Introduction

There are many "database helper" components around, each offering some unique
features of its own. In fact Microsoft's own MS- Data Access Application Block (MS-
DAAB) is one of the popular data access component. This article reviews Database
Helper Ver. 2.0 and discusses pros and cons of the component.

What is Database Helper?

Database Helper is a .NET 1.1 component that encapsulates common database tasks
such as executing queries and stored procedures. This is a free component that you
can use in your applications.

I myself is using MS-DAAB in many of my applications. It does serves its purpose to

a large extent. When I saw this component's announcement on ASP.NET forums, at
first glance I though - "Oh! Yet another clone of MSDAAB". But when I glanced
through the feature list and downloaded the component, I found that it does included
features that I always wanted in my applications. I am going to discuss these
features in the later parts.

Using Database Helper

Using Database Helper in your applications is pretty simple. It consists of 4 classes:

 SqlHelper
 OleDbHelper
 OracleHelper
 OdbcHelper

Each of the above class has following methods:

 ExecuteNonQuery
 ExecuteScalar
 ExecuteReader
 ExecuteDataSet

Each of the above methods come in two flavors:

 One that accepts just an SQL query i.e. no parameters

 The other accepts an SQL query and an array of parameters

http://www.binaryintellect.com/displayproduct.aspx?productid=1 has many code

samples that show many of the above methods in action.

In order to use the component just follow these steps:

1. Download the component and unzip it in a folder

2. Give a reference to this component in VS.NET.
3. Create instance of required class in your code using appropriate constructor
4. Call various methods of the class
Comparing MS-DAAB and Database Helper

Before we compare MS-DAAB with this component let me tell you about some of the
requirement that I often face in my applications:

1. Support for multiple databases. Many times we use databases other that SQL
Server (MS-Access/Oracle). So, we need a component that caters this
requirement.
2. Working with multiple databases in a single application. Connection string
changes at run time based on some requirement. This is more often happens
when database is MS-Access because many people divide their entire data in
multiple Access databases.
3. Pass huge number of parameter to queries or stored procedures. Many of my
queries and stored procedures require huge list of parameters (many times
30+). So, whatever component I use should have easy mechanism to pass
such huge list.
4. Built-in transaction support. This means that I should not write any code at
ADO.NET level to initiate the transactions. The component should take care of
that.
5. In some applications our business layer is hosted in COM+. We also like to
host our data access layer in COM+. Though I do not use COM+ too often,
some applications do call for this.

Now, let us see how MS-DAAB and Database Helper can handle these requirements.
Note that this comparison is purely based on my personal experience of developing
.NET application. Though I anticipate that many of you might be having similar
requirements, I do not claim that Database Helper is the best choice in each and
every possible situation.

1. MS-DAAB support only SQL server. So, I can not use it for all of my
application. Since it comes with source code, I can change it for other
providers but that calls for another round of testing from my side. Database
Helper on the other hand provides classes for all 4 data providers i.e.
SqlClient, OleDb, OracleClient and Odbc.
2. MS-DAAB allow you to use multiple databases in a single application but the
way it supports it is bit rigid. Consider following methods from MS-DAAB:

ExecuteNonQuery(ByVal connectionString As String, .......

Now, certainly I can pass different connection strings in this method. But that
means if I am using this method 100 times, I need to pass it so many times.
Wouldn't it be nice if I can pass it in the constructor of the component. That is
what Database Helper allows. Note that MS-DAAB has all the methods as
"static" (or shared in VB.NET). It does not make use of instance constructors.
In addition Database Helper also allows to configure connection string via
config files (web.config or app.config).
3. MS-DAAB uses ParamArray mechanism to pass query or stored procedure
parameters. That means you can call a stored procedure like this:

ExecuteReader(connString, CommandType.StoredProcedure, "GetOrders",

new SqlParameter("@prodid", 24))
 This works fine if my no. of parameters are small (say 5-6). But think if you
have 30-40 parameters. Your call will look very huge. If you decide to declare
separate parameter variables then you need to think 30-40 variable names
:-). Database Helper accepts array of parameters instead of individual
parameters. So, you create an array of parameter objects and pass it to
various methods. This makes it very simple to pass huge list of parameters.
4. Let us see, how MS-DAAB supports transactions.

ExecuteNonQuery(ByVal transaction As SqlTransaction,.....

In this case you need to create an instance of Transaction object in "your"

code and then pass it to various methods. This means you should take care of
opening a connection and initiating a transaction. This is not what I certainly
want. If my component is encapsulating much of the code for non-
transactional methods why not for transactional ones. This is what Database
Helper does. Initiating a transaction and ending it requires just two calls:

db.BeginTransaction()
' more code here
db.CommitTransaction()
5. Some of my applications require my components to be hosted in COM+. In
order to do that your .NET components should inherit from
ServicedComponent class. Currently neither MS-DAAB nor Database Helper
provides significant support in this regards. However, I hope that support will
be added in future releases.

In addition to these features Database Helper has support for built-in error
handling. Consider how you typically write your data access code.

'MS-DAAB version

Try
SqlHelper.ExecuteNonQuery(....)
Catch exp As Exception
Label1.Text=exp.Message
End Try

With Database Helper this code becomes:

db.HandleErrors= True
db.ExecuteNonQuery(....)
Label1.Text=db.LastError

Note that Database Helper also allows you to Try...Catch.

MS-DAAB has advantage over Database Helper in that it allows many overloads of
every methods (around 9). This provides flexibility to the developer. However, I
myself find using only few overloads again and again. Also, when I write business
logic components, I strictly avoid creating or passing ADO.NET objects from the
external world to the data access layer. So, I don't need many of the overloads
provided by MS-DAAB.
Another feature of Database Helper that I liked is that nowhere you need to specify
command type (i.e. Text or Stored Procedure). Internally the component decides
whether it is an SQL query or not. This has a disadvantage, however, that you can
pass only SELECT, INSERT, UPDATE and DELETE queries and not any other DDL or T-
SQL/PL-SQL statements. If you pass then it's CommandType is treated as stored
procedure!

I am already using MS-DAAB. Do I really need to switch?

If MS-DAAB is satisfying all of your requirements then there is no point in switching

to any other component. However, if your requirements are similar to mine then I
strongly suggest you try this component. As a standardization you may also think of
adopting it for all the future projects. In addition BinaryIntellect has also released
another cool and free tool called "Stored Procedure Wrapper Generator" that
generates VB.NET wrapper code for your SQL Server stored procedures. This tool
emits code that makes use of Database Helper component.

I don't think there's a need for explaining what RSS is, or what RSS does. Most of the time,
the headlines of an RSS feed are retrieved from a database, such as SQL server. An example
of this is Feedpedia.com which creates feeds containing the latest headlines retrieved from
the website's database. One of these feeds is located at
http://www.feedpedia.com/RSS/TodaysHeadlines.aspx?Group=13.

In this tutorial we're going to create a similar RSS feed, using ASP.NET 2.0.

In the ASP.NET 2.0 project, create a new file which will be the RSS feed. We used
"TodaysHeadlines.aspx".

Now open the markup of the file and replace everything inside it with the following two lines:

Don't forget to change the CodeFile and Inherits attributes of the Page tag in case you gave
your RSS file a different name than TodaysHeadlines.aspx.

If you're wondering what the second page does: it tells the ASP.NET server to keep the page in
cache for 120 seconds (2 minutes) so that the SQL server doesn't have to be accessed every
time someone opens your RSS feed. You can change the duration depending on how often
your content updates.
<%@ Page Language="C#" AutoEventWireup="true"
CodeFile="TodaysHeadlines.aspx.cs" Inherits="TodaysHeadlines" %>
<%@ OutputCache Duration="120" %>

Now since we are already discussing the OutputCache, I want to bring your attention towards
something. If you're going to create a dynamic RSS feed file to which you're going to pass a
parameter which changes the content of the feed (such as the one on Feedpedia:
http://www.feedpedia.com/RSS/TodaysHeadlines.aspx?Group=13), the cache you will create
you some problems: when you open the RSS feed with a different attribute (in Feedpedia's
case, a different Group ID), the content will not change, but the cached one will be shown. In
that case you will need to tell the cache that the content varies by that parameter, and it
should build a different cache based on the parameter passed. Here's how you can do that:

<%@ OutputCache Duration="120" VaryByParam="Group" %>

Now if you didn't understand any of my mumbling above, don't worry, as long as you don't
plan to pass parameters to the RSS feed, everything will work fine for you without the
VaryByParam attribute.

Believe it or not, we're done with the

markup, so switch to code view. Add the following using statements at the top:

using System.Data.SqlClient;

using System.Text;

using System.Xml;
Now what's left to do for your RSS feed to work, is add this code in the Page_Load event:

// Clear any previous output from the buffer

Response.Clear();

Response.ContentType = "text/xml";

XmlTextWriter xtwFeed = new XmlTextWriter(Response.OutputStream, Encoding.UTF8);

xtwFeed.WriteStartDocument();

// The mandatory rss tag

xtwFeed.WriteStartElement("rss");

xtwFeed.WriteAttributeString("version", "2.0");

// The channel tag contains RSS feed details

xtwFeed.WriteStartElement("channel");

xtwFeed.WriteElementString("title", "Feedpedia Today's World News");

xtwFeed.WriteElementString("link", "http://www.feedpedia.com");

xtwFeed.WriteElementString("description", "The latest news and journals from all over

the world.");

xtwFeed.WriteElementString("copyright", "Copyright 2005 - 2006 Feedpedia.com. All

rights reserved.");

// Objects needed for connecting to the SQL database

SqlConnection SqlCon;

SqlCommand SqlCom;

SqlDataReader SqlDR;

// Edit to match your connection string

SqlCon = new
SqlConnection(ConfigurationManager.ConnectionStrings["ConnectionString"].ToString());
// Edit to match your stored procedure or SQL command

SqlCom = new SqlCommand("GetTodaysHeadlines", SqlCon);

SqlCom.CommandType = CommandType.StoredProcedure;

if (SqlCon.State == ConnectionState.Closed)

SqlCon.Open();

SqlDR = SqlCom.ExecuteReader();

// Loop through the content of the database and add them to the RSS feed

while (SqlDR.Read())

xtwFeed.WriteStartElement("item");

xtwFeed.WriteElementString("title", SqlDR["Title"].ToString());

xtwFeed.WriteElementString("description", SqlDR["Description"].ToString());

xtwFeed.WriteElementString("link", "http://www.feedpedia.com/View.aspx?View=" +
SqlDR["ID"]);

xtwFeed.WriteElementString("pubDate", SqlDR["Date"].ToString());

xtwFeed.WriteEndElement();

SqlDR.Close();

SqlCon.Close();

// Close all tags

xtwFeed.WriteEndElement();

xtwFeed.WriteEndElement();

xtwFeed.WriteEndDocument();
xtwFeed.Flush();

xtwFeed.Close();

Response.End();

Of course, you'll need to do the necessary changes so that the code matches your SQL
database table. If you have any questions or doubts about the code, don't hesitate to place a
comment for this tutorial. I will answer ASAP.

If you did everything right, your RSS feed will be valid and should have a structure similar to
the one below:

There are several tags which you can add to the RSS feed, such as the author of the headline,
the category or an unique ID. You can find more information about this at the RSS 2.0
specification page.