Using ADO.NET Entity Framework in Domain-Driven Design: A Pattern Approach
In the object community domain-driven design philosophy has recently gained prominence. The application of domain-driven design practices in iterative software development projects promises to conquer complexity inherent in building software. And with the reduced complexity comes more intimate understanding of a problem domain, which results in better software, capable of effectively addressing user needs and concerns. The ADO.NET Entity Framework with its emphasis on modeling conceptual business entities and handling persistence can potentially facilitate domain-driven design. However, it is not clear exactly how the framework should be used in the context of domain-driven development. This exploratory case study was commissioned by Volvo Information Technology (Volvo IT) and it sought to provide guidance on using the Entity Framework in domain-driven design at the company. The study produced a number of important results. Firstly, a total of 15 guidelines were proposed for adopting the framework at Volvo IT. These guidelines address such issues as domain modeling during requirements engineering, efficient mapping among various models, reverseengineering of legacy databases, and a number of others. Secondly, six critical factors (performance, abstraction, competence, features, simplicity and support for multiple data sources) were identified that must be considered in adopting the Entity Framework in domain-driven design at the company. Finally, based on one of these factors, performance evaluation of the framework’’s querying mechanisms was performed, which further strengthened the guidelines.
Read more
Using DirectX in Windows Forms
Windows Forms is a Microsoft technology that provides a clean and easy framework for building graphical user interfaces (GUIs) and is both extensible and componentized. However, it is sometimes desirable to have a rich 3D user interface to display 3D data or to allow the user to interact in 3D. DirectX, another Microsoft technology, is a graphics framework with support for 2D and 3D graphics, which supplies an abstraction layer between low-level system components (such as drivers) and high-level applications (such as a GUI or a game). This document will discuss the process of hosting DirectX inside of a Windows Forms application in order to provide seamless integration between the two frameworks for use in GUIs that may be graphics intensive.
Read more
SQL Mail Tutorial Event driven messages
Microsoft SQL server comes complete with e-mail integration. The following tutorial shows you how to configure SQL server to provide automated e-mail responses when selected data is updated. The examples are exclusively for SQL2000, although the basic principles apply to earlier versions with some notable exceptions (see final section).
Read more