rockfordlhotka
commented
8 years ago Welcome back!
Lots of questions, I'll try to answer from my perspective and perhaps others will chime in with their thoughts.
- I'd recommend using the current version from NuGet - speaking of which, you should use NuGet to pull in the packages, don't try file linking or any of that old-fashioned stuff, it just makes life harder. The current version is 4.6.300, but 4.6.400 is about to be released (with lots of new Xamarin support).
- The most current content is the Using CSLA 4 book that you have.
- The concepts and most of the code remains consistent from 3.8 - with the (big) exception that the 4.x rules engine is different and a whole lot better (thanks largely to @jonnybee) - and the addition of support for async/await, which is required for most modern app dev scenarios.
- If it were me I'd at least target WPF. I appreciate the simplicity and productivity of Windows Forms, but basically every modern platform (Windows, iOS, Android, Hololens, Xbox, etc.) use XAML, so I really think it is a worthy investment of your time.
Regarding NuGet, it is built into VS15. When you right-click on the References node in Solution Explorer you'll see an option to manage NuGet references right next to the old-style option. That'll bring up a window where you can search for, install, and upgrade the packages used by your project.
It isn't just CSLA that has moved to NuGet btw. Basically everything has moved to NuGet, because it is so much easier from the perspective of both the end user (you) and package publishers (me).
RQJohnson
Chicagoan2016
I wrote several CSLA apps between about 2003 and 2010 and was active in the forums then, too. But I have been much less active since then. And frankly, I've forgotten a huge amount of this. And, of course, now I realize I need to get busy with app development again. I'll still only be developing windows apps so web stuff, mvvm, etc. are really of no concern.
So, I guess I should be asking first what version of CSLA I should be using. I am using VS 2012 Update 5 and .NET version 4.6 (though I expect most of my users will be 4.5). I also expect to continue my use of CodeSmith's Generator (of which I have probably forgotten even more) and their CSLA support.
So .. (1) what version of CSLA should I use? (2) I have already purchased the 4.0 book package and am a little daunted by the volume of material there (over 600 pages even if I ignore the WPF, ASP, and win Phone platform books). Yikes! Is this the best way to dive back in? (3) I still have the CSLA 3.8 video series and was thinking of starting by re-viewing those. But if that's just going to make it harder to use the more current version (because of a potentially significant change in the framework since then?) , that seems dumb. So, are there newer videos available? (4) I'm hoping to continue building regular Windows Forms apps as I don't see much value in climbing the XAML/WPF learning curve for the few years I'll continue to do this. But the discussion in book 2 (pages 78 - 80) regarding BindingList and ObservableCollection make me wonder if I really have an option here. Your comments are welcome on this topic, too.
Answers and links to download resources are MUCH appreciated. I am not familiar with this NuGet process either. So please give me a hint about where to get it and how to use to download the relevant version of CSLA.
Thanks in advance!
Q Johnson