Better known expanded name for Windows
DNA. Also see note at the end of this page
An implementation framework, now superseded by 2002
MicrosoftDotNet, proposed in 1999 by Microsoft for a one-stop solution for all computing needs for medium to larger Enterprises.
It was aimed at the market segment that traditionally deployed mainframe based solutions, and at the same time designed to check the growing influence of the
SunJava consortium, who have championed the
EnterpriseJavaBeans alternative to Mainframe Computing.
Key technology and Components include:
- TCP/IP based networking
- Thin client Web GUI based frontend served by ASP
- XML messaging, evolving to SOAP
- UniversalDataAccess
- COM+ to provide transaction and security services for server based COM objects
WindowsTwoThousand, especially the server version, is the flagship product that provides the means to implement this all Microsoft solution. Another key product,
BizTalk, only made available much later.
COM+ (
ComPlus) is the revamped
MicrosoftTransactionServer (MTS) that provided message queuing and event model on top of the
ComponentObjectModel (COM). COM objects have been around for years before DNA from
MicroSoft, and it is an example of implementation of
InterfaceBasedProgramming. An article somewhere described
VisualBasic, now called
VbClassic, as the GUI version of a COM programming tool. Perhaps the ease of creating COM objects by
VbClassic contributed to its popularity. The Internet enabled version of COM object is called Activex, which has been taken out from the web/server scene after
MicrosoftDotNet came out as the DNA replacement framework.
Although
MicrosoftCorporation has been withdrawing material about DNA since early days of
DotNet, many key component technologies within this architecture are expected to stay useful till
WindowsLonghorn becomes a reality, and at mid 2004 that date is 2007 the earliest.
And the
MicrosoftIndigo component of the next windows may not arrive until the server version of
WindowsLonghorn, and until then
ComPlus will be used by
DotNet for transaction services.
For people interested in this topic, a must read book is
EssentialCom
For a good technical overview reference, check out the slides and accompanying text by DonBox (1999, then at DevelopMentor)
URL for Slides ->
http://www.aspxnet.de/COM_RCD/Powerpoints/Distributed%20Computing%20with%20COM+%20Part%201.ppt
URL for talk ->
http://www.aspxnet.de/COM_RCD/Transcriptions/Distributed%20Computing%20with%20COM+%20Part%201.rtf
References:
Microsoft example -
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=243abaa0-dd03-4fbc-b58f-5da61839f948&displaylang=en
xml-dev archive
http://lists.xml.org/archives/xml-dev/199909/msg00539.html
Computerworld -
http://www.computerworld.com/developmenttopics/development/webdev/story/0,10801,28907,00.html
Found a good description of this still on MS site in mid 2004, at
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/windows2000serv/technologies/iis/deploy/projplan/componen.mspx
The article is actually chapter 13 taken from book
Professional Active Server Pages 3.0, and go by the name of
Components and Web Application Architecture.
Check it out before it is forever gone.
Microsoft has a paper on the
...lessons learned from building N-tier Applications using Microsoft Windows DNA. It contrasts DNA with
DotNet setups
See
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/dnbda/html/bdadotnetarch001.asp
Other Microsoft resources relevant to DNA are:
Additional note on the full name
The official name was
Distributed interNet Application Architecture. However when doing a Google search 'Distributed Internet Architecture' came up with more relevant match than 'Distributed Internet Application'.
See
http://www.microsoft.com/windows2000/en/server/iis/default.asp?url=/windows2000/en/server/iis/htm/asp/eadg1s9x.htm
Page actively maintained in 2004 by
DavidLiu
CategoryArchitecture,
CategoryFramework,
CategoryMicrosoftTechnology