Welcome to the Visual Studio 6.0 Edition of the MSDN Library
New Technical Articles in the Visual Studio 6.0 Edition of the MSDN Library
New Backgrounders in the Visual Studio 6.0 Edition of the MSDN Library
MSDN, the Microsoft Developer Network, is Microsoft's broad program for providing developers with the tools, technologies, education, information, events, and other technical material they need.
The MSDN Library contains more than a gigabyte of developer information, documentation, sample code, technical articles, and much more. This edition has been refreshed and updated for the release of Microsoft Visual Studio 6.0 and the latest versions of Microsoft Visual tools (mid-1998). This information is always changing, growing, and—dare we say it—developing. In fact, the MSDN Library is updated every three months and can be accessed on the Web via the MSDN Online Membership http://www.microsoft.com/msdn/join/. To find out more about the MSDN Subscription program, read "MSDN Subscriptions."
There are several ways to find the new content in this release:
Other icons from the MSDN Start Page will link you to subsets of new content:
Note The sources listed above do not include the new documentation for Microsoft visual tools released in this Visual Studio 6.0 edition of the MSDN Library. For introductions to new version 6.0 features, please go to the Visual Studio Start Page. From that page, you can link to What's New for Visual Studio 6.0. Plus, you can link to each of the Visual Studio product home pages and, from there, visit that product's corresponding What's New page.
New technical article topics in this section:
Microsoft SQL Server Developer's Resource Kit
Microsoft Index Server
Internet Explorer 4.0
The Component Object Model and DCOM
Other Technical Articles
Those of you familiar with previous MSDN Library releases will note that we have changed the way we organize content in the Technical Articles node and the Backgrounders node. Both of these nodes mirror each other's table of contents, and they in turn now mirror the basic structure of the Platform SDK. We have organized content to be task-based rather than product-specific. Therefore, whereas in the previous table of contents a major node was BackOffice, in this release of the MSDN Library you will see that many of the BackOffice components (Exchange Server, SQL Server) are in the new Database and Messaging Services node. Articles about Internet Information Server and Index Server, which previously were listed under the BackOffice node, are now in the Internet/Intranet/Web node.
Whether or not you are familiar with the organization of the Platform SDK, we're betting that our new table of contents for technical articles and backgrounders will make a lot more sense to you.
Below you will find summaries of and links to all the new technical articles that appear for the first time in this release of the MSDN Library. Note that the following technical article titles and summaries do not include the recent work of our in-house developers, also known as the MSDN Content Development Group. Our MSDN developers have finally brought work on their HelpDesk sample application to a conclusion. When all is said and done, the HelpDesk project is made up of twelve articles and a 24,000-line sample application. To read about the new HelpDesk technical articles and samples, together with a short summary of the entire project, go to Writer's Corner.
Designing a Microsoft SQL Server application can seem a daunting challenge. There are many choices to make: development tools, database design, application structure, query design, and so on. Complicating things more, the right choices also depend on your unique application requirements and on the skills of your project team.
The good news is that there are many paths that lead to the development of high-performance SQL Server applications. While there may be different approaches to developing an application that performs as well as you need it to, knowing a few basic principles of SQL Server development will help you choose the right approach right away, saving precious development time.
The SQL Server Developer’s Resource Kit is a compilation of technical materials targeted at developers of large-scale SQL Server applications. The goal of the Resource Kit is to provide developers with the key technical information needed to design and to develop great applications on SQL Server. The following list summarizes the 12 articles in this Resource Kit.
This article introduces ActiveX Data Objects (ADO) and the ADO programming model for developers who are building applications with Microsoft SQL Server. A sample application illustrates how to use the ADO object model with SQL Server.
What developers need to know to design applications for optimal performance. This article explains basic principles and tradeoffs of SQL Server development.
This article provides detailed information about transaction processing and explains how to build applications for Microsoft Transaction Server and Microsoft SQL Server.
This overview of replication architecture describes how to take advantage of the power of replication when you design databases.
This article contains comprehensive information about building SQL Server 6.5 applications for international use. It is written for developers building Win32 client applications using Microsoft ODBC.
Here is a blueprint for embedding SQL Server administration features in your application. As a result, you can deploy SQL Server in an unattended environment. Includes code samples.
This article presents a strategy that enables Btrieve-based application vendors to convert applications to access Microsoft SQL Server. Includes code samples.
A description of the tools, processes, and techniques required to successfully migrate Oracle applications to SQL Server. This article also highlights essential design points for creating high-performance, high-concurrency SQL Server applications. Includes sample code.
This document provides information about migrating database applications from Sybase SQL Server to Microsoft SQL Server, including differences in TRANSACT-SQL statements and administrative procedures.
What Open Database Connectivity (ODBC) programmers need to know to understand and use OLE DB. This paper discusses the relationship of ODBC calls to corresponding OLE DB methods and related programming issues.
How to smoothly migrate a Microsoft Access database to SQL Server and optimize your application for fast performance.
How application programmers can optimize access to Microsoft SQL Server when using the SQL Server ODBC driver.
In addition to these SQL Server Resource Kit articles, we're also published the new technical article by William A. Vaughn, "Accessing SQL Procedures Using the UserConnection Object."
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Krishna Nareddy began his series of articles on Microsoft Index Server in the October Library with "Anatomy of a Search Solution." For the January MSDN Library release, the author contributed a follow-up article, "Introduction to Microsoft Index Server." This article describes features and capabilities of Microsoft Index Server, focusing on the recently released version 2.0. The third article in the series, "Indexing with Microsoft Index Server," appears for the first time in this release of the MSDN Library. This article is designed to help you understand, manage, and fine-tune the indexer. It also contains two utility programs that can help you troubleshoot Index Server.
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Ken Lassesen, cartographer extraordinaire, debuts yet another map (his twenty-second for the MSDN Library) with his new "An Extended Object Map of Internet Explorer 4.01." If you are creating applications that use Internet Explorer, this map will help you find your way.
For a discussion of using Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) in Internet Explorer 4.0, including samples and a reference table, read George Young's "Cascading Style Sheets in Internet Explorer 4.0." The article provides some usage guidelines for CSS in general, and points out CSS improvements and additions in Internet Explorer 4.0.
Michael Edwards and Matt Oshry contribute "Discardable Properties for Your Web Pages in Internet Explorer 4.0." This technical article explores a new Internet Explorer 4.0 property for temporarily saving data between Web pages. The IDiscardableBrowserProperty lets you easily save and recall pockets of data from different Web pages. Best of all, it requires little system overhead: The data is discarded if the browser is closed or the data is not accessed for ten minutes. Includes sample files.
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The Distributed Component Object Model protocol is an application-level protocol for object-oriented remote procedure calls and is useful for distributed, component-based systems of all types. It has been revised. To see its latest incarnation, take a look at "Distributed Component Object Model Protocol (DCOM/1.0)."
Rajiv Delepet's "COM Security in Practice" describes how to make distributed applications secure. This article focuses on activation security and call security in detail, and then illustrates how COM security can be used in some common scenarios.
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English Query allows users to ask questions about your data in plain English. Great idea, hey? Adam Blum of the Microsoft English Query team steps back from the cutting edge of natural language development to show you how to incorporate it into your ASP Pages. English Query is easy to implement and provides a powerful searching capability for your SQL Server–based Web site or application.
David Stutz, who calls himself the Visual Basic Architecture Wonk, tells you all about how to use Dynamic HTML as the basis for a broad new programming model. The author explains how DHTML augments and complements the capabilities of Visual Basic and Visual Basic for Applications.
Using the Windows NT Performance Monitor to tune and debug an application helps to produce a better quality application. This paper describes a set of COM interfaces, C++ classes, and generic components that make the process of adding custom counters much easier. This article also contains sample files that illustrate how to implement performance counters in an application.
"If you're like me," the author writes, "you might have the impression that JavaScript or JScript is just some cut-down version of the Java language. It is not." The latest release of Microsoft JScript 3.0 provides a number of new features to help develop Web applications. This document details all the new features and provides examples.
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New backgrounder article topics in this section:
XML, or How to Deliver Data over the Web
Microsoft Transaction Server
New Microsoft Exchange 5.5 Articles
Internet Explorer 4.0 and Web Authoring
Universal Data Access
New Visual FoxPro Articles
Concerned About Security?
Folks, Some FAQs
And Finally . . .
XML, or Extensible Markup Language, describes structured data and delivers the data the way you want it. You've heard about it, you've seen the abbreviation, but what's the fuss about? To help you answer that question, you may want to read John Swenson's series of articles on the subject, including "XML: One Hot Abbreviation, but What Does It Mean?" Another good entrée into XML is "XML: A Better Way to Move Data Across the Web." In his discussion of XML and its presence at the Web Tech·Ed conference, John Swenson focuses on "the technology's main benefit: XML's ability to describe and deliver data." In discussing the emergence of new file formats within Microsoft Office in "It's Not Just a .doc and .xls World Anymore," John explains how XML will create new opportunities for third-party developers. And finally, check out "The Distinction Is Fading Between Windows Applications and Web Applications," where John examines Microsoft's plan to make XML and HTML the "cornerstone of Office."
In addition to the XML articles previously published in the MSDN Library, we have the following new papers:
Answers to frequently asked questions about XML and its support by Microsoft and other companies.
This is a thorough rewrite of the old XML white paper and includes new technical information about XML.
An explanation of how XML complements HTML and what XML markup looks like. You'll also learn how XML data formats are being used today, and about the tools and technologies available for authoring and working with XML.
This article shows you how to access the XML object model from script in Internet Explorer 4.0. It includes reference information on the XML Document, XML Element, and Element Collection objects, and a sample JScript program that uses the XML object model to display an XML document in a Web page.
This article by Charles Heinemann explains the differences between HTML and XML, and provides instructions for authoring XML as well as converting HTML code to XML. Charles is a program manager for Microsoft's Weblications team.
We've also added to the Library the latest update to the "Specification for XML-Data."
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If you're interested in building COM-based applications, you'll want to know about Microsoft Transaction Server. This product combines the features of a transaction-processing monitor with an object request broker, letting you control communication among components and add mainframe-like functions, such as two-phase commit, to your applications. (Note: Version 2.0 of the Microsoft Transaction Server is available as part of the Windows NT 4.0 Option Pack.)
If you're a newcomer to Microsoft Transaction Server, or if you're curious about its capabilities, read "Microsoft Transaction Server FAQ: Databases and Transactions." It's an exhaustive list of what you can and can't do with the technology today. You may also want to take a look at "An Introduction to Microsoft Transaction Server."
If you want a quick summary of the benefits of Transaction Server, try "Microsoft Transaction Server: Why Care?" by David Vaskevitch, vice president of Microsoft's Database and Transaction Systems group.
Once you begin to set up distributed applications with MTS, you'll probably find yourself involved in security. "Securing a Web-based Microsoft Transaction Server Application," by Michael Morel, documents the security flow of an MTS-enabled application and explains how security works in a typical Web application using MTS and BackOffice.
For more extensive documentation, you can read "A Guide to Reviewing and Evaluating Microsoft Transaction Server." This article includes an overview of MTS features and how they benefit developers and business users.
Perhaps you want to integrate MTS with Active Server Pages (ASP)? Then you should read "Microsoft Transaction Server and Internet Information Server: Technology for the Web." This article talks about why MTS was integrated into the IIS architecture, describes the three major benefits of this integration, and shows how easy it is to develop server-side components that use MTS. Author James Utzschneider is the lead program manager for the Microsoft Transaction Server team.
And finally, if you're familiar with MTS and want to expand its functions by building custom resource dispensers, we have a new technical article by Walter Oliver, "Writing Microsoft Transaction Server Resource Dispensers."
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This paper helps application developers write directory-enabled applications using ADSI on top of the Exchange 5.5 directory service.
This article details the differences between the Collaboration Data Objects (CDO) 1.2 library (which is shipping with Exchange 5.5) and its predecessor, Active Messaging 1.1. It also describes distinctions between CDO 1.2 and Collaboration Data Objects for Microsoft Windows NT Server, a subset library of CDO 1.2 that ships with Internet Information Server 4.0.
Through a product known as the Connector for Lotus Notes, Microsoft introduces comprehensive interoperability between Lotus Notes and Exchange.
Do your applications require an environment of multiple server nodes to run at their best? This paper describes Microsoft Cluster Server and cluster architecture and implementation.
This paper covers Microsoft Exchange data, where it resides and how it is saved, and transaction logging and its application in disaster recovery.
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Michael Wallent, Microsoft's lead program manager for Dynamic HTML, has revised several articles that appear in this Library release. These include:
Read all about it: With Internet Explorer 4.0, page authors have total control over all attributes of all page elements at any time. Changes made to attributes that cause the page to change shape are handled automatically, with no additional script intervention by the author.
Event bubbling is a powerful new way to handle such events as mouseovers, button clicks, and text selection.
Four key innovations allow you to create dynamic pages in Internet Explorer 4.0.
Michael Wallent's articles first appeared on the Microsoft Site Builder Network (SBN) Web site (http://www.microsoft.com/sitebuilder/). Two other new articles on Internet Explorer 4.0 come from SBN:
Internet Explorer 4.0 introduces a new viewing paradigm for Windows folders called Web View. "At first, I thought it was kind of lame," Michael Edwards writes. But on further consideration, the author finds that Web View folders are opening up a new realm of opportunities for customizing Windows Explorer folders and making things easier (and more fun) for your users. This article includes examples of Web View folders put to good use.
Dynamic HTML scriptlets combine the benefits of component programming with Dynamic HTML and scripting. DHTML scriptlets are a standard feature of Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.0.
Plus, check out Nancy Winnick Cluts' new article, "Handling Events in Dynamic HTML." This is a guide for HTML authors learning to handle events in Dynamic HTML.
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Universal Data Access is a platform, application, and tools initiative that defines and delivers both standards and technologies. It is a key element in Microsoft's foundation for application development, the Microsoft Windows Distributed interNet Applications (DNA) architecture.
To find out more, read David Lazar's "Microsoft Strategy for Universal Data Access." This is an in-depth look at Microsoft Universal Data Access, its components, its history, and its future. Then check out "What Are the Microsoft Data Access Components?" Microsoft Data Access Components (MDAC) is a set of redistributable technologies that implement Universal Data Objects. MDAC 1.5 consists of new, synchronized versions of ActiveX Data Objects (ADO), OLE DB, and Open Database Connectivity (ODBC). Another new Universal Data Access article, "OLE DB/ADO: Making Universal Data Access a Reality," focuses more specifically on ADO, which works in conjunction with OLE DB and its service component architecture.
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If you are a Visual FoxPro developer, here are five new articles that should make your work easier:
How to design a Visual FoxPro application.
How to use a global State Manager object to act as a mediator between menus, toolbars, forms, and any other service objects in your application.
This article outlines the benefits of using the Visual FoxPro Project Manager.
Visual FoxPro's data dictionary is based on a database container, a table that contains definitions for tables, persistent relationships between tables, connections to remote data sources such as Microsoft SQL Server, and views (both for local and remote data). This article takes a close look at the data dictionary and suggests ways to implement it in your applications.
This article discusses how data buffering works and explores strategies for selecting which buffering mechanism to use and how to handle multiuser conflicts.
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We have two new backgrounders on the topic of security:
This paper, written by Steve Sutton, president of Trusted Systems, Inc., and author of the popular book Windows NT Security Guide, offers a broad summary of basic security principles across all Microsoft products. The author emphasizes that the basis of Microsoft's security environment lies in Windows NT security features and enabling technologies, such as the CryptoAPI and smart cards.
This article helps you understand Windows NT Server security in areas relevant to Internet Information Server and Microsoft SQL Server and learn how these three products' mutual features can be used to implement security with Active Server Pages.
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We suspect you secretly love FAQs. Who doesn't? Here are several that are new or have just been updated:
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This paper, from Grady Booch of Rational Software Corporation, describes the importance of modeling in software architecture and the software development process; includes a discussion of Unified Modeling Language (UML).
With the DCOM Component Connector, SAP and Microsoft have provided for the seamless and tight technical interoperability of components on the basis of Microsoft's Distributed Component Object Model (DCOM). This paper discusses the benefits of using the DCOM Component Connector, which will be shipped by SAP in their R/3 4.0 product.
This paper summarizes the key changes to Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) in Microsoft Project 98 to assist in the migration of existing macros from previous versions of Microsoft Project and to aid developers of new macros and custom solutions.
Now in its third major version, the Microsoft Telephony Application Programming Interface (TAPI) is suitable for quick and easy development of Internet Protocol (IP) Telephony applications. This article provides a thorough introduction to TAPI technologies and discusses the relationship between TAPI, Windows NT Active Directory, and Microsoft NetMeeting 2.0.