Hi... Data Access Layer or as we all call it as DAL. Conceptually it is just another class to access the ADO.net libraries provided by .net. But is it true? does anything depend on the DAL or is it just another Data Access Component? I am trying to answer the question which most Gurus have debated on. In this Post I will try to work out conceptual ways of handling data access and creating a GDAL - Well What's that? Just go through the post to understand the stuff.
When you consider Data Access, first thing that comes in the mind is what kind of backend are we going to use. But has it anytime struck you why a application needs to be backend based. Today an enterprise may be using Oracle and years later they want to shift to SQL Server, why would the enterprise bear extra cost. Can applications be reused. Why not....? is my answer. I struggled in most of my projects since the transition from one platform to another would come with licensing issues and issues which are irrelvant to the Developer.
Just to explain a case to start off - I was working on an application where the platform was to be revamped completely like new technology, extra secured access to Data, new ideas and all lot of stuff which as an enterprise is absolutely important but as a Developer its a mess to make a

Ideal World Foundation.

Well, that's when I decided to built a Enterprise Friendly Framework (EFF). The EFF, starts with the Ideal World Foundation (IWF). Well to be technical the Namespace goes EFF.IWF.<:component>. There are a List of Components I would like to share on this blog which are creations after intense requirement gathering from various enterprises. GDAL or to be more specific EFF.IWF.GDAL is a Generic DAL which will provide Data Access to backends.

Can a Developer imagine writing just 2 declarations and 1 sentence to Retrieve or Insert Data in the Database?

Can Enterprises feel free of changing database backend at will?

Can We increase the Life Span of Applications by reusing them, well atleast those we think are really important to us but are scrap because of new backends.

So, just catch up with my next post to know more about GDAL. Caught you...! Looking for some sourcecode and not some lecture rite. Dont worry GDAL would be completely exposed in my next post. Till then see you.