3-tier development

[Mike P]

I have been programming for a while in C# and ASP.NET, and on some big
projects I have tried to make an attempt to do 3 tier develpoment,
putting all my database stuff in a separate class and creating business
classes where necessary. But I have been going through the 3-tier
development tutorials on the www.asp.net website
(http://www.asp.net/learn/dataaccess/default.aspx?tabid=63), and
everything is built on strongly typed datasets. Do real programmers
actually use these, as it seems to me to be simpler just to carry on
putting all the data access stuff in one class, whereas strongly typed
datasets in visual studio seem to make things very fiddly and more
complicated than they need to be.

Can anybody give me any advice on this?

 

[Peter Bradley]

Yes. We use them.

Our business and data access layer code runs on an application server and so
is called remotely. All calls to the data access layer go through the
business layer. You have to have a definition of the typed DataSet(s) on
both the client and the server. We also use signed assemblies, so you
either have to put the XSD files in the GAC with their assemblies or sign
the DLLs, if you use xsd.exe to create DLLs from the XSD files, and put
those in the GAC.

Other than that, we find the advantages outweigh the disadvantaes.

YMMV, of course.


Peter

 

[Mike P]

Do you create your typed datasets in Visual Studio like the example I
provided a link for? Is it not a pain creating your methods and stored
procs etc through the VS wizards? or do you use another way?

 

[Peter Bradley]

Yes, we use VS. If you want a copy of our internal documentation, mail me
at pbradley [at] uwic [dot] ac [dot] uk

Basically, since we have almost without exception already created the data
tables, we just drag the table the table(s) from the Server Explorer onto
the design surface.

We create stored procs manually: but that's another issue.

Couldn't find anything on the page that you provided a link to that
mentioned typed DataSets as such. Neither the word "typed" or "dataset"
appear on the page, according to firefox.


Peter

 

[sloan]

Yes (do real dev's use them).

This is a good artcle about different


http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms978496.aspx



I call strong datasets .. "Poor Man's Business Objects".

But there are times where they are good. They're alot better than nothing.
They're very good with related data.

I use them for reporting, because (to me) business objects are a little too
much just for reports.

But I default to business objects, and use (strong) datasets as needed.



Also see my articles:


6/5/2006
Custom Objects and Tiered Development II // 2.0

5/24/2006
Custom Objects/Collections and Tiered Development

http://sholliday.spaces.live.com/blog/

 

[sloan]

YOu don't have to use those wizards.

Just "delete" the Adapter object that VS2005 pops on the bottom of the Table
object.

...

http://download.microsoft.com/downl...ce/TECHEDSEA2006_SLIDES/HOL/ARC005_Manual.doc

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=LoadDataSet+"AddInParameter"+GetStoredProcCommand&btnG=Search

I personally use the EnterpriseLibrary.Data to load (LoadDataSet) my strong
typed datasets.

See the url's above to get you going on that path.


...

 

[Mike P]

How does XML come into this sort of 3-tier development (i.e. creating
database schemas etc)?