N-tier data applications are applications that access data and are separated into multiple logical layers, or tiers. Separating application components into discrete tiers increases the maintainability and scalability of the application.

This video shows how to create an application that has three tiers: a data tier, a data access tier where business logic is stored, and a presentation tier for the user. The following tasks are included in the process:

• How to set up the relationship between the data tier and the data access tier.

• How to create and configure a dataset that is based on the Customers and Orders tables in the Northwind database by using the Data Source Configuration Wizard.

• How to create a Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) service to call into the data access tier.

• How to display data in the presentation tier using data-bound controls.

The Visual Studio Help includes the code and the steps that are demonstrated in this video. See Walkthrough: Creating an N-Tier Data Application.

Video How Tos

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• Displaying Data Overview

• Getting Started with Data Access

• Connecting to Data in Visual Studio