What books have helped you get a grasp of n-Tier development

Question

What books have helped you get a grasp of n-Tier development (Presentation Layer, UI Business Objects, Data Business Objects, and Data sets)?

I'd prefer books, but blogs and other sites are welcome suggestions too. I've inherited a n-Tier designed application at a new job and although it's taken me some time to get used to it, I see the usefulness of the concepts. Moving forward, I want to make sure my development falls in the same standards. A focus in C# would be great too.

Also, are there other design patterns that you would suggest for scalability? Is there any suggested reading you can provide for those design patterns?

Answer 1

Reading Patterns of Enterprise Application Architecture (PoEAA) was a great eye-opener for me. It's geared towards the web, and goes into great detail in explaining how all those tiers ought to interact.

IIRC, examples are in both C# and Java.

Answer 2

books are great for specifics and details of certain solutions/approaches, but the Separation of Concerns principle is sufficient to logically derive the n-tier architecture

Answer 3

Expert C# 2005 Business Objects, Second Edition

It's purpose isn't to teach about n-Tier, but building the framework proposed in the book helps a lot in understanding how things work in a n-Tier world.

Answer 4

This is the standard list of books I hound people in my office to read, and the order in which I would read them:

Agile Principles, Patterns, and Practices in C# - Robert C. Martin, Micah Martin
Refactoring: Improving the Design of Existing Code – Martin Fowler
Working Effectively With Legacy Code – Michael Feathers
Domain Driven Design: Tackling Complexity in the Heart of Software – Eric Evans
Applying Domain Driven Design and Patterns: With Examples in C# - Jimmy Nilsson

If you only want to read one book, read the Robert C. Martin book. It will make you want to read others. The Refactoring book is mostly a catalog of techniques, more of a reference book than an instruction manual, but still very well worth having. If you're doing all greenfield development right now, save the Legacy Code book for last.