Are your Data Access Layers compatible with Web Services?

Data Access Layers should support not only direct connections to SQL Server but also connections through web services.

Many applications are designed for use with a database connection only. As users decide to take the application some where else away from the database, the need for web services arises.

✅ Figure: Good example - Options form showing choice of connection

There are 3 ways to implement this:

1. Lots of if statements (really messy - most people try this first)
2. Interfaces (implements statement in VB)
3. Factory pattern (✅ best - most flexible and extensible approach)

All database applications should be web services ready as the future direction is to use web services only, because even locally a web service connection is not much slower than direct connection. The performance difference shouldn't be substantial enough to require a double code base.