Professional Visual Basic 6 Databases [Illustrated] [Paperback]

Charles Williams (Author)

Book Description

Series: Professional | Publication Date: July 1999

Visual Basic is the #1 programming tool in the world and 70% of VB applications involve a database. However, there is little advanced information for VB database programmers that has been proven in the real world.

This book has broad coverage of many issues relating to advanced database design and implementation using VB6. The main feature is the demonstration of the 3 tier solution, enabling more scalable applications.

From the coverage of 2 tier solutions a thorough grounding of SQL Server 7, ADO and Database design is provided. The graduation to 3 tier applications is achieved through a practical demonstration of the techniques learned.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Professional Visual Basic 6 Databases provides some of the latest thinking about creating business objects using Visual Basic (VB) 6 and MTS on the Microsoft platform. This book is perfect for readers with previous VB experience who want to bring their skills up to speed with today's three-tiered architectures.

Besides describing how to create useful VB 6 objects that work in conjunction with MTS for transaction support, this book includes two standout sections. First, its introduction to using SQL includes not only a guide to the basics but also a thorough tour of joins, grouping options, and stored procedures. Another excellent chapter shows off the basics of data warehouses, along with the Microsoft Dimension and Cube wizards used to generate them on SQL Server 7.

The overall shape of this book starts with using Microsoft tools to build an older-style two-tiered VB application. Next, it's a state-of-the-art three-tiered approach where VB 6 runs objects on the middle tier using ADO, MTS, and SQL Server stored procedures on the back end. (The author also shows off some useful tips for optimizing network traffic with remote objects.) The book closes with an ASP-based example for an e-commerce shopping cart, bringing the whole book around to today's thin client, browser-based interfaces. Handy reference sections provide quick lookups for all ADO objects.

Overall, Professional Visual Basic 6 Databases delivers a solid tutorial geared toward the intermediate VB programmer. It's all you need to be productive with Microsoft's "official" three-tiered approach for building robust applications. --Richard Dragan

Topics covered: ADO, ODBC, and SQL basics; two- and three-tiered architectures; SQL Server 6.5/7.0 stored procedures and triggers; Microsoft data warehousing; MOLAP, ASPs, and deployment.

From the Publisher

This book is for VB developers who need a source of learning and reference for planning and building professional database applications.

Product Details

• Paperback: 883 pages
• Publisher: Peer Information Inc.; 1st edition (July 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1861002025
• ISBN-13: 978-1861002020
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 7.2 x 2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (38 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #938,151 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

28 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Should be titled SQL Server VB Programming, May 24, 2000

By 

Chris Baker (Overland Park, KS) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Professional Visual Basic 6 Databases (Paperback)

This book is virtually worthless if you do not have SQL Server 7.0. In addition, the bulk of the first 13 chapters is covered in better detail in Wrox's Beginning VB6 Database's by John Connell. So if you have started with that book, or any other VB database book, then the first half of this book is all review.

It does get into some interesting topics, but since I did not have SQL Server 7.0 available, I could not really use this book.

If you have SQL server 7.0, VB 6.0 and are new to databases, then this book is PERFECT.

25 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good overall/recap of VB and data access, June 2, 2000

By 

Maxime Bombardier - See all my reviews

This review is from: Professional Visual Basic 6 Databases (Paperback)

If you are looking to get overall information about how to use databases with Visual Basic 6, go for it. If you already have experience on working with VB for n-tier applications and knows ADO pretty well, look elsewhere.

This book covers a great deal of material, thus going over some details of them. This book is good for beginners to intermediate people that wants to have quick solutions.

For the others, for example, if you are looking for a better implementation of n-tier or to pass data between components; you will have some information in this book but I would suggest the Visual Basic 6 Business Objects and VB6 Distributed Objects, both from Wrox, to get a full coverage on the subject.

Overall, this book is good for VB/Data starters.

35 of 38 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars More approachable than its "Beginning VB 6 Database" sibling, October 31, 2000

By 

Michael Sebastian "Mike Sebastian" (Kentucky USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Professional Visual Basic 6 Databases (Paperback)

I have read both this book and its series "predecessor" by John Connell, starting with Connell. While there is considerable overlap between the two, as other reviewers here have remarked, I'd choose this one if I were only to buy one book. Not that Connell is not a good book; it's just that I found this one more readable where it covered the same material. The "Professional" appellation should not frighten off beginning to intermediate readers, nor convince them that they must start with the "Beginning" title first.

After reading the introductory, "basics" chapters of this book I came away with a much better understanding of such things as connection strings, ADO objects, and basic SQL syntax than after reading the Connell book. My major gripe about many programming books--and I have been devouring them in bulk over the last two years--is that they often launch into code examples without adequately and systematically explaining the various methodologies involved.

For instance, I don't think I have ever read elsewhere a better overview of the ADO Object Model (Chapter 7)--it's well done because it's covered in an organized and systematic fashion that is appropriate for this book's target audience (the intermediate programmer who might be new to some of the technologies presented here but who is not to programming per se) rather than as a chaotic catalog of example after example--though there are plenty of those as well where appropriate.

Great content aside, another niggling gripe I have with this and other programming books, perhaps more often with Wrox (maybe it's just a sample error because I read more of them,) is the presence of annoying grammatical errors. If only someone could teach the editors (are they awake out there?) how to use semicolons, because sentences smash into each other like minivans at the supermarket with irritating regularity. The copy editors, who are supposed to fix typos, also must be asleep at the switch. We are entitled to expect better from a forty-dollar book. But just grit your teeth and focus on the content.

In short, if you already know something about SQL, database design, and VB, but need help making them all work together, I think this one is the ONE you should buy if you can only buy one.