Chapter 3 - Introducing Transaction Server

Now that we've examined the core concepts of DNA and seen the kinds of components that we can use within its architecture, we can move on to look at where Microsoft Transaction Server (MTS) comes into the picture. Unfortunately, Microsoft momentarily lost their legendary knack of giving their products really useful and meaningful names when they christened this little baby. Yes, MTS does have something to do with 'transactions', but in fact it does a lot more useful things as well.

In this chapter we'll start off by looking at what MTS is, and why it's suddenly become one of the hottest new technologies around at the moment. We'll also discuss what transactions are, and you'll see why the name Transaction Server is a misnomer for this exciting new technology.

Then, once we've got to grips with the theory of MTS, we'll move on to look at how we use it in our applications. We'll show you just how easy it is to take advantage of its services with existing components, and we'll also be adding MTS integration to the simple

WCCFinance

component we developed in the previous chapter.

So, in this chapter, you'll see:

What Microsoft Transaction Server is, and what it can do.
What transactions are, and how MTS makes them more powerful and easier to use.
What levels of transaction support are available now, and will be in the future.
How we build new components and adapt existing ones for use with MTS.
How we install components into MTS, and use them in applications.

To start with, let's look at the background and basic principles of MTS.