Beginning SQL Server 2005 Express Database Applications with Visual Basic Express and Visual Web Developer Express: From Novice to Professional (Paperback)

by Rick Dobson (Author)
Key Phrases: web form, text box, product subcategory, Server Express, Database Explorer, Visual Basic (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
<p>SQL Server 2005 Express is the database component of Microsoft's Express Suite of products. It is free of charge, inherits many (nonenterprise) features from SQL Server 2005, and comes complete with development and administration tools. As such, it is an ideal database for developers and administrators to use in prototype/evaluation projects. It is also a powerful development platform for database applications on nonprofit websites, e-commerce sites, and in small offices and departments.</p>

<p>Author Rick Dobson provides all of the installation, configuration, administration, and development techniques that you need to build applications quickly. He focuses on techniques that are easy to learn and transparent in their real-world translations. Topics include Express Manager and T-SQL programming, and Visual Basic Express and Visual Web Developer, both with SSE, to build Windows Forms applications and to develop ASP.NET web applications.</p>

About the Author
Rick Dobson has authored six books on database development with Visual Basic .NET, SQL Server, and Microsoft Access. In the past few years, he authored three DVDs on Visual Basic .NET, ADO.NET, and T-SQL. In addition, Dobson has written countless articles for computer periodicals, including <i>SQL Server Magazine</i>, <i>Visual Studio .NET Developer</i>, <i>Visual Basic Developer</i>, <i>SQL Server Professional</i>, <i>SQL Server Solutions</i>, <i>Inside Microsoft Visual Basic</i>, and <i>Smart Access</i>.</p>

<p>Dobson is also the webmaster for several web sites.This site gets over 1 million page views annually, and thousands of site visitors register to receive a newsletter summarizing new developments and opportunities on the site. Dobson also founded the Database Developers Group, an international association of Microsoft database developers.</p>

Product Details

• Paperback: 624 pages
• Publisher: Apress (December 13, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1590595238
• ISBN-13: 978-1590595237
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #289,895 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

  Popular in these categories: (What's this?)

  #23 in	Books > Computers & Internet > Programming > Languages & Tools > Visual Basic Introduction
  #75 in	Books > Computers & Internet > Microsoft > Development > VBA
  #82 in	Books > Computers & Internet > Databases > Beginning & Introductory

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Still a bit rough, but useful, May 13, 2006

By	Tom Pynchon - See all my reviews

I've been a programmer for longer than most programmers have been alive, but I'm new to SQL Server and Visual Basic. This book looked like it would be the perfect introduction to both, but it seems to have been rushed to market. It appears that chapters 11 and 12 were once a single chapter, and were split without a lot of subsequent editing in either the book or the sample code on the website. On the second page of Chapter 12, for example, it says "The samples to this point in the chapter...", but there haven't been any samples to this point in the chapter. This is somewhat understandable in a printed book, but as I write this (5/13/2006) the book has been out for almost 5 months, and the sample code on the website still has all the code piled together in a folder called "Sample code for chapters 11 and 12". This makes it harder than it needs to be to find the code the author is referring to when one wants to get some context for the snippets of code in the book.

I don't have a problem with repetition in a book like this, because if you use books like this the way I do, you go straight to the table of contents or the index and then to whatever topic promises to solve the coding problem you're facing. A little repetition makes it more likely that all the information I need will be there in one place. With this book, that was generally the case -- I wasn't flipping back to Chapter 3 to understand a concept the author was discussing in Chapter 10.

The book has been useful to me in understanding SQL Server Express and how it can be used with Visual Basic Express. I wish it had more information about the VBE IDE and the files it generates, but the sample code appears to compile and work, and the explanations are clear and easily understood. There is also no real discussion of regular expressions, which (for me) is one of the new features of VB that made it worth reconsidering. The author dismisses them with the equivalent of "lots of people still don't understand them, so stick with String expressions", which just seems boneheaded to me.

I liked the fact that information about T-SQL and sqlcmd is included alongside the GUI alternatives. With the exception of regex info, most of what I needed to go from knowing nothing to knowing enough to get my work done was in the book and sample code. Considering the short shelf life of books like this one, and the tremendous effort that must go into writing and publishing them, I'm surprised that there are so many of them. While not perfect, I consider this to be one of the better ones.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Review from a beginner's point of view, April 18, 2006

By	James Akers - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I have just a little experience in access 2000 so the thought of moving to SQL databases was scary. Rick Dobson did a great job of taking the fear out of SQL with his book Beginning SQL Server 2005 Express. He takes you step by step through the process of working with SQL Server 2005 Express. The lessons are paced for the beginners and the code examples work, that in it self is something new. He starts you at the beginners level and then brings you to some of the advanced topics.

I am only a few chapters into the book and I'm already starting to feel comfortable working with SQL databases. If you are just starting out in databases then this book is a must have.

17 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Don't buy this book, March 4, 2006

By	Kenneth Hanawalt (Eighty Four, PA) - See all my reviews

This may be the worst technical book I have ever purchased. It is printed in a very small font with almost no white space so it is very tiring to read. Worse, almost all of the text is wasted. The book needs a good editor. It uses lots of words to say very little and repeats the little it does say endlessly. There are other faults. It continues to use features from the Beta version of the software that the author acknowledges are not in the released version. It does not include a CD, so examples have to be downloaded from a website. The website files are also repetitious, much larger than necessary, and do not include the source for chapter 11 (Chapter 12 is included twice).