3rd Party Web Data Tools

[Mark Jerde]

I'm a solo developer and had no idea there would be so much to learn to go
from:
- VB6 Windows apps using MS Access
to:
- ASP.NET web apps using SQL Server 2000 via OleDB, written locally and
deployed to a web host. (www.discountASP.NET in my case.)

There's a lot to grok! <g> I'm finally successfully using VisualUML for
database schema, FrontPage 2003 for site navigation and VS .NET 2003 for
data work. Not that I've /mastered/ any of them, just that they don't break
each others' pages too much anymore. ;-) There are lots of "learning" pages
from MSDN and books, and I'm wanting to start working with the "real"
application and its data.

I need to use OleDB because Oracle and/or DB2 may be needed in the future.
Web based Add / Modify / Delete seems to take a lot of typing, at least with
all the strategies I've learned so far. Are there some 3rd party tools to
take much of the typing out of data maintenance? I expect many changes to
the DB schema as the project progresses, if that's a consideration for any
of the 3rd party tools.

Thanks.

-- Mark

 

[William Ryan eMVP]

There are some ORM tools like Deklarit, LLBL Gen and Objectz which can
quickly, visually and easily create data access logic for you. You may also
want to check out Microsoft's Data Access Application Block which is a great
way to centralize your data access code and although it doesn't hold your
hand as much as the above tools, it will help you to write a lot less code
in most instances.

Cheers,

Bill

 

[Miha Markic [MVP C#]]

And don't forget excellent (free) CodeSmith
http://www.ericjsmith.net/codesmith/

 

[Brunswick Lowe]

You may already be doing this, but if you go the disconnected route, the
data adapter object will generate your insert, update and delete statements
for you, provided you use one adapter per table in the dataset.

 

[Mark Jerde]

Aye, life is much better with disconnected OleDbAdapter technology in
ADO.NET than ADO or <gasp> DAO. <g>

I'm specifically looking for quicker / better ways of linking fields and
especially the DataGrid to the Data Adapter generated commands. In the
project I'm working on I expect many changes in the database schema as we
are in an iterative approach of discovering all the user requirements.
(Lewis & Clark stopped in the AAA office in St. Louis before their trip into
the Louisiana Purchase, but no maps were available... <g>) "Wiring up" the
commands to fields once isn't a big deal but I expect to be revising the
code quite a bit. I'm looking for tools to help make the process faster,
and especially avoid bugs.

Thanks.

-- Mark

 

[Mark Jerde]

It appears the MS Data Access Application Block is for SQL Server not OleDB.
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/dnbda/html/daab-rm.asp

(Or am I wrong again? <g>)

-- Mark

 

[Mark Jerde]

(Possible 3rd post -- Sorry if the other two have already shown up. I
checked two news servers...)

For the possible help of future googlers here are the URLs.
http://www.deklarit.com/hdefault.aspx
http://www.sd.nl (LLBL Gen) (?)
http://www.llblgen.com/defaultgeneric.aspx (LLBL Gen Pro)
http://www.mongoosesolutions.com/mg/objectz_net.aspx

This looks like a possibility too.
http://www.olero.com/OrmWeb/

I haven't downloaded anything yet... Any recommendations on the easiest
to learn? I'm still stumbling my way around the .NET framework. <g>


On a related note, do any of these below really help get good looking and
functional web apps up ASAP? (Source: Ads in "MSDN Magazine.") Would
they integrate with the Object-Relational Mapping (ORM) stuff in the
paragraphs above? I don't mind investing $$ if it is worth it.

- http://www.infragistics.com/products/netadvantage_portal.asp (I wonder
what an "ASP.NET Presentation Layer Framework" is, and if it's related to or
takes the place of ORM. Anyone?)

- http://www.telerik.com r.a.d. controls

- http://www.componentone.com/ Studio Enterprise 2004

- http://www.janusys.com/janus/library/ ASP.NET Server Controls


Thanks for any suggestions, recommendations or "war stories." ;-)

-- Mark

 

[JoeBrain00]

Visual Integration Studio will not only help you map your data from
your local data sources to your web database, but also generate the
code, executable and/or .NET component - it works with any database as
well...

http://www.crossrhoades.com

Joe