UnifiedASP SQL Data Access Layer

Project Description
Your entity classes/data access layer should be the easiest part of your application, not some bloated mess of academic wankery. The UnifiedASP DAL gives you an easy way to structure your entity/data objects and execute SQL stored procedures.

(C-Sharp (default) and VB.Net downloads available. VB.Net is available under View All Downloads)

It supports the two most common ways your application consumes data:
- bound to a control
- or iterated in business logic

Examples:

Dim chambers as new UnifiedASP.Domain.Chamber
chambers.LoadAll()

grdChambers.DataSource = chambers
grdChambers.DataBind

or

Dim chambers as new UnifiedASP.Domain.Chamber
chambers.LoadAll()

While Not chambers.Eof
     DoSendMonthlyEmail(chambers.EmailAddress)
     chamber.MoveNext()
Wend

The UnifiedASP DAL lets you do both very easily with stored procedures and simple data classes:

Imports UnifiedASP.Utility

Namespace UnifiedASP.Domain

    Public Class Chamber

        Inherits UnifiedASP.Base.DomainSQL

        Public ChamberId As Integer
        Public ChamberName As String
        Public Address As String
        Public City As String
        Public StateId As Integer
        Public StateAbbr As String
        Public StateName As String
        Public ZipCode As String
        Public PhoneNumber As String
        Public FaxNumber As String
        Public WebsiteUrl As String
        Public EmailAddress As String


        Public Sub LoadMe()

            InitCommand("chChamber_Get")

            AddParameter("ChamberId", ChamberId)

            ExecCommand()

        End Sub


        Public Sub LoadAll()

            InitCommand("chChamber_GetAll")

            AddParameter("StateName", 200, StateName)

            ExecCommand()

        End Sub


        Public Sub Save()

            InitCommand("chChamber_Save")

            AddParameter("ChamberId", ChamberId)
            AddParameter("ChamberName", 200, ChamberName)
            AddParameter("Address", 200, Address)
            AddParameter("City", 200, City)
            AddParameter("StateId", StateId)
            AddParameter("ZipCode", 10, ZipCode)
            AddParameter("PhoneNumber", 50, PhoneNumber)
            AddParameter("FaxNumber", 50, FaxNumber)
            AddParameter("WebsiteUrl", 200, WebsiteUrl)

            ExecCommand()

        End Sub


        Public Sub Remove()

            InitCommand("chChamber_Remove")

            AddParameter("ChamberId", ChamberId)

            ExecCommand()

        End Sub


        Public Overrides Sub Populate()

            ChamberId = GetValue("ChamberId")
            ChamberName = GetValue("ChamberName")
            Address = GetValue("Address")
            City = GetValue("City")
            StateId = GetValue("StateId")
            StateAbbr = GetValue("StateAbbr")
            StateName = GetValue("StateName")
            ZipCode = GetValue("ZipCode")
            PhoneNumber = GetValue("PhoneNumber")
            FaxNumber = GetValue("FaxNumber")
            WebsiteUrl = GetValue("WebsiteUrl")

        End Sub


        Public Overrides Sub ClearValues()

            ChamberId = Nothing
            ChamberName = Nothing
            Address = Nothing
            City = Nothing
            StateId = Nothing
            StateAbbr = Nothing
            StateName = Nothing
            ZipCode = Nothing
            PhoneNumber = Nothing
            FaxNumber = Nothing
            WebsiteUrl = Nothing

        End Sub

    End Class

End Namespace

All the messiness of interacting with the database is abstracted into a base class so all you have to deal with in your application are your entities, properties, and methods. In most cases, having a separate entity class and data class is repetitive and unnecessary. Why do more work than you have to?

This is the data access portion of a full framework (http://www.unifiedasp.net) I published a few years ago. I've had a few clients recently where I can't drop in the full framework but I still try to bring in this DAL. It also works very well with ASP.Net MVC.

A good primer for using this DAL can be found at http://www.unifiedasp.net/index.php/unifiedasp-data-access-primer/

There are a couple of sample classes and some more notes in the example folder of the downloadable projects. Feel free to drop me a message through my site linked below if you have questions.

Hope it gives you an option that's much easier to live with than what's common practice these days.

Scott Drake
http://www.scottdrakesoftware.com