An Introduction to BlueFinity

1
An Introduction to BlueFinity

• David Cooper
• Lead Developer
• BlueFinity International

2
Welcome!
3
Agenda

• Conference Aims
• The BlueFinity perspective
• What are we trying to do?
• My personal take on .NET and MV
• Its progress so far, and where its going
• What does BlueFinity provide right now?
• Current product range overview

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Conference Aims

• BlueFinitys role in the MV community
• Opinions/observations on emerging technology
• Product overview for people new to us
• Technical insights for current users
• Product and market roadmap
• QA, face to face discussions AND FEEDBACK

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The BlueFinity Perspective

• What are we trying to do?
• Make it easier and quicker for developers to
  create MV-linked .NET applications
• So, what does this necessitate?
• A variety of different approaches to data access
• An efficient data access layer
• Working with the leading development environment
• Leverage the advantages of the MV paradigm
• Reduce the data access coding burden
• Make the .NET adoption and technology 'keep-up'
  process easier

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My Personal Take on .NET and MV

• Microsoft
• Corporate personality typified by the 8-year
  life-so-far of .NET
• conceived through the fear of Java
• guided by the needs of the developer
• Their communication and developer community
  skills have improved immensely over the past 3-4
  years

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My Personal Take on .NET and MV

• .NET a non-technical summary
• Massive, in terms of both technological surface
  area and depth
• Technically excellent in many areas
• A BIG learning curve
• Constantly evolving, sometimes in very large
  steps
• Growing year-on-year in terms of market share
• Here to stay

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My Personal Take on .NET and MV

• MV and .NET
• MV community has seen a period of consolidation
  over the past 10 years
• As a community, we are typified as being focused
  on delivering solutions that meet the end-users
  business needs
• Important to engage and embrace .NET
• Customers will expect it
• It can really help us keep pace with
  technological developments and emerging standards

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What products do we sell?

• mv.NET
• RSDC
• Professional Services

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What does mv.NET provide?

• .NET developer access to most major MultiValue
  Databases
• Access provided in a variety of different
  complementary APIs
• Suitable for rich-client, browser-based and web
  service application models
• Highly efficient session management
• Programmer productivity features

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Main Component Sets

• Core Objects - Feature rich MultiValue centric
  base class library
• Adapter Objects - Full ADO.NET managed data
  provider
• Binding Objects - MultiValue-aware databinding
• Comprehensive VS.NET integration

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Supported Databases

• D3
• jBASE
• mvBASE
• QM
• Power95
• Reality
• UniData
• UniVerse
• UniVision and more to follow

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Architecture Overview
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mv.NET Architecture Overview
MultiValue Database
mv.NET Server Components
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mv.NET Architecture Overview
MultiValue Database
Windows Services/Processes
License Manager
.NET Remoting
mv.NET Server Components


Range of connectivity options
Session Manager
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mv.NET Architecture Overview
MultiValue Database
Windows Services
Interface Libraries
Binding Objects
License Manager
Core Objects
.NET App
mv.NET Server Components
Adapter Objects
Session Manager
Range of connectivity options
.NET Remoting
Assembly References
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mv.NET Architecture Overview
MultiValue Database
Windows Services
Interface Libraries
Potential machine boundaries
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Session Management
Multiple session pools
Maximum pool size
Expanding/contracting pool of sessions
Requests for sessions
Minimum pool size
Permanently pooled sessions
Session Pool
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Core Objects

• Core Functionality

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Core Objects Features

• Developer-centric utilities
• Feature-rich base class library
• Stateless application support
• Optimistic locking
• Session Management
• State reconnection
• Comprehensive Visual Studio integration

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Core Objects Utilities

• Data Manager
• Connection definitions
• Schema/data maintenance
• Session Monitor
• Session pooling viewer
• Connection Monitor
• Data flow monitoring

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Core Objects Class Hierarchy
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Adapter Objects

• ADO.NET Managed Data Provider

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Adapter Objects

• Full ADO.NET managed data provider
• For use in Smart (rich) client, Web and Web
  service applications
• Optional (partial) SQL query syntax

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Adapter Objects

• Allows many non-MultiValue aware 3rd party
  components/tools to access MultiValue data
• Configurable dynamic normalization
• Multiple ways of handling multivalued/subvalued
  data
• Full read/write capability with transaction
  boundaries and optimistic locking

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ADO.NET Basics - DataSets
DataSet
Used by data consumers, e.g. myAdapter.Fill(myData
Set)
Select Command
DataAdapter
Parameters
Update Command
Parameters
Insert Command
Parameters
Delete Command
Parameters
Connection
DataAdapter's series of command objects
Datastore
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ADO.NET Basics - DataReader
Used by data consumers, e.g. myCommand.ExecuteRead
er()
Command
DataReader
Connection
Datastore
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Binding Objects

• MV-Centric Data Binding

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Binding Objects - Features

• Flexible, Rapid Application Development
• Dictionary driven
• Full support for MV data structures down to
  subvalue level
• Supports both WinForms and WebForms
• Extensive Visual Studio integration
• Complements native .NET databinding

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Binding Objects Overview
Databinding Designer
Databinding on pds

Extended property
Child controls
PrimaryDataSource Component
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RSDC

• Reporting Services Data Connector

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Microsoft Reporting Services

• Microsofts Reporting Services product is a
  comprehensive report design, generation and
  delivery infrastructure
• Being pushed very heavily by Microsoft and is
  experiencing good market acceptance and take-up
• A strategic product for Microsoft
• Its actually quite good!

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Microsoft Reporting Services

• Microsofts Reporting Services allows 3rd party
  vendors to create custom Data Extensions which
  allows RS to access any kind of datasource

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Reporting Services Data Connector
Report Designer
Report Manager
Report User
D3 jBASE mvBASE Power95 QM Reality UniData UniVer
se UniVision

• Output Formats
• HTML
• Excel
• PDF
• Custom

• Delivery targets
• Email
• File Share
• Custom

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RSDC

• Full integration with the RS Report Designer
• High performance data retrieval using mv.NET
• Drill-down enabled data presentation
• Support for all major MultiValue databases