Creating a Data Access Layer for Paging in SQL Server 2005
Visual Studio 2005 introduced a number of tools that allow web developers to create dynamic web pages more easily than ever. The GridView encapsulates most of the functionality needed for displaying and editing tabular data efficiently, and can bind to several types of data sources. The DetailsView is a sibling to the GridView, supporting most of the same functionality but displaying a single record at a time. While these controls can bind to databases through simple DataSets and SqlDataSources, the ObjectDataSource control provides a more clearly defined, more sophisticated -- but potentially more complicated -- connection. For developers looking to model their SQL data within the application through custom classes, the ObjectDataSource allows them to bind their strongly-typed classes to user controls and add a discrete Business Logic Layer to ensure user interactions follow defined rules of behavior.