ASP.NET has a great feature which allows the developer to perform data access based in an abstraction layer, called a Data Access Layer without having to write a stitch of code. Basically it allows data to be further manipulated and protects you from having to work against the database itself. I love this feature because it really makes a lot of things easy when writing web pages, and gives me the flexibility to get the data I want easily. I like the visual representation of the xsd file where I can change and configure much of the data source and it’s options. This is just one of the many data-friendly features in Visual Studio 2005 using ASP.NET 2.0. This data abstraction layer makes it easy to use the new GridView and DetailsView controls from ASP.NET 2.0. Check out the videos here on learnvisualstudio.net for some excellent explanations of how to use this unique feature.