What's New in the .NET Framework 4.5 RC .NET Framework 4.

5 This topic contains a summary of key new features and improvements in the follow ing areas of the .NET Framework 4.5 RC. This topic does not provide comprehensiv e information and is subject to change. For general information about the .NET F ramework, including guidance for installing or uninstalling the .NET Framework, see Getting Started with the .NET Framework1. .NET for Metro style Apps Portable Class Libraries Core New Features and Improvements Tools Parallel Computing Web Networking Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) Windows Workflow Foundation (WF)

.NET for Metro style Apps Windows Metro style apps are designed for specific form factors and leverage the power of the Windows operating system. A subset of the .NET Framework 4.5 RC is available for building Metro style apps for Windows by using C# or Visual Basic . This subset is called .NET APIs for Metro style apps and is discussed in an ov erview2 in the Windows Dev Center.

Portable Class Libraries The Portable Class Library project in Visual Studio 2012 RC enables you to write and build managed assemblies that work on multiple .NET Framework platforms. Us ing a Portable Class Library project, you choose the platforms (such as Windows Phone and .NET for Metro style apps) to target. The available types and members in your project are automatically restricted to the common types and members acr oss these platforms.

Core New Features and Improvements The following features and improvements were added to the common language runtim e and to .NET Framework classes: Ability to reduce system restarts by detecting and closing .NET Framework 4 applications during deployment.

Support for arrays that are larger than 2 gigabytes (GB) on 64-bit platforms . This feature can be enabled in the application configuration file. See the <gc AllowVeryLargeObjects> element, which also lists other restrictions on object si ze and array size. Better performance through background garbage collection for servers. When y ou use server garbage collection in the .NET Framework 4.5 RC, background garbag e collection is automatically enabled. Background just-in-time (JIT) compilation, which is optionally available on multi-core processors to improve application performance. Ability to limit how long the regular expression engine will attempt to reso lve a regular expression before it times out. Ability to define the default culture for an application domain. See the Cul tureInfo8 class. Console support for Unicode (UTF-16) encoding. Support for versioning of cultural string ordering and comparison data. Better performance when retrieving resources. See Packaging and Deploying Re sources in Desktop Apps. Zip compression improvements to reduce the size of a compressed file. See th e [Link] namespace. Ability to customize a reflection context to override default reflection beh avior through the CustomReflectionContext class. Support for the 2008 version of the Internationalized Domain Names in Applic ations (IDNA) standard when the [Link] class is used o n Windows 8 Release Preview. Delegation of string comparison to the operating system, which implements Un icode 6.0, when the .NET Framework is used on Windows 8 Release Preview. When ru nning on other platforms, the .NET Framework includes its own string comparison data, which implements Unicode 5.x.

Managed Extensibility Framework (MEF) The Managed Extensibility Framework (MEF) provides the following new features: Support for generic types. Convention-based programming model that enables you to create parts based on naming conventions rather than attributes. Multiple scopes.

Asynchronous File Operations In the .NET Framework 4.5 RC, new asynchronous features were added to the C# and Visual Basic languages. These features add a task-based model for performing as

ynchronous operations. To use this new model, use the asynchronous methods in th e I/O classes. See Asynchronous File I/O18.

Tools Resource File Generator ([Link]) enables you to create a .resw file for use in Windows Metro style apps from a .resources file embedded in a .NET Framework assembly.

Parallel Computing The .NET Framework 4.5 RC provides several new features and improvements for par allel computing. These include improved performance, increased control, improved support for asynchronous programming, a new dataflow library, and improved supp ort for parallel debugging and performance analysis.

Web [Link] 4.5 RC includes the following new features: Support for new HTML5 form types. Support for model binders in Web Forms. These let you bind data controls dir ectly to data-access methods, and automatically convert user input to and from . NET Framework data types. Support for unobtrusive JavaScript in client-side validation scripts. Improved handling of client script through bundling and minification for imp roved page performance. Integrated encoding routines from the AntiXSS library (previously an externa l library) to protect from cross-site scripting attacks. Support for WebSockets protocol. Support for reading and writing HTTP requests and responses asynchronously. Support for asynchronous modules and handlers. Support for content distribution network (CDN) fallback in the ScriptManager control.

Networking The .NET Framework 4.5 RC provides a new programming interface for HTTP applicat ions. For more information, see the new [Link] and [Link] ders namespaces. Support is also included for a new programming interface for accepting and inter acting with a WebSocket connection by using the existing HttpListener and relate d classes.

In addition, the .NET Framework 4.5 RC includes the following networking improve ments: RFC-compliant URI support. Support for Internationalized Domain Name (IDN) parsing. Support for Email Address Internationalization (EAI). Improved IPv6 support. Dual-mode socket support.

Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) In the .NET Framework 4.5 RC, Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) contains cha nges and improvements in the following areas: The new Ribbon control, which enables you to implement a ribbon user interf ace that hosts a Quick Access Toolbar, Application Menu, and tabs. The new INotifyDataErrorInfo interface, which supports synchronous and async hronous data validation. New features for the VirtualizingPanel and Dispatcher classes. Improved performance when displaying large sets of grouped data, and by acce ssing collections on non-UI threads. Data binding to static properties, data binding to custom types that impleme nt the ICustomTypeProvider interface, and retrieval of data binding information from a binding expression. Repositioning of data as the values change (live shaping). Ability to check whether the data context for an item container is disconnec ted. Ability to set the amount of time that should elapse between property change s and data source updates. Improved support for implementing weak event patterns. Also, events can now accept markup extensions.

Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) In the .NET Framework 4.5 RC, the following features have been added to make it simpler to write and maintain Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) application s: Simplification of generated configuration files. Support for contract-first development. Ability to configure [Link] compatibility mode more easily.

Changes in default transport property values to reduce the likelihood that y ou will have to set them. Updates to the XmlDictionaryReaderQuotas class to reduce the likelihood that you will have to manually configure quotas for XML dictionary readers. Validation of WCF configuration files by Visual Studio as part of the build process, so you can detect configuration errors before you run your application. New asynchronous streaming support. New HTTPS protocol mapping to make it easier to expose an endpoint over HTTP S with Internet Information Services (IIS). Ability to generate metadata in a single WSDL document by appending ?singleW SDL to the service URL. Websockets support to enable true bidirectional communication over ports 80 and 443 with performance characteristics similar to the TCP transport. Support for configuring services in code. XML Editor tooltips. ChannelFactory caching support. Binary encoder compression support. Support for a UDP transport that enables developers to write services that u se "fire and forget" messaging. A client sends a message to a service and expect s no response from the service. Ability to support multiple authentication modes on a single WCF endpoint wh en using the HTTP transport and transport security. Support for WCF services that use internationalized domain names (IDNs).

Windows Workflow Foundation (WWF) Several new features have been added to Windows Workflow Foundation (WF) in the .NET Framework 4.5 RC. These new features include: Ability to create state machine workflows. Enhanced Workflow Designer features such as the following: Enhanced workflow search capabilities in Visual Studio, including Quick Find and Find in Files. Ability to automatically create a Sequence activity when a second child activity is added to a container activity, and to include both activities in the Sequence activity. Panning support, which enables the visible portion of a workflow to be c hanged without using the scroll bars. A new Document Outline view that shows the components of a workflow in a

tree-style outline view and lets you select a component in the Document Outline view. Ability to add annotations to activities. Ability to define and consume activity delegates by using the workflow d esigner. Auto-connect and auto-insert for activities and transitions in state mac hine and flowchart workflows. Storage of the view state information for a workflow in a single element in the XAML file, so you can easily locate and edit the view state information. A NoPersistScope container activity to prevent child activities from persist ing. Support for C# expressions: Workflow projects that use Visual Basic will use Visual Basic expression s, and C# workflow projects will use C# expressions. C# workflow projects that were created in Visual Studio 2010 and that ha ve Visual Basic expressions are compatible with C# workflow projects that use C# expressions. Versioning enhancements: The new WorkflowIdentity40 class, which provides a mapping between a per sisted workflow instance and its workflow definition. Side-by-side execution of multiple workflow versions in the same host, i ncluding WorkflowServiceHost41. In Dynamic Update, the ability to modify the definition of a persisted w orkflow instance. Contract-first workflow service development, which provides support for auto matically generating activities to match an existing service contract.