Issue: 2000 - Fall

Fall 2000 Editorial Markus Egger and Rick Strahl

Markus Egger explains COM+ Queued Components, a wrapper around Microsoft Message Queue (MSMQ) that lets developers convert synchronous COM components to asynchronous ones with minimal code changes: COM+ records calls via a recorder and later plays them to the real component, enabling scalability, disconnected operation, retries, transactions and dead‑queue handling. He covers setup, monikers, callbacks, limitations (void returns, write‑only properties) and the need to "t...hink asynchronously" when designing reliable queued systems.See More

Before you say "Who cares, I've already seen them..." or "Who cares, I don't use Visual FoxPro...", take a quick look at this article.I think you'll discover some things that you didn't know; and if you don't currently use Visual FoxPro, you might even discover you, too, are looking forward to the next version of Fox.

With ever-larger Web applications being built to service very large numbers of simultaneous users pounding away at Web sites, the issue of scaling applications beyond a single machine is important for Web application developers and network administrators.While hardware capabilities seem to be increasing to the point that high-powered single machines can handle tremendous loads, there will always be those apps that push beyond a single machine. In addition, for many admin...istrators and IT planners, it's often not good enough to say that a server can handle x number of users. They want redundancy, backup and overflow support, so a Web server or hardware failure or an unexpected surge of visitors doesn't cripple the corporate Web site. In this article, Rick discusses the issues of scalability and how load balancing services can help provide redundancy and extra horsepower to large Web sites.See More

Data in XML format will play a significant role for the foreseeable future.Moreover, it's clear that XML and XSL will play a significant role in most, if not all, of my future applications. Why is it, however, that almost everything we read talks about merging XML+XSL on the client side, which requires IE 5 or higher browsers? In this article, Steve shows how to apply XSL transformations on the server to get around this problem.

Business-To-Business (B2B) communications are rapidly becoming an essential component in today's economy.Some say B2B transactions will soon outnumber Business-To-Customer (B2C) transactions. While we have learned how to do B2C quite efficiently, B2B presents an entirely new set of challenges that we have yet to resolve. Previous attempts were successfully used, but were too expensive to be used as often as B2C. Microsoft tries to resolve this dilemma with Microsoft BizT...alk Server 2000, and it is looking promising! This article provides a first in-depth overview.See More

Everything you wanted to know about customers but were too busy coding to ask.In the last column, we discussed the initial contact and the issues that are important in that first meeting. In this column, we discuss negotiating the terms of the contract.

Markus Egger argues that the rise of Web Services will transform software by enabling seamless, server‑driven functionality while outsourcing many control and maintenance burdens to providers. He acknowledges the promise of easier updates and better‑performing reused services, but warns of the painful transition and the erosion of direct control, drawing an analogy to how modern cars and their parts work versus early expectations. Through a candid ISP anecdote, he unders...cores the practical pain of relying on services and humans, yet remains hopeful that Web Services will ultimately streamline the Internet.See More

In this article, Travis Vandersypen explains how Microsoft SQL Server 2000 introduces native XML support, allowing developers to query data directly in XML format using the `FOR XML` clause with options like AUTO, RAW, and EXPLICIT. He details the configuration steps for enabling XML support via IIS, demonstrates querying data through URL and Template queries, and shows how XSL stylesheets can transform XML output for various presentation needs. Vandersypen emphasizes th...at this built-in XML functionality simplifies data integration for distributed applications by eliminating the need for custom conversion routines, enabling developers to focus more on business logic.See More

Integrating a web site with a structured database poses a particular challenge. How can a developer provide a flexible, easy to use, yet robust search interface for users to query the information stored in the database? In this article Beth provides a complete solution for this problem using Visual FoxPro, ADO and XML, by providing a dynamic searching mechanism in the middle tier that users can control from the front end.