Cocoon Now Available on NuGet

Update : The 'Cocoon' framework is now named the 'Okra App Framework'. For information on how to obtain the framework via NuGet then see the documentation here.

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I am very pleased to announce that the Cocoon framework is now available via NuGet (thanks to Brendan Forster for helping to get this off the ground). Going forward this will be the recommended source when using the framework in your own projects.

Getting Cocoon Via NuGet

With the release of Visual Studio 2012, the NuGet package manager is included within the product. This means that to reference the Cocoon framework all you need to do is to right-click on the project’s “References” folder and select “Manage NuGet Packages…”

Note that since the Cocoon framework is currently pre-release then you should select “Include Prerelease” in the box highlighted in red below. You can then search for “Cocoon”.

Note that there are currently two packages for the Cocoon framework. In general you should select the package named “Cocoon Framework” as this includes the complete framework including the MEF based bootstrapper. Clicking install will then download Cocoon along with any dependencies and add these to your project.

Updating Your Project to the Latest Version Of the Cocoon Framework

One of the advantages of using NuGet to distribute the Cocoon framework is that it makes it very easy to upgrade projects to the latest version of the framework. To do this simply open the package manager for a project that you have previously added Cocoon via NuGet and select the “Updates” tab. Any updated packages will be displayed and can be upgraded with a single click.

Note: Making the Cocoon Framework Independent of Composition Container

I have had a number of queries from developers who wish to use alternative composition containers with the Cocoon framework. Whilst it is recommended for most projects that you use the provided MEF composition implementation, with this latest release the Cocoon framework can now be used with any other composition container. The project has been split into two assemblies,

• Cocoon – contains the core framework independent of composition container.
• Cocoon.MEF – contains the MEF dependencies (most importantly the MEF based “CocoonBootstrapper”).

How Will Cocoon be Released in the Future?

Going forward there will be three ways to obtain the Cocoon framework,

• NuGet: This is the recommended source and will contain the latest stable versions. If I discuss any functionality on this blog then it will be implemented in the latest NuGet release unless otherwise stated.
• CodePlex Downloads: I will also provide a zipped package of the source code via CodePlex in the Cocoon downloads section. This will be kept in sync with the NuGet releases.
• CodePlex Source Control: For those interested in the very latest versions of Cocoon then this will be available as always via the “Source Code” tab of the Cocoon CodePlex site. Note however that this may include experimental functionality and may not be stable.

Cocoon Updated for Windows 8 Release Preview

You will be pleased to hear that I have just pushed an updated version of the Cocoon framework onto CodePlex that supports the Windows 8 Release Preview.

As usual the code is freely available for download from the Cocoon CodePlex site (to get the latest version go to the “Source Code” tab, select the first change set and use the “Download” link).

Using MEF in the Release Preview

As many of you will be aware, the Cocoon framework uses the Managed Extensibility Framework (MEF) by default for locating and composing applications. With the release of the Windows 8 Release Preview, MEF is not being distributed separately – for more details see the announcement on the BCL team blog.

You will therefore need to add MEF as a reference to your application via NuGet. The above link has more details however the steps are,

1. Right click on your projects ‘References’ folder and select “Manage NuGet Packages…”
2. Select “Online” in the left-hand pane and make sure that you have “Include Prerelease” selected rather then “Stable Only” at the top.
3. Use the search box to search for “MEF”
4. Select “MEF for web and Metro style apps” and click “Install”

Changes in tHis Release of Cocoon

In general most applications should not be affected by the changes in this version of Cocoon (apart for the fact that they will run on the Release Preview!). Changes of interest include,

• All use of MEF has been modified to support the new version
• The ‘CocoonBootstrapper’ no longer has an overridable GetPartCatalog() method and is replaced with GetContainerConfiguration().
• The ISupportPlaceholder interface has been removed in the Release Preview. The VirtualizingVector<T> implementation has been updated to reflect these changes and now returns ‘null’ as a placeholder (as now expected by the standard XAML controls).
• Many other updates and bug fixes