Understanding Component Based Development (Mps): Amazon.co.uk: Mary Kirtland: Books

Amazon.co.uk Review

This book provides a worthwhile tour of Microsoft technologies based on DCOM and Microsoft Transaction Server (MTS) with plenty of advice for today's enterprise developer.

The book begins with Microsoft's Distributed Internet Architecture (DNA) and DNA's notion of a three-tier model for separating business objects for better scalability. Of course, COM is an important part of DNA, and the author's introduction to COM is as good as any. Coverage of database acronyms such as ODBC (Open Database Connectivity), ADO (ActiveX Data Objects) and OLE-DB (Object Linking and Embedding Database) round out the basics. Then the author proceeds to explain the capabilities of MTS, from using it as an object request broker (ORB) for locating remote services, to the fundamentals of transaction processing.

At this point, theory becomes practice, and the author walks the reader through a complete sample MTS-based application, an automated accounting package for the "Classifieds" section of a small newspaper. The author shows how to use Microsoft Visual Database Tools and provides a taste of Microsoft's software methodology called Microsoft Solutions Framework (MSF). After you learn how to model objects for the database and business object layers, the book helps you build them using Visual Basic and Visual C++. Finally, you learn the presentation layer, which is built using Active Server Pages (ASPs) for running inside a browser.

Final chapters offer material on additional Microsoft tools, such as the COM-to-mainframe tool (called COMTI) and Microsoft Message Queue Server (MSMQ). There's also a preview of COM+--still under construction and due out with Windows 2000. In all, Designing Component-Based Applications successfully covers the state-of-the-art in component development for the enterprise using the complete range of available Microsoft tools and technologies. --Richard Dragan

Product Description

Here's one of the singular references providing on-the-mark coverage of application development based on thhe Component Object Model (COM) and Microsoft Transaction Server (MTS). DESIGNING COMPONENT-BASED APPLICATIONS demonstrates the principles of effective COM-driven design and MTS deployment through in-depth examination of Island Hopper, a joint project of the Microsoft COM and Microsoft Visual Studio design teams. This full-featured enterprise application was built using a practical set of development guidelines field-tested by Microsoft consultants on a variety of 3-2-1 projects (3 tiers, 2 developers, 1month). As you focus on individual facets of the model application, you're also learning how to apply this proven methodology to quickly design, test, debug, and deploy your own multitier, COM-based programs.

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Good introduction to n-tier design 31 Aug 1999

By A Customer

Format:Paperback

This book provides a good introduction to n-tier design along with example code to help you get started.

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Good reference for 70-100 review 25 Aug 1999

This book does a good job of explaining the COM standard from the ground up. The first third is devoted to COM. The rest of the book is an overview of building an enterprise application from the ground up using Microsoft technologies.

I used this book as my primary reference in preparing for the new Analyzing Requirements exam (70-100) in the new MCSD track based on the recommendation of someone I know that passed the beta. It may not be listed as a study guide for the test, but it is far better than the Syngress or Sybex study guide for that test. (They were both fairly useless.)

Puts everything into perspective. One stop info. 16 July 1999

Mary Kirkland has done a super job with this book. The "One Microsoft Way" of doing things in their DNA architecture (which is simply a way of incorporating Internet technology into their scheme of things) has often been, shall we say, confusing.

This book brings everything together, ie. COM,MTS,COM+(which will see the quick demise of MTS as we know it),ASP,MSMQ etc.

I would say to anyone who wants an overview of all this should buy this book now. It is a book I keep going back to as we all know that COM can be rather complex. Working through the Island Hopper example included in the book, is also a great help to see things up and running.

A good reference, that you come back to again and again.