What is this book about? If you want to use Visio to create enterprise software, this is the book for you.
The integration of Visual Studio .NET Enterprise Architect and Visio for Enterprise Architects provides a formidable tool. Visio offers powerful diagramming capabilities, including such things as creating UML models, mapping out databases with Entity Relationship diagrams, and aiding the development of distributed systems. Its integration with Visual Studio .NET Enterprise Architect means that C# or Visual Basic .NET code can be generated from the UML diagrams, and Visual Studio .NET projects can be reverse engineered to UML models.
For the developer already familiar with UML and looking to get the best out of Visio, the Visual Studio .NET and Visio for Enterprise Architects combination is weakly documented, and the quality information needed to realize the time-saving features of Visio just does not seem to be available, until now.
This book presumes that you are already familiar with the basic concepts of UML notation — this book will not teach you UML. Instead, this book will take you forward into the Visio environment, showing you how to make the most of its software related features.
What does this book cover?
In this book, you'll learn how to
- Diagram business components in Visio
- Generate code from a UML model
- Reverse engineer Visual Studio .NET projects into a UML model
- Reverse engineer into a UML model without source code
- Document the project with UML and Visio
- Design distributed applications with Visio's diagrams
- Work with Entity Relationship database modeling, and round-trip engineering for database design
Andrew Filev is President of dotSITE Software. This company specializes in cost-effective development on the .NET platform. Andrew's team has been developing commercial solutions using .NET since the first public announcement of this new Microsoft strategy. Andrew set up one of the first .NET portals, and has held a number of seminars and lectures dedicated to .NET in state and private companies.
Andrew has implemented numerous solutions in various high-tech fields – Web Services, ERP applications, medical systems, development frameworks, among others. He can be reached at andrew@dotsitesoftware.com or www.dotsitesoftware.com.
Tony Loton works through his company LOTONtech Limited (http://www.lotontech.com) as an independent consultant, course instructor, and technical writer. The current area of interest at LOTONtech is the enhancement of UML visual modeling tools – specifically Rational Rose and Visio for Enterprise Architects – to facilitate .NET application design. Further details can be found at http://www.lotontech.com/visualmodeling.
Tony graduated in 1991 with a BSc. Hons. degree in Compute r Science and Management and he currently holds an appointment as associate lecturer with the Open University in the UK.
Kevin McNeish is President of Oak Leaf Enterprises, a company that specializes in object-oriented developer tools, training, and software. He started his programming career twenty years ago working with Assembly Language, then moved to C, Visual FoxPro, and currently uses C# as his primary .NET development tool. He authored the book .NET for Visual FoxPro Developers and teaches both .NET and UML training classes in North America and Europe.
He has also written UML articles for CoDe, FoxPro Advisor, and FoxTalk magazines. Kevin, a Microsoft MVP, is the creator of a .NET business application framework called "The Mere Mortals Framework for .NET". He also mentors software companies in a variety of vertical markets to design and build component-based applications that scale from the desktop to the Internet. He can be reached at oakleaf@oakleafsd.com or www.oakleafsd.com.
Benjamin Schoellmann credits his move to sunny Houston, Texas, with providing the inspiration necessary to pursue a development and writing career. Currently he is involved with evangelizing .NET technologies among his coworkers at Synhrgy HR Technologies. Among his favored activities are golfing, tinkering with his network, talking incessantly, and integrating hardware and software solutions, primarily home automation, to enhance his leisurely pursuit of Slack. He maintains several content-free WEB domains, including Benjammin.com. He is obsessive about keeping pace with emerging technologies, and is very quick to credit his developer friends with all his success in the IT field.
John Slateris a project manager at Management Reports International in Cleveland, OH. At MRI he is currently developing applications for the property management industry. Right now, he is working on several projects using .NET development tools and .NET Enterprise servers.
In his free time John enjoys outdoor activities and playing with his children Rachel and Nathan. He can be reached at jr_slater@hotmail.com.
Chaur G. Wu currently works for Trend Micro Inc. as a senior software engineer. He started software programming before was old enough to qualify for a driving license. The first program he wrote was a bingo game – in assembly code on a 8051 single chip. To capitalize on the program, he ran a small casino in the lab – he developed primitive game boxes that connected his pals and allowed them to place bets.
He's also been involved in much larger projects. For example, he developed a program in C++ to simulate the movement and geographical coverage of GPS satellites. As a research assistant in his graduate study, he implemented a wavelet-based video compression algorithm for a traffic surveillance system sponsored by Boston City Department of Transportation. He also helped solve a blurred image problem using inverse filters and other image processing algorithms for a client who designs fiber optics components in San Jose, CA.
His technical interests include distributed software systems in Java, COM, and .NET, generative programming, software design, and neural networks. Outside of work, his favorite vacation combines a one-night gambling trip to Reno followed by a day of skiing at some resort near Lake Tahoe. You can e-mail Chaur at cha_urwu@hotmail.com.
