This course introduces developers to the opportunities and challenges of creating enterprise-level applications. Students will see how creating such flexible and scalable applications can be challenging, but they will learn how to address these challenges by employing appropriate design, tools, and technology.

Through explanations and media, students will learn about key functionality provided by several development tools and technolo-gies. Through demonstrations and animations, they'll see how to use the tools. In controlled hands-on exercises, they will use the tools in the Microsoft Visual Studio^® development system and be guided through the creation of a sample application.

At the end of the course, students will be able to:

• Build a simple distributed application
• Explain Microsoft's recommended architecture for enterprise applications
• Implement practical examples of the core elements needed to develop distributed applications
• Reference additional sources of information and training.

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 single-user desktop applications.
• Is interested in distributed application design, development, and deployment techniques.

Day 1

Chapter 1: Defining Distributed Applications

Topics:

Business today
Evolution of applications
Introduction to distributed applications
Terminology and concepts

Skills:

Students will be able to:

• Discuss the various types of applications that are being created today.
• Explain what distributed applications are and the advantages of using them.
• Define key terminology and concepts relating to distributed applications.

Chapter 2: Exploring a Sample Application

Topics:

Introduction to the Exploration Air application
Exploration Air application design documents

Lab:

Using the Exploration Air application

Skills:

Students will be able to:

• List the Exploration Air business needs and rules.
• Explain the functionality of the Exploration Air application.
• Explain the basic architecture of the Exploration Air application.
• Describe how Exploration Air works with the Food Vendor application.

Chapter 3: Microsoft Windows Operating System Fundamentals

Topics:

Overview of Windows NT platform services
Component object model (COM)
Microsoft Transaction Server (MTS)
Microsoft Internet Information Server (IIS)
Microsoft Message Queue Server (MSMQ)
Microsoft SQL Server™

Labs:

Using MTS Explorer
Using MSMQ Explorer

Skills:

Students will be able to:

• List and describe the significant Windows operating system infrastructure services that support distributed solutions.
• Explain the role of transactions in distributed computing and the services provided by MTS.
• Explain the features of IIS that support distributed applications.
• Compare synchronous and asynchronous messaging, and explain how MSMQ brings asynchronous messaging to distributed computing.

Chapter 4: Understanding the Design Steps

Topics:

Overview of the design steps
Analyzing the business requirements
Defining the application architecture
Designing the solution

Lab:

Using Visual Modeler to add a component

Skills:

Students will be able to:

• Describe the application development process, including the steps to design, implement, and deploy a distributed application.
• Determine business and customer goals, and analyze the business requirements for a distributed application.
• Explain the difference between business logic and presentation logic.
• Create a model of a distributed application using Visual Modeler.

Day 2

Chapter 5: Implementing the Data Tier

Topics:

Overview of data design
Logical data model
Physical data model
Data access strategies

Labs:

Adding a table to the database
Adding data to a table

Skills:

Students will be able to:

• Define the characteristics of logical and physical data designs.
• Create an entity-relationship diagram that describes data entities and the relationships between them.
• Define a database schema that maps a logical design to a physical design.
• Use the Visual Database Tools to view and create data structures.
• Use the Visual Database Tools to design queries.
• Explain the purpose of Universal Data Access.
• Describe how ActiveX® Data Objects fit within the Universal Data Access model.

Chapter 6: Building the Components

Topics:

Basics of component building
COM components
Component design considerations
Visual Studio component creation tools
Comparing the language tools
Creating the FrequentFlyer component

Labs:

Creating the Microsoft Visual Basic®-based FrequentFlyer component
Creating the Microsoft Visual C++®-based FrequentFlyer component
Creating the Microsoft Visual J++™-based FrequentFlyer component
Creating the Microsoft Visual FoxPro®-based FrequentFlyer component

Skills:

Students will be able to:

• Define a component.
• Explain how the COM supports components.
• Describe the new features in the Visual Basic, Visual C++, Visual J++, and Visual FoxPro development systems.
• Build a simple component using the development tool of your choice.

Chapter 7: Implementing the Business Tier

Topics:

Business component design issues
Building components for MTS
Deploying an MTS component

Labs:

Working with MTS packages
Deploying an MTS package

Skills:

Students will be able to:

• Describe the differences between business and data components.
• Discuss the main design points when creating MTS components.
• Create a package in MTS Explorer and install components into the package.
• Deploy an MTS package onto the server and client computers.

Day 3

Chapter 8: Implementing the Presentation Tier

Topics:

Presentation considerations
Hypertext markup language (HTML)
Dynamic HTML (DHTML)
Using active server pages (ASP)
Microsoft Visual InterDev™ Web development system version 6.0
Microsoft Win32®-based applications
Deployment of the presentation tier
Selecting a presentation tier technology

Labs:

Using DHTML
Using Visual InterDev to view Exploration Air
Prototyping with site diagrams, themes, and layouts (optional)

Skills:

Students will be able to:

• Describe the purpose of the presentation interface.
• Explain the pros and cons of deploying HTML user interfaces (UIs) versus DHTML UIs.
• Explain the benefits of using ASP in the presentation tier.
• Use Visual InterDev to create a Web-based UI.
• List the options available to deploy applications.

Chapter 9: Design Considerations

Topics:

Core requirements of enterprise applications
Challenges of distributed applications
Analyzing application performance

Labs:

Congestion
Synchronized calls
Capacity versus performance
Locking, blocking, and deadlocking

Skills:

Students will be able to:

• List and define the core requirements for distributed applications.
• Define attributes of a distributed system and explain how they can be used to characterize these systems.
• Describe the role of delays, resource contention, congestion, and application complexity in determining application performance.
• Use Microsoft Performance Monitor and Visual Analyzer to evaluate application performance.

Chapter 10: Where to Go From Here

Topics:

What you've learned
Exploration Air in the future
Training and resources
Exam 70-100: Study Guide

Skills:

Students will be able to:

• Summarize the parts of an enterprise application, and explain how to design one.
• Identify additional training and developer resources.