Data-driven development focuses on storing application structures in a database and deriving
application functionality from the data structure itself, though few applications are entirely data-driven.
A Laboratory Information Management System (LIMS) system is one such type of application. Users of a
LIMS system need to create definitions for various data elements they require in the process of
laboratory research. It is, in effect, a scaled-down version of the Visual Studio IDE. You must dynamically
generate data tables and drag and drop controls on a form. Each of the data elements may require data
validation that’s written in C# or VB.NET source code and compiled at runtime to check the data and
provide feedback to those performing data entry to the system.

Normally, you’ll never need to use data-driven programming in such an extensive fashion. A more
common use of these techniques is found in off-the-shelf applications that give you some level of
customization that the software publisher couldn’t foresee. For example, an accounting system may
have a data-entry form for entering invoices. Suppose the user’s business model requires that each
invoice be associated with a given delivery truck, but no delivery truck field is available. Using datadriven
programming techniques, you can let the user define a text box (or a combo box) for entry and
storage of a truck number, position it on the accounts receivable screen, and establish rules for
validating the data entered into it. Then, whenever the accounts receivable form is displayed, it will
include a delivery-truck field ready for data entry.

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