2.0 data architecture question

[Tina]

I'm reading about the "3-tier" design afforded by using Object Data Sources
in the App_Data folder in 2.0 asp.net projects.

To me, putting an object data source in a separate folder on the web sever
isn't 3 tier design. To accomplish 3-tier design I would want to put the
Object Data Source in a dll that runs on another server than the web server.
Then I need to use that object data source remotely.

But how can I accomplish binding to my object data source when it's on
another computer. Do I have to use Remoting or is there a slicker way to do
this?

Thanks,
T

 

[Curtis]

In form it may not "seem" like 3-tier design, but in function it is.
3-tier, or n-tier, design simply means to create separate programming
interfaces for the visual, data access, and business logic parts of an
app. Putting the data access into separate "modules" or classes, or
whatever, so long as they are separate, creates the multi-tiered design
-- assuming the interfaces are truly separate.

As for accessing logic on a separate computer without remoting, or
something similar, it is simply not possible. There are several methods
of accomplishing remote procedure calls including SOAP and DCOM, to
name a couple, but they all use some sort of network access to
accomplish the calls.

What is slick is to put remoting into the data access layer... or even
better, create a separate remote data access layer that can be used
interchangeably with the "local" data access layer. This is what we did
in my company.

Curtis

 

[Tina]

So, it sounds like you accomplished physical three tier design using
remoting. Right?
T

 

[bruce barker \(sqlwork.com\)]

if you move your third tier to another server you have to decide what hosts
it (loads the code so the 2nd tier can call it).

if you use IIS for hosting then use SOAP. if you're all dot net, and want to
use remoting, then write a nt service to host your 3rd tier and listen on a
fixed port. You could also use com+ to host the 3rd tier then you use dcom.
if you use SQLServer 2005, you can use sqlserver to host the 3rd tier and
use either SOAP or Sql procedure calls.

-- bruce (sqlwork.com)

 

[Curtis]

Correct. We can choose between a 'remoting' interface and a 'local'
interface.

Curtis

 

[Joerg Jooss]

Thus wrote Tina,

I'm reading about the "3-tier" design afforded by using Object Data
Sources in the App_Data folder in 2.0 asp.net projects.

To me, putting an object data source in a separate folder on the web
sever isn't 3 tier design. To accomplish 3-tier design I would want
to put the Object Data Source in a dll that runs on another server
than the web server. Then I need to use that object data source
remotely.

Your confusing Layers and Tiers. Worse, you tread on a dangerous path here.
There's almost nothing to be gained in distributing your DAL (don't confuse
that with your DB) to another tier -- save for horrible remoting overhead.

Cheers,