18 June 2014

This release adds the following key features:

1. Support for iOS
2. Support for WinRT on Windows Phone 8.1
3. Support for Universal Apps that target WinRT on Windows 8.1 and Windows Phone 8.1
4. A new HttpProxy/Host data portal channel that doesn’t rely on WCF
5. A new BrokeredProxy/Host data portal channel that allows a WinRT (Win8) app to call a local data portal running in full .NET

Here is the version 4.5.600 change log.

You can download the msi installer from the release page, or better yet add references to the framework via NuGet.

Version 4.5.600 includes support for iOS (via Xamarin) and for WinRT on Windows Phone 8.1 in the WinRT.Phone project. This also means you can use the new Universal solution/project type to build WinRT apps for Windows 8.1 and Windows Phone 8.1.

This prerelease also includes the new HttpProxy/Host and BrokeredProxy/Host data portal channels.

The Http data portal channel allows you to host the data portal server directly in ASP.NET MVC 4 or MVC 5 without the need for WCF. It relies only on the HttpClient library to invoke the server, so the client has no dependency on WCF - important for the new Windows Phone 8.1 programming model where WCF doesn’t exist.

The Brokered data portal channel allows you to host the data portal server in .NET as a brokered assembly, thus available to a WinRT client app. This means you can build a WinRT app that makes data portal calls, where the “server-side” code is also running on the client device, but has access to full .NET. This will only work on Intel-based devices where full .NET assemblies can be deployed. It will only work with side-loaded apps, not apps from the Windows Store.