MVC architecture in ASP.Net using C# and Microsoft Data Access Application block

http://www.c-sharpcorner.com/UploadFile/munnamax/mvcarchitecture02262006091052AM/mvcarchitecture.aspx

In this article we will learn how to use Microsoft Data Access Application block in ASP.Net using C#.

Why MVC?


The
purpose of many computer systems is to retrieve data from a data store
and display it for the user. After the user changes the data, the
system stores the updates in the data. One problem is that the user
interface tends to change much more frequently than the data storage
system. Another problem with coupling the data and user interface
pieces is that business applications tend to incorporate business logic
that goes far beyond data transmission

The Model-View-Controller (MVC)
pattern separates the modeling of the domain, the presentation

, and the actions based on user input into three separate classes [Burbeck92]:

Model
.
The model manages the behavior and data of the application domain,
responds to requests for information about its state (usually from the
view), and responds to instructions to change state (usually from the
controller).

View.
The view manages the display of information.

Controller.
The controller interprets the mouse and keyboard inputs from the user,
informing the model and/or the view to change as appropriate.




What is Microsoft Data Access Application Block?



It
consist of single .Net based assembly, which contains all of the
functionalities necessary to perform the most common data access task
against Microsoft SQL SERVER 7/2000 database.

Specifically the data access application block helps us in following:

Calls stored procedure or SQL text command

Specify parameter detail

Return SqlDataReader, DataSet, XMLDataReader objects or single values

In general Data Access Application block is designed to encapsulate Microsoft's recommended best practices for data access.

What you can achieve with the use of Microsoft Data Access Application Block?


Minimize the data access code you need to write often to single line.

Ensures that your data access logic is implemented in an efficient and effective manner.

Mainly
it has got SqlHelper class provides set of static methods which you can
use to execute a variety of different command types against the
database.



To have more data detail information on Microsoft Data Access Application please refer to following URL
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=f63d1f0a-9877-4a7b-88ec-0426b48df275&DisplayLang=en
Database work to do as below:

--
Table Creation



create table
tbl_Member

(

memberId Int primary key
identity(1,1) Not Null
,

firstName varchar
(50) Not Null
,

lastName varchar
(50) Not Null
,

contactNo varchar
(15) Not Null
,

emailAddress varchar
(70)
Not Null

)

--
Stored Procedure Creation



create procedure
usps_proInsMember

(

@fName varchar
(50),@lName varchar
(50),@coNo varchar
(15),@emailAddr varchar
(70)

)

AS

INSERT INTO
tbl_Member (firstName,lastName,contactNo,emailAddress)

VALUES
(@fName,@lName,@coNo,@emailAddr)

--
StoredProcedure to listAllMember



create procedure
usps_proSelectMember

AS

SELECT
* FROM
tbl_Member

-- exec usps_proInsMember 'Munir','Shaikh','23423423','munnamax@rediffmail.com'

-- SELECT * FROM tbl_Member

Let us start with actual topic as how to implement MVC with ASP.Net and c#.

I will assume that you have installed Microsoft Data Access Block For .Net on your machine you can download form Microsoft site.

Follow the steps as

Create new project with name "Mvc"

>>Right click on solution

>>Add

>>New Project


Select Class Library under Visual C# project. Give Library Name as: AbstractLayer

Similarly
you need to follow above steps for "BusinessLayer" and "DataLayer"
please refer to the image for the solution explorer how it looks like.



In short we have added three different libraries to MVC project, each these libraries themself are acting as single project.

Now let us follow steps to add references of these class libraries

>>Right click on Business Layer

>>Add References

>>Under Project Tab

>>Select Abstract Layer and Select Data Layer


Click on ok, and references get added to the selected library.

Similarly follow the steps for datalayer and add reference of Abstractlayer

STEPI:


Let us discuss what is "AbstractLayer
" in our project?

In this project as we are dealing with the Member's basic functionalities like

AddnewMember

MemberList

In short I will call "ExecuteNonQuery
" and "ExecuteDataset
" methods from Microsoft Data access Application block for .net

So
all the getter and setter methods will be there in this which we can
derive from the class and use it while passing to object. So let us add
class to AbstractLayer called as "baseMember.cs
" which
will hold all the getter and setter methods. As this class is acting as
abstract so we need access above method by deriving this class in the "DataLayer
"

STEPII:



So let us have a look at "DataLayer
"
class library, we will add a class called as "Member.cs" which is
derived from baseMember main aim is to pass object to the respective
methods. So entire code of this page look like below

using
System;

using
System.Data;

using
System.Data.SqlClient;

using
AbstractLayer;

using
DataLayer;

namespace
BusinessLayer

{

///

<summary>

///
Summary description for Member.

///

</summary>

public

class
Member : baseMember

{

public

int
AddnewMember(AbstractLayer.baseMember objMember)

{

IdataAccess MemberSqlDataAccess =
new
SqlDataAccess(System.Configuration.ConfigurationSettings.AppSettings["ConnectionString"].ToString());

return
MemberSqlDataAccess.AddnewMember(objMember);

}

public
DataSet MemberList()

{

DataSet dtSt;

IdataAccess MemberListSqlDataAccess =
new
SqlDataAccess(System.Configuration.ConfigurationSettings.AppSettings["ConnectionString"].ToString());

dtSt = MemberListSqlDataAccess.ListAllMembers();

return
dtSt;

}

}

}

STEPIII:
(when you install Microsoft Data Access Application block, you can find SqlHelper.cs to following location

under program files/Microsoft Application Blocks for .NET/Data Access/Code/CS/Microsoft.ApplicationBlocks.Data/SQLHelper.cs

)

DataLayer:



Copy SqlHelper.cs from above path and add under "DataLayer
" in our project. We will add class called as "IdataAccess.cs
" in "DataLayer
" is basically acting as an interface code goes as below

using
System;

using
System.Data;

using
AbstractLayer;

namespace
DataLayer

{

///

<summary>

///
Summary description for IdataAccess.

///

</summary>

public

interface
IdataAccess

{

//all the method signature goes here

int
AddnewMember(AbstractLayer.baseMember
objMember);

DataSet ListAllMembers();

}

}

which
will hold all the signatures to implement this interface signature we
have to have another class so we will add another class "SqlDataAccess.cs
" under the same layer. Code goes as below

using
System;

using
Microsoft.ApplicationBlocks.Data;

using
AbstractLayer;

using
System.Data;

using
System.Data.SqlClient;

namespace
DataLayer

{

///

<summary>

///
Summary description for sqlDataAccess.

///

</summary>

public

class
SqlDataAccess : IdataAccess

{

// All the implementation of signatures goes here

string
m_Connection_String=System.Configuration.ConfigurationSettings.AppSettings["ConnectionString"].ToString();

public
SqlDataAccess(
string
_ConnectionString)

{

m_Connection_String=_ConnectionString;

}

public

int
AddnewMember(AbstractLayer.baseMember
objMember)

{

SqlTransaction objTrans=
null
;

SqlConnection myConnection =

new
SqlConnection(m_Connection_String);

try

{

// Insert Member Personal details only

myConnection.Open();

objTrans= myConnection.BeginTransaction();

SqlParameter [] arrParam=
new
SqlParameter[4];

arrParam[0]=
new
SqlParameter("@fName", objMember.firstName);

arrParam[1]=
new
SqlParameter("@lName",objMember.lastName);

arrParam[2]=
new
SqlParameter("@coNo",objMember.contactNo);

arrParam[3]=
new
SqlParameter("@emailAddr",objMember.emailAddress);

//pass connection string, storedprocedure name and parameter array

SqlHelper.ExecuteNonQuery(m_Connection_String,CommandType.StoredProcedure,"usps_proInsMember",arrParam);

}

catch
(Exception Ex)

{

objTrans.Rollback();

string
sError=Ex.Message.ToString();

return
-1;

}

finally

{

myConnection.Close();

}

return
1;

}

public
DataSet ListAllMembers()

{

DataSet dtStMembers;

dtStMembers = SqlHelper.ExecuteDataset(m_Connection_String,CommandType.StoredProcedure,"usps_proSelectMember");

return
dtStMembers;

}

}

}

Note

:
We are making use of "Microsoft.ApplicationBlocks.Data
" namespace in above class.

Now
so far so good till now we have taken care of abstractlayer,
businesslayer & Datalayers. Now let us discuss about our design
i.e. HTML (Inline coding). As this deals with look and feel so we will
add folder "View
" under "MVC
" project and to perform addition of new member we will add "AddMember.aspx
"
file, which is basically Member Screen through which input values will
be supplied. Now let us look at the code behind of the above page
basically we will instantiate the business class as

protected BusinessLayer.Member objMember = new BusinessLayer.Member();



and pass value as an object.

using
System;

using
System.Collections;

using
System.ComponentModel;

using
System.Data;

using
System.Drawing;

using
System.Web;

using
System.Web.SessionState;

using
System.Web.UI;

using
System.Web.UI.WebControls;

using
System.Web.UI.HtmlControls;

namespace
Mvc

{

///

<summary>

///
Summary description for WebForm1.

///

</summary>

public

class
WebForm1 : System.Web.UI.Page

{

protected
System.Web.UI.WebControls.Button btnSave;

protected
System.Web.UI.WebControls.TextBox txtFirstName;

protected
System.Web.UI.WebControls.TextBox txtLastName;

protected
System.Web.UI.WebControls.TextBox txtContactNo;

protected
System.Web.UI.WebControls.TextBox txtEmailAddress;

protected
System.Web.UI.WebControls.Label lblMessage;

protected
BusinessLayer.Member objMember =
new
BusinessLayer.Member();

private

void
Page_Load(
object
sender, System.EventArgs e)

{

// Put user code to initialize the page here

}

#region
Web Form Designer generated code

override

protected

void
OnInit(EventArgs e)

{

//

// CODEGEN: This call is required by the ASP.NET Web Form Designer.

//

InitializeComponent();

base
.OnInit(e);

}

///

<summary>

///
Required method for Designer support - do not modify

///
the contents of this method with the code editor.

///

</summary>

private

void
InitializeComponent()

{

this
.btnSave.Click +=
new
System.EventHandler(
this
.btnSave_Click);

this
.Load +=
new
System.EventHandler(
this
.Page_Load);

}

#endregion

private

void
btnSave_Click(
object
sender, System.EventArgs e)

{

AddMember();

int
retVal = objMember.AddnewMember(objMember);

if
(retVal>0)

{

lblMessage.Text = "New record added successfully";

}

else

{

lblMessage.Text = "An error has occured while processing your request";

}

}

public

void
AddMember()

{

objMember.firstName = txtFirstName.Text.Trim();

objMember.lastName = txtLastName.Text.Trim();

objMember.contactNo = txtContactNo.Text.Trim();

objMember.emailAddress = txtEmailAddress.Text.Trim();

}

}

}

This will take care of your "Add New Member"

Similarly we can add "MemberList.aspx
" under "View" folder and add datagrid to this page. To display the member list code goes as below.

using
System;

using
System.Collections;

using
System.ComponentModel;

using
System.Data;

using
System.Drawing;

using
System.Web;

using
System.Web.SessionState;

using
System.Web.UI;

using
System.Web.UI.WebControls;

using
System.Web.UI.HtmlControls;

namespace
Mvc.View

{

///

<summary>

///
Summary description for MemberList.

///

</summary>

public

class
MemberList : System.Web.UI.Page

{

protected
System.Web.UI.WebControls.DataGrid dtGrdMember;

protected
BusinessLayer.Member objMember =
new
BusinessLayer.Member();

private

void
Page_Load(
object
sender, System.EventArgs e)

{

// Put user code to initialize the page here

if
(!Page.IsPostBack)

{

//To load DataGrid Code goes here

DataSet dtSt;

dtSt = objMember.MemberList();

dtGrdMember.DataSource = dtSt;

dtGrdMember.DataBind();

}

}

#region
Web Form Designer generated code

override

protected

void
OnInit(EventArgs e)

{

//

// CODEGEN: This call is required by the ASP.NET Web Form Designer.

//

InitializeComponent();

base
.OnInit(e);

}

///

<summary>

///
Required method for Designer support - do not modify

///
the contents of this method with the code editor.

///

</summary>

private

void
InitializeComponent()

{

this
.Load +=
new
System.EventHandler(
this
.Page_Load);

}

#endregion

}

}

And that's all.

As normal developer you will always think that this is very big and vast procedure, but remember the benefits.

Advantages:


Code
will be separated from the Data layer due to which it will be very easy
to maintain for the long run of the project, as every system keep on
going under modification / enhancement so at that time you will have to
just go on adding view files and signature in the interface and its
implementation.

Easy
to understand and code transfer. i.e. when want to implement at
client's server you just need to upload view files and DLL fields.

It increases the system performance as there is no need to do connection pooling etc.

Easy to maintain documentation

I have implemented above MVC Architecture for one the biggest system and working much better than normal way.

So read this article, pass it on to your friends and rate this article

Finally: While building this project remember to build sequentially

1st: AbstractLayer

2nd:
BusinessLayer


3rd: DataLayer

4th: MVC project

As these are separate project's it self.

Troubleshooting:
After doing all this next time you open MVC application you will find
that libraries are not opened by default so you need to add them under
the solution as an existing project.