Enterprise Development Reference Architecture or EDRA

The so-called "enterprise" applications are hip nowadays. To build them properly, you need to be aware of the known obstacles, and preferably use time-tested patterns to solve the problems.

Microsoft is active in defining and developing solution patterns for .NET application, and one of the fruits of this work is called the "Enterprise Development Reference Architecture", or EDRA for short. The codename for this project is ShadowFx.

EDRA has its own GotDotNet workspace, from which you can download all the releases (meaning sample code and documentation).

For instance, you can download PowerPoint files to give you an overview of the architecture, and the 500 page PDF file describing it in full. Note that the PDF file can be a bit difficult to find, but you can use this direct link to get to it. And no, the PDF isn't part of the 5 meg .MSI file, even though it is useful otherwise. Note that you will need the .NET 1.1 SDK installed to install the .MSI file. This bite me at least.