Professional Windows DNA: Building Distributed Web Applications with VB, COM+, MSMQ, SOAP, and ASP

Weighing in at nearly 1,000 pages, Professional Windows DNA is a comprehensive guide to creating state-of-the-art Windows enterprise applications. Written for the more experienced VB or C++ programmer, this guide shows you best practices for creating scalable, multitiered Web applications that make use of the latest and greatest in Microsoft tools and standards, including SOAP and XML.

The tools-based focus of this tutorial is what sets it apart. While the authors provide background on important standards like COM+ for building middle-tier components, the book is anchored by real hands-on examples (and plenty of screen shots, where appropriate) on using tools like Visual Basic and SQL Server 2000.

First, the book leads you through a discussion of the latest developments and tools from Microsoft (like COM+, SQL Server 2000, and SOAP for communicating on distributed systems). There's a thorough tour of COM+, which gives DNA its middle-tier prowess. You'll learn COM+ configuration, security, and deployment, as well as how to use COM+ transactions and asynchronous message processing with built-in MS Message Queue (MSMQ) services. Later, there's a concise introduction to ADO database programming, as well as the new support for XML in SQL Server 2000. Useful debugging advice will help you out with server-side components, which can be notoriously hard to troubleshoot.

Final sections present a fairly substantial case study for an airline reservation system that's built with middle-tier components and ASPs for a Web interface. (There's also an e-commerce application for renting construction equipment.) The book also walks you through implementation of a back-end database, middle-tier COM+ components, and a browser-based front end that's built with ASP.

At least until the new Microsoft .NET Framework arrives, any system architect or developer can rely on this title to get a sense of how to build effective software for the enterprise. Professional Windows DNA is a thorough and up-to-date guidebook on the constantly shifting terrain of Microsoft tools and technologies. It's filled with nearly everything you need to know to develop scalable Web applications by using Visual Basic and Windows 2000. --Richard Dragan

Topics covered:

1. Introduction to the Windows Distributed interNet Architecture (DNA) for enterprise development
2. History of monolithic, client/server, and n-tiered architectures
3. Overview of Microsoft DNA tools and components (including clustering support and server-side tools)
4. DNA vs. .NET Frameworks
5. Advantages of DNA for the enterprise
6. Introduction to COM for component development (including IDL, IUnknown, and GUIDs)
7. Distributed processing overview (socket basics, RPC, and components)
8. COM+ and DCOM basics
9. Designing middle-tier business objects with COM (UI vs. business logic)
10. COM+ transactions and contexts
11. COM+ security
12. COM+ catalogs
13. VB COM+ component programming
14. Distributed transactions
15. DTC and compensating resource managers (CRMs)
16. Microsoft Message Queue (MSMQ) and asynchronous processing
    
17. COM+ queued components
18. Events and callbacks
19. COM+ events (publishers, subscribers, and filtering)
20. Objects vs. Web services
21. Primer on SOAP and XML
22. Universal Data Access (UDA) (including ODBC, OLE DB, ADO, and RDS)
23. SQL Server 2000 (including new XML support)
24. Active Directory (and ADSI programming)
25. Thin and rich clients (including terminal-based, HTML, and thick clients)
26. Introduction to Active Server Pages (ASPs) for Web front ends
27. ActiveX controls
28. Scripting Office 2000 applications
29. Performance and scalability hints
30. DNA and Windows 2000 security
31. Introduction to cryptography and certificates
32. Debugging tips
33. Case studies for sample enterprise DNA applications