I'm retrieving data without effort now.  The Linq syntax is starting to sink in.  I don't have to look at the reference as much anymore.  I think I'm stuck, though.  I'm trying to send updates back and I was hoping to have one method per entity called "Save" that would take in the modified entities and use Linq magic to get it back to the database.  No such magic seems to exist.  I'm going to have to write a method per operation (Delete, Insert, Update).  What stinks is that the work required to do this is about the same as it was before using traditional methods.

This could be a case of programming in a closet and not having anyone currently present to bounce ideas off of.  I'm going to bounce this off some of the developers when I go back to work tomorrow.

So far, Linq has a nice intuitive syntax and allows a standardized way of querying collections.  It's also nice that it supports lazy loading and relationships natively. However, from a productivity point of view, I'm not sure it adds a lot to what we currently have. 

After getting the images downloaded and setup, I've started to develop.  After getting over a few minor bumps, I'm underway.  I've used SqlMetal to generate entity classes from the DB Schema.  Initially, the classes weren't marked as datacontracts.  This is because I didn't use the /Serialization:Unidirectional switch.  After I regenerated the entity classes, I'm in business.  My WPF application binds to the results of a WCF call that retrieves data using Linq to SQL.

I haven't been very good lately about taking time to learn the new technologies, so I'm taking today off to learn Visual Studio 2008.  I've found over the years the best way to learn a new technology is to create a demo application.  I'm going to be creating a restaurant reservation / order system, using a model proposed by Barry Williams at Database Answers.  I hope to post progress as things go along.

I'm really hoping to get into Linq, so I'm going to architect the system using the traditional 3 tiers, DB, Mid Tier and Presentation.  The Mid Tier should contain all the linq stuff, exposing the objects via a WCF Service.  I'll start with a smart client presentation, and perhaps add a web facade later today. 

I'm still waiting for the download to finish; probably another 2 hours.  So right now I'm going to read all I can about C# 3.0 and Linq.  An article I found very informative is the Linq to SQL overview at MSDN.  The nagging issue I'm trying to resolve is, "How does Linq make life easier for the Mid Tier developer"?  It looks real easy if you don't mind exposing your data model to service consumers. But if you want to abstract the data model a bit, it looks like end up writing some code because you lose a lot of convenience features.

From Pat Tormey, Director of NHDN:

Summer Recess..And Study Groups

During the summer I'll be forming Study Groups to meet for particular topics.

Personally I'll be studying the SmartClient Software Factory. If you are interested, drop me a note.. We'll be meeting at my office in Derry NH on Monday evenings

If you'd like to host a Study Group or have an idea for one please drop me a note and I'll see if we can find some people in your area with the same interests.

For those of you local to New Hampshire, Chris Bowen and Bob Familiar will be back in town speaking about AJAX.  I've been working with a client on an AJAX site and have been very impressed with the results.

Here's the information for the Roadshow:

We're back in the saddle again, gearing up for another five-city tour to bring deep technical content to a projection screen near you!

Dates, locations, and registration links are at the bottom of this post.

Note that we've changed venues from Farmington to Hartford, CT and Manchester to Nashua, NH.

See you on the road!

-Chris

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Bob Familiar and Chris Bowen are two guys who love to write code and can’t stop talking about it. And now they’ve decided to take their long winded rants and questionable demos to a city near you. And if you were at our last event, you know the line about questionable demos is no joke!

AGENDA: AJAX, Extensible Scrubbing Bubbles and that Cross Browser Cleansing Motion
8:30am	Arrive, check in, grab a nosh and a seat
9:00 – 10:15	XML and the Database
	SQL Server 2005 offers architects and developers a slew of great features for creating data driven solutions. For this session we will focus on the XML features including XML Indexes, XQuery, the XML Datatype, the FOR XML clause and validating XML within the database using XSD. The use cases for these XML capabilities will also be discussed.
10:15 – 10:30	<Break />
10:30 – 12:00	What’s New From The Patterns & Practices Group?
	Like doing things the hard way?  Well, unfortunately for you this session is all about making your life as a developer or architect easier.  The Patterns & Practices group keeps churning out great tools, reference code, and guidance to show you Microsoft's recommendations for designing, developing and deploying great applications.  We'll cover Enterprise Library 3.0, various Software Factories, the Guidance Automation Toolkit and more, explaining how they could fit in with your development efforts.  If you suddenly find the hard way less thrilling, don't say we didn't warn you!
12:00-1:00	Grab a lunch and search for patterns in the carpet
1:00 – 2:15	Microsoft Silverlight (aka Windows Presentation Foundation / Everywhere)
	At our last meeting, we dug into the Windows Presentation Foundation, a .Net Framework development library that sits overtop of DirectX allowing one to create the next generation of Windows user interfaces using advanced graphics, animation, rich documents and multimedia along with traditional UI controls. Windows Silverlight is a subset of the capabilities of WPF that can be used within browser based applications on the PC and the Mac. This session will discuss the architecture of Microsoft Silverlight and demonstrate how integrate XAML into your browser-based applications.
2:15-2:30	Take a break and animate
2:30 – 3:45	ASP.NET AJAX – Going Deeper
	If you're developing applications for the web, you've likely heard about AJAX and how it can improve the usability and functionality of your site.  In this session, we'll quickly introduce the main concepts of ASP.NET AJAX and then we'll roll up our sleeves for other details that will help you when you're in the trenches with AJAX.  We'll talk about the client side library, Silverlight (formerly codenamed WPF/E) integration, enabling and invoking server methods and web services, debugging, best practices and more.
3:45 – 4:00	Zune Giveaway

 

Location	Date	Time	Registration
Sheraton Burlington Hotel	May 8th, 2007	8:30am-4:00pm	Register!
870 Williston Road
Burlington Vermont			Event ID:
			1032339883
RIT INN & Conference Center	May 10th, 2007	8:30am-4:00pm	Register!
5257 Henrietta Road
W. Henrietta New York			Event ID:
			1032339884
Sheraton Hartford Hotel	May 14th, 2007	8:30am-4:00pm	Register!
100 East River Drive
Hartford Connecticut			Event ID:
			1032339886
MESDA	May 15th, 2007	8:30am-4:00pm	Register!
506 Main Street
Westbrook, ME 04092			Event ID:
			1032339885
Sheraton Nashua Hotel	May 17th, 2007	8:30am-4:00pm	Register!
11 Tara Boulevard
Nashua New Hampshire			Event ID:
			1032339887

There is plenty of guidance on reviewing code.  (Look at CodeFrisk.Com/Guidance.aspx for some links).   I’ve found that the one absolutely most critical piece of a traditional application never undergoes any type of review.  Most applications live and die by their database, and yet it rarely gets reviewed.  If you’re lucky (although you might not think so), you’ll have a DBA check things over, but they are mostly concerned with performance.  Maintainability and adherence to standards are not at the top of their list.  

I’ve listed some of the things I look at when I review a database:

-Appropriate Normalization

It’s tough to say what is and isn’t appropriate normalization.  You’ll know it when you see it.  Stuff like having a separate table for the US states or one called Gender is usually a red flag of having gone too far.  Conversely, having the same field in multiple tables is usually a sign that normalization hasn’t gone far enough. 

--Is all access through stored procedures

Most development shops have a policy that says, “All data access shall be done through stored procedures”.  If you have that policy, check to make sure this is being adhered to.  An easy way to check this is to deny access to the tables and allow access to the stored procedures.

--Look for premature optimization

I’ve seen times when developers are using Join hints or locking hints in their query.  “If I force the query to use a merge join, it goes 5x faster”.  Meaning it goes 5 times faster on the development box which has far fewer rows and 3 fewer processors than the production machine.  Once it goes the to production machine, there’s a good chance that SQL will decide upon a different plan to execute the statement, making the hint destructive on the production machine

--Are objects secured and scripted

Eventually, when you roll the database into a production environment, access to the database will (or should) be locked down.  Is the development environment the same?  Are the scripts that you have under source control (you do have the database creation scripts under source control don’t you?)  include securing of the object.

--Are updates applied in the same order

I can think of no better way to create an application that suffers from chronic deadlock situations than to have one stored procedure update tables A, B, & C (in that order) and have another stored procedure update tables C, B, & A (in that order).  Updates should always be applied in the same order.  Otherwise, you’re increasing the chance that a row in A will be locked by one stored proc while waiting for a row in table C locked by the other stored proc.  Generally the order is enforced naturally because you have to respect foreign keys, but every now and then I come across this.

--Biblical stored procedures

By biblical, I mean volume, not divinely inspired.  I’m referring to stored procedures that use up more than one printer cartridge if you were to print it.  Nowadays when you see a large stored procedure, it’s one of two things:

1) Embedded business logic – This seems to be a remnant of client server programming where you were forced to put your business logic in the stored procedure.  It’s arguable about whether or the database is the best place to keep your business logic.  Most people (including me) believe it’s not.  Business logic should be kept in a business logic component that validates, enforces and calculates.

2) Poorly defined schema.  Most validations that you see taking place in stored procs could be controlled by using schema constructs like check constraints, triggers, foreign keys and defaults.  Put that type of information in the schema where it can be enforced consistently everywhere rather than burdening the stored procedure.

--Does the Development database match what’s in source control

To reinforce this, database schema objects need to be kept under source control.  Having a database backup plan isn’t sufficient.  Putting the objects in source control allow you to manage changes and releases much more effectively.  Otherwise you’ll be struggling to determine which objects have changed in the development database and need to be deployed, and figuring out who added a field to table.  Keeping the schema under source control used to be a very manual process, but now tools like Visual Studio for Database Professionals make this painless.

--Cloned stored procedures / Views.

This is very common.  When you need data, most developers don’t look to see if there is an existing stored procedure or view that satisfies their needs.   They’ll create a brand new one.  Then you end up with a database that has 3 different stored procedures that get a customer record by its ID.  Now all these duplicated procs have to be maintained.  Best prevention for this is to have a strict naming convention for your procedures. 

Those are some of the quick patterns I look for when reviewing a database.  What are the kind of things that stand out when you look over a database?

Wouldn’t you feel comfortable having your code reviewed by an expert?  Go to CodeFrisk.com to see how I can proofread your code at a reasonable price.

On Wednesday, March21st, I'll be giving an introductary talk on Data Mining for the Boston Access User's Group.  I was scheduled to do this last month, but I got sick.

Introduction to Data Mining in SQL 2005
Data mining is the act of deriving patterns and trend that exist in your data.  SQL 2005 provides a host of different algorithms that allow you to explore your data for hidden patterns and trends.  Popular uses of data mining models are used to predict future sales, target customers for marketing, examine patterns of navigation through a website, and group products that are likely to be purchased together.

Phil will give an introduction to data mining concepts, an overview of the different algorithms, and how to incorporate the data mining results into your applications.

Phil Denoncourt is a .NET consultant, who over the past 5 years has developed a wide range of .NET applications and has over 20 years experience writing software. He is the leader of the New England C# User Group and has acquired the MCPD, MCTS, MCSD, MCDBA, MCSE, MCAD, MCSA and MCP+SB certifications. When not coding, or spending time with his wife and 5 children, Phil is an avid fan of the Boston Red Sox and New England Patriots.

As a developer, I love to write code.  Getting involved with a problem, putting my head down, coming up a solution and getting immersed in implementing it is an awesome feeling.

I also enjoy reading code.  I like to look at a set of code and try to understand what the developer was thinking.  You can tell a lot about how a person thinks by reading their code.  To me, participating in code reviews is a lot of fun. 

I originally wrote these articles 6 months ago when I was about to launch a new service to review code (For details, go to http://www.codefrisk.com/).  I’m now much too busy to review code, but these articles might be of value, so I’m uploading them now.  I’ll be posting a set of articles about code reviews, best practices, coding standards…  Here’s the first article in the series:

Coding Standards – How to write a useful Coding Standard document

Coding standards are an agreement in a development team on how the code for an application will be structured.  They promote consistency and easier maintenance.    A well-written and enforced standards policy will reduce the time that it takes for new developers to feel comfortable with an application.

I’ve worked with many organizations over the years, most of which have some sort of coding standards documentation.  The needs of each organization are very different.  Some organizations sold their source code, so they needed to make sure there was a very high level of consistency.  Others were in regulated industries and needed to conform to various practices.   Others were small shops that didn’t see tremendous value in having standards.

The standards document had varying degrees of success.  Some negative factors in coding standards I’ve seen are:

• Aggressively guarded by one person
• Enforcing rules that were necessary in older technologies, but no longer hold relevance (Especially if they were burned by the problem)
• Too slim
• Too thick
• Too strict
• Begun, but never completed.
• Finished, but never enforced.

I’ve written a few coding standards docs and want to share what I’ve found useful, and what you should try to avoid.

First of all, if you’re the person tasked with writing the documentation, make sure that you involve the rest of the development team as much as possible.  You shouldn’t take the Moses approach; climb a mountain and come down with a set of commandments.  If the developers on your team aren’t consulted on the coding standards, you’ll see a lot of them not adhering to them.  These aren’t your coding standards; they are the teams coding standards.

Recognize that you aren’t writing a document with a stone and chisel.  Coding standards must evolve as your team has learned new techniques.  It’s also not uncommon to see coding standard docs that never get finished because the author feels the document must be 100% “complete” before they release it.  Take an iterative approach and get the document out as soon as possible and continue to refine it.  It’s impossible to get it all right the first, second, or even tenth time.  You’ll probably find that most code reviews will result in changes to the standards document.

Kick off a discussion for an hour or two and brainstorm with the development team about possible standards.  There will be contention.  If the team can’t come to an agreement after 5 minutes, table the discussion point for later.  If people have time to think about something, they will usually be able to justify or back off on their opinion.    The important thing is to limit the time of the discussion in the interests of getting an initial version within the same day.  Good developers will talk about coding all day.

Areas to discuss would include:

• Naming standards – Camel, Pascal, Hungarian, Dewey Decimal System?
• Documentation expectations – XML Documentation, when/where to put comments, class headers…
• Design Patterns that are expected to be used – Factories, Observers, Decorators…
• Automated Unit Testing strategy – TDD? Tool type, Code Coverage…
• Exception handling – Handling, Reporting…
• Use of constants/resource files – Yes, No?  One resource for the entire project, one constant class?
• Complexity limits for methods - > 25 is a lot of branches
• Data access methods - Stored Procs, Dynamic SQL, DataSets, ORM, Async, Transaction strategy…
• Common components to use – Enterprise Library, Log4net, Infragistics…
• Localization strategy -  Needed?  Roll your own or use .NET framework...
• Versioning – Versioning assemblies, strong name, signing, delay signing…
• Build strategy – Nightly builds, one solution or many solutions, creating references
• !Code Formatting

For the most part try to stay away from talking about code formatting.  Formatting standards inevitably come down to one developer’s preference over another.  Capable developers will be able to read the code regardless of how it is formatted. 

After you’ve had your discussion with the team, hole yourself up in your office/cube and write up the standards doc.  Unless you’re a dreadfully slow typist, this shouldn’t take more than 1 – 3 hours.

The important thing is to make sure you get feedback from your team on the document.  If they don’t feel involved and disagree with a particular piece, they will exhibit a little bit of passive-aggressive behavior and not adhere to the standard.

The Coding Standards document sets up expectations at code reviews.  It is a declaration of what is expected from a developer when they submit code.  Without some set of coding standards, code reviews can quickly become counterproductive.

Coding standard docs aren’t hard, aren’t intrusive, and are a valuable resource.  When there is a set of guidelines to use when coding, it is much easier to bring new developers into the project.  The benefits justify the one day of effort it takes to put one in place.

Wouldn’t you feel comfortable having your code reviewed by an expert?  Go to CodeFrisk.com to see how I can proofread your code at a reasonable price.

On Wednesday, February 21st, I'll be giving an introductary talk on Data Mining for the Boston Access User's Group.

Introduction to Data Mining in SQL 2005
Data mining is the act of deriving patterns and trend that exist in your data.  SQL 2005 provides a host of different algorithms that allow you to explore your data for hidden patterns and trends.  Popular uses of data mining models are used to predict future sales, target customers for marketing, examine patterns of navigation through a website, and group products that are likely to be purchased together.

Phil will give an introduction to data mining concepts, an overview of the different algorithms, and how to incorporate the data mining results into your applications.

Phil Denoncourt is a .NET consultant, who over the past 5 years has developed a wide range of .NET applications and has over 20 years experience writing software. He is the leader of the New England C# User Group and has acquired the MCPD, MCTS, MCSD, MCDBA, MCSE, MCAD, MCSA and MCP+SB certifications. When not coding, or spending time with his wife and 5 children, Phil is an avid fan of the Boston Red Sox and New England Patriots.

I'll be speaking at two user groups in the upcoming weeks:

Introduction to WCF (Windows Communication Foundation).

.NET 3.0 was released in November.  WCF is one piece of the 3.0 puzzle and is a substantial improvement over ASP.NET web services. 

Phil will show the overall architecture and how easy it is to develop WCF Services.

Phil Denoncourt is a .NET consultant, who over the past 5 years has developed a wide range of .NET applications and has over 20 years experience writing software. He is the leader of the New England C# User Group and has acquired the MCPD, MCTS, MCSD, MCDBA, MCSE, MCAD, MCSA and MCP+SB certifications.

When not coding, or spending time with his wife and 5 children, Phil is an avid fan of the Boston Red Sox and New England Patriots.

Jan 11 2007 at New England C# Users Group

Jan 18 2007 at New Hampshire .NET Users Group