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Posted Date Published 8/13/2009 8:27:00 AM

So should I or shouldn't...

I have always been asked the question of moving to CS2009 or staying with CS2007. Currently there are two versions CS2009 and CS2009\R2 which can make the choice even more difficult. Before I go through the benefits of the different version let me just come right out and say it.

I have never been a big fan of CS2009, the reason is that CS2009 was supposed to be a solution accelerator and now it has been made into a product. I believe that it is far from a complete product :(. If you go over the Microsoft site and read the benefits of CS2009 Microsoft is going to give a glass of fruit punch and once you drink, you are going to see rainbows everywhere you look. The only benefit I can find with CS2009 is that you get an extended life support.

SharePoint Integration

What about the SharePoint integration? Sorry, you could have done that with CS200x it’s a matter of modifying the web.config to make the integration happen. Well how about the WebParts? You don’t need SharePoint to have WebParts integration but you do get the source code in the new template site of CS2009 which forces you to use SharePoint. I have looked at the WebParts and they are as complicated to understand as the previous StarterSite :(. It’s a fine line between performance and architecture. Sometime you just need to put a nail in a board, no need to get fancy just get a hammer and drive the nail in.

New API

What about the new API isn’t it cool having a unified theory err… API? I have worked with the new API and I am sorry to say it’s much harder to work with and longer lines of code to write. The only benefit I can see is with R2 where you can have multiple tier architecture. But remember that will come with a cost so even if you are on one server for presentation and Business Logic you will have interprocessing which is expensive and degrade performance. Now some folks at the Product Group have been bold enough to tell me that the new CS2009 API are faster than the old. I find this very hard to believe. The reason is that the new API is built on top of the old API they are not going directly to the CS stored procedures so how in the world can the new API be faster.

New Feature of CS2009

Doesn’t CS2009 give you any new features? Of course it does. Customer can leave feedback, cool huh. Not really, the mechanism of leaving feedback is only if you have SharePoint integrated because that feedback\comment data is stored in SharePoint you can’t use it on a none SharePoint site.

Break Down

So what does CS2009 give you:

  • SharePoint Integration
  • Unified API
  • Product Feedback\Comment\Rating
  • CS2009\R2 multi tier architecture
    • Remember CS2009\R2 is 64 bit only
  • Has been said that CS2009 has bug fixes that CS2007 does not (I have not found a list of these bugs :()
    • WTF, are you kidding me
  • Longer Product Life Support

Please correct me if I am wrong on any of these points or missing something crucial.

Bottom Line

If you have CS2007 then stay on it no need unless you come to end of life of the product then upgrade. The upgrade will be simple just install CS2009 and your old API will work. None of the old API has changed.

If your business need to have multi tier architecture then go for CS2009\R2 when it’s RTMed.

by Max Akbar | Comments



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