Mastering Distributed Application Design Using Microsoft Visual Studio
Course No.  Course Length:	1298 3 days
This course introduces developers to the opportunities and problems in creating enterprise-level applications. Students will see how creating such flexible and scalable applications can be challenging, but they will also realize the benefits that can be received by doing so. Through explanations and graphics, students will learn about key messages and functionality relevant to each tool or business solution application that can be satisfied with the Microsoft Visual Studio development system. Through demos and animations, students will see how to use the tools. In controlled hands-on exercises, by adding lines of code to preconstructed code segments, students will be able to try parts of Visual Studio and be guided through the creation of an application. At Course Completion At the end of the course, students will be able to: Explain the Microsoft recommended architecture to be used in enterprise application development. Implement simple, practical examples of each of the core elements required in a distributed application. Provide references to other information and training resources. Prerequisites This course assumes that the student has a minimum of beginning/intermediate programming skills as demonstrated by the following competencies: Understands basic programming terms and concepts Is familiar with programming tools (any vendor) for the Microsoft Windows operating system or similar graphical programming environment Has built and debugged simple single-user desktop applications Is interested in Microsoft's recommendations on building distributed applications using Visual Studio Enterprise Edition
Course Outline
Day 1
Chapter 1: Defining Distributed Applications
Topics: Businesses today Application types Introduction to distributed applications Labs: Congestion Synchronized calls Capacity versus performance Skills: Students will be able to: Explain the many types of applications that are being created today. Explain what distributed applications are and show the advantages of using them. Explain the problems that distributed applications present. Define key attributes of a distributed system and explain how they can be used to characterize these systems.
Chapter 2: Exploring a Sample Application
Topics: Exploration Air business needs Exploration Air business rules Exploration Air design documents Walkthrough of the Exploration Air application Food Vendor application Lab: Walking through the Exploration Air sample application Skills: Students will be able to: Explain the functionality and basic architecture of the Exploration Air sample application.
Chapter 3: Understanding the Design Steps
Topics: Modeling the application Organizing the database structure Identifying the business layer Identifying the presentation layer Windows operating system Skills: Students will be able to: Discuss the different phases of the development process. List steps to create a distributed application. Explain the difference between business logic and presentation logic. Describe the options available for structuring data. List the foundation technologies.
Chapter 4: Modeling the Application
Topics: Gathering business needs Modeling applications Using Visual Modeler Design techniques Lab: Using Visual Modeler to view the application Skills: Students will be able to: Describe what to look for in determining business objectives. List application needs of businesses. Determine what options are available to deploy distributed applications. Identify the concerns of business using legacy systems.
Chapter 5: Organizing the Data
Topics: Importance of accurate data structures Logical data model Physical data model Labs: Locking, blocking, and deadlocking Modifying the Exploration Air data structure Skills: Students will be able to: Use the Visual Database tools to view and create data structures. Use the Visual Data tools. Identify techniques for creating data structures.
Day 2
Chapter 6: Designing the Components
Topics: Software components Component object model (COM) components Considerations when designing components Visual Modeler and future development Lab: Using Visual Modeler to add a component Skills: Students will be able to: Define what a component is. Discuss the various platforms, clients, and infrastructure components available.
Chapter 7: Implementing the Components
Topics: Basics of component building Visual Studio component tools Comparing the language tools Universal data access Creating the FrequentFlyer component Labs: Retrieving data Creating the FrequentFlyer component in the Microsoft Visual Basic programming system Creating the FrequentFlyer component in the Microsoft Visual C++ development system Creating the FrequentFlyer component in the Microsoft Visual J++ development system for Java Creating the FrequentFlyer component in the Microsoft Visual FoxPro database development system Skills: Students will be able to: Use the AutoComplete features of the editor to quickly create script and source code. List the new features of the wizards for creating components and applications. List the new controls available to ease development. Understand what universal data access means. Define how ActiveXô data objects fit within the universal access data model.
Day 3
Chapter 8: Using the Windows Platform Services
Topics: Microsoft Windows NT operating system Microsoft SQL Server Microsoft Internet Information Server (IIS) Microsoft Transaction Server (MTS) Microsoft Message Queue Server (MSMQ) Labs: Dropping a component into MTS and seeing it work Using MSMQ Explorer Skills: Students will be able to: Discuss the various platforms and infrastructure components available. Describe the process of creating an application using Windows Platform Services and Visual Studio tools.
Chapter 9: Implementing the Presentation Layer
Topics: Deployment scenarios and options Basic hypertext markup language (HTML) Dynamic HTML (DHTML) IIS application Win32-based application Deployment Labs: Using design time controls (DTCs) in the Microsoft Visual InterDev Web development system Using DHTML in Visual InterDev Creating a Visual Basic-based user interface (UI) Using Visual InterDev to view Exploration Air Prototyping with site diagrams, themes, and layouts Skills: Students will be able to: List the options available to deploy applications. Use Visual InterDev to create a Web-based user interface. Explain the pros and cons found in deploying basic HTML UIs versus DHTML UIs.
Chapter 10: Where to Go from Here
Topics: What you've learned Extending Exploration Air Available training Enterprise partners Other valuable resources Skills: Students will be able to: Identify what additional resources are available. Explore additional resources. Summarize what an enterprise application is and what is involved with designing one.