This is a little question discussing the software engineering aspect of building a DAL. Hints on techniques(such as datasets / linq) aren't required. I'm currently developing a small application to rank debating tournaments. It uses an MS SQL Server 3.5 CE and I'm using Datasets for accessing the databases. However, I'm currently in doubt on what to do with reading/writing to the database. I need a connection string to connect to the database, and I have various business logic classes that need to be stored in the database. Should I just go with a complete Database class that stores the connection string and handles all the database work, or is there a nice and robust way to model a database access layer around this? Toolmaker

These topics might a little bit old, but still applicable:
1) Writing a Portable Data Access Layer
2) Writing Generic Data Access Code in ASP.NET 2.0 and ADO.NET 2.0.
Newest way seems to be using WCF, but I never try.