SQL Server 7 Developer's Guide (Paperback)

by Michael Otey (Author), Paul Conte (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
SQL Server 7 Developer's Guide is equally divided into a database administrator's manual and a developer's primer, providing useful content for readers who are interested in both angles.

The book opens with overviews of the SQL Server database architecture and the new features of version 7. The management and security aspects of the all-important Enterprise Manager are covered in depth. The authors make very liberal use of screen shots and information tables, lending a visual look to this introduction. The first part continues with sections on replication, data warehousing, performance optimization, and SQL-DMO--the object-oriented framework that lets you write your own management applications.

Part 2 opens with a traditional look at databases and a focus on the relational model. After introducing you to entity-relationship diagrams and a rather detailed tutorial of the SQL language, the authors present each of the various ways to access SQL Server from client applications: Microsoft Access front ends, data access objects (DAO), Open DataBase Connectivity (ODBC)Direct, the ODBC API, Remote Data Objects, object linking and embedding database (OLE DB), ActiveX Data Objects, and DB-Library. The last chapter discusses Active Server Pages (ASP) development and how to integrate SQL Server databases with Web sites.

A companion CD-ROM contains all of the example code in the book and offers a centralized interface for running it. --Stephen W. Plain

Review
SQL Server 7 database development from start to finish! Master SQL Server 7 database administration and application development, and learn ways to reduce Total Cost of Ownership within your organization, using this complete guide for power programmers.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 875 pages
• Publisher: Osborne Publishing (December 1, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0078825482
• ISBN-13: 978-0078825484
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7.2 x 1.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (29 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,281,097 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Average approach to SQL7, December 28, 1999

By A Customer

This book is decent, but for the developer, there may be 200 pages worth of relevant info. The first part of the book is all admin stuff, probably too deep for the developer, not deep enough for the true DBA. Middle section is really good for SQL/T-SQL stuff, database design/analysis/normalization, etc. The last half of the book deals with data access technologies which are basically irrelevant at this point, so only the ADO and ASP chapters are worth anything.

As another reviewer mentioned, much of the book seems like cut and paste text from an online manual.

I picked up the latest SQL7 book from Wrox (by Viera), and within a couple of hours realized how much more superior it was. For the professional developer, I highly recommend the Wrox text.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent reference for SQL Server 7 developers, April 8, 2000

By	Jeffrey Ebenstein (Montgomery Village, MD) - See all my reviews

This book covers nearly every aspect of SQL Server 7 that could be relevant to the developer. Sections on SQL Server's architecture and administration, backup, security, replication, and other DBA aspects, comprise the first part of the book. The remainder of the book is geared towards the development aspect, rather than the administrative aspect. The section on T-SQL is very good. There are many illustrations and examples throughout the book and the language is easy to read.

While there are books out there, many of them excellent, that concentrate on the adminstration of SQL Server to the exclusion of development and others that are directed only at developers, this book is geared to the developer that needs to dabble in administration from time to time. This is what makes this book unique and an important addition to any SQL Server 7 developer's library.

19 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Developer GUIDE?, December 11, 1999

By	Fernand Raynaud (California USA) - See all my reviews

This 1000 page book is a collection of sections that feel largely cut and pasted from some manual. The rest could be written by a good secretary. Still, that would be of real use if you could find stuff; but the index is quite inadequate.

There are two sections. The first half is administrative recipes, the second is programmer recipes. I give it a whole 3 stars because some of these admin recipes are useful. Like how to back up a database, some platitudes about performance, a little about cubes and replication, etc. SQL Server is a big topic; you can easily fill 400 pages just covering basics, and that's a worthwhile thing.

But for a book that is supposed to be a developer's resource, in the end you get about 40 well ventilated pages that deal with the only current data access technique, namely ADO. There's a summary view of the SQL language and some rudimentary discussion of stored procedures. The rest of the developer stuff deals (superficially) with every piece of old technology, like Access, DAO, ODBC, RDO and DBLIB.

There's a lot of filler; two page code quotes are followed by stultifying enumerations of what functions the code called. The Web and ASP? You get 60 flaccid pages in the last section; by the end of that chapter you are into deleting rows, and then onto 4 pages on Interdev, but there are, mercifully, lots of pitures. Why is it that they make you feel like you're lucky to even be getting that last chapter?

The problem all around is that this is all very superficially treated, with a lot of white space, pages of double-spaced code, and pictures. I don't see what you could possibly develop, based on this book. If you have progressed to the point where you have doubts and questions, it's very unlikely you will find the answers here. This is more of a "don't rock the boat" sort of book, and it's an OK intro. $ is a little steep, considering that $ also buys you something the author put his heart and mind into, like "Pro SQL Server 7.0 Programming" by Robert Vieira.

A more accurate title would be "A reluctant developer's introduction to SQL Server". If your favorite tools were VB3 and Access, and you think all these newfangled things like COM and OOP and Java and XML and UML are just "fads", then this is maybe the SQL book for you.