Monday, December 16, 2002

Holy Smokes ! (and other epiphanies) Justin is outlining his ideas about caching. You know, I really have to thank you and a couple of other guys who e-mailed me with some ideas and advice (Grant and Sanjay). As a result of this discussion I have actually begun to see the Dataset object in a whole new light. At some point this afternoon I was explaining my ideas and Grant/Sanjay's feedback to one of the guys on my team when it hit me " It's the cache you dummy !!!". I've been going about this whole thing the wrong way. (Insert picture of Homer Simpson with a big "D'oh"). All this time I've been arguing for the idea of "fetch-format-forget" pages, which are pretty darn simple and were driven by some MVC pattern of domain objects. So as I'm explaining to my co-worker what I had in mind for our reporting engine, I realized that the whole darn reason why ASP.NET has such broad support of caching on so many different levels is to allow us to retrieve a Dataset of related information and, provided it is not invalidated, use it  in the application in place of a Database. Holy smokes I think I've got it. I kind of feel a little bit like Columbus who landed in the Carribean Islands thinking that this was a new continent, all the while America was just around the corner. Anyway, Justin - I think a Table Gateway would work just fine. I also think that one could build a typical Domain Model and use cached Datasets as a layer against which the DAO runs. But why, DataTables and DataViews are awfully nice collection objects. OK, I know, to isolate oneself from the vagaries of . MS changes to data access code every 18 months. Hmm. I haven't quite figured out all the impact of my epiphany today so most of this is a bit half-baked. I suppose for starters I need to go back and look at Wildermouth's ADO.NET book to see what I've missed. In the meantime, Rob Howard had some good examples and discussion of caching in ASP.Net on the GDN site. Here it is. Its the cache!! What a concept. 8:12:18 PM     Automobile Magazine chimes in The car of the year by Automobile is the 350Z, which for the most part shares a lot of technology with the G35 Coupe at a lesser price. Das ist wunderbar ! (thats wonderful). Would you believe that the editor of this illustrious publication, who happens to be a neighbor, totally bagged this car. "Oh I don't think its worth all that much attention. I would look to the used car market if I were interested in this vehicle". What a Dummkopf (dummy). Of course one has to understand that he totally caters to his readership. He admitted as much by saying his readers are not interested in anything other than BMW's , Porsches and the occasional token Volvo, Audi, Saab. That goes to show you that one needs to take the press with a grain of salt. 7:41:30 PM     MotorTrend and I .... For months the single item on my blog getting the most traffic wasn't anything .NET related. It has been the account of my Infinity G35 Test Drive. Over the weekend I picked up a copy of the current MotorTrend magazine and guess which car is the "Car of the Year" ? I'm glad they listened :-) 7:08:24 AM

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