Distributed Data Applications with ASP.NET, Second Edition [Paperback]

Alex Homer (Author), Dave Sussman (Author), Apress (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 8, 2003

ASP.NET is a huge advance from previous incarnations of ASP, with one of its goals being pure HTML output that achieves maximum cross-browser compatibility. The server-side event architecture tends to engender this approach, but amid the first flush of excitement its often forgotten that theres still a place for rich clients and handling data in a multitude of places. Distributed data-driven applications arent new, but the range of possibilities and ease of development have both increased with the introduction of .NET.

This book approaches data management and data applications from several different points of view:

• Understanding the new .NET data management philosophy for both relational and XML data
• Grasping the different techniques that it encompasses and how they relate to real-world requirements
• Exploring the application architecture and design implications of the .NET data management classes
• Designing distributed data-driven ASP.NET applications that benefit from the new data management techniques
• Examining the rich-client philosophy and how .NET can be used to bring this about
• Demonstrating how easy it is to take advantage of several different types of client devices, providing the best user experience possible for each one

 

Many books describe the basic techniques for working with data in ASP.NET. However, this book goes not just a step further, but in fact takes you on a complete journey by exploring how to provide the user with the best possible client-side experience when working with data. It also focuses on the server-side design and development process, such as using the n-tier architecture in your applications, and implementing specific techniques, such as correctly managing updates to a data store by multiple concurrent users.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Alex Homer is a computer geek and web developer with a passion for ASP.NET. Although he has to spend some time doing real work (a bit of consultancy and training, and the occasional conference session), most of his days are absorbed in playing with the latest Microsoft web technology and then writing about it. Living in the picturesque wilderness of the Derbyshire Dales in England, he's well away from the demands of the real world—with only an Internet connection to maintain some distant representation of normality. But, hey, what else could you want from life? You can contact Alex through his own software company, Stonebroom Limited, at [e-mail].

Dave Sussman is a hacker in the traditional sense of the word. That's someone who likes playing with code and figuring out how things work, which is why he spends much of his life working with beta software. Luckily, this coincides with writing about new technologies, giving him an outlet for his poor English and grammar. He lives in a small village in the Oxfordshire countryside in the U.K. Like many programmers everywhere, he has an expensive hi-fi, a big TV, and no life.

Product Details

• Paperback: 690 pages
• Publisher: Apress; 2nd edition (December 8, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1590593189
• ISBN-13: 978-1590593189
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,019,543 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Hands On Training, May 25, 2004

By 

Subhankar Ray (Plano, Texas USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Distributed Data Applications with ASP.NET, Second Edition (Paperback)

Hands-on, example-based training for Microsoft .NET is offered in this book. It discusses .NET's effectiveness in a distributed environment with n-tier architecture, including different types of clients (rich clients and .NET clients), different types of browsers (including Wireless Markup Language (WML) and browsers for wireless devices), a middle tier (executing the business logic), and different types of data sources (databases from different vendors, data streams, and Extensible Markup Language (XML)). The book will be useful for any .NET developer.

Chapters 1, 2, and 3 cover how distributed data can be accessed using ADO .NET, including classic ActiveX data objects (ADO) techniques, DataReader, and System.XML classes. Chapters 2 and 3 contain example code supporting the discussion in chapter 1. Chapter 3 is completely devoted to XML data. XML is very popular for representing and storing unstructured data in the Internet-dominated world; this chapter brings out the power of .NET in handling XML data, increasing the usefulness of the book.

Chapters 4, 5, 6, and 7 focus on various client-side technologies, including remote data service, .NET Web service, Hypertext Markup Language/Wireless Markup Language (HTML/WML) form and control elements, XML, and others. The motivation of these chapters is to help a developer to identify how much can be done on the client side, including "1. different techniques for managing data on the client, 2. how one can remote data to the client in different ways, 3. [how to] determine the client device type and serve appropriate pages, and 4. [the] type of information that is exposed by different types of client." Chapter 6 focuses on browsers with XML support. Chapter 7 focuses on .NET clients, free from any Web browser running on Windows.

Chapters 8 through 13 describe techniques (provided by .NET), with examples and code for "pushing updates (and cashed data) back to the data source," handling of multiple concurrent users, and reconciling update errors, with different types of clients.

The authors bring forward an interesting topic, with the comment that "Web browsers weren't designed to be an application platform." They think .NET provides a richer application environment than a browser does, and, given a chance, developers must use "the richness that a Windows application can provide, especially in a corporate environment where [the] .NET framework can be available in every machine" (page 347).

These statements give readers some indication about Microsoft's strategy regarding their free product, Internet Explorer, and their new, upcoming .NET framework-based moneymaking Windows operating systems. It will be beneficial for Microsoft's bottom line to make their browser weaker, and to create a new Windows OS (with a .NET client) that will allow for the combination of office, search, and other applications with .NET, making a powerful combination that will be hard to beat with any browser-based application. If the strategy becomes successful, corporations need to think about their future applications, and reading this book will help them strategize with regard to future .NET applications.

In a shorter time frame, however, corporations need to consider in their business cases whether the "richness of Windows application[s]" is important enough, for a particular application, to give up the definite cost effectiveness of browser-based applications, in a world where open source software is gaining momentum.