Customer Reviews

Programming ADO (DV-MPS Programming)

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

There's really not much to this book that isn't already in the Books Online, I'm afraid. I'm a professional programmer, I've been using DAO, ODBC, RDO, DAO for years. I bought this book looking for "best practices" for ADO. (Since there are so many ways of doing things, what are the drawbacks and advantages to each?) What I found was a lot of repetition of the help file, with occasional insights (how to optimize the Sort property, for example).

As an example, consider this: One of the trickiest things with ADO is dealing with CursorLocation, CursorType, and LockType, especially when you're not aware what OLEDB provider your code will be using. Sceppa writes: "...What's a database developer to do? With a little experience and a lot of reading, you'll develop a good feel for which combinations are possible and which aren't... [Y]ou'll probably explore different options and experiment with code, and along the way you'll inadvertently discover the answers to questions such as these." Well, Mr. Sceppa, I didn't buy the book to be told to "experiment" and hope for a discovery; these are the answers I had hoped the book would contain. If you'd spent fewer pages repeating the method and property lists, you might have been able to include some of this information.

If you think the on-line help is hideous and a more generic Visual Basic book does have enough depth, then this is the book for you. Like most Microsoft Press books it's easy enough to read. Since it is focused on a narrow topic, it actually has some depth to it.

ADO is definitely a work-in-progess and this book explains many of the problems. For example Scheppa notes is a few places how ADO's behavior is not the same as what the documentation says. There were enough insights in the presentation of the properties, methods, and events to keep me going through otherwise boring material.

I remember seeing mistakes in the text that made me stop to think. There were also areas which were not covered in enough depth. For instance, Sceppa has excellent coverage on how to avoid locking records, but essentially nothing on the proper way to lock records.

It may not be perfect, but it is very well done and there is really nothing that compares it to on the subject of ADO. Many people are surprised to find that there is an entire book dedicated to ADO.

David Sceppa works in Developer Support at Microsoft, and it shows in this book. Each chapter has a section entitled "Questions that should be asked more frequently", that is full of useful information that shows his experience in the trenches.

His Visual Basic sample code is actually good quality code, unlike code in so many other books. This is important because so many developers pick up bad coding habits from sloppy sample code in books.

All in all, this is a great book, with detailed yet readable coverage of the subject.

I am an ASP programmer with a little more than a year experience and I always was looking for a book that would explain me when and how to use right technique for better performance in my applications.

This book explains very well and in very easy language things that were missing in my knowledge because ASP books usually do not cover them (by the way English is my second language).

I am very happy because I have this book now. I think it is programmer's Gold Book and it is worth more than all other ASP books that I read before. I discovered for myself details about ADO programming that I didn't know and didn't understand before.

Thank you for David Sceppa!

I literally use this book everyday troubleshooting clients ADO problems. I have other ADO books on my shelf but David's explanation of ADO's functionality plus his insight and suggestions on how to code with ADO make this book my number one ADO resource. As other reviewers have said the ADO documentation is lacking in many areas and David has filled in these gaps with his extensive knowledge of the technology and his own hard won experience.

Here is an example of David's insight, experience, and humor when it comes to dealing with ADO Cursors, "Back-end databases, OLE DB providers, ODBC drivers, CursorLocations, CursorType, LockType, CommandType, oh my! What's a database developer to do? With a little experience and a lot of reading, you'll develop a good feel for which combinations are possible and which aren't." This quote of from Chapter 7 Cursors, Foiled Again and the section is titled You Can't Always Get What You Want. In this chapter David does a great job of guiding us developers through what is known and what is not know about this part of ADO. It is this type of guidance and insight that I want the most when I am developing new ADO applications and when I am troubleshooting ADO code.

If you have any dealings with ADO then you simply must get this book.

I have read many books, but i approached this one thinking it could be something like reading ADO reference in MSDN. But i was wrong. This book is fundamental if you really want to know how to use ADO and how ADO works. Believe me, you will learn MANY interesting things about ADO. You can use ADO without reading this book, but you will lose very important knowledge of this important technology.

I have prefered the book ADO: ActiveX Data Objects by Jason T. Roff for its numerous source code samples.

It is about time that someone put out a concise and accurate volume on ADO and its functionality. Bravo!

David Sceppa has been one of several individuals on the forefront of ADO support within Microsoft's technical support since the beginning. His insight into the technology, and efforts to explain it to customers have been invaluable, however when it comes to the big picture of using ADO (and correspondingly, the entire spectrum of the Microsoft Data Access Components), it was very clear that the online documentation, Knowledge Base articles and downloadable samples simply were not enough. It was this need that sparked this volume, and Scep is one of the few individuals with the vision to pull it off. Consider the Cursor Engine used by MDAC--hardly documented, poorly understood, yet essential to writing robust enterprise applications with ADO. Sceppa's coverage of this technology will be a must-have for any serious ADO developer.

Sceppa's passion for ADO, and for even improvement of its features goes to great lengths--even buying a keg of beer as a way of showing gratitude to the product team after they implemented a feature much needed by customers. You won't find many with better or closer in-depth knowledge of ADO.

ADO's documentation has, for various reasons, always lagged behind the released technology by 1-2 years (in my personal opinion). Sceppa's work here will help to rectify that deficiency immensely.

If you dont have access to microsoft library then you can probably buy this book. its nothing but just the API reference. The foreword gives an illusion of getting interested but when the chapter comes its again refrence. and "Questions That Should Be Asked More Frequently" section is good, but i aint worth to buy the book just for that....