Microsoft data access technologies

There are two ways to interact with data using Visual Studio, either by designing an application using datasets and data adapters, or by performing direct operations on the data source, in this case the SQL Azure database. When and why you use one or the other depends on the situation you are trying to address. In situations where you are performing a database lookup, creating and modifying database structures, such as tables, views, stored procedures, or executing queries to get a single aggregate value, and so on, you directly interact with the database. This is because if you are creating or modifying database objects, you obviously cannot use datasets. On the other hand, if you are trying to access the data on the SQL Azure server from the web, you will be connecting using HTTP/HTTPS or REST-based technologies and will be using datasets and data adapters. The SQL Azure architecture accommodates both types of interaction. In this chapter, we will be...