Oracle Programming with Visual Basic [Paperback]

Nick Snowdon (Author)

Book Description

Series: Developers | Publication Date: March 1999

Oracle 8 is a complex database with many powerful features, but getting information out of the database and into the hands of managers and users is difficult. Despite repeated attempts, including failed products such as Oracle PowerObjects, Oracle has been unable to create a development tool which will solve this problem. The Solution: Visual Basic. Visual Basic is the most popular Windows programming language in the world. It is easy to learn, easy to use, and provides quick results. Visual Basic allows Oracle developers to build quick and effective programs for inputting information into an Oracle database or creating reports.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Aimed at programmers who are familiar with Visual Basic and who have been exposed to Oracle, this instructional text covers the popular Oracle/Visual Basic client/server combination from beginning to end. The book opens with a lengthy discussion of the unique architecture of Oracle. The author presents the basics of Oracle's components, database administration processes, and database design issues. By the end of this first part, the reader comes away with a solid understanding of Oracle. The second part adequately covers queries and store procedures and introduces the reader to Oracle's PL/SQL.

Next, the author devotes a section to implementing Visual Basic client applications against the Oracle back end. He presents Open Database Connectivity (ODBC), cursors, and object linking and embedding database (OLE-DB) as well as discusses the Microsoft JET engine, remote data objects, and ODBCDirect. All of these architectures are critical to expert database programming in Visual Basic. The book also addresses other client design issues, such as transaction control and error handling.

Oracle Programming wraps up with a section on advanced Oracle techniques that includes Oracle Objects for OLE--otherwise known as OO4O. Generous but concise code examples, smart sidebars on real-world implementation, and plenty of architectural diagrams round out this book. --Stephen Plain

Product Details

• Paperback: 715 pages
• Publisher: Sybex Inc; 1st edition (March 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0782123228
• ISBN-13: 978-0782123227
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 7.6 x 2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (21 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,029,053 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Nick Snowdon saved my Life!, December 16, 1999

By 

"bungimoto" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Oracle Programming with Visual Basic (Paperback)

I absolutely love the way the author gives an overview of each data acces technology followed by a "Typical Code" segment that gives a simple but adiquate sample of no b/s connection and data retrieval code. This alone earns the $32.00 but he goes on to give great detail on ADO, RDO, OO OLE etc. This book has become my number one refernce for RDO, ADO although I have many VB Books; simply beacuse it cuts to the chase.

Not to mention; The Oracle foundation set in the first 10 chapters is as good as it gets without turning the book into a 2000 page Oracle textbook. (The PL/SQL section is actually pretty comprehensive)Other reviews said the writting style was dry but the author simply gets to the point in each area. There is no wasted space or fluff.

I also appreciated the technique comparisons for optimizing data access for your given situation. I realy wish other programming books would use this layering writing style where the concepts are introduced lightly in dedicated pre-chapters (more than just a quick paragraph) and then presented in complete detail in later chapters. This way you can refernce each technology based on whether you need a quick (but adiquate)overview of code structure and object models or a comprehensive analysis of the methods etc.

After reading this book an intermediate VB programer can start building solid VB front ends (and more)for Oracle. I hope Nick comes out with an updated book with the new MS technologies that support Oracle. Thanks Nick!

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Oracle, VB, and Rock Stardom, June 22, 2000

By 

Bradley J. Reece - See all my reviews

This review is from: Oracle Programming with Visual Basic (Paperback)

There are very few books with "Oracle" and "Visual Basic" in the title. This is unfortunate for developers that want to gain insights into developing quality solutions with those technologies. This is especially so when the developer does not have the benefit of Oracle / VB experienced peers. Fortunately, however, Mr. Snowdon provides us with a well written book on both subjects under one title. The content is quite broad and rather simple and the examples are easy to test out. With that being said, this is definitely a great book for the novice (an experienced VB developer with little experience with Oracle or vice versa or just a plain ol' novice). Beginners could swallow it too, however, the breadth of content may prove somewhat daunting. The senior developer may encounter a degree of frustration with the simplicity or generality of some of the content, but oh well I guess...I found the following discussions very useful: Oracle physical architecture, data access (specifically ADO and the use of DSN-less connections), calling Oracle stored procedures and functions). I should mention that about half of the book deals with basics such as database design, SQL, VB, etc. So, if you need to get up to speed fairly quickly and you're not building a monolithic OLTP system then this is a good addition to your library. Besides, the price is right. I also recommend Dov Trietsch's 'VB Oracle 8' from Wrox which is better for the more advanced VB programmer (use of classes and better coverage of ADO especially in the area of dealing with server sided objects--stored procedures and server sided PL/SQL cursors).

As a final remark let me add that Oracle developers with VB skills (or vice versa, yet again) are capable of commanding large salaries or hourly rates. This is your opportunity as a computer geek to get the recognition you deserve and to live like a rock star.

Order yours now!

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Heavy in Theory, Better Examples Elsewhere, December 9, 2000

By 

Hope (Illinois, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Oracle Programming with Visual Basic (Paperback)

If you compare the size of this book with Dov Treitch's Visual Basic Oracle 8 (wrox), you might think you could get further using this book. That may be true if you're interested in doing Oracle dba tasks. But this book is titled "Oracle Programming".

The first 6 chapters, 210 pages, are dedicated to Oracle architecture and administrative tasks, such as deploying an Oracle db. In my opinion, if you're programming you may need to know about 10 pages worth of this info, good luck finding it, and if you're doing dba work on an enterprise server watch out if you've only read these 200 pages.

Then, when it comes to actual programming an app against Oracle the book also falls way short of the wrox title. There is not a single example in the book that actually demostrates how to create a FORM (remember those?) that links to Oracle. Published in 1999 the code is also behind, with large sections of the book dedicated to DAO, RDO, and ODBC Direct. And, as others have stated, the code describing the use of stored procedures is either wrong or out of date.

If you want to read a long book, get this one. There are some good, clear descriptions of the theory behind cursors and the mechanics of the various middleware connection layers. If you actually want to develop against Oracle, get the wrox book!