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April 1, 2003--In this issue:
1. DEVELOPER .NET PERSPECTIVES
- The Data Access Application Block
2. ANNOUNCEMENTS
- Get the eBook That Will Help You Get Certified!
- Are You Getting the Best SQL Server Resource Available?
3. NEW AND IMPROVED
- Find the Lost Win32 API
4. CONTACT US
- See this section for a list of ways to contact us.
1. DEVELOPER .NET PERSPECTIVES
Last week, I discussed some of the guidance available from Microsoft related to setting up, or implementing, database access in your applications. This week, I want to introduce you to the Data Access Application Block. Similar to the Exception Management Application Block, which I discussed in the March 11 Developer .NET UPDATE (http://www.winnetmag.com/articles/index.cfm?articleid=38337), the Data Access Application Block provides code that you can incorporate into your project to take advantage of some recommended practices for implementing data access in your application. The Data Access Application Block is available from the Microsoft Download Center at
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&familyid=76fe2b16-3271-42c2-b138-2891102590ad
When you download the Data Access Application Block's .msi file, the application block installs under the \Program Files\Microsoft Application Blocks for .NET\ directory by default. The package contains a Help file in the Docs subdirectory and Visual Basic .NET and Visual C# .NET implementation code. Keep in mind that you need to use only one of these implementations, which are the same aside from the language.
Microsoft designed both implementations to access only Microsoft SQL Server. If you intend to use another OLE DB data source or want to leverage Oracle or an ODBC connection, you're limited to using this code as a template for custom data-access logic.
The .msi file that you download doesn't include a compiled set of the application block components (i.e., the binaries). When you install the Data Access Application Block, two classes are created as part of the Microsoft.ApplicationBlocks.Data namespace. The first class, SqlHelper, manages the actions associated with creating and executing database queries. The second class, SqlHelperParameterCache, manages the actions associated with caching the data used as parameters for stored procedure calls.
Unlike the Exception Management Application Block, the Data Access Application Block's SqlHelper and SqlHelperParameterCache classes are fully compatible with Xcopy-command deployments. Both classes are implemented exclusively with static (i.e., Visual C# .NET) or shared (i.e., Visual Basic .NET) methods. If you use static methods, after you compile these classes and add a reference to the resulting DLL, you can have your application call the various methods without creating instances of those classes. I recommend that you create a separate DLL for these classes instead of mixing the source code from the Data Access Application Block with the source code in your application. Creating a separate DLL doesn't mean that you can't customize the SqlHelper and SqlHelperParameterCache classes. If you want your application to use only stored procedures to access the database or to meet some other internal requirement, you can customize the classes before compiling them.
The SqlHelper class offers a series of overloaded methods that support various activities. For example, the ExecuteDataset method has nine signatures. In each case, the method returns a data set. The various implementations of this method support everything from a connection string to an open transaction as the starting point for the request. As you prepare to work with your application, you might want to limit the options available to your application. When Microsoft designed the Data Access Application Block, the underlying goal was to let developers customize the SqlHelper class. Developers can, for example, pass a connection string or a connection object as part of a request for a data set.
Deciding whether to pass a connection string or connection object is a decision that you ideally make during the design phase before you publish your custom version of the Data Access Application Block. The advantage of using connection strings is that they let you rely on the application block to manage opening and closing database connections. The disadvantage is that if your application logic needs to execute several different stored procedures in succession, you'll be recreating the connection object and reopening the same connection several times. Although connection pooling can help address performance concerns, if you know in advance this situation will commonly occur, you might want to pass a connection object instead of letting the application block manage these activities. However, given your development cycle, you might not be concerned about which of the overloaded method signatures you implement as long as you leverage the logic associated with the application block.
The SqlHelperParameterCache class relies only on static functions. In other words, it doesn't cache the parameter values. This class provides common methods for manipulating an array of SqlConnection parameters. You still need to declare the array of parameters in your application, but instead of needing to write code that adds and removes parameters to the array, you can use this class to discover and manage the parameters.
SQL Distributed Management Objects (SQL-DMO) is a collection of objects that let you programmatically manage SQL Server's database, scheduling, and replication capabilities. If you've participated in any of my Microsoft Developer Network (MSDN) Webcasts, you might have heard me talk about how Microsoft didn't implement many of the SQL-DMO objects in the Windows .NET Framework. However, the Framework does provide the ability to retrieve information about database objects, such as retrieving the parameter list for a stored procedure. The SqlHelperParameterCache class provides methods to retrieve parameter lists so that you don't need to become familiar with this capability. The result is that you can create applications that use metadata to create custom grids. The application code retrieves the name of the stored procedure from a table, retrieves the necessary parameters, then on the fly, passes this information to the stored procedure so that the stored procedure can execute.
In most organizations, developing the underlying classes to support the type of metadata-based retrieval that the Data Access Application Block supports can take weeks or even months. By taking advantage of the Data Access Application Block, you can start to leverage code that Microsoft has already tested and quickly create advanced capabilities in your application.
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2. ANNOUNCEMENTS
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3. NEW AND IMPROVED
(contributed by Sue Cooper, [email protected])
Sybex announced the release of .NET Framework Solutions: In Search of the Lost Win32 API, by John Paul Mueller, a guide to dealing with the functionality not included in the Windows .NET Framework. The book offers discussions on direct hardware access, low-level security control, certain aspects of OS access, support for multimedia and utilities, and DirectX. Special attention is paid to managing memory manually. .NET Framework Solutions: In Search of the Lost Win32 API is available from Sybex for $59.99 or $47.99 if you buy it online.
4. CONTACT US
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