ADO.NET Data and XML
The next layer up in the framework is called the .NET Class Framework also referred
as .NET base class library. The .NET Class Framework consists of several thousand
type definitions, where each type exposes some functionality. All in all, the CLR and
the .NET Class Framework allow developers to build the following kinds of
applications:
·
Web Services. Components that can be accessed over the Internet very easily.
·
Web Forms. HTML based applications (Web Sites).
·
Windows Forms. Rich Windows GUI applications. Windows form applications can
take advantage of controls, mouse and keyboard events and can talk directly to
the underlying OS.
·
Windows Console Applications. Compilers, utilities and tools are typically
implemented as console applications.
·
Windows Services. It is possible to build service applications controllable via the
Windows Service Control Manager (SCM) using the .NET Framework.
·
Component Library. .NET Framework allows you to build stand-alone components
(types) that may be easily incorporated into any of the above mentioned
application types.
ADO.NET: Data and XML
ADO.NET is the next generation of Microsoft ActiveX Data Object (ADO) technology.
ADO.NET is heavily dependent on XML for representation of data. It also provides an
improved support for the disconnected programming model.
ADO.NET's DataSet object, is the core component of the disconnected architecture of
ADO.NET. The DataSet can also be populated with data from an XML source, whether
it is a file or an XML stream.
For more details on ADO.NET, check out
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/en-us/cpguide/html/cpconaccessingdatawithadonet.asp
User Interface
The next layer consists of the user and programming interface that allows .NET to
interact with the outside world. The following are the types of interaction interfaces
that are supported by the .NET framework:
·
Web Forms
·
Windows Forms
·
Web Services
Now let me tell you about Windows Forms and ASP.NET. WinForms (Windows Forms)
is simply the name used to describe the creation of a standard Win32 kind of GUI
applications.
The Active Server Pages web development framework has undergone extensive
changes in ASP.NET. The programming language of choice is now full-blown VB.NET
or C# (or any supported .NET language for that matter). Other changes include:
·
New support for HTML Server Controls (session state supported on the server).
·
It is now possible for the server to process client-side events.
