CYAN MAGENTA YELLOW BLACK PANTONE 123 C BOOKS FOR PROFESSIONALS BY PROFESSIONALS ® Carl Ganz, Jr., author of Pro Crystal Enterprise / BusinessObjects XI Programming, 2006 Visual Basic Web Database Development, 1997 CA-Visual Objects Developer’s Guide, 1995 Dear Reader, Applications should be as flexible and dynamic as possible; the more dynamic an application is, the less work will be required to maintain it, because it stores the user interface definitions and business rules themselves in a database Then, when the application executes, the user interface is dynamically generated, and the data validated by business rules compiled at runtime Pro Dynamic NET 4.0 Applications is an essential guide to building cuttingedge dynamic NET 4.0 applications that provide such flexibility and make endusers as independent of the application’s developer as possible This approach enables users to have more control over the way that their application functions whilst simultaneously reducing the frequency with which you need to issue service patches and support updates – saving time and money for both you and the user Some applications, by their very nature, require flexibility, whereby most, if not all, of their functionality is generated at runtime Constantly changing survey applications, CRM systems, and accounting systems, whose every data element could never be anticipated at development time, are just a few of the applications that could benefit from the data-driven techniques I cover in this book I provide examples based on real-world experiences of developing dynamic software, covering the basics of data-driven programming; dynamic user interfaces for WinForms, ASP.NET, and WPF; dynamic reporting; and database design for datadriven applications Though the examples have been created in C# 4.0, the underlying concepts can be applied to almost any programming language on almost any platform This book will save you and your users countless hours by helping you to create applications that can easily be modified without major redevelopment effort Sincerely Carl Ganz, Jr Companion eBook See last page for details on $10 eBook version THE APRESS ROADMAP Beginning ASP.NET 4.0 in C# 2010 Pro ASP.NET 4.0 in C# 2010, Fourth Edition Pro Dynamic NET 4.0 Applications Beginning C# Pro C# 2010 and the NET 4.0 Platform, Fifth Edition WPF Recipes in C# 2010: A Problem-Solution Approach Illustrated C# Pro WPF in C# 2010 Pro ASP.NET MVC Framework www.apress.com ISBN 978-1-4302-2519-5 49 9 US $49.99 Pro Ganz, Jr SOURCE CODE ONLINE Companion eBook Available Dynamic NET 4.0 Applications Real World Enterprise Reports using VB6 and VB.NET, 2003 Dynamic NET 4.0 Applications THE EXPERT’S VOICE ® IN NET Pro Dynamic NET 4.0 Applications Data-Driven Programming for the NET Framework Use data-driven programming to write flexible and dynamic applications Carl Ganz, Jr Shelve in: NET User level: Intermediate–Advanced 781430 225195 www.it-ebooks.info this print for content only—size & color not accurate 7.5 x 9.25 spine = 0.71875" 264 page count www.it-ebooks.info Pro Dynamic NET 4.0 Applications Data-Driven Programming for the NET Framework ■■■ Carl Ganz, Jr i www.it-ebooks.info Pro Dyn amic NE T 4.0 Appli cations: D ata- Driv en P rog ram g f or th e NET F ram e work Copyright © 2010 by Carl Ganz, Jr All rights reserved No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the copyright owner and the publisher ISBN-13 (pbk): 978-1-4302-2519-5 ISBN-13 (electronic): 978-1-4302-2520-1 Printed and bound in the United States of America Trademarked names may appear in this book Rather than use a trademark symbol with every occurrence of a trademarked name, we use the names only in an editorial fashion and to the benefit of the trademark owner, with no intention of infringement of the trademark President and Publisher: Paul Manning Lead Editor: Matthew Moodie Technical Reviewer: Ryan Follmer Editorial Board: Clay Andres, Steve Anglin, Mark Beckner, Ewan Buckingham, Gary Cornell, Jonathan Gennick, Jonathan Hassell, Michelle Lowman, Matthew Moodie, Duncan Parkes, Jeffrey Pepper, Frank Pohlmann, Douglas Pundick, Ben Renow-Clarke, Dominic Shakeshaft, Matt Wade, Tom WelshProject Manager: Anita Castro Copy Editor: Tiffany Taylor Compositor: Bronkella Publishing LLC Indexer: John Collin Artist: April Milne Cover Designer: Anna Ishchenko Distributed to the book trade worldwide by Springer-Verlag New York, Inc., 233 Spring Street, 6th Floor, New York, NY 10013 Phone 1-800-SPRINGER, fax 201-348-4505, e-mail ordersny@springer-sbm.com, or visit http://www.springeronline.com For information on translations, please e-mail info@apress.com, or visit http://www.apress.com Apress and friends of ED books may be purchased in bulk for academic, corporate, or promotional use eBook versions and licenses are also available for most titles For more information, reference our Special Bulk Sales–eBook Licensing web page at http://www.apress.com/info/bulksales The information in this book is distributed on an “as is” basis, without warranty Although every precaution has been taken in the preparation of this work, neither the author(s) nor Apress shall have any liability to any person or entity with respect to any loss or damage caused or alleged to be caused directly or indirectly by the information contained in this work The source code for this book is available to readers at http://www.apress.com You will need to answer questions pertaining to this book in order to successfully download the code ii www.it-ebooks.info With all paternal love, to Carl John III, Rose Veronica, and our unborn baby, either Paul Christian or Emily Anne, whichever one you turn out to be iii www.it-ebooks.info ■ CONTENTS Contents at a Glance Content s at a Glance iv Content s v About the Author ix About the Technical R eviewer x Acknowledgment s xi Introduct ion xii ■Chapter 1: Introducing D ata-Driven Progr amming ■Chapter 2: Ref lect ion 29 ■Chapter 3: Runtime C ode C ompilation 59 ■Chapter 4: Dynamic WinForms 77 ■Chapter 5: Dynamic ASP.NET 123 ■Chapter 6: Dynamic WPF 155 ■Chapter 7: Reporting 183 ■Chapter 8: Dat abase Design 217 ■Index 237 iv www.it-ebooks.info Contents Content s at a Glance iv Content s v About the Author ix About the Technical R eviewer x Acknowledgment s xi Introduct ion xii ■Chapter 1: Introducing D ata-Driven Progr amming Database Metadata SQL Server .2 Oracle Practical Applications Code Generation Custom Code Generators .10 Using the CodeDOM .13 Summary 28 ■Chapter 2: R eflection 29 Instantiating Classes 29 Loading Shared Assemblies .31 Examining Classes .32 Drilling Down into Assembly Objects 41 Building an Object Hierarchy 42 Importing Control Definitions .45 v www.it-ebooks.info ■ CONTENTS Decompiling Source Code 52 Summary 57 ■Chapter 3: Runtime Code Compilation 59 System.CodeDom.Compiler Namespace 59 Compiling the Code 61 Error Handling 63 Executing the Code 66 Referencing Controls on Forms 68 Adding References 70 Testing 75 Summary 75 ■Chapter 4: D ynamic WinForms 77 Instantiating Forms 77 Wiring Events 81 Loading Control Definitions 83 Loading from XML 84 Loading from a Table 86 Connecting Event Code 90 Practical Solutions 92 Building a Filter Screen 92 Saving Grid Settings 99 Data-Driven Menus 103 Creating Criteria Screens 110 Dynamic Criteria Controls 110 Extracting the User Selections 117 Summary 122 vi www.it-ebooks.info ■ CONTENTS ■Chapter 5: D ynamic ASP.NET 123 Instantiating Web Controls 123 Understanding the Page Life Cycle 127 Using HTML Tables 133 ParseControl .137 Instantiating User Controls .139 Repeater Controls 143 Practical Solutions 147 Dynamic Criteria Controls 147 Extracting the User Selections 152 Summary 153 ■Chapter 6: D ynamic WPF 155 XAML 155 Layout 157 Canvas .158 Grid 160 StackPanel 162 WrapPanel 164 DockPanel 166 Runtime Instantiation 168 Accessing Child Controls 171 Nested Controls 172 XamlWriter/XamlReader 175 Persisting Objects 176 IsAncestorOf/IsDescendantOf 177 Wiring Events 179 Data-Driven Menus 180 Summary 182 vii www.it-ebooks.info ■ CONTENTS ■Chapter 7: R eporting 183 SQL Server Extended Properties 183 Microsoft Excel 189 Syncfusion’s Essential XlsIO 191 SoftArtisans’ OfficeWriter for Excel 194 PDF 197 iTextSharp 197 Syncfusion’s Essential PDF 200 SAP/Business Objects: Crystal Reports 202 Embedded vs Nonembedded Reports .202 Dynamic Crystal Reports 202 SQL Server Reporting Services 210 Using RDL 210 Dynamic Rdl .212 Summary 216 ■Chapter 8: D atabase Design 217 Data Storage 217 Committing Data to the Database 221 Using Inverted Tables 225 Structuring Inverted Data 225 Extracting Inverted Data 227 Converting Inverted Data to a Normalized Structure 229 Mixing Normalized and Inverted Tables 232 Summary 235 ■Index 237 viii www.it-ebooks.info ...www.it-ebooks.info Pro Dynamic NET 4. 0 Applications Data-Driven Programming for the NET Framework ■■■ Carl Ganz, Jr i www.it-ebooks.info Pro Dyn amic NE T 4. 0 Appli cations: D ata- Driv... Springer-Verlag New York, Inc., 233 Spring Street, 6th Floor, New York, NY 100 13 Phone 1- 800 -SPRINGER, fax 201 - 348 -45 05 , e-mail ordersny@springer-sbm.com, or visit http://www.springeronline.com... vs Nonembedded Reports . 202 Dynamic Crystal Reports 202 SQL Server Reporting Services 2 10 Using RDL 2 10 Dynamic Rdl .212 Summary