Customer Reviews

A Programmer's Guide to ADO .NET in C#

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(8)

 

 

This book may be useful to someone who is a complete beginner to .NET and C#. However, I found it to be the most tedious programming book I have ever read. The author would list 3 pages of code, then change one line, and list the 3 pages again (with the one line difference)! Also, the author never tired of explaining in some depth (like 3 paragraphs) how the 3 different .NET providers had the same basic class taxonomy (but different implementations). After reading the same 3 paragraphs (more or less) for about the 10th time, I swore to myself that I would puke if I encountered those same 3 paragraphs one more time. Fortunately, I decided to pick up and read "ADO.NET Examples and Best Practices for C# Programmers" instead. I learned more in 50 pages there than I learned in 400 pages of this title.

I was reading this review in .Net Programmer's Magazine and found it useful. Here is some of it in case any body is interested. Overall good book for ADO.NET Beginners. Cheers!
- Max

Understanding Basics
First three chapters of this book are for beginners, who have no idea of C# and ADO.NET. Chapter 1 and chapter 2 of this book are for beginners, who are migrating to C# from other languages specially C++, VB or Java. Chapter 1 covers basic syntaxes of C# language and Chapter 2 shows how to develop Windows applications using Windows Forms and Visual Studio .NET.

Chapter 3 is the chapter, which I liked a lot. This is a small chapter, but this is where author clears every concept of ADO.NET, its architecture and its components. I like author's graphical approach, which I don't find in other books. Author explains each and every component of ADO.NET architecture graphical and shows how all components fit together and builds ADO.NET, one of the best database access technology developed by Microsoft so far.

Chapter 4 of the book is totally dedicated to visual ADO.NET components and Visual Studio .NET. Author shows how you can take advantage of Visual Studio .NET's rich features including Server Explorer, Data-bound controls, Data Form Wizard and so on.

ADO.NET Disconnected classes and Data Providers
Chapter 5 is the most important and biggest chapter of the book. In this chapter, author shows you the broad view of ADO.NET architecture and basic building blocks of ADO.NET and ADO.NET data providers. Author has divided this chapter into two parts. First part covers disconnected classes such as DataSet, DataTable, DataColumn and DataRow and how to use them in a disconnected manner. The second part of the chapter covers OleDb and Sql data providers, their components and how to write applications using Sql Server and Acccess databases. In this chapter, author goes from one component to other one by one by starting from the Connection component, followed by Command, DataAdapter, DataReader and so on.

XML and ADO.NET
6th Chapter of the book covers XML and ADO.NET. Author starts this chapter with a brief introduction of XML followed by reading, writing, deleing, searching, and navigating through XML documents. The second part of this chapter shows the relationship between ADO.NET and XML. Again, author's visual oriented approach clears many concepts, which are hard to understand by just reading few pages.

Web Development and ADO.NET
Chapter 7 and Chapter 8 are dedicated to Web development and ADO.NET. In these chapters, authors first clears basic concepts of ASP.NET model and shows how to write simple Web applications using ASP.NET and Visual Studio .NET. After that author shows how to use ASP.NET DataGrid and other data-bound controls to develop database applications using ADO.NET. Author also shows how to develop a Guest book application. Another application shows how to write Web applications which lets you add, edit and update data through Web pages.

Chapter 8 is dedicated to Web Services. Author has used Visual Studio .NET's rich features to develop Web applications, which lets you read and write databases. In the end, author also shows how to consume Web services from Web applications.

I found these two chapters useful for my Web development using ASP.NET.

Handling ADO.NET Events
Chapter 9 is a small chapter but covers every ADO.NET component and their related events. Chapter shows how to use .NET even model and how to handle ADO.NET events from time to time.

Different flavors of ADO.NET
This chapter has many elements, which didn't fit in previous chapters. This chapter shows how to write database applications utilizing the power of stored procedures, views and triggers. Author also shows various COM Interoperability issues and how to use existing COM based database technologies in managed code through ADO.NET data providers. Topics include using ADO Recordset, ADOX and ADOMD in managed code using ADO.NET. Good for developers who still wants to use ADOX, ADO, and ADOMD in managed code.

ODBC .Net Data Provider
This chapter is a useful chapter for developers who don't work with SQL Server and Access databases but uses MySQL, Oracle and other databases. In this chapter, author first covers basics of ODBC .Net data provider, which I couldn't find in two previous books. After that, an author shows examples and connection samples on how to work with different databases. Personally I didn't use any of these databases but many developers who are using MySql, Oracle, Sybase, and Excel databases will find this chapter useful. I also noticed that author even covers Oracle 8i and 9i versions.

Treat for non Database Developers
At the end of this book, two appendixes cover some basic database concepts and how to construct SQL statements. These appendixes are useful for non-SQL developers who have no idea of how to write SQL statements.

Conclusion
Overall a good buy for beginner to intermediate database developers who want to write database applications in .NET. If you already have some knowledge of C# and Windows development in .NET, you can skip chapter 1 and chapter 2.

This book is an excellent introduction for the developer new to ADO.NET. The book is geared towards the C# developer using VS.NET so if that doesn't describe you then you will want to look elsewhere. If that does describe you then this is the book you want. The book starts with an introduction to C# which is probably good enough for someone familiar with Java or C++. This is followed by a brief introduction to ADO.NET and how to use VS.NET to build data driven applications. Chapter 5, the longest chapter in the book, is an excellent explanation of using ADO.NET disconnected classes and data providers. The author does an excellent job of explaining these critical topics. The book goes on to explain how XML documents fit into ADO.NET and follows this with a discussion of web applications, web services, and ADO events. The book contains a nice discussion of the ODBC data provider including how to install it into the VS.NET toolkit. This information is not easily found elsewhere. I especially like the author's style, which makes the book feel like a discussion with an enthusiastic co-worker rather than as a dry treatise. The book contains quite a few step-by-step, screen-by-screen examples of building applications. If you are (or plan to be) a C# developer and are new to ADO.NET you are unlikely to find a better book than this one for making this complex topic easily reachable.

This is an excellent for both who are new to ADO.NET and for those that are making the transition from ADO to ADO.NET. The book covers all the important part of ADO.NET in detail to give the readers different concepts in approaching things.

The parts of the book that really helped me out to understand and use ADO.NET are as follow with little description.

Overview of ADO.NET - This gave me a short and sweet look at what ADO.NET is all about and why I should use it in my application and what are the advantages and disadvantages of ADO.NET over the old ADO.

Working with XML - An excellent chapter that gave details about how to use XML and ADO.NET, it covered the important XML classes in detail and how XML can be beneficial in application to make things easier

ASP.NET - This again made it short and sweet in a nutshell on how to get started in using ASP.NET using of course, ADO.NET

Web Services - I had never even looked at web services before I read this chapter, now I can safely say I got a very good understanding on what they are all about and why we would use them as well as how to easily write web services with the chapter written in this book.

Different Flavors - Information in this section I will not use on daily basic but it never hurts to know what other things ADO.NET can do for those that want to explore different aspects of it.

Handling Events - Another short and sweet chapter right on the money

ODBC.NET - This chapter is definitely recommended for those that are working with non Microsoft databases, even things like Microsoft Excel and Flat files. Excellent chapter as far as explaining how to work with Oracle, Sybase and MySQL.

Overall I definitely recommend this book for anyone writing database applications or simply those that want to know what they are getting themselves into as far as databases go. Most of the software I write involve database interaction so I will be using this book a lot to understand different aspects. Again, definitely recommended - 5 Stars *****

I absolutely agreed -

This book is an excellent introduction for the developer new to ADO.NET. The book is geared towards the C# developer using VS.NET so if that doesn't describe you then you will want to look else where. If that does describe you then this is the book you want. The book starts with an introduction to C# which is probably good enough for someone familiar with Java or C++. This is followed by a brief introduction to ADO.NET and how to use VS.NET to build data driven applications. Chapter 5, the longest chapter in the book, is an excellent explanation of using ADO.NET disconnected classes and data providers. The author does an excellent job of explaining these critical topics. The book goes on to explain how XML documents fit into ADO.NET and follows this with a discussion of web applications, web services, and ADO events. The book contains a nice discussion of the ODBC data provider including how to install it into the VS.NET toolkit. This information is not easily found elsewhere. I especially like the author's style, which makes the book feel like a discussion with an enthusiastic co-worker rather than as a dry treatise. The book contains quite a few step-by-step, screen-by-screen examples of building applications. If you are (or plan to be) a C# developer and are new to ADO.NET you are unlikely to find a better book than this one for making this complex topic easily reachable.

I start working with ASP.NET Web Services and Web Application and use MySQL as back end. I've seen couple of books but none of them provides good coverage on ODBC data provider. Author has done an exellent explaing database connectivity with various ODBC data sources. Good coverage of XML Services and intro to Web Applications. An above average book for ADO.NET, XML and Web database programmers. I agree with other reviewer that the author's style, which makes the book feel like a discussion with an enthusiastic co-worker rather than as a dry treatise. Normally you would think developing Web Services are a "BIG DEAL" but author explained in a way which makes Web services a "Peice of Cake". Based on this book, I wrote a Web service, which works as a Database Layer for my three ASP.NET applications to send data back and forth.

Cheers!

Good to write Windows and Web database applications. After reading it takes no time to write applications. Few things: ... says two authors but there is only one author. Author could've done a better job covering ADO.NET classes in more depth. I found good ceverage on couple of topics and some of them are XML Coverage, ODBC, ADO.NET Events handling. For beginners to intermediate programmers, not bad at all.

Do not waste your money on this book. The author is a VB programming and not an C# geek. Does not use good C# programming standards or understands OOP. Example, he thinks its good programming to open a SQL connection and keep it open for the live of the app. Issue 2 - Formatting, the author list page after page of .NET object's prop/methods -- why not list the only the main one. In one section he show 3 code examples (SQL, OLE OD, ODBC) that take about 5-6 pages and there is only one line of code different between them. The graphic layout of the book stinks, it remembers me of high school when I would up the spacing to make a 2 page book report into 10. If the tech reviewer and/or APress would used common sense in reviewing and layout of the book - it would by 200-300 page(max) not the 700+. In fact this book is so bad, I will have to think twice before buying another APress book.

Summary - the author tried to convert his VB book over to C# with no knowledge of C#/OOP and APress tried to release a book based on size, not content.

I am new to .NET and database programming. I found this book simple and easy to read and understand. Step by step tutorial format makes it more fun to read. Expert programmers may find book little boring but I recommend a great read for novice programmers moving to database .NET applications.

This book could have been written in 100pgs or less. Instead, the book has been bulked with information that does not even pertain to ADO.Net. If you are writing a book about a specific topic, PLEASE ASSUME THAT WE KNOW THE BASICS OF .NET and C#. I don't understand the mentality of authors who treat their readers as "You're a novice and you know nothing so before we continue, let's start at the beginning, the very beginning...this is the START button...". I would say that the author knows little about optimization because he never gets beyond the kindergarten level of expertise. Don't look at the sample code! You would be better off writing your own and it will work better than that provided by this book. Highly dissappointed in my purchase.

I can recommend Mahesh's c-sharpcorner.com site but not this book. It goes over the same bland "this is what a data reader does and does fast, but these are all the great things you can do with a dataset." What about strategies for accessing columns and data types? What about hiding data providers by using a utility class that feeds your apps data using IDbConnections and IDbCommands? This book has nothing special to say.

Plus, this book contains an infuriating number of grammatical mistakes.

I'm trying _ADO.NET Examples and Best Practices for C# Programmers_ next. If this book failed you too, look for my review there.