Hi Aaron,

ISDataSource acts as medium object that connects data into UI, so you can actually use just any kind of backend. Since ISDataSource supports native connection to both dataset-generated object and custom object, you can develop your data access layer using the way you preferred, and then use ISDataSource to easily connect that object into databound UI controls such as WebGrid, WebCombo, and so on.

To give you a quick idea how ISDataSource works, see the following code which retrieves data from custom data access layer and then bound to a WebGrid.

<ISWebGrid:WebGrid ID="WebGrid1" runat="server" DataSourceID="ISDataSource1">
  ...
</ISWebGrid:WebGrid>
<ISDataSource:ISDataSource ID="ISDataSource1" runat="server" SchemaType="CustomObject">
      <Tables>
            <ISDataSource:ISDataSourceTable DataObjectTypeName="MyData" 
                    DeleteMethod="Delete" InsertMethod="Insert" SelectMethod="GetData"
                    TableName="Customers" TypeName="MyDataAccess" UpdateMethod="Update">
            </ISDataSource:ISDataSourceTable>
      </Tables>
</ISDataSource:ISDataSource>

To try the sample directly, open WebGrid 7.0 Tutorial C# solution from the program group, then expand V5.0 folder and then IntersoftDataSourceControl folder. Finally, look for CustomDataObject_Flat.aspx sample. There are also many useful samples that you can find in that folder. 

Hope this helps,
James.