LINQifying TheBeerHouse: An N-Tier LINQ Web Application with ASP.NET 2.0 Website Programming: Problem - Design - Solution

Finally, TheBeerHouse website from ASP.NET 2.0 Website Programming: Problem–Design–Solution gets the ASP.NET 3.5 treatment! This Wrox Blox presents two unique approaches to applying LINQ to SQL to data access in TheBeerHouse. In Part 1, you'll take advantage of the original application's data provider model to develop a custom LINQ to SQL provider for the Articles module. In Part 2, you'll try a different approach, while learning how to develop an ASP.NET 3.5 application using a purely LINQ-based three-tier model.

Along the way, you'll learn about LINQ to Objects; the newest features of the C# 3.0 language and .NET Framework 3.5 like object initializers, collection initializers, automatic properties, extension methods, lambda expressions, anonymous types, query and method syntax; the IQueryable interface; and deferred execution. You'll learn how to upgrade an existing ASP.NET 2.0 application to ASP.NET 3.5, how to create LINQ to SQL entities from an existing database, and how to extend those entities to provide custom functionality. You'll learn the secrets of creating a faster, more responsive website with LINQ to SQL, including how to use time stamps to speed up concurrency checking, how to take advantage of the ASP.NET view state, how to replace deprecated data-bound controls with better ones, how to pass queries properly between methods, how to return the right data to your user interface, how to streamline your data access methods, and how to compose the most efficient LINQ to SQL queries possible.

Every aspect of both solutions is described in detail with clear, concise explanations; extensive code listings; and screen shots. Armed with this knowledge, you'll be able to continue on your own, incorporating LINQ technologies in the other TheBeerHouse modules, and in your own applications.