Smart Client architecture and design guide

Smart Client architecture and design guide released on: 8/20/2004 | updated on: 8/20/2004

David Hill, Brenton Webster, Edward. jezierski, Srinath vasireddy and Hammad al-sabt (Microsoft Corporation); bline wastell (ascenstmcorporation); Jonathan rasmusson and Paul Gale (thoughtworks) and Paul Slater (wadeware LLC)

Related Links

Microsoft _Patterns & practicesLibrary http://www.microsoft.com/resources/practices/default.mspx

. NETApplication Architecture: design applications and servicesHttp://msdn.microsoft.com/library/en-us/dnbda/html/distapp.asp

Summary: This guide provides you with descriptive guidance on how to overcome Architectural Constraints and design issues when building Smart Client solutions. In addition, it provides guidance on how to combine the advantages of traditional fat client applications with the manageability of thin client applications.

Download

Click here to download the PDF version of this Guide from Microsoft download center.

Content on this page

	Readers of this Guide
	Prerequisites
	Content of this Guide
	Co-author and reviewer
	Feedback on this Guide
	Community and newsgroup support

Readers of this Guide

This guide is intended for software architects and developers who are using Windows Forms technology to develop smart client applications based on Microsoft. NET Framework.

Back to Top

Prerequisites

To use this guide most effectively, you must have experience using. NET development technologies and skills. You need to be familiar with the conventional distributed application architecture. If you have implemented a. NET Web application solution, you should understand your own application architecture and deployment mode.

Back to Top

Content of this Guide

This guide consists of the preface and chapters written by Mark Boulter, Microsoft. NET program manager. Each chapter is for a subject related to a smart client. You can read each chapter (entire or excerpt) as needed.

Preface-Mark Boulter

The1Chapter: Introduction

This chapter gives a high-level overview of Smart Client Applications and some of their basic features and advantages. We also discuss some high-level architecture issues and provide you with guidance to help you decide whether the Smart Client architecture is suitable for your applications.

The2Chapter: Process Data

This chapter describes the many factors involved in processing data on the client, including data caching, data concurrency, and the use of datasets and Windows form data binding.

The3Chapter: establish a connection

This chapter describes how to use these methods to enable your applications to connect to and use network resources, use the processing capabilities on the client computer, and discuss the advantages and disadvantages of each method.

The4Chapter: Occasionally Connected Smart Clients

This chapter describes the problems you may encounter when designing and constructing Smart Client Applications that occasionally connect to the network. This chapter explains the concept of connection, discusses the two main methods for implementing the offline function, and explains some issues that need to be considered to keep the application offline.

The5Chapter: security considerations

This chapter describes the security of Smart Clients. Smart Clients distribute logic and data to client computers, so the security involved is completely different from those related to thin client applications-on these thin clients, data and logic are more distributed by servers. This chapter describes the roles of data security, identity authentication, authorization, and code access security in Smart Client Applications.

The6Chapter: Multithreading

This chapter discusses the issues related to the use of multithreading in Smart Client Applications. To provide optimal responses to Smart Client Applications, You need to carefully consider how and when to use multithreading. Threads can significantly improve the availability and performance of your applications, but they need to be carefully considered when deciding how they interact with the user interface.

The7Chapter: Deployment and update of Smart Clients

This chapter describes how to best use the deployment functions of. NET Framework and Windows on a smart client and how to select an available deployment and update mechanism.

The8Chapter: Performance of Smart Client Applications

This chapter describes how to optimize the performance of Smart Client Applications. This chapter analyzes the steps that can be taken during design and describes how to adjust the Smart Client application and diagnose any performance problems.

Back to Top

Co-author and reviewer

•	Special thanks to our reviewers: Mark Boulter, Jamie Cool, Keith Yedlin, Richard Turner; Ivan Medvedev; Ram Singh, Philip Vaughn; Jay Schmelzer, Nathan Blecharczyk; andy Dunn, Devendra Tiwari, Eric Leonard, Ken Perilman, Per Vonge Nielsen, Naveen Yajaman, and Chris Sells (Microsoft Corporation ).
•	Thank you very much for your cooperation with us.: Steven John Pack (Avanade ).
•	Thanks to our editors and product groups for helping us provide readers with quality assurance publications: Sharon Smith (Microsoft); Susan Filkins (Entirenet) and Tina Burden McGrayne (Entirenet) and Sanjeev Garg (Satyam Computer Services)
•	Thanks to our test team: Prashant Bansode and Guru Shankar Sundaram (InfoSys Technologies Limited)
•	Thanks to our product management staff: Eugenio Pace (Microsoft) ° ívasu Vijay (Electronic Data Systems)

Back to Top

Feedback on this Guide

We have made every effort to ensure the accuracy of this Guide. If you have any suggestions for this Guide, please email to the scagfb@microsoft.com. We are very concerned about the following feedback:

•	Suggestions specific to technical issues
•	Usage and availability
•	Writing and editing questions

Back to Top

Community and newsgroup support

This guide is applicablePatterns & practicesSimilarly, the Guide is associated with newsgroups to provide community support. You can use these newsgroups to post questions, provide feedback, or contact other users to share your thoughts:

•	MSDNNewsgroupHttp://msdn.microsoft.com/newsgroups/default.asp
•	WindowsForm ForumHttp://www.windowsforms.net/Forums/default.aspx
•	GotDotNetHttp://workspaces.gotdotnet.com/pnpsc

Go to the original English page