Customer Reviews

VB.NET & SQL Server 2000: Building an Effective Data Layer

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

 

 

I own about 20 Wrox programming books. This is one of the more disappointing ones in my collection.

I bought the book because I was specifically interested in "Building an Effective Data Layer" with VB.Net, i.e. implementing n-tier applications and specifically the Data Access tier. Unfortunately this important topic rarely came up in the book and when it did it was lost in the details. It does cover the SQLClient, and DataReader, ADO.Net, Data Binding and Stored Procedures. However, other books already do that.

It never specifically covers the "Concept" of tiers, nor the strategy for implementing them (e.g. strategies for passing information between tiers, or using VB.Net's more object oriented features to implement the layers).

The organization and emphasis was weak. The Second Chapter "The SQLClient Namespace" should have been an appendix. The very last chapter is a Case Study which involves a data layer, but the authors fail to explain the strategy and implementation of data tiers using VB .Net.

All-in-all it was very, very disappointing.

Initially the book was a little overwhelming, but as our development team's competence and familiarity with .NET increased, so the later chapters became more valuable. This is especially true of the iBank Case Study, which provides a great "How To..." reference in building a complete enterprise
application using all the elements of .NET based on multiple tiers (Presentation, Business, and Data Layers).

The book's highly professional structure and coding techniques demonstrates the authors' deep knowledge and experience in the SQL/VB.NET domain.

A lost classic
This is a great book -unfortunatly overlooked.
A great partner to my other fave Wrox title-Proffesional VB Design patterns.

My favorite chapters are Chapter 9 Component Services and Chapter 12 Case Study IBank
You will have to work really hard on the case study 40hrs-80hrs + to get a real gain from this book but unlike some other Wrox books - its not over the top.