Visual Basic 6 MTS (VB Com) [Illustrated] [Paperback]

Matthew Bortniker (Author), James M. Conrad (Author)

Book Description

Series: VB Com | Publication Date: June 1999

Presently, books do not meet the needs of the experienced Visual Basic Developer interested in implementing MTS. Many existing books have devoted small sections to MTS. These are often great resources for many developers. However, they do not provide the necessary depth required for more advanced programmers to implement a large-scale application. Typically, this group of developers has gone beyond the knowledge level that existing books have to offer. They may often turn to alternate sources of information such as the Visual Basic Programmers Journal, Microsoft Developers Network, and USENET groups. However, each of these provides the same types of repetitive code samples and snippets that address single and often obscure development topics.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Visual Basic 6 MTS Programming centers on the important role of Microsoft Transaction Server (MTS) for creating scalable solutions in Visual Basic 6. For the intermediate or advanced Visual Basic (VB) developer, this tools-based tutorial to today's VB provides a solid working guide to building components for the Microsoft platform. Perhaps the principal strength of this book is its use of the actual tools that let VB developers create and deploy scalable components that use transactions and MTS.

The text shows you the actual screen shots for setting VB component options, for security under MTS and Windows NT, and for MTS deployment (and packages). Of course, the author does a good job with the theory behind DCOM and transactions, including design principles for successful objects. But the coverage of real-world tools for deploying and administering (even debugging) objects on the Windows platform are a real standout here.

For its examples, this book relies on objects that store user IDs, passwords for Web sites, and later an excellent case study on a sales order database application. Included here is good coverage of back-end database issues (centering on SQL Server 7) and ASP-based Web development.

Not only is this book arguably the best source for getting the inner details on today's MTS, but its coverage of COM+ (available on Windows 2000) also provides a valuable preview of the future evolution of MTS. The practical focus of this book will make it a good choice for anyone who appreciates a more hands-on approach. In all, Visual Basic 6 MTS Programming provides an up-to-date guide to using VB to create objects that make good use of the Microsoft platform. --Richard Dragan

Topics covered: MTS basics, MTS Explorer, distributed architectures, Microsoft Distributed Internet Architecture (DNA) and DCOM fundamentals, transaction basics, MTS component development, object persistence, packages, MTS and Windows NT security, debugging, performance and administration, SQL Server, MS DTC, ASP basics, and COM+.

From the Publisher

This book addresses the needs of these programmers, who need advice and instruction on how to use MTS to create a feature rich scalable application. These developers want to take advantage of the MTS programming model to develop a Visual Basic application that uses components to encapsulate business logic.

This book is a sequel to the great introductory Wrox VB MTS book, Pro MTS/MSMQ.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 500 pages
• Publisher: Peer Information Inc.; 1st edition (June 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1861002440
• ISBN-13: 978-1861002440
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7.1 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,375,969 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

33 of 35 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Very Worthwhile Book that I Got a Lot From, February 18, 2000

By 

D. Read "Maximumdread" (GA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Visual Basic 6 MTS (VB Com) (Paperback)

This is an excellent book. It is not for a beginner, however. If you need an introduction to MTS, then try out Wrox's other MTS book, "MTS MSMQ with VB and ASP" (what a great title), which is also excellent and gives a higher level introductory view. I read the MTS MSMQ book and immediately ordered this book for the more advanced material. It's not rocket science, however, and I don't know why a previous reviewer had so much trouble with it. The book does assume that you are already familiar with objects, VB, databases, etc. If you are a total beginner, don't start here. Try Peter Wright's "Beginning" Wrox books, which do a good job of getting you up to speed on the basics.

I gave this book four stars rather than five for two reasons: one, I actually learned a lot more about the proper way to use MTS from a series of articles on vb2themax.com--alost none of this in-the-trenches material was included in this book. The second reason was that I wished that the book had more theory to go along with the excellent nuts-and-bolts material. What I mean is that there is plenty of great coverage here of how MTS works, how the distributed processing and transaction management works, how to set up and adminster MTS, plus good chapters on security, debugging, and COM+. I wish, however, that there was more material discussing the design considerations for stateless objects and MTS class design at a system level. This is not to say that there is none of this material--there is, I just wanted more. If you are already good at conceiving class designs and hierarchies, then transitioning to the stateless paradigm should not be too painful.

One other quibble: somehow the terms "object" and "class" have been suplanted by the term "component". A component is not an object, and vice versa, but now the terminology has become so bastardized that all these terms are interchangeable. This is less the fault of this book and more the fault of Microsoft for calling objects "components" within MTS itself. Imagine Microsoft confusing things by muddying the vocabulary waters...

Despite my quibbles, as I said this is an excellent book for an experienced VB programmer who needs to learn most of the ins and outs of MTS. I have not encountered a better MTS book.

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A complete book about programming MTS applications using VB, September 21, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Visual Basic 6 MTS (VB Com) (Paperback)

This is an awesome book! The author has done an incredible job explaining COM/MTS theory and providing detailed discussions with examples on how to develop Enterprise applications using MTS technology. Although this is an advanced book (you should know the basics of COM), the author presents details in such a manor that a programmer at any level should be able to comprehend. This book not only has answered many questions I have been trying to find answers to, it has prevented me from making many programming mistakes. I give this book top marks. If only other books were written so well and so complete.

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Most Authoritative - A Must Read, June 4, 2000

By 

Svetlana - See all my reviews

This review is from: Visual Basic 6 MTS (VB Com) (Paperback)

You Must Read this Book if you really want to understand MTS using VB6.

I have been a Software Engineer for over 8 years and I believe this is the most authoritative and complete book of its kind. The author does an excellent job explaining the architecture for COM and MTS. I particularly found the sections about transaction processing, security, and debugging MTS to be extremely helpful. Each of these sections goes much deeper in theory with clear explanations than several books on the same subjects combined.

OK, let me make this clear: As the book's title "Professional" suggests, this book is not for a beginner. It's my opinion that unless you are at least an intermediate VB programmer who understands basic COM concepts, this book is not for you - buy a beginner's book. If you have solid VB skills and you want to enhance them by learning MTS, I highly recommend you read this book. Study and learn from it (yes, it takes effort- no fast ticket to knowledge.) It will be worth it.

I would give this book 10 stars if I could.