Beginning ASP.NET 1.1 Databases: From Novice to Professional [Paperback]

Damien Foggon (Author), Dan Maharry (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 1590593693 | ISBN-13: 978-1590593691 | Publication Date: August 4, 2004 | Edition: 1

This book picks up where Beginning ASP.NET: From Novice to Professional left off, focusing on database programming with ASP.NET. As an ASP.NET developer, you probably need to access your databases quickly and efficiently. This book will provide you with the skills to do so, teaching you best practices and methods that will help achieve professional ASP.NET and database solutions.

Beyond the basics of building a Web form and placing a few controls on a page, the most common task required of ASP.NET developers is building a Web site possessing content that is stored in a database. Because general ASP.NET beginner books usually invest so many chapters going through basics, the books don’t cover everything involved.

Beginning ASP.NET 1.1 Databases: From Novice to Professional is a complete, thorough introduction to this particular topic. The authors show how you can connect a Web site to many different data sources not just databases and use the data to dynamically generate page content. They also show how to build a relational database, use SQL to communicate with it, and understand how they differ from each other. Youll learn that you often have several ways to achieve the same task, and you’ll find out how to decide which option is the most appropriate for the task you face.

Of course, this kind of knowledge is only as good as the solutions it helps build. The authors cover the real-world issues youre likely to face, such as design, transactions, error handling, optimization and scalability. We work with SQL Server, Jet, and MySQL databases throughout the book, and we point out the practical differences among these. Finally, we set you on your way at the end with a handy case study that brings together all the things you’ve learned.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Dan Maharry is a writer and developer based in Birmingham, United Kingdom, where he lives with his fiancée, Jane. He has worked on more than forty technical books since 1997 and co-written ten books, including Beginning ASP.NET 1.1 with Visual C# .NET and Beginning ASP.NET 1.1 Databases. When not writing, he works as a developer and manager for the .Coop Domain Registry. Outside of work, Dan is an avid filmmaker, and recently blew up a car in the name of cinema. He'd like to do it again.

Damien Foggon is technical director and lead developer for Thing-E Ltd., a company specializing in the development of dynamic web solutions for the education sector. He was responsible for the development of several ASP and ColdFusion websites, and he's now in the process of moving most of them to ASP.NET. Before coauthoring .NET XML Web Services, Damien was a regular technical reviewer for numerous .NET books. After several false starts, he's busy assembling his personal site.

Product Details

• Paperback: 632 pages
• Publisher: Apress; 1 edition (August 4, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1590593693
• ISBN-13: 978-1590593691
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 7 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,430,234 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great DB help for beginners, October 27, 2004

By 

James G. Arthur (Springfield, VA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Beginning ASP.NET 1.1 Databases: From Novice to Professional (Paperback)

I have traditionally called myself a Web Designer, meaning that I developed websites in html and some occasional dhmtl. The sites were static in that the pages are not database driven. Except for size, the sites could forever remain in this fashion. They are mostly informational sites, where the basic information does not change, such as a church site or a religious ministry / teaching site.

Size, of course, becomes a major factor. As minor changes or design changes are made, how does one integrate these changes across several hundred pages? This is not a unique issue, just an issue related to these type of sites.

The answer, of course, is to move to a limited number of design pages while moving the content to the database. Most of those who view themselves as web developers (that is those with a programming background) would find this conclusion fairly obvious.

In my situation, the matter was more complicated because one site would ultimately be a PHP / mySQL site while others would be ASP.NET / MS SQL powered. While some might argue for moving all of the sites to one or the other, I had no choice on the PHP site and my personal preference (at least on the front end) was to use ASP.NET. So, off I went in search of instructional materials.

In the midst of this search, I was blessed by Beginning ASP.NET 1.1 Databases. I have found this book to be of major assistance and help because its sole focus in life is to teach the basics of the database side of the problem. While the work focuses on ASP.NET as the programming language, the focus is on the use of the databases.

There is no sole focus on MS SQL, so the information becomes very portable to all programming languages. Most of the other works I encountered desire to teach the programming language first, then, or side-by-side, teach the database usage. In Beginning ASP.NET 1.1 Databases has the benefit of learning about database usage without attempting to focus on both programming and databases at the same time.

The chapters are well organized and easy to read, while the examples are portable to other situations and make actual application easier to undertake. The real world case study (an HTML Reference system) is a pleasant change of pace from the other works, most of which want to delve into content management or yahoo portals.

This is a well written, well thought out work that makes a great addition to one's reference and learning library, especially if one closer to the novice side of the scale.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A full solution, August 14, 2004

By 

W Boudville (Terra, Sol 3) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Beginning ASP.NET 1.1 Databases: From Novice to Professional (Paperback)

The book is the functional equivalent of the many out there discussing using J2EE to build a dynamical website that is hooked to SQL databases. Foggon and Maharry show how if you are in the Microsoft .NET world, you can do likewise. They give a quick summary of earlier Microsoft efforts, like COM, Data Access Objects and Remote Data Objects. And how ADO 2.0 replaced the latter 2, and in turn is superceded by ADO.NET. The entire book is a not too subtle encouragement to migrate to ASP.NET and C#.

There are solid technical explanations of why it is advantageous to do so. Like the relative ease of hooking to a back end SQL Server database, using high level classes like DataSet to pull stuff from the database, with a minimal knowledge of SQL needed. Then they show how the latest ASP can use this data to make dynamic HTML pages. Much like JSP and Java servlets.

There is even a section on designing a database. Raising issues like normalisation and first and second normal forms. Though if this is new to you, then consider consulting a dedicated book on the subject.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good introductory C# web book, bad title, November 6, 2004

By 

Jack D. Herrington "engineer and author" (Silicon Valley, CA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Beginning ASP.NET 1.1 Databases: From Novice to Professional (Paperback)

This is good book, but I don't think you will get what you want if you go from just the title alone. The is book is about database drive web applications using C#. There are two whole chapters on the front end ASP.NET layer using web controls and C#. Not that this is bad, mind you. The text is well written, the organization is fine, the graphics and illustrations are well done.

The book starts with an analysis of the architecture of an ASP.NET data-driven web application. It then goes into hooking up your pages to a database server, running commands on the server, and getting data from the server onto pages and editing it. Stored procedures are also covered.

Part three of the book was the best part for me. It starts with some practical advice about web application design that will save you a lot of time and frustration. It concludes with a case study that illustrates the real world use of what you have learned in all of the preceding chapters.

This is an excellent walkthrough of the basics of ASP.NET. If you are looking for an introductory material then you should definitely consider this book.