directly with data in any database. Visually create queries and work with stored procedures, indexes, triggers, and user-defined functions in SQL Server or Oracle databases, and take advantage of the new .NET Framework Data Provider for Oracle to provide faster access to data stored in Oracle databases.

Finally, take advantage of comprehensive reference applications built by Microsoft that include design documentation to jump-start your efforts in building scalable and secure enterprise-class applications.

Build on a Scalable, Dependable Platform

The .NET Framework is designed to simplify application development in the highly distributed environment of the Internet and enterprise computing. This is achieved through integration of:

  • Public Internet standards such as XML, SOAP, UDDI, and WML.
  • A highly scalable, loosely coupled architecture.
  • Application development in the language of your choice.
  • Easy-to-use automatic transactions, automatic memory management, and easier deployment.
  • Advanced security designed from the ground up to ensure that data and applications are protected through a fine-grained, evidence-based security model.
  • Rich operating system services such as transaction processing monitors and message queuing.

Visual Studio .NET 2003 provides an open and extensible architecture that enables third-party vendors to create languages, tools, and components that seamlessly integrate into the environment, providing developers with a broad range of choices for meeting development requirements.