Beginning Visual Basic 6 Database Programming [Paperback]

John Connell (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 1861001061 | ISBN-13: 978-1861001061 | Publication Date: August 1998 | Edition: 1st

Visual Basic 6 is the new release of the Microsoft's leading windows programming tool. There are over 3.2 million current users of Visual Basic in the world, ranging from novices to programming to experienced developers. Visual Basic 5 sold over 1m copies in 1997, an increase of over 40% over the previous year's sales. This is a large category that is on an exponential growth curve. Microsoft estimate that 70% of all development that is done with VB is database related. It's the leading tool for developing all database front ends, both to new applications, and to legacy systems. Beginning Visual Basic 6 Database Programming is out concurrently with the new release of VB6, it uses the same winning tutorial format as Beginning VB covering everything from database design, to SQL to client server all at a fast pace. There are practical hands on examples that are usable right from the book and it uses DAO to explain the basics of database programming in lucid tutorial format. Added to all this is the fact that it also covers new ADO technology in depth.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

This book covers all of the new and improved data-access features of Visual Basic 6 (VB6) and illustrates how to put the various components and techniques to work in real-world applications. The first chapter spells out the concepts of databases in general and then introduces the reader to the Data Control and the VB Data Form Wizard--a quick way to snap together a database interface. From there, author John Connell spends a few chapters illustrating how to code the data control and build a "bulletproof" user interface to your data.

After a discussion about planning your database structure, Connell steps you through the process of building a fully functional application that uses many important VB features. The chapters include screen shots, diagrams, and code snippets, with plenty of tips and step-by-step exercises. You can download the source code for the included examples from the publisher's Web site.

Once you have the preliminary education under your belt, the author presents Microsoft's Universal Data Access (UDA) architecture. He shows how to create your own data-bound ActiveX controls and use Active Server Pages (ASPs) to fetch and return database records via a Web browser. Connell finishes off this lengthy education with a brief foray into data mining and a discussion of how to export data to other applications. --Stephen Plain

From the Publisher

Online discussion of the topics in this book available at Wrox's P2P site

Wrox Beginning Guides are fast, entertaining and realistic. They cover an immense scope of material by getting straight to the coal face. All learning is practical and hands on, using the high bandwidth absorption of detail that only experimentation can deliver.

This book is suitable for VB programmers who have read a single general introduction, like Beginning Visual Basic, and want to get down to developing database applications for business. Database programming is a field on its own, and requires the assimilation of a wide range of information such a database theory, SQL etc. This book pulls all those threads together into a single, organised flow.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 880 pages
• Publisher: Apress; 1st edition (August 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1861001061
• ISBN-13: 978-1861001061
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7.3 x 2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (210 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #430,467 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #24 in Books > Computers & Technology > Databases > Beginning & Introductory

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

70 of 70 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent starting point to learn practical VB skills, June 30, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Beginning Visual Basic 6 Database Programming (Paperback)

I strongly recommend purchasing a copy of Beginning VB6 Database, John Connell, Wrox, ISBN 1-861001-06-1. This book is superb. It's well written, easy to follow, and uses practical real-world-example-type labs to get you quickly up to speed on DB access and writing GOOD user interfaces. It also shows how to write re-usable code for those interfaces. If you don't feel like coding the examples they can be downloaded from the Wrox web site. I've learned a bunch of simple little things to improve my VB skills in the first 200 pages. This is essential reading if you want to learn VB skills that you can apply to business solutions, and it doesn't take a lot of time to get through the chapters. I can't say enough good things about this book. Probably the best "how to" computer book I've ever read. It also covers ADO 2.0. I checked it out from the library and was so impressed I purchased my own copy.

74 of 76 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Absolute Must for VB6 Database Programmers, December 10, 1999

By 

"redbullandy" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Beginning Visual Basic 6 Database Programming (Paperback)

I would like to congratulate you for producing Beginning VB6 Database Programming by John Connell. The book is well structured, the chapters can be studied independently. The explanations are very thorough, and clear, the style gave me complete confidence in the author and the feeling that no stones were left unturned. This opinion is evidenced by the Bullet Proof User Interface which is built, incrementally over chapters 4 -7, leading to an excellent Data Control Class Module and Form Templates which have been designed for code reusability. Chapter 10 provides an excellent Address book application using many features of VB for the design and implementation of the foundations of a professional contact management system. The background and history of ADO is clearly and thoroughly documented to provide a solid understanding of the many technologies involved in Database access and how ADO simplifies data access using Universal Data Access for both relational and non relational data sources. Chapter 12 provides an excellent ADO Data Bound ActiveX Control which enables code re-use in a multitude of applications. Chapter 13 is an excellent introduction to Acitve Server Pages and ADO with a really useful Cookie application which incorporates many of the features of using Active Server Pages, using HTML, Server Side Scripting using Visual Basic, ADO for database connectivity and an Active X Dynamic Link Library to exploit the power of VB6 and keeping the Data Centric code close to the database, separate from the User Interface, and again, designed for re-usability in other applications. Chapter 14, Advanced ADO Programming - Data Mining. This is a suberp application which has huge potential in many organisations with corporate data. The data mining technique is employed in a professional front end, user interface, which can easily be tailored to many business specific scenarios which require Business Intelligence uncovering hidden trends in their corporate databases. Finally, Chapter 15, really tops it off, with the capability to provide data exporting features for all database applications. The ability to export data from a database in a variety of formats, including Excel, HTML and CSV is invaluable to every application developer. The ability to disconnect a Recordset and make it persistent has huge potential in Internet applications. The book has, throughout, many useful coding tips to improve the speed of display of Forms, using Events, and writing fast code using the With Statement and storing of static values as variables for fast code execution. Very Professional.

I started the book in the Cookie Chapter 13, then 14 then 15. I then worked my way back to Chapter 8. Then I worked forward, to finish with Chapter 7.

Thank you, I've learned heaps from the book. Big respect to John Connell, he is the man.

22 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Builds a great foundation..., January 8, 2003

By 

ewomack "ewomack" (MN USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Beginning Visual Basic 6 Database Programming (Paperback)

If you're still using VB6 (many, many are despite the .NET hype) and you need to put together a database-driven application this is the first book you should buy. It covers all of the basics you'll need to go forward with database programming. It includes chapters on good data design, definitions of databases and good interface design (the chapter "Creating a bulletproof user interface" is useful for any VB6 application, not just database-driven ones). All of this is essential for creating good DB apps, and the author explains these concepts clearly and not too verbosely. It goes beyond the coding and shows you the "why" behind data storage and manipulation. You'll learn much more than VB code.

If you're already conversant in VB6 (the book doesn't assume you are) you will fly through this book. I ossmosized this book, it's that well written, and I was able to absorb everything well in time for a VB project deadline. If you need to learn quickly, this is also the book to get.

The book focuses mostly on Microsoft Access DB programming (which makes sense since most beginners do not have an expensive copy of SQL Server just lying around begging for data), and it covers DAO and ADO and delineates the important differences between the technologies. Though the book provides a good foundation for any VB database programming, it will not teach you how to program using VB6 and SQL Server.

In short, a great introduction to database programming for Visual Basic programmers. Expect to learn a lot, but don't stop here. Move on to a more advanced book after ingesting this one.