jmurrayhead

Over the past year and a half, I've been doing what I can to convert Classic ASP scripters over to ASP.NET programmers.

Why did I call them "scripters"? Because Classic ASP uses scripting languages such as server-side VBScript and server-side JScript, whereas ASP.NET uses programming languages such as VB.Net, C# and J#. These programming languages are full-blown object-oriented languages.

After I was able to successfully convert these former Classic ASP scripters to ASP.NET, I noticed a common thing among all of them: they all couldn't get their minds past scripting. They treated their C# or VB.NET code as if it was a script.

So, I had to teach them what I was taught and also researched on myself. The Microsoft .NET framework allows you to build applications in a layered or tiered manner. The terms layered application and tiered application are often used interchangeably, but I look at it this way: A layered application is an application that is separated logically whereas a tiered application is separated physically.

So what's all this talk about separation? I've been building my applications in a layered manner. I have the following layers: DAL (Data Access Layer), BLL (Business Logic Layer) and UI (User Interface). The user interface calls on the BLL to perform business logic, which in turn calls on the DAL to perform data access with the database.

How does this benefit me? Breaking an application down into these layers provides the following benefits:

• maintainability
• reusability
• scalability
• robustness
• security

For more details on this, see the following MSDN article: Layered Application

If you're interested in learning more about ASP.Net and the layered application approach, I suggest you download the BeerHouse CMS:TheBeerHouse: CMS & e-commerce StarterKit - Home

It is by far one of the best examples of layered application design that I have seen available for free on the web.

That's all for now and I hope this has helped convince you to properly build your ASP.NET and Windows Forms applications.