Distributed Data Applications with ASP.NET, Second Edition

Rating:
Summary: Hands On Training
Review: 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.