A web-based application can be an interactive web page or web site that allows a visitor to submit values to a web server. The web page is typically equipped with graphical elements. To create an application made of graphical user interface (GUI) objects, you can use a separate environment such as Microsoft Visual Web Developer or Microsoft Visual Studio. You would then create a project that communicates with the web server, and that web server would have a database application. Microsoft Visual Studio and Microsoft Visual Web Developer make it easy to create an ASP.NET application that uses a Microsoft SQL Server database.

ADO.NET is a group of libraries used to create powerful databases using various sources that include Microsoft SQL Server, Microsoft Access, Oracle, Paradox, XML, etc. ADO.NET relies on the .NET Framework's various classes to process requests and perform the transition between a database system and the user. The operations are typically handled through the DataSet class.

While ADO.NET is the concept of creating and managing database systems, the DataSet class  serves as an intermediary between the database engine and the user interface, namely the web controls that a visitor uses to interact with the web page.

Besides using features of a database in an ADO.NET application, you can also fully take advantage of XML as it is completely and inherently supported by the DataSet class. To fully support XML in your application, the .NET Framework is equipped with the System.Xml.dll library.

The classes used to create ADO.NET databases are defined in the System.Data namespace and are stored in the System.Data.dll library.

If you are creating the application from scratch, in order to use ADO.NET, you must remember to reference the System.Data.dll library and add the System.Data namespace in your file(s).

After installing Microsoft SQL Server, you can use it. To perform an operation on a database server, you must establish a connection to it. You have various options. For example, you can start Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio and a Connect To Server dialog box would come up. Here is an example:

Alternatively, you can use an existing SQL Server account. To do this, select SQL Server Authentication from the Authentication combo box. Enter a username in the Login combo box and enter a password in the corresponding text box:

Once you are ready, click Connect.

ADO.NET allows you to work with various types of databases. If you are creating an ASP.NET application using Microsoft Visual Studio, you do not have to first explicitly log on to a Microsoft SQL Server. You can establish a connection from Microsoft Visual Studio. To do this, first display the Server Explorer window (on the main menu, you can click View -> Server Explorer).

To create a new connection, you can right-click the Data Connections node and click Add Connection...

The Add Connection dialog box would display. You would have to make some choice before clicking Continue:

To support a connection to a database server, the .NET Framework provides some connection classes. If you are going to use a Microsoft SQL Server database, you can use the SqlConnection class that is defined in the System.Data.SqlClient namespace. Before using this class, you can first include this namespace in your file:

Imports System.Data.SqlClient

Partial Class _Default
    Inherits System.Web.UI.Page
        
    End Sub
End Class

To connect to a database, you can first declare a variable of type SqlConnection using one of its two constructors. The default constructor allows you to declare the variable without specifying how the connection would be carried. The second constructor takes as argument a string value. Its syntax is:

Public Sub New(connectionString As String)

You can create the necessary (but appropriate) string in this constructor when declaring the variable. This would be done as follows:

Imports System.Data.SqlClient

Partial Class _Default
    Inherits System.Web.UI.Page

    Protected Sub Page_Load(ByVal sender As Object, _
                            ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Me.Load
        Dim connection As SqlConnection = New SqlConnection("Something")
    End Sub
    End Sub
End Class

If you want, you can first create the string that would be used to handle the connection, then pass that string to this construction. This would be done as follows:

Imports System.Data.SqlClient

Partial Class _Default
    Inherits System.Web.UI.Page

    Protected Sub Page_Load(ByVal sender As Object, _
                            ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Me.Load
    Dim strConnection As String = "Something"
    Dim connection As SqlConnection = New SqlConnection(strConnection)
    End Sub
End Class

To support the connection as an object, the SqlConnection class is equipped with a property called ConnectionString that is a String. If you use the default constructor to prepare the connection, you can first define a String value, then assign it to this property. This would be done as follows:

Imports System.Data.SqlClient

Partial Class _Default
    Inherits System.Web.UI.Page

    Protected Sub Page_Load(ByVal sender As Object, _
                            ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Me.Load
    Dim strConnection As String = "Something"
    Dim connection As SqlConnection = New SqlConnection()

    connection.ConnectionString = strConnection
    End Sub
End Class

To use a SqlConnection object, you must provide various pieces of information, packaged as one and made available to the variable. These pieces are joined into a string but are separated from each other with a semi-colon ";". Each piece appears as a Key=Value format. In our lesson, we will refer to each of these pieces (Key=Value) as an attribute of the connection string. When joined, these attributes appear as follows:

Key1=Value1;Key2=Value2;Key_n=Value_n

Anything that is part of this string is not case-sensitive. This whole ensemble is either passed as a string to the second constructor:

Imports System.Data.SqlClient

Partial Class _Default
    Inherits System.Web.UI.Page

    Protected Sub Page_Load(ByVal sender As Object, _
                            ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Me.Load
    Dim connection As SqlConnection = _
        New SqlConnection("Key1=Value1;Key2=Value2;Key_n=Value_n")
    End Sub
End Class

or assigned as a string to the SqlConnection.ConnectionString property:

Imports System.Data.SqlClient

Partial Class _Default
    Inherits System.Web.UI.Page

    Protected Sub Page_Load(ByVal sender As Object, _
                            ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Me.Load
    Dim strConnection As String = "Key1=Value1;Key2=Value2;Key_n=Value_n"
    Dim connection As SqlConnection = New SqlConnection()

    connection.ConnectionString = strConnection
    End Sub
End Class

How you create these attributes depends on the type of computer you are connecting to, whether you are connecting to a database, what level of security you would use (or need), etc. There are various of these attributes, some of them are always required, some of them are usually optional, and some others depend on the circumstances.

To establish a connection, you must specify the computer you are connecting to, that has Microsoft SQL Server installed. We saw that you could specify this from the Connect to Server dialog box where you would select the machine object from the Server Name combo box:

If you are programmatically connecting to a computer using the SqlConnection class, the connection string includes an attribute named Server, or Data Source, or Address, or Addr, or Network Address. For the rest of our lessons, this attribute will be referred to as the computer attribute.

If you are creating your application on the same computer on which Microsoft SQL Server is installed, the computer attribute can be identified as (local). Here is an example:

Imports System.Data.SqlClient

Partial Class _Default
    Inherits System.Web.UI.Page

    Protected Sub Page_Load(ByVal sender As Object, _
                            ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Me.Load
    dim connection as SqlConnection  = new SqlConnection("Server=(local); ")
    End Sub
End Class

If you know the name of the computer, you can assign it to the computer attribute. Here is an example:

Imports System.Data.SqlClient

Partial Class _Default
    Inherits System.Web.UI.Page

    Protected Sub Page_Load(ByVal sender As Object, _
                            ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Me.Load
    Dim connection As SqlConnection = New SqlConnection("Server=central; ")
    End Sub
End Class

In the same way, if you are connecting to a specific computer, you must provide its name. Here is an example:

Imports System.Data.SqlClient

Partial Class _Default
    Inherits System.Web.UI.Page

    Protected Sub Page_Load(ByVal sender As Object, _
                            ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Me.Load
    Dim connection As SqlConnection = New SqlConnection("Data Source=central; ")
    End Sub
End Class

As an option, you can include the name of the computer in single-quotes.

If you are working from the Add Connection dialog box, you can type the name of the server without clicking the arrow of the combo box and press Enter.

Remember that the computer attribute is a requirement regardless of the (type of) application, even if it is local.

An important aspect of establishing a connection to a computer is security. Even if you are developing for an intranet, you must take care of this issue.

If you are using the Connect To Server dialog box, after specifying the server, you can use the Windows Authentication or you can use SQL Server Authentication which you would select from the Authentication combo box:

To support security, if you are programmatically establishing the connection, the connection string of the SqlConnection class includes an attribute called Trusted_Connection or Integrated Security that can have a value of true, false, yes, no, or SSPI with the SSPI having the same indication as true.

If you are establishing a trusted or simple connection that does not need to be verified, you can assign a value of true or SSPI.  Here is an example:

Imports System.Data.SqlClient

Partial Class _Default
    Inherits System.Web.UI.Page

    Protected Sub Page_Load(ByVal sender As Object, _
                            ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Me.Load
    Dim connection As SqlConnection = _
        New SqlConnection("Server=(local);Trusted_Connection=SSPI")
    End Sub
End Class

When you use the true or SSPI values, the user name (if any) and the password (if any) of the person opening your application would be applied. If you are programmatically establishing the connection, you can assign False or No to the security attribute you selected. If you do this, then you must (this becomes a requirement) specify the user name and the password.

If you are using the Connect to Server dialog box and you want to apply authentication, after selecting SQL Server Authentication, you must enter a username. To specify the user name, after assigning False or No to the security attribute, you must use the User ID attribute and assign it a valid username. Here is an example:

Imports System.Data.SqlClient

Partial Class _Default
    Inherits System.Web.UI.Page

    Protected Sub Page_Load(ByVal sender As Object, _
                            ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Me.Load
    Dim strConnection As String = "Server=(local);" & _
                           "Integrated Security=no;" & _
                           "User ID=wmessmann"
    Dim connection As SqlConnection = New SqlConnection(strConnection)
    End Sub
End Class

If you are "physically" connecting to the server using the Connect to Server dialog box, after selecting SQL Server Authentication, besides the username, you must provide a password to complete the authentication:

If you are programmatically establishing the connection, besides the username, to create a secured connection, you must also provide a password. To specify the password, you can use either the PASSWORD or the PWD (remember that the attributes are not case-sensitive (but the value of the password is)) attribute and assign it the exact password associated with the User ID attribute of the same connection string. Here is an example:

Imports System.Data.SqlClient

Partial Class _Default
    Inherits System.Web.UI.Page

    Protected Sub Page_Load(ByVal sender As Object, _
                            ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Me.Load
    Dim strConnection As String = "Server=(local);" & _
                           "Integrated Security=no;" & _
                           "User ID=wmessmann;PWD=$outh~@kotA"
    Dim connection As SqlConnection = New SqlConnection(strConnection)
    End Sub
End Class

To let you specify the database, the connection string includes an attribute named Database. The Database keyword can also be substituted for the Initial Catalog value. If you are connecting to an existing database, assign its name to this attribute. If you are not connecting to a database, you can omit this attribute. Alternatively, you can assign nothing to this attribute. Here is an example:

Imports System.Data.SqlClient

Partial Class _Default
    Inherits System.Web.UI.Page

    Protected Sub Page_Load(ByVal sender As Object, _
                            ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Me.Load
    Dim connection As SqlConnection = _
	New SqlConnection("Server=(local);Database=;")
    End Sub
End Class

Another alternative is to assign an empty, single-quoted, string to this attribute. Here is an example:

Imports System.Data.SqlClient

Partial Class _Default
    Inherits System.Web.UI.Page

    Protected Sub Page_Load(ByVal sender As Object, _
                            ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Me.Load
    Dim strConnection As String = "Server=(local);Initial Catalog='exercise1';"
    Dim connection As SqlConnection = New SqlConnection(strConnection)
    End Sub
End Class

As mentioned above, the Database attribute is optional, especially if you are only connecting to the computer and not to a specific database.

There are various other attributes used in the connection string. They include Network Library (also called Net), Application Name, Workstation ID, Encrypt, Connection Timeout, Data Source, Packet Size, AttachDBFilename, Current Language, Persist Security Info.

After creating the connection string, when the application executes, the compiler would "scan" the string to validate each key=value section. If it finds an unknown Key, an unknown value, or an invalid combination of key=value, it would throw an ArgumentException exception and the connection cannot be established.

When working in Microsoft Visual Studio, if you create a connection using the Server Explorer, a link to the database would display as a sub-node of the Data Connection link. You can re-use one of these connections when necessary.

If you are "physically" connecting to a server or a database using the Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio, the steps we have described so far allow you to open the connection.

After programmatically creating a connection string, to apply it and actually establish the connection, you must call the Open() method of the SqlConnection class. Its syntax is:

Public Sub Open

Here is an example of calling it:

Imports System.Data.SqlClient

Partial Class _Default
    Inherits System.Web.UI.Page

    Protected Sub Page_Load(ByVal sender As Object, _
                            ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Me.Load
    Dim connection As SqlConnection = _
        New SqlConnection("Server=(local);Initial Catalog='exercise1';")
    connection.Open()
    End Sub
End Class

As you can see, this method does not take any argument. The SqlConnection object that calls it is responsible to get the connection string ready:

• If the connection fails, the compiler would throw a SqlException exception
• If the connection string does not contain the computer attribute or the connection is already opened, the compiler would throw an InvalidOperationException exception.

After using a connection and getting the necessary information from it, you should terminate it. If you are working in Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio, to close the connection, you can simply close the window as an application.

If you are working in Microsoft Visual Studio, to close a connection, you can right-click it in the Server Explorer and click Close Connection.

If you are working from a SqlConnection object, to close a connection, you can call the Close() method of the SqlConnection class. Its syntax is:

Public Sub Close

This method is simply called to close the current connection. Here is an example of calling it:

Imports System.Data.SqlClient

Partial Class _Default
    Inherits System.Web.UI.Page

    Protected Sub Page_Load(ByVal sender As Object, _
                            ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Me.Load
        Dim connection As SqlConnection = _
        New SqlConnection("Server=(local);Initial Catalog='exercise1';")
        connection.Open()

        ' Blah Blah Blah

        connection.Close()
    End Sub
End Class

While you should avoid calling the Open() method more than once if a connection is already opened, you can call the Close() method more than once.

You should always remember to close the connection so that the resources that the database application was using can be made available to other applications. Fortunately, the Visual Basic language provides an alternative that can close the connection for it. To assist you with this, you can use the Using operator as follows:

Imports System.Data.SqlClient

Partial Class _Default
    Inherits System.Web.UI.Page

    Protected Sub Page_Load(ByVal sender As Object, _
                            ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Me.Load
    Using connection As SqlConnection = _
        New SqlConnection("Data Source=(local);Integrated Security=yes")
            connection.Open()
    End Using
    End Sub
End Class

When this code executes, it opens the connection. Inside of the curly brackets, you can do whatever you want. When the compiler reaches the closing curly bracket, it calls the SqlConnection.Close() method, which means you do not need to remember to close it.

We have learned different ways of connecting to a server. After establishing a connection, if you are successful, the database system becomes available to you and you can take actions, such as creating a database and/or manipulating data. An action you perform on the database server or on a database is called a command.

To support the various commands you can perform on a Microsoft SQL Server database, the System.Data.SqlClient namespace provides the SqlCommand class. To use it, you can declare a variable of type SqlCommand using one of its constructors.

The SqlCommand class is equipped with four constructors. The default constructor allows you to initiate a command without specifying what action would be taken. The action to perform is created as a string statement. This action is represented by the CommandText property of the SqlCommand class, which is of type String.

If you want to use the default constructor, you can then create a string that would carry the action to perform. Once the string is ready, you can assign it the CommandText property. This would be done as follows:

Imports System.Data.SqlClient

Partial Class _Default
    Inherits System.Web.UI.Page

    Protected Sub Page_Load(ByVal sender As Object, _
                            ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Me.Load
    Dim CommandToExecute As SqlCommand = New SqlCommand()
    Dim strCommandToExecute As String = "Blah Blah Blah"

    CommandToExecute.CommandText = strCommandToExecute
    End Sub
End Class

After creating the action that would be performed, you must specify what connection would carry it. To do this, you can first create a SqlConnection object. To provide it to the command, the SqlCommand class is equipped with a property named Connection that is of type SqlConnection. After creating a SqlConnection object, to provide it to the command, you can assign it to the SqlCommand.Connection property. This would be done as follows:

Imports System.Data.SqlClient

Partial Class _Default
    Inherits System.Web.UI.Page

    Protected Sub Page_Load(ByVal sender As Object, _
                            ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Me.Load
        Dim strConnection As String = "Server=(local);" & _
                           "Integrated Security=no;" & _
                           "User ID=sa;PWD=$outh~@kotA"
        Dim connection As SqlConnection = New SqlConnection(strConnection)

        Dim CommandToExecute As SqlCommand = New SqlCommand()
        Dim strCommandToExecute As String = "Blah Blah Blah"

        connection.Open()
        CommandToExecute.Connection = connection
        CommandToExecute.CommandText = strCommandToExecute

        connection.Close()
    End Sub
End Class

Instead of declaring a SqlCommand variable and the command text separately, as an alternative, you can define the command text when declaring the SqlCommand variable. To do this, you can use the second constructor of the SqlCommand class. The syntax of this constructor is:

Public Sub New(cmdText As String)

Once again, after using this constructor, you must specify what connection would carry the action. To do this, you can assign a SqlConnection object to the Connection property of your SqlCommand. Here is an example:

Imports System.Data.SqlClient

Partial Class _Default
    Inherits System.Web.UI.Page

    Protected Sub Page_Load(ByVal sender As Object, _
                            ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Me.Load
        Dim strConnection As String = "Server=(local);" & _
                           "Integrated Security=no;" & _
                           "User ID=sa;PWD=$outh~@kotA"
        Dim connection As SqlConnection = New SqlConnection(strConnection)

        Dim CommandToExecute As SqlCommand = New SqlCommand("Blah Blah Blah")

        connection.Open()
        CommandToExecute.Connection = connection
        connection.Close()
    End Sub
End Class

Instead of assigning a SqlConnection object to the SqlCommand.Connection property, you can specify what connection would carry the action at the same time you are creating the command. To specify the connection when declaring the SqlCommand variable, you can use the third constructor of this class. Its syntax is:

Public Sub New(cmdText As String, connection As SqlConnection)

The second argument to this constructor is an established connection you would have defined. Here is an example:

Imports System.Data.SqlClient

Partial Class _Default
    Inherits System.Web.UI.Page

    Protected Sub Page_Load(ByVal sender As Object, _
                            ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Me.Load
    Dim connection As SqlConnection = New SqlConnection("Server=(local);" & _
                                        "Integrated Security=True;")

    Dim CommandToExecute As SqlCommand = New SqlCommand("Blah Blah Blah", connection)

    connection.Open()
    CommandToExecute.Connection = connection
    connection.Close()
    End Sub
End Class

If you had initiated the action using the default constructor of the SqlCommand class, you can assign a SqlConnection object to the Connection property of the SqlCommand class.

After establishing a connection and specifying what command needs to be carried, you can execute it. To support this, the SqlCommand class is equipped with the ExecuteNonQuery() method. Its syntax is:

Public Overrides Function ExecuteNonQuery As Integer

This method does not take any argument. The SqlCommand object that calls it must have prepared a valid command.

In some cases, some actions take longer than others to execute. For this type of command, the compiler would keep trying to execute a command until successful. If there is a problem, this operation can take long or too long. You can specify how long the compiler should wait to try executing the command, again.

The SqlCommand.CommandTimeOut property allows you to specify the time to wait before trying to execute a command. The default value of this property is 30 (seconds). If you want a different value, assign it to your SqlCommand variable.

To allow you to specify the type of command you want to perform, the SqlCommand class is equipped with the CommandType property, which is based on the CommandType enumeration.

The CommandType enumeration has three members: StoredProcedure, TableDirect, and Text. For a SqlCommand object, the default value is Text.

A data command is used to initiate an action to perform on a database. To read data of a database, one of the objects you can use is called a data reader. With a data reader, the compiler reads the first value, then moves to the second value, then moves to the third value, and so on. One of the particularities of a data reader is that, once it visits a value, reads it, and moves to the next value, the compiler cannot refer to the previous value. This can be illustrated as follows:

To support data readers, the .NET Framework provides, for a Microsoft SQL Server database, a class named SqlDataReader. To get a data reader, you can declare a variable of type SqlDataReader. This class does not have a constructor. This means that, to use it, you must (directly) specify where it would read its data.

To provide data to the reader, the SqlCommand class is equipped with the ExecuteReader() method that is overloaded with two versions. The simplest version of this method uses the following syntax:

Public Function ExecuteReader As SqlDataReader

Before using a data reader, you should first create a command that would specify how data would be acquired. Once the data is read, you can pass it to the data reader by assigning the result of a call to a SqlCommand.ExecuteReader() method to a SqlDataReader object.

Once data is supplied to the reader, you can access it, one value at a time, from top to bottom. To access data that the reader acquired, you can call its Read() method whose syntax is:

Public Overrides Function Read As Boolean

As mentioned already, the Read() method simply reads a value and moves on. When reading the values, the data reader reads one value at a time and moves to the next.