Sharp Architecture 2.0: How are we going to get there?

Now that we have published our 2.0 road map, several people have asked us how are we going to get there. Simple, one step at a time.

One step at a time

We have previously blogged about Templify (here and here) being the way we are going to deliver a S#arp Architecture solution. That was step one for us, so you could say that we are already starting to deliver 2.0. Our next steps will be as follows (subject to change)

1. Create an initial 2.0 release that includes (v1.7.X)
   1. Convert solution and projects to Visual Studio 2010
   2. Convert all projects to .NET 4.0
   3. Reorganize the solution structure for the solution template (moving to a Who Can Help Me based folder structure)
   4. Solution to use new MSBUILD based build system
   5. Package for Templify
   6. Document new Build process
   7. Add documents for Templify
2. Create next release that includes (v1.8.X)
   
   1. LINQ Specifications
   2. Component composition
   3. Component registration
   4. Isolate NHibernate
3. Create the next release (v1.8.5.X)
   
   1. Support for Castle 2.5
   2. Support for NH 3.0 (whether it is a GA release or not)
   3. Fluent NHiberate compiled against NH 3.0
   4. Support for MVC 3
   5. Change Validation (Data Annotations for UI, NHibernate.Validator for Model)
4. Create the next release (v1.9.X)
   1. Convert Default Package to use Spark as its default view engine
   2. Add documentation (blogs and wiki) on how to properly setup the Spark environment
   3. Include the new Plugin architecture
   4. Add documentation (blogs and wiki) on the new Plugin architecture
   5. Support for NoRM / MongoDb
   6. Support for Azure
5. Create the 2.0 release (v2.0.X)
   1. Final bug fixes
   2. Update all documentation
   3. Add samples via Blog posts
   4. Update Northwind
   5. Update Who Can Help Me
   6. Start creation of 3rd sample

All of this is subject to change based on the needs of the community / the team.

Conclusion

As you can see, we have an ambitious schedule a head of us. The team and I are really excited about what we have planned and cannot wait to share it with everyone. Some of it is very exciting, like the Plugin architecture and alternate data store support.

S#arp Architecture 1.6.5 will be the last stable release until 2.0 is released. The interim releases will all be listed as Alphas or Betas and should only be used in production if YOU are comfortable with it. If you are not or need to wait for a stable release, please wait for 2.0. For each release, we will also provide another Templify package. If you want the full source, you can download it from GitHub.