Data Access Application Framework for .NET + SQL Server?

Question

We are looking to create an in-house Project Dashboard application. Project Managers will use this to create and update projects, submit project status, enter project metrics, etc. A separate reporting piece would read the data entered by the tool and bubble up reporting data.

If this were 1990 and the app was to run in DOS I would choose dBase for this application.
If this were 2000 and the app was to run in Windows I would choose MS Access for this application.

However this is 2010 we are looking for this, to be web-based. To run on the LAMP platform I would choose Xataface for this application. It is GPL, easy to setup, easy to extend, supports field validation, access levels, so on and so on.

To run this web-based on a MS platform (.NET + SQL Server) - can anyone recommend a similar toolkit or framework? Ideally, free and open source?

Answer 1

asp.net MVC with a DAL of you choosing, choices are pretty much linq to sql, EF, nhibernate or subsonic. I'd go with linq to sql or subsonic personally depending on exact requirements.

Since you've already chosen .net and SQL server these will have no additonal cost involved, although they are not all open source.

Answer 2

For quick data oriented web frontend application you can use VS Express to create a Dynamic Data Web Application in minutes. See a tutorial here.

If you want something more like a framework that plugs into MS MVC web framework, then you can use the small, open source framework I wrote for my projects: Bullet On Rails for MS MVC. The framework provides you with useful generic CRUD controllers, views and repositories to use with MS MVC framework. It will require you to create your Linq to sql classes using the VS designer.

Answer 3

I'd look at the frameworks that Paul mentioned. Look at the tutorials, example code, and decide which one looks most comfortable for you. Of those, I've found Subsonic to be the easiest to learn.

By default, Subsonic uses Active Record pattern. With some customization it can also use the Repository Pattern

nHibernate uses the Repository pattern, but can be a bit more difficult to configure. At least that's been my experience.

For the record, I like nHibernate, but plan to look more closely at the Entity Framework.

Answer 4

Alternatively, you can skip all the Frameworks that require configuration rather than code and go for something entirely compiled by using the code smith free version to generate your DAL as there are lots templates available that you can just point at your DB and let it go nuts. I've used it in the past and if you want to see exactly what code is interacting with your Database then it's quite a nice alternative.