Pragmatic ADO.NET: Data Access for the Internet World

"This is my favorite book on ADO.NET. The author clearly has an extensive understanding of the subject matter. It is useful not only for expert data access programmers but also for weekend code warriors."
—Glenn Thimmes, Senior Software Engineer, New Dawn Technologies.Formerly Develop Support Engineer (WebData), Microsoft Corporation

Pragmatic ADO.NET is a practical guide to using the first data access services designed specifically for Web-based applications. This tutorial provides developers with a clear introduction to ADO.NET, and gives practical solutions for using it effectively.

The book begins with a concise history of Microsoft's Universal Data Access strategy and the evolution of technology that has led us to ADO.NET. The core of the book demonstrates how to use ADO.NET to interact with databases and the rest of the .NET framework. In addition, readers learn by example the best practices for using ADO.NET to build scalable, high-performance systems. Pragmatic ADO.NET includes numerous code examples in C#, and a companion Web site located at www.adoguy.com/book features implementations in Visual Basic .NET and C#, along with updates on the technology. The book concludes with an appendix detailing strategies for migrating from ADO to ADO.NET.

Readers will learn how to:

• Work with data in a disconnected way
• Connect to databases through ADO.NET
• Use Command objects
• Use the DataReader
• Construct DataSets
• Create and use Typed DataSets
• Manipulate data with DataSets
• Update databases from DataSets
• Integrate with XML
• Use data binding
• Optimize performance and scalability

The combination of concise coverage, helpful explanations, and detailed examples makes Pragmatic ADO.NET an important guide for all developers looking to gain a working knowledge of ADO.NET.

Books in the Microsoft .NET Development Series are written and reviewed by the principal authorities and pioneering developers of the Microsoft .NET technologies, including the Microsoft .NET development team and DevelopMentor. Books in the Microsoft .NET Development Series focus on the design, architecture, and implementation of the Microsoft .NET initiative to empower developers and students everywhere with the knowledge they need to thrive in the Microsoft .NET revolution.

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Index

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Index

Preface

ADO.NET is not ADO. This is the most important fact that this book tries to convey. Understanding ADO.NET is not just about how to get database data or how to update the database. It requires an understanding of why it was built. ADO.NET takes a completely different approach in accessing databases than older Microsoft data access strategies. This is not your fatherUs ADO.

This book intends to be neither a reference nor an "Internals" book of how ADO.NET works. It is geared towards helping day-to-day developers get their jobs done. This book intends to give clear advice on how to use ADO.NET.

Intended Audience

This book is squarely aimed at developers who have a basic understanding of .NET and of databases. It is intended to help day to day developers get their job done. It does not assume prior experience with ADO, though it does build somewhat on that knowledge if it exists.

Part I The Basics of ADO.NET

Part one is intended to get you started with the basics.

Before the book explains how to work with ADO.NET, it explains why ADO.NET was written. Chapter one discusses the history of Microsoft Data Access to explain how we got to ADO.NET.

Before we can do anything with a database, we must know how to connect to them. Chapter two is all about getting connected to databases through ADO.NET. This includes a discussion of how connection strings work, connection pooling in a variety of Managed Providers, patterns for connection creation and how to minimize connections to the database.

Our only interface with the database is to issue commands and deal with the result of those commands. This chapter focuses on how to get the database to do work for us by using Command objects. This includes explanation of how to use the Command objects with simple SQL statements, parameterized queries, stored procedures and batch queries.

DataReaders are ADO.NETUs method for getting tables from the database. In chapter four, the book explains how to use DataReaders to access database information and shows an example of writing a class that uses the DataReader as its data source.

Part II All about DataSets

The DataSet is the heart of ADO.NET. To use the DataSet effectively, we must examine how it can be used to solve our day-to-day problems.

This chapter explains exactly what DataSets are and why you should use them. It covers the many ways to make DataSets including using DataAdapters, XML and code to create them. A complete discussion of how to use DataSet schema is also included in this chapter.

Typed DataSets are a useful tool to allow you to have code that adapts to changing schema. Chapter six explores this new programming model where we create Typed DataSets and use them as the basis for business logic layers that are typically all hand-written. This chapter also shows how to create Typed DataSets from within Visual Studio.NET as well as from the command-line.

Now that we know how to create our DataSets, we need to understand how to use them to manipulate data and how the data is structured inside them. Chapter seven explains how the DataSet model works and how you can use it to get your job done.

Once we have manipulated data within a DataSet, we have to have a way to update the database with those changes. Chapter eight walks you through how to plan for disconnected concurrency. It includes examples of using the built-in optimistic concurrency and how to implement pessimistic and destructive concurrency. In addition, the chapter discusses how to handle concurrency violations and gives concrete examples of one solution for dealing with concurrency violations.

Part III ADO.NET in Action

Now that we know how to access data, manipulate it and update the database with the changes, we need to know how we can get ADO.NET to interact with the rest of the .NET framework.

XML is just data. ADO.NET is the data framework for .NET. These two facts come together to show why ADO.NET is so tightly integrated with the XML framework to allow for database data to be commingled with database data. Chapter nine explores the way to treat each type of data like their brethren.

In .NET, there are two forms based technologies Windows Forms and Web Forms. Luckily, ADO.NET containers (DataReaders, DataSet, and DataTables) all support direct data binding. Chapter ten shows you how.

This chapter brings it all together with concrete design suggestions for how to build scalable, high performance systems. In addition, the chapter lists a set of best practices for using ADO.NET and database development in general.

Appendix Migration Strategies for ADO to ADO.NET

We cannot pretend that all .NET code will be all new development. There are many developers out there who have code to migrate to .NET. This appendix lists a number of strategies for living in a mixed system where you need to have ADO.NET data structures reading ADO structures and vice versa.

Foreword

I first met Shawn via email a number of years ago. He hung out at the same mailing lists that I did and had interesting things to say, so, when I needed some help on a project, he was on my list of potentials. I remember sending out an email late one evening, expecting a response sometime the next day. Forty-five minutes later as I was checking email one last time before going to bed, I already had a response from Shawn, who was three time zones later than I was. Not only was he willing, he was enthusiastic about the project and brimming with experience and ideas. That was the beginning of a relationship that brought us together daily for the next three years, and it's been fruitful for me ever since.

During the tail end of our project together, Shawn got another request for help on a project, this time from the Microsoft database community as a whole. The request was to fill a much-needed gap in the knowledge of Microsoft's latest database technology: ADO.NET. And once again, not only was Shawn willing, he was enthusiastic, setting up his own ADO.NET forum on the Web and jumping into DevelopMentor's new .NET mailing list, answering most of the deluge of database questions off the top of his head. The growing base of knowledge that Shawn was gathering about the importance of ADO.NET in a fully networked world, and the corresponding details that you need to make it actually work, eventually caused him to ask me whether he should write a book. I told him that if he could think of anything else to do in his free time, he should do that instead. Writing a good book (which I knew was what he was after) is too hard. The only way to make it through is if you've got a burning story in your heart that you can't not tell.

Thankfully for the rest of us, Shawn's story has burned its way onto the pages of the book you now hold in your hand. Whether Shawn has already helped you with your database problems online or whether this is your first exposure to his work, I'm quite confident that it will be, like mine, a very fruitful relationship indeed.

Chris Sells
www.sellsbrothers.com

Table of Contents

(NOTE: Each chapter concludes with a Conclusion.)

Foreword.


Preface.


Acknowledgments.

I. THE BASICS OF ADO.NET.

II. ALL ABOUT DATASETS.

III. ADO.NET IN ACTION.

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