Chant the mantra with me: Good language is worth a dime. Good technology is worth a quarter. Good design is worth a dollar.
(Conversion to local currency as suitable :) ) In a similar situation, I probably start out by figure out how to use interop to wrap the existing COM+ objects up as Web Services Then would have moved on writing the "pre-client" as an ASP.NET application that did any other processing need and transformation of the data to HTML for the client. Then redo the components. Then, understanding how the system works, you can rewrite it as needed. In this scenario, C#, VB or Delphi could be used. Ideally, the choice of language is more about being comfortable with being "best." Using the wrong technology won't kill you, but it can either make things easier or more difficult. Having a bad architecture or a bad design can easily kill you with a project like this. Having done project like this: let me offer this. It's best to start with small bites when trying to eat an elephant. Do the simple stuff worth to get familiar with using the tools. A lot of your excitiment (good and bad) is likely to come from learning the new stuff rather than from what you already know. I'd definitely recommend Alex and Dave's "ASP.NET Distributed Data Applications" too! You're correct, more or less, about having COM objects serve up SOAP messages. But interfacing to COM directly can be messy if your not using an MS platform if you have a firewall between the parts. That's why I'd go to web services instead. Web Services use SOAP to do their work. Your other assumptions seem right on the money. XSLT is really the cadalyst in converting XML to HTML (or just about anything else.) You can apply an XSLT to a SOAP to format data if you like. Using .NET, you don't have to bother. It will break down the messages into more directly usable things -- much like yest breaks down sugar in brewing beer. Helpful? kt -----Original Message----- From: Ben Joyce [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Thursday, January 16, 2003 4:50 PM To: dotnet Subject: RE: c#, xml, SOAP, etc Hi Kent. The project is very real and very big. There are three developers working on in, myself and two others. The other two chaps are from a strong Delphi background, and as I mentioned I am primarily a VB/ASP man. We've decided to start writing any new modules for our CRM product in C# with view to do a complete re-write. It makes sense for us all to learn this together so we can work more efficiently. Currently all the COM libraries are written in Delphi so there is a certain element of waiting for those bits to be completed before progressing. My understanding in that the data can be served up by COM objects (written in C#) to a variety of clients via SOAP. Am I right in thinking that we can ship all the real processing and data collection to the server, leaving us with very lightweight clients? I'm not quite sure where XSLT fits in; is this something to do with automating the production of HTML pages using XML as the datasource, something like that? I appreciate any advice you can offer to a .net newbie and his collegues :) Cheers, .ben -- ben joyce // [EMAIL PROTECTED] // +44 (0)7958 933718 // http://www.babelfish.co.uk > -----Original Message----- > From: ktegels [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] > Sent: 16 January 2003 18:47 > To: dotnet > Subject: RE: c#, xml, SOAP, etc > > > Ben, > > Thanks for the props about Wrox books! > > C# is worth getting a book on if you'd not done classic C or > C++ before. If > you've done C or Perl, C# is pretty much cake. > You really need two XML books in my mind. First is any basic > primer on XML. > Second is Tennison's "Beginning XSLT." No doubt that Dr. T > knows her stuff > and she's great writer. > Web services is different horse. If you're going to write > them with an MS > tool, I really like our beginning web services books. If your > going to use > some other platform (say Java) be prepared for a lot of work > and reading. I > agree that Web Services really aren't hard to write, there's > just a million > ways to botch it up. :) > > The best thing to do IMHO is to do. Find something you want > to write a web > service for and go for it. MS makes it easy, fast, and harder > to customer. > Other tools -- IMHO-- make it harder, slower but more rewarding. > > Kent Tegels > Contributing Author, Wrox Press > > > -----Original Message----- > From: Ben Joyce [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] > Sent: Thursday, January 16, 2003 11:54 AM > To: dotnet > Subject: RE: c#, xml, SOAP, etc > > > Yeah, Wrox are usually pretty good. > > As work is paying for it I'm thinking of getting this: > http://www.wrox.com/books/1861007329.htm > > I'm from a strong ASP/VB/COM/SQL background (5 years) and > have recently > started using PHP, hopefully the jump to C# shouldn't be too > tricky. The Web > Services stuff sounds funky, I'm dying to have a go. > > Cheers! > > .ben > > > -----Original Message----- > > From: Travis D. Falls [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] > > Sent: 16 January 2003 17:50 > > To: dotnet > > Subject: RE: c#, xml, SOAP, etc > > > > > > Ben, > > Before you buy a book check out the web for soap and xml tutorials. > > Soap is just a protocol/standard that you format you xml in. Once > > you understand basic xml (it isn't that complicated it is just a > > standard way to mark up plain text) you will can just read up on > > soap on the web. They you can buy or find a book on C# is should > > have a section on xml and touch on soap. The wrox (big red books) > > should have a good section. I have done soap and xml before, and > > accessed then via java and vb.net. I am sure C# is the same. > > > > travis > > > > -----Original Message----- > > From: ben joyce [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] > > Sent: Thursday, January 16, 2003 12:20 PM > > To: dotnet > > Subject: c#, xml, SOAP, etc > > > > hi all. > > > > just wondering if anyone can recommend a good book for learning how > > to build & use SOAP objects in c#/xml. My idea is that my > > app/website (plan to write both) will request data via SOAP. c# > > will talk to the database and return data in XML back to the calling > > code, where is is displayed. > > > > I've never used c#, very little XML and not touched SOAP so a good > > book is needed! > > > > suggestions appreciated! > > > > Cheers, > > > > .ben > > > > --- > > You are currently subscribed to dotnet as: > > [EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe send a blank email to > > %%email.unsub%% > > > > --------- > > Administrated by 15 Seconds : http://www.15Seconds.com > > List Archives/Search : http://local.15Seconds.com/search > > Subscription Information : http://www.15seconds.com/listserv.htm > > Advertising Information: http://www.internet.com/mediakit/ > > > > > > --- > > You are currently subscribed to dotnet as: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To > > unsubscribe send a blank email to %%email.unsub%% > > > > --------- > > Administrated by 15 Seconds : http://www.15Seconds.com > > List Archives/Search : http://local.15Seconds.com/search > > Subscription Information : http://www.15seconds.com/listserv.htm > > Advertising Information: http://www.internet.com/mediakit/ > > > > > > > --- > You are currently subscribed to dotnet as: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > To unsubscribe send a blank email to %%email.unsub%% > > --------- > Administrated by 15 Seconds : http://www.15Seconds.com > List Archives/Search : http://local.15Seconds.com/search Subscription > Information : http://www.15seconds.com/listserv.htm > Advertising Information: http://www.internet.com/mediakit/ > > --- > You are currently subscribed to dotnet as: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To > unsubscribe send a blank email to %%email.unsub%% > > --------- > Administrated by 15 Seconds : http://www.15Seconds.com > List Archives/Search : http://local.15Seconds.com/search Subscription > Information : http://www.15seconds.com/listserv.htm > Advertising Information: http://www.internet.com/mediakit/ > > --- You are currently subscribed to dotnet as: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe send a blank email to %%email.unsub%% --------- Administrated by 15 Seconds : http://www.15Seconds.com List Archives/Search : http://local.15Seconds.com/search Subscription Information : http://www.15seconds.com/listserv.htm Advertising Information: http://www.internet.com/mediakit/ --- You are currently subscribed to dotnet as: [email protected] To unsubscribe send a blank email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] --------- Administrated by 15 Seconds : http://www.15Seconds.com List Archives/Search : http://local.15Seconds.com/search Subscription Information : http://www.15seconds.com/listserv.htm Advertising Information: http://www.internet.com/mediakit/
