ASP.NET is a huge advance from previous incarnations of ASP, with one of its goals being pure HTML output that achieves maximum cross-browser compatibility. The server-side event architecture tends to engender this approach, but amid the first flush of excitement it’s often forgotten that there’s still a place for rich clients and handling data in a multitude of places. Distributed data-driven applications aren’t new, but the range of possibilities and ease of development have both increased with the introduction of .NET.

This book approaches data management and data applications from several different points of view:

• Understanding the new .NET data management philosophy for both relational and XML data
• Grasping the different techniques that it encompasses and how they relate to real-world requirements
• Exploring the application architecture and design implications of the .NET data management classes
• Designing distributed data-driven ASP.NET applications that benefit from the new data management techniques
• Examining the rich-client philosophy and how .NET can be used to bring this about
• Demonstrating how easy it is to take advantage of several different types of client devices, providing the best user experience possible for each one

Many books describe the basic techniques for working with data in ASP.NET. However, this book goes not just a step further, but in fact takes you on a complete journey by exploring how to provide the user with the best possible client-side experience when working with data. It also focuses on the server-side design and development process, such as using the n-tier architecture in your applications, and implementing specific techniques, such as correctly managing updates to a data store by multiple concurrent users.

Author Information

Alex Homer is a computer geek and web developer with a passion for ASP.NET. Although he has to spend some time doing real work (a bit of consultancy and training, and the occasional conference session), most of his days are absorbed in playing with the latest Microsoft web technology and then writing about it. Living in the picturesque wilderness of the Derbyshire Dales in England, he's well away from the demands of the real world—with only an Internet connection to maintain some distant representation of normality. But, hey, what else could you want from life? You can contact Alex through his own software company, Stonebroom Limited, at [email protected].

Dave Sussman is a hacker in the traditional sense of the word. That's someone who likes playing with code and figuring out how things work, which is why he spends much of his life working with beta software. Luckily, this coincides with writing about new technologies, giving him an outlet for his poor English and grammar. He lives in a small village in the Oxfordshire countryside. Like many programmers everywhere, he has an expensive hi-fi, a big TV, and no life.