Enterprise Services with the .NET Framework

Description

.NET Enterprise Services is a managed class in COM+ that allows developers

to build scalable applications quickly and easily, by automated business

solutions, rather than writing code from scratch. .NET Enterprise Services are

delivered as a part of the Windows 2003 operating system, and also work with

Web Services. While Microsoft is currently encouraging developers to build

distributed applications using Enterprise Services, there is little information

available.

Enterprise Services with the .NET Framework

responds to the needs of all

developers looking to build and automate business solutions using the .NET

Framework. It is the only book that clearly explains what .NET Enterprise

Services are and how to use them to build effective distributed business

applications. It presents the big picture of .NET Enterprise Services using clear

explanations and practical examples. It discusses the architecture using

straightforward language and demonstrates how to use all of the Enterprise

Services technologies to develop scalable distributed applications.

Back Cover

"For anyone involved in the .NET community, it's hard to not have heard of Christian Nagel. Christian is a true heavyweight of .NET in general, and Enterprise Services in particular. By taking a relatively trivial application and architecting it in a way that would allow it to scale without any rework, users will find that using the techniques employed in this book will be of benefit to virtually any company that is running distributed or enterprise applications."

—William G. Ryan, Microsoft MVP, Senior Software Developer, TiBA Soutions, LLC

"Whether you are a seasoned architect or a new developer, distributed application development can be difficult, since it covers such a wide range of complex technologies. Until now there was precious little in the way of guidance—let alone a consolidated reference. Christian has provided that reference and more—going from the individual technologies to the big picture on how to architect and develop scalable distributed applications. Technical goodness through and through!"

—Clayton Burt, Managing Partner, Onzo, LLC

"Making the transition to distributed application architecture introduces many issues in security and deployment and requires a new way of thinking about events, transactions, and messaging. This book shows developers and architects alike how to use .NET Enterprise Services to create robust, secure, and maintainable applications in a distributed environment. This book is an excellent guide to the sometimes overwhelming field of .NET Enterprise Services."

—Brian Davis, Director of Software Development, InfoPro Group, Inc., Co-Creator, KnowDotNet.com

Enterprise Services with the .NET Framework is the only book that experienced .NET developers need to learn how to write distributed, service-oriented applications. Filled with clear examples in C# (with Visual Basic .NET examples available on the Web), this book will quickly get you up to speed on building distributed applications with serviced components. You'll also learn about Indigo, Microsoft's next-generation technology for building distributed applications, and how it compares to Enterprise Services.

Microsoft Regional Director, MVP, and veteran author Christian Nagel introduces and clearly explains the four major services included in Enterprise Services: Automatic Transactions, Queued Components, Loosely Coupled Events, and Role-Based Security. From his in-depth coverage, you'll learn

• How to create a serviced component, how serviced objects are activated, and how to use the different kinds of object contexts

• How to manage concurrency and synchronization for serviced components to achieve optimal performance and data integrity

• How to integrate COM components with the .NET Framework

• How to use serviced components over a network with DCOM, SOAP Services, and ASP.NET Web services

• How to use .NET Enterprise Services transactions to achieve Atomicity, Consistency, Isolation, and Durability

• How to build a compensating resource manager to allow your own resources to participate in Enterprise Services transactions

• How to maintain application state in a client application, in a serviced component, in shared properties, or in a database

• How to create and use Loosely Coupled Events using COM+

• How to secure a distributed solution using authorization, authentication, impersonation, and confidentiality

• How to deploy and configure Enterprise Services applications

© Copyright Pearson Education. All rights reserved.

Contents

About the Author

Foreword

Preface

Acknowledgments

1. Introducing .NET Enterprise Services.

Building Applications

Application Layers

Logical Tiers and Physical Systems

Clustering Solutions

Service-Oriented Architecture

Smart Clients

The History of Application Services

COM and .NET

Microsoft Transaction Server

COM+ 1.0

.NET Enterprise Services

Applications and Components

Declarative Programming

Catalog

Administration

Application Services

Automatic Transactions

Queued Components

Loosely Coupled Events

Role-Based Security

New Features with COM+ 1.5

Summary

2. Object Activation and Contexts.

Contexts

.NET Remoting Contexts

Contexts with Serviced Components

Mixing .NET and COM+ Contexts

Creating a Serviced Component

Assembly Attributes

Signing the Assembly

Global Assembly Cache

Using Interfaces

ServicedComponent Class

Component Registration

Client Applications

Debugging

Library Applications

Server Applications

Object Activation

Construction Strings

Just-in-Time Activation (JITA)

JITA and Object Disposing

Object Pooling

Private Components

Application Activation

Summary

3. Concurrency.

Synchronization Overview

Using Locks

Interlocked Class

More Synchronization Options

Apartments

Single-Threaded Apartments

Multithreaded Apartments

Thread-Neutral Apartments

.NET Enterprise Services Synchronization

Activity

Configuring Synchronization

Synchronization Example

Reentrancy

Selecting the Synchronization Option

Services Without Components

ServiceDomain Class

ServiceConfig Class

Activity Class

Using a New Activity

Starting a New Context

Summary

4. COM Interop.

.NET Clients Without COM Interop

Side-by-Side Support

COM Interoperability

COM Callable Wrappers and Runtime Callable Wrappers

Default COM Configuration

Generated Type Library

COM Interface Types

Custom Interfaces

Dispatch Interfaces

Dual Interfaces

ComVisible Attribute

Versioning

Applications

Components

Interfaces

COMCompatibleVersion Attribute

Finding Assemblies

Private and Shared Assemblies

COM Registry Entries

COM and .NET Requirements

Visual Basic 6 Clients

C++ COM Clients

Scripting Clients

Calling a COM Object

C++ Component

Runtime Callable Wrapper

.NET Component

Registration

Client Application

Summary

5. Networking.

DCOM

DCOM Transport Protocols

Application Proxies

Creating an Application Proxy

Installing the Application Proxy

Creating a DCOM Client Application

SOAP Services

.NET Remoting Overview

Creating a Serviced Component Using .NET Remoting

Configuring the Server Application

Creating a .NET Remoting Client

Disadvantages of SOAP Services

Web Services

Overview

Implementing a Web Service with ASP.NET

Creating a Proxy

Summary

6. Data Access.

ADO.NET Overview

Sample Database

Entity Classes

Database Access

Database Query

Insert

Update

Calling Stored Procedures

Datasets

Filling Datasets

Updating Datasets

Summary

7. Transaction Services.

Transaction Overview

ACID Properties

Distributed Transactions

Programmatic Transactions

Automatic Transactions

Transaction Attributes

Transaction Streams

Transaction Outcomes

ContextUtil Methods

Automatic Transaction Example

Setting the Transactional Vote

AutoComplete Attribute

Distributed Transactions

Transactions with Services Without Components

Transactions Support with ASP.NET

Transaction Isolation

Potential Transaction Isolation Problems

Transaction Isolation Levels

Monitoring the DTC

Transactions with .NET 2.0

Summary

8. Compensating Resource Management.

CRM Architecture

CRM Application Classes

CRM Application Example

Application Configuration

Helper Classes

Worker Components

Compensator Components

Client Applications

Monitoring

Summary

9. State Management.

State Characteristics

Stateful or Stateless Components

Databases and Files

Isolated Storage

Active Directory

Shared Property Manager

Shared Property Group Manager

Shared Property Group

Shared Property

Client Application

SPM State Characteristics

ASP.NET State Management

Session

Cache

Accessing ASP.NET State from Within Serviced Components

ASP.NET State Characteristics

Client State Management

SOAP Headers

.NET Remoting Call Contexts

Summary

10. Queued Components.

Overview

Product Versions

Message Queuing Server

Message Queuing Client

Message Queuing Features

Message Queues

Messages

Administration Tools

Creating a Queued Component

Assembly Attributes

Interface Definition

The CourseControl Class

Registration

Client

Error Handling

Transactional Queues

Returning Data

Summary

11. Loosely Coupled Events.

LCE Overview

Event Class

Publishers

Subscribers

Filters

Programming LCEs

Event Class

Publisher

Persistent Subscriber

Transient Subscriber

Filters

Subscriber Filters

Publisher Filters

Using LCEs Across the Network

LCE Routing

Event Class Proxies

LCE and Queued Components

Event Classes as Queued Components

Subscribers as Queued Components

Summary

12. Security.

Security Overview

Windows Security

SQL Server

Internet Information Server

ASP.NET Web Applications

ASP.NET Web Services

Enterprise Services

Identity

Authorization

Enabling Access Checks

Defining Roles

Defining Role Access

Checking Roles Within Methods

Authentication Levels and Impersonation

Authentication Levels

Impersonation

Reading the Identity of the Caller

Enterprise Services and .NET Remoting

Summary

13. Deployment and Configuration.

Deployment

Automatic Deployment

Manual Deployment

Creating a Custom Installer

Creating an Installation Package

Attributes

Admin Components

Configuring the Application as a Service

Summary

14. The Future of Distributed Applications.

Web Services Specifications

Network Communication

Reliable Messaging

Transactions

Security

Indigo

Hosting Environments

System Services

Connector

Service Model

Messaging Services

Moving from Enterprise Services to Indigo

Summary

15. Case Study.

Use Case-Course Management

Sample Projects

CourseManagement.Entities-Entity Classes

The CourseManagement Database

CourseManagement.Data-Data Access

CourseManagement.Control-Serviced Components

CourseManager-Windows Forms Client

CourseRegistrationService-Web Services

CourseRegistrationWeb-Web Application

CourseRegistration-Queued Component

Summary

Final Thoughts.

Further Reading.

Index.

Features

The only book to clearly explain what .NET Enterprise Services are and how to use them to build effective scaleable business applications

° The first book in English to cover .NET Enterprise Services, a key new technology from Microsoft

° Learn how to build scalable business applications quickly and more easily

° Discover how to integrate .NET components with existing COM-based applications

° Author is a respected and visible member of the .NET Development community.

Author

About the Author

Christian Nagel is a software architect, trainer, consultant, and associate of Thinktecture, offering training and coaching of Microsoft .NET technologies. For his achievements in the developer community he was named Microsoft Regional Director and MVP for Visual C#. He enjoys an excellent reputation as an author of several .NET books, including Professional C# (Wrox 2004), Pro .NET Network Programming (Apress 2004), and C# Web Services (Wrox 2001). He speaks regularly at international industry conferences.

Christian has more than 15 years of experience as a developer and software architect. He started his computing career with PDP 11 and VAX/VMS platforms, covering a variety of languages and platforms. Since 2000 he has been developing and architecting distributed solutions with .NET and C#.

http://www.christiannagel.com

http://www.thinktecture.com

© Copyright Pearson Education. All rights reserved.