I have a web site solution (asp.net) that runs on a SQL server database. I have several of those installations running and i want to create an administration module which can monitor and interact with them all. - and if all goes well - push/upgrade an installation to FTP/SQL.
What is the best approach to architecturing this?
SHould i simpley just integrate with the database on each installation (easiest approach as i see it) but this will give problems when/if I upgrade the database model
Should I write a webservice which interacts with the database and i "simply" connect with this webservice on each website when i need to administer it?
Any solutions i havent thought about is very welcome
/Brian
The latter would be a better approach as this would give you independence from any underlying customisations to the installations.
I agree abstract the implementation into a webservice, and then use something like the enterprise library to interact with the datastore.
This will give you a good framework to work from and should help decouple your application, resulting in more flexiblity moving forward.
Related
I am coming from a background in Web Development. Have had some classes in MS access about 3 years ago. Currently I am working on a project primarily built using Access. Eventually the program will be expanded to interface with the same database that Access uses in the cloud. Which will then lead to development on a web project.
My question is its 2017 and I am aware that you can make web calls in Access , but just because I can doesn't mean I should right ? My client/boss would like to implement a credit card processing payment system into his Access application. However I am pushing for this to be something built from the web development side project that will take place later using an API. Any Access developers out there able to suggest whether its a good idea to wait to build this feature later when development has begun on the web project ? Is it okay or secure to make web calls using Access ? Or is there any alternatives to an existing merchant service that can interface with Access ? Any advice on this topic would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.
Access (VBA) has COM support, and makes heavy use of it. Any existing merchanting solution that works with COM can work with Access.
If your desired merchant solution doesn't, you can create COM classes and libraries in C#, C++, VB.Net and probably some more programming languages.
If it's a good idea? That heavily depends on your demands. I don't know what the advantage of an Access database over a program is for you.
Note that if you're using ASP.Net for your web solution, you might use a common class to check and authorize payments, and you might want to develop both simultaneously.
Perhaps I'm not thinking clearly but I have an existing website/application that I want to "front-end" with DNN without re-writing the application in DNN's modular format, i.e; I want DNN to handle membership, authentication, etc. Authenticated users could then access my existing web application.
There are a couple articles here that discuss what it might look like when integrated and some discuss the pitfalls that might be associated with such an arrangement, however none of the articles outline the steps I would need to take to deploy DNN this way.
I have been unsuccessful in my attempts to setup child sites or even parent site in DNN host management that will successfully point to my existing application. It errors out because it's looking for all the DNN libraries.
When I try adding adding a virtual application/directory in the DNN site definition (IIS) that points to my existing web app, I get DNN's error page stating the page doesn't exist.
I don't want to rewrite the application as a module, but if someone would be kind enough to walk me through the steps of setting the two websites up so they can share membership information, I would be terribly grateful. What would I need to setup in IIS, DNN, and my existing website.
Thank You...
C. Lane
You pretty much won't, you can have DNN running side by side with another application running, or you can convert content/modules/functionality into DNN.
If you want to share membership, you'll have to code your application to use the DNN authencation/users/profiles, but there aren't any step by steps for that.
This question actually comes up pretty frequently. An easy solution would be to have both applications use AD authentication. Probably not the solution you are looking for but its the simplest.
I've never tried it, but if they are both using SqlMembershipAuthentication, you might be able to configure both to point to the same database (the dnnDB). Check this link for SqlMembership configuration.
I'm sure DNN wouldn't support this, but it could work,... I think.
Our Oracle application is written in Oracle Forms. However, there is a requirement for it to be a Rich Internet Application (RIA). I.e. no deployment, accessed via web, looks and navigates (tabbing etc) as closely to a desktop GUI application as possible.
Apex has been discarded as not good enough and will not produce a sufficiently good user experience and does not look good compared to other technologies.
Silverlight is being suggested as the best way forward, but I would like to know what else is out there.
I have had suggestions that the way forward is to use HTML5/CSS, but we need a good framework for managing records. I do not wish to be reinventing the wheel. I understand that Silverlight for Business Applications takes care of some of those requirements.
Also, the idea is to create web services in Oracle and have a Silverlight front-end. Is this possible / the right way of doing things?
Any pointers in the right direction or thoughts would be appreciated.
Thanks.
Apex has been discarded as not good
enough and will not produce a
sufficiently good user experience and
does not look good compared to other
technologies.
Oracle Apex has all the features that you are looking for. You can customize it using CSS, users can access it using web and since your current application is in Oracle Forms, you can reuse a lot of your code written in Oracle procedures/packages/triggers. Also, the learning curve for your Oracle Developers would be very smooth.
I'd suggest you to try and create a small module for your future project and see how effective it is in terms of both Development time and the rich UI.
I don't know much about it, but you might want to look at FormSpider.
And of course there is Oracle ADF.
Like Rajesh, I bridle at the suggestion that Apex is "not good enough", having been heavily involved in a very successful Apex project ;-)
From my point of view,there is no direct dependence between your future RIA's and the RDBMS you are using now. In other words,features and advantages of Silverlight\Entity Framework are almost equal for different data sources (e.g SQL Server,Oracle and etc).
Also, the idea is to create web
services in Oracle and have a
Silverlight front-end. Is this
possible / the right way of doing
things?
Using a middle tier (WCF or WCF RIA Services) as a data access layer will be more preferable than creating web-services in Oracle.
This tutorial can be usefull for you to get some general view of the Silverlight and WCF Ria Services.
http://www.silverlightshow.net/items/WCF-RIA-Services-Part-1-Getting-Started.aspx
I have a situation where information about a user is stored in the web application cache and when that information is updated in one application - I want to notify the other applications (running on the same machine) that the data should be removed from it's cache so it can be refreshed. Basically I need to keep cached data in sync across multiple asp.net applications.
I have started down the path of using a central web service to help coordinate the notifcations but it is turning out to be more complex than I think it needs to be.
Is there a way that one asp.net application can easily reach across to another on the same box to clear an item from the cache?
Is there a better way to achieve shared cached information than using the application cache?
I really want to create a way for apps to communicate in a loosely coupled way - I looked at nservice bus but the dependency on MSMQ scared me away - my client has had bad experiences with MSMQ and does not want to support an app that requires it.
Suggestions?
Michael
I agree with Hogan. Best is to use a shared database. I want to add to that that, when using SQL Server, you can use SQL Cache Dependency. This SQL Server mechanism allows notifications to applications in such a way that used caches can be invalided directly after a change is made to the data.
A shared database is probably going to cause you the least pain.
Edit
Note: ASP.NET allows you to make "cache clearing" triggers on SQL server changes. Should be a quick search in the cache examples on MSDN to find some examples. Thus when the user info stored in the cache changes in the DB the local cache copy will clear and be re-loaded from the DB.
There are commercial distributed caches available for .net other than Microsoft Velocity - NCache, Coherence, etc.
How about Velocity? It's a distributed cache that works between servers as well as between applications. It has PowerShell management and all sorts of documentation to get you going faster and be far more maintainable in the long-term.
What about COM/DCOM, using namespace System.Runtime.Remoting
What is the simplest way to distribute an asp.net web application? I tried to look at some of the open source asp.net projects out there to see how they distribute their apps and how they do updates and they seem rather complicated to me (not for myself to perform but for non-technical users). A lot of them entail backing up the entire installed project, deleting specific folders and save parts of their web.config. I am hoping to find a solution that will make the update process specifically as simple as possible.
Thanks.
I am working on a project with a similar requirement now. We decided to use WiX to create an installer that can be run on the server or machine where the site is installed. WiX is incredibly powerful, but takes a bit to get the hang of.
There are plenty of other open source, and paid installer technologies as well. Here is a post with some info on a few.
CommunityServer provides a setup msi that will create a virutal directory, generate the SQL database and populate it with default data. Updating for point releases though is still a manual process involving an update.sql file and having everyone download then merge binary and static file changes.
They probably could have created an update msi too, but because so many people customize CommunityServer, it is probably better to let people merge changes themselves.
Do you mean in terms of breaking up the functionality into tiers that could be handled on separate machines, e.g. having 3 servers for a 3-tier architecture where one is the DB server, one handles middleware and the other handles the requests in ASP.Net? Another point here would be in going from a web server to multiple web servers in terms of scaling up.
Or are you referring to deployment?
It's a web application, man. Serve it publicly, require registration, and move on. Isn't that the point of the web application?