Free Toolkits Expose Data and Logic as Web Services
If you use SQL Server or BizTalk and plan to use .NET, you'll definitely want to look into the SQL Server 2000 Web Services and BizTalk Server 2002 Toolkits.
by Roger Jennings, with additional information by Brian Noyes

VSLive! SF, Day 3, February 14, 2002 — In the VSLive! Keynote address Tuesday morning, Bill Gates announced the availability of two new toolkits, allowing developers to expose existing data and logic residing in SQL Server 2000 and BizTalk Server 2002 as Web Services.

Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Web Services Toolkit
The Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Web Services Toolkit includes SQLXML 3.0, the newest release of the XML services for SQL Server, and integrates directly into the Visual Studio .NET environment for easiest use. While you can use parts of the toolkit without VS.NET—or even without the .NET Framework—you'll get the most functionality by using it through VS.NET to generate and compile Web Services applications for your existing SQL Server data and applications. By simply running a wizard that connects to the database through the Server Explorer, you can select stored procedures or server-side XML templates; the toolkit will generate code that's ready to compile and run, exposing that functionality as a Web Service.

The integration into the VS environment is rich, including enhanced support in the database designer views, SQL debugger windows, and other places. The code it generates capitalizes on the .NET Framework ADO.NET classes, allowing you to produce fully functional code that you can then modify if needed to customize the results and behavior of the exposed functionality.

Toolkit Tour
The release version of SQLXML 3.0 finally solved my SQLXML Managed Classes installation problems on one of my test servers. December 2001's SQLXML 3.0 Beta 1 version wouldn't install SQLXML Managed Classes for me under RC of Visual Studio .NET Professional or the release version of Enterprise Architect. Removing SQLXML 2.0 and 3.0 Beta 1 and re-installing from the CD-ROM did the trick on that machine.

My next stop on the Toolkit tour was the sample Project/Tasks Tracking solution disguised as an ordinary white paper in the \WhitePapers\Project Tracking folder. Project Tasks Tracking System.doc includes detailed information for installing the project files and attaching a 2 MB SQL Server 2000 database from the .zip file. A set of Visual Basic .NET components handles data access, XSLT/XPath operations, and error handling. An ASP.NET Web Application provides a tabbed dialog with Project, Tasks, Options, and Admin pages. XML Web Services created from stored procedures designated by a SOAP virtual name return task and status data. Darshan Singh, the managing editor of PerfectXML, created this attractive and informative .NET demonstration app for Microsoft.

The other demo application in the \Demos\SQLXML_Overview_Demo folder consists of an HTML page with links to execute URL, direct, template, FOR XML RAW, FOR XML AUTO, and FOR XML EXPLICIT queries. The page also executes queries with mapping schemas, updategrams, and OpenXML templates. Be sure to follow exactly the instructions in the Readme.txt file when copying the files to a local folder and creating the virtual directories and names.

The "Optimizing SQLXML Performance" white paper in the \WhitePapers\SQLXML Performance folder outlines best design practices for improving response time and maximizing scalability of projects that use SQLXML features. Substituting the SQLXMLOLEDB driver for SQLOLEDB and caching templates, stylesheets, and mapping schemas delivers a 110-percent performance improvement for read-only operations and a 127-percent gain when data updates were included. Sample code for the white paper's ASP (not ASP.NET) application lets you confirm Carl Perry's results.

Eric Schmidt's "ADO.NET Primer," "SQL Managed Classes" by Scott Swigert, and Drew Minkin's "Inside [the] SQLXML Virtual Directory Structure" (a.k.a, "Behind the Veil: Managing Virtual Documents with SQLXML") round out the white paper content. All white papers are vintage January 2002 or later.

Microsoft BizTalk Server 2002 Toolkit
Microsoft BizTalk Server 2002 Toolkit for Microsoft .NET was released the same day. This toolkit allows you to use BizTalk server components in the Visual Studio .NET environment to orchestrate XML Web Services. The toolkit exposes the interfaces and objects of the BizTalk model as a set of managed classes that can be accessed, used, or extended from any .NET language. The toolkit integrates into VS.NET in a similar fashion to the SQL Server Toolkit, providing a number of integrated views, wizards, and the ability to generate managed code from the models and templates.

About the Author
Roger Jennings, a principal of OakLeaf Systems, is a columnist for FTP's family of Web sites and contributing editor for Visual Studio Magazine. His primary interests are client/server and XML/XSLT database applications, and XML Web services. Roger's latest books include Special Edition Using Access 2002 (Que), Special Edition Using Windows 2000 Server (Que), Admin911: Windows 2000 Group Policy (Osborne/McGraw-Hill), and Database Developer's Guide with Visual Basic 6 (Sams). He's now busy writing Visual Basic .NET XML Web Services Developer's Guide (Osborne/McGraw-Hill) for publication in spring 2002. Read a preview version of Chapter 6, "Converting XML Web Service Test Clients to ASP.NET," at http://www.oakleaf.ws/. Reach Roger at Roger_Jennings@compuserve.com.