Customer Reviews

Beginning E-Commerce with Visual Basic, ASP, SQL Server 7.0 and MTS

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

As an Internet consultant for almost 5 years, I'm often asked by Internet newcomers: "Okay, What do I need to take on/learn today; Networking? VB? ASP? SQL? Server-IIS? something else?". And since the answer is "Well, All of them of course.", people are still short a good way to start on each of those.

Well Wrox brought a very good book for those Internet startups (with Microsoft technologies). You will most definitely find an answers to all of your first questions on the How-To of an eCommerce web site.

Actually, the real title of this book would have been too long to fit since it does more than VB, ASP, SQL, and MTS. To my surprise, it also goes over Credit Card security with 3rd parties such as DataCash and CyberCash, it goes over simple Private/Public Key Pair, Order Pipeline, Hosting, Up-sell, Cross-sell, and even Marketing, + more.

Also, I have to admit that the coding used is well-formed, neat & clean, and extensive. I'm sure that the example would bring new content to some seasoned eCommerce expert as well.

Last but not least, if you are a complete newcomer in the programming area, you might want to consider having other book such as Beginning ASP 3.0, Beginning ASP Databases, Beginning VB6; at the same time than the Beginning eCommerce in case you are not sure of what the syntax means. Even though this book is pretty easy to follow, it also assume you have some programming knowledge (which can be overcome by those other books).

Good Job.

I just completed this book and i have doubts weather the application architecture and object model used in this book is correct. 1) The author does not uses Stored Procedure's, which is the recomended way of creating scalable application's on Microsoft Platfrom. 2) The author does not tells us weather the database will reside on the same machine as the web server or it will reside on a different machine(which is the case in most big installations). If the database is on a different machine a number of issues are to be covered like data marshalling, which is not covered. The business objects in the book open a recordset for entering data and have SQL embeded in them. All this database related functionality could have been deliniated to another component residing on the databse server. 3) I think all the problem in the application lies because the author does not split the Object's in his application into two parts one containing Business functionality and another containing Data Acess related functionality. This is the prescribed architecture by Microsoft and an excellent example on this architecture is the FMSTOCKS sample application available in MSDN. 4) Lastly, the author creates an Interface, so that the presentation tier in his application is not able to acess the database and the presentation tier(ie. asp code) is able to acess the other objects only through Visit object. He could have made only visit object publicily creatable. That would have been an easier solution, especially for a so called Beginer's Book. However this book cover's a lot of topics and is a useful book, to give an insight into E-Commerce application development especially for those who are intermediate VB & ASP programmers. The sample application is good and with few changes could be used in commercial applications. This book does give insight into some new and important topics. There are number of topics which are not clearly explanined especially Chapters3,5 and 6 where the author builds his application iteratively, rest of the book is excellent. I am giving it 3stars only because of the above three chapters and above mentioned faults Otherwise this book would have got 5Stars. Lastly this book can not be classified as a Beginer's book, i would recomend buyers of this book to first read Begining ASP, Begining VB and VB6.0 Business Object before reading this book, otherwise they would not be able to get 100% out of this book.

You need to read a few other books (preferably Wrox one's) before you get stuck into this, but nevertheless this is a very easy to follow book, and contains some great HTML and ASP tricks to make your e-commerce application more maintainable and scalable. I suggest reading "Beginning Components for ASP" and "Beginning ASP" from Wrox before reading this. What's more it's written by a Brit so it can't be bad (not that I'm biased at all ! ).

This is a great book if you want to get familiar with a lot of tech (VB, ASP, MTS, SQL, etc) however it fails to mention an important road block until the 12th chapter.

MOST WEB HOSTS do not allow custom dll's!!! The one's that do charge a hefty hourly fee to look over your source code, test it, and then install it (not including the usual setup fee and monthly fee). If you colocate your own box or if you have a dedicated server somewhere, then this doesn't apply to you.

It's a great learning tool but I don't think it's practical to call it "Beginning". A much simpler shopping cart and checkout application written in ASP and using an Access backend would have been sufficient to learn the basic concepts behind a full blown ecommerce solution.

This is the book for anyone looking for the correct way to develop using the evolving MS DNA model. Certainly you need to take percaution on the "homegrown" VB COM components. Meaning, either host your own site or find an ISP before you hope to deploy. There are ISP's out there who will work with you. The author lays it out step by step on the core components for a solid site. If you are a little confused along the way, just keep going. By the time you are done, you will see the complete project. Once your there, you will understand why this is the best way to develop web applicatons.

A few months ago I decided to build a small e-commerce solution and picked ASP/SQL Server and IIS5 for the core technologies. Finding Matthew Reynolds's book definitely reduced development time and helped to quickly define a line of progress.

I spent lots of time with this book, and got to know it in detail from the first pages to the last. A few negative aspects were:

1) The book is plagued by code bugs and typos. Most are already included in the errata, and of the undocumented bugs. I didn't find any that was critical but still wasted some time with the less-obvious coding errors. The Wrox support/forums were useless, spending time using your IQ power to solve the problems will be more effective.
2) The interface/usability/visuals of the site are simply lousy. If you are thinking about using it for a real production site, you will have to do what I did... rewrite tons of HTML/ASP and spend some time in Photoshop/DreamWeaver or similar packages. And that is for the visuals alone.
3) Lots of coding details aren't brilliant. Usability is also mostly ignored except for a few minor and very basic ideas (The logo on the top left should link to the home page, etc). Reynolds could have made the shopping experience better with just a few little details. Visually and from the customer's point of view, the site is terrible.
4) There is some annoying redundancy. A few aspects are mentioned too often. Perhaps newbies will value that, but I felt the space would be better used with other things (More XML use, for instance)

If you are thinking about using the project as an easy production site, beware. The site is fairly generic, but many aspects (like the order pipeline system) will require lots of work to be adapted. Most VB code will need to be rewritten (plus the visual aspect already mentioned).
I also did not perform any extensive load testing, but suspect significant changes will be necessary to scale properly. Security, input validation and error-checking is also very basic or non-existent (the search engine appears vulnerable to SQL injection exploits, for instance). All this however, was expected, and is not really a limitation of the book, just be warned you will not get a 100% trouble free solution. As for difficulty, If you know nothing of ASP, SQL and VB, you will feel lost and should read other titles first. But if you're the kind of reader that likes to buy books always a bit more advanced, and learn on-the-fly, then don't worry. It is perfectly possible in this case.

This might sound negative so far, but I honestly can't give it less than 4.5/5 just because of the problems mentioned. Books like this one aren't very common. Reynolds basically created a really fat tutorial and will practically hold your hand from start to finish. You will get a fairly clear (but simplified) view of the whole process of implementing a Microsoft e-commerce solution - planning, coding, hosting, customer care, etc.

In my particular case, I organized a few basic areas to cover based on Reynold's tips, used lots of his VB objects as the basis for mine, and collected ideas. After a few weeks adding "extras", rewriting stuff and gathering more details from other sources, I came up with a very acceptable small e-commerce site.

Overall...I didn't like Reynold's site, but I like mine, and I saved a lot of time building it thanks to this title. I know his approach works, because I have followed it from start to finish. It is not the best way to do it, but it works, and it has considerable potential to help you learn while you're building it.

I look forward to similar approaches from Wrox on other technologies (ASP.Net, PHP/MySQL/Apache, etc) and now I check Reynold's articles on ASP Today and C# Today more often than before. Not perfect, but not bad... not bad at all... 4.5/5

This book help pull things together for me - ASP, VB, SQL7, etc. The author's application design is very robust and real world. He doesn't take shortcuts, such as maintaining state via session variables, which can ease development but hinder scalability. Unfortunately for the author, I suspect he will lose a lot of "Beginners" by Chapter 3. Implementing interfaces is not an intuitive concept for most would-be developers. Perhaps other approaches may have proven more consistent with the book's title.

An extraordinary ASP E-Commerce book that stands out as simply as one the best. I'll just hit the high points.

First, the author's approach is not only exhaustively complete, but is based on proven methodologies. The genesis of Mr. Reynold's methodology appears to be based in the core of ASP, COM, SQL, MTS and e-commerce object models making and excellent design with this fictitious web storefront called "Jo's Coffee". Highlights: (1) Many times in this 600 page book was the ASP, COM, VBScript products and technology mentioned, making this book as applicable for today standards. (2)The author focuses on ASP basic requirements, dedicating a good portion of the book to discovering and prioritizing E-Commerce business model that will drive how E-Commerce Store fronts could dynamically evolve to support those huge stores. (3) The approach is realistic, which is evidenced by one of many interesting techniques the author provides. (4) The book is structured in such a way that it follows the E-Commece architecture project phases and stages.

I like the way the author uses the ASP code in combination with the components for this project and checklists provided throughout the book. I also like the excellent code illustrations examples that depict process flows of the store provided in the body of the book. This book definitely delivers.

As an tenured E-Commerce Strategic Architec the planning methodology and framework of this book is a great approach for the beginner to intermediate ASP Developer. Even the most experienced consultant will learn a few new techniques, and those who are new to E-Commerce strategic planning will learn how to do it the right way.

Five stars go out to this outstanding book and my compliments to the author.

I was extremely pleased with this title! It covers everything from picking a hosting company, specific Access and SQL configuration, simple shopping carts (with source code!), security issues, and even user tracking. There is also a support section on the Wrox website that gives you updated info and the code in the book in seperate ASP files. I borrowed this from a friend for the weekend and after a few hours I knew I had to have my own copy! Even if you don't know any much ASP/ADO or VB script you're in good hands - everything done is step by step and by example. Thank you Wrox! Okay enough ranting :)

The first time I read this book I found that it quickly put me in a position to develop real world applications. I continue to read through this book and find that each time a new idea or approach to a problem can be extracted an applied to my project at hand.

One of the better books I've read on e-commerce in the past 2 years.