Building Distributed Applications for Windows 2000 with Visual Basic

Introduction

This course will teach Microsoft Visual Basic® programmers how to build N-tier client/server solutions for Microsoft Windows® 2000 using Windows 2000 DNA and COM+ technologies.

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At Course Completion

At the end of the course, students will be able to:

• Describe the Microsoft enterprise strategy and the Windows 2000 DNA platform.
• Analyze and design solutions using the Unified Modeling Language and patterns.
• Build COM+ DLLs and implement them in a multi-user environment.
• Address application infrastructure issues associated with building server-side COM objects that are used by many clients using COM+.
• Participate in transactions, use shared state, and perform asynchronous operations using COM+ services.
• Perform universal data access from a middle-tier object using ADO 2.5.
• Integrate the Windows 2000 Active Directory™ with their solutions.
• Secure an N-tier application.
• Perform data interchange between applications using XML and XSL.

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Microsoft Certified Professional Exams

• There is no Microsoft Certified Professional exam associated with this course.

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Prerequisites

• Build and debug a simple Visual Basic application.
• Invoke and control an Automation server, such as Microsoft Excel or Microsoft Word, from a Visual Basic application.
• Create code components using Visual Basic and invoke them from a client application.
• Use Microsoft ActiveX® Data Objects (ADO) to open a database, to work with recordsets, and to call stored procedures.

The course materials, lectures, and lab exercises are in English. To benefit fully from the instruction, students need an understanding of the English language and completion of the prerequisites.

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Course Materials and Software

The course materials are yours to keep.

You will be provided with the following software for use in the classroom:

• Microsoft Windows 2000 Server
• Microsoft SQL Server™ 7.0
• Microsoft Visual Studio® 6.0
• Microsoft Developer Network™ (MSDN) Library

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Course Outline

Day 1

Module 1: Developing Enterprise Solutions for Windows 2000

Topics

Introduction to Enterprise Development
Introduction to the Windows 2000 Platform
Tools and Technologies
Overview of Lab Solution

Lab

Reviewing the Lab Solution

Skills

Students will be able to:

• Describe the high-level architecture of an enterprise solution that uses the Microsoft enterprise development strategy.
• Explain the terminology and concepts of Windows DNA 2000.
• Describe some key features of the Windows 2000 platform that relate to enterprise development.
• Identify Microsoft tools and technologies used in enterprise development.
• Identify some of the best practices in building distributed enterprise solutions.
• Describe the high-level design of the Purchase Order application used in the labs for this course.

Module 2: Designing and Modeling

Topics

Introduction to Analysis and Design
Creating a Conceptual Design
Creating a Logical Design
Creating a Physical Design

Labs

Reviewing the Requirements Document
Using the Visual Modeler

Skills

Students will be able to:

• List and describe the three design phases defined in the MSF application model.
• Employ UML use cases, scenarios, and use-case diagrams in the conceptual design phase.
• Use UML class diagrams and sequence diagrams in the logical design phase.
• Use Visual Modeler to create class diagrams.
• Use component diagrams and deployment diagrams in the physical design phase to generate code from Visual Modeler.

Day 2

Module 3: Introduction to COM+

Topics

From COM to COM+
COM+ Architecture
Administering COM+ Applications
Debugging a COM+ Component
Deploying a COM+ Application

Labs

Building a COM+ Application
Debugging COM+ Components

Skills

Students will be able to:

• Describe how COM and MTS have evolved to become COM+.
• List and describe the COM+ services.
• Create and add a component to a COM+ application.
• Debug a COM+ component.
• Deploy a COM+ application.

Module 4: Managing Transactions and State

Topics

COM+ Context
Just In Time (JIT) Activation
Managing Transactions
Programming COM+ Transactions
Managing State
Using the Shared Property Manager

Labs

Using Context Object Services
Programming COM+ Transactions
Storing State in the Middle Tier

Skills

Students will be able to:

• Use the context object to retrieve information about a COM+ component.
• Add transaction support for COM+ components by using the Component Services tool.
• Enable JIT activation for COM+ components.
• Create COM+ components that support and manage distributed transactions.
• Use the Shared Property Manager to manage the application data referred to as state.
• Describe some of the best practices when managing transactions and state.

Day 3

Module 5: Queued Components and Events

Topics

Introduction to Queued Components
Working with Queued Components
Handling Events
Publisher and Subscriber Architecture
Working with Events

Labs

Creating and Using Queued Components
Creating and Using Event Classes
(Optional) Combining Queued Components and Events

Skills

Students will be able to:

• Describe the purpose and benefits of queued components.
• Create a queued component.
• Instantiate and communicate with a queued component.
• Describe the COM+ Event Service provided with Windows 2000.
• Create and use an event class to match publishers with subscribers.
• Combine queues with events to make the processing of publisher and subscriber events time-independent.

Module 6: Integrating with Active Directory

Topics

Overview of Directory Services
Using ADSI to Access Active Directory
Using ADO to Query Active Directory Data

Labs

Using ADSI
Using ADO

Skills

Students will be able to:

• Describe directory services.
• Describe the benefits of integrating with Active Directory.
• Describe the Active Directory programming model.
• Access Active Directory data by using Active Directory Service Interface (ADSI).
• Query for Active Directory objects by using ADO.

Day 4

Module 7: Universal Data Access with ADO 2.5

Topics

Using ADO 2.5
Retrieving Data from a Database
Accessing Web Data

Lab

Accessing Data from a Web Site

Skills

Students will be able to:

• Describe the major components of the ADO 2.5 object model.
• Describe how to use ADO to access databases efficiently.
• Use the Microsoft OLE DB Provider for Internet Publishing with ADO 2.5 to retrieve hierarchical data from a Web site.
• Use the Recordset, Record, and Stream objects to access Web-based data.

Module 8: Making Applications Secure

Topics

Overview of Windows 2000 Security
Declarative Security
Programmatic Security
Setting the Identity of a Server Application

Labs

Implementing Declarative Security
Implementing Programmatic Security
Assigning a COM+ Application Identity

Skills

Students will be able to:

• Describe the major security features and security models provided by the Windows 2000 platform.
• Explain how authentication and authorization work.
• Describe the authentication options available to Internet solutions based on COM+ and Internet Information Services (IIS).
• Declaratively implement security by using COM+ roles.
• Implement programmatic security by using security context information.
• Understand how COM+ application identity affects security.
• Describe best practices for implementing security in enterprise solutions.

Day 5

Module 9: Using XML to Exchange Data

Topics

Introduction to XML
Validating XML Documents
Using the Document Object Model
Applying XML in N-Tier Applications

Lab

Exchanging Data Using XML

Skills

Students will be able to:

• Describe the purpose and benefits of XML.
• Describe the structure of a well-formed XML document.
• Describe the purpose of XML schemas and DTDs.
• Manipulate XML by using the Document Object Model.

For more information or to give feedback, send e-mail to info@OneApex.com or call 949-597-2100