Murach's VB.NET Database Programming with ADO.NET (Paperback)

by Doug Lowe (Author), Anne Prince (Author) "This chapter introduces you to the basic concepts and terms that apply to database application..." (more)
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Editorial Reviews

Review
"When you combine our ADO.NET book with our SQL for SQL Server book, you have a complete database programming library for VB.NET programmers."

Product Description
If you know the VB.NET basics, this book teaches everything else you need for developing and deploying database applications with Visual Basic .NET and ADO.NET, the new data access method for the .NET platform. That includes Windows as well as web applications, and both two-tiered and three-tiered applications. Along the way, you’ll learn how to use typed and untyped datasets, bound and unbound controls, data views, parameterized queries, and more. You’ll also learn how to use XML for defining data structures, Crystal Reports for developing reports, and the Server Explorer for working with a database.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 672 pages
• Publisher: Mike Murach & Associates (May 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1890774197
• ISBN-13: 978-1890774196
• Product Dimensions: 9.7 x 8 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (25 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #474,067 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Very Practical Book truly geared towards learning., August 1, 2003

By	Harinath Thummalapalli (Austin, TX United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

There are very few publishers in the IT world that follow the approach taken by the Murach's series to teach. All the left hand side pages of this book are theory and explanations and all the right hand side pages of this book are code/explanations. It is a new and unique approach that seems to work. It is clear when you read the book that the authors are definitely geared towards teaching the subject and making it as easy as possible for you to learn. This is obvious even in the way things are explained where the authors make no assumptions and start from scratch in explaining everything in great detail. This is an excellent approach to teach beginners.

The book is split into two parts - using VB.NET to build desktop applications and using VB.NET to build web applications. But for both sections, it MAINLY addresses the issue of connecting to databases through ADO.NET. And if you are looking at learning how to develop just web applications, you are forced to learn how to build desktop applications first. The reason for this is that the book starts with the desktop applications before proceding to the web applications and it doesn't repeat the knowledge presented in the earlier chapters. So you can't start directly reading the web development chapters. But we found that it isn't that great an inconvenience.

If you are in a rush, you are better off looking at another book in the market - 'Programming the Web with Visual Basic.NET' by Torkelson, et al. This book only addresses how to develop web applications using VB.NET and it does an equally fantastic job at teaching if not better. It also goes a lot deeper into the subject. This other book does does claim to be only for Intermediate/Advanced users though we believe that if you are an experienced programmer but just new to VB.NET, you should be okay.

The book being reviewed here does have a website where you can download the sample code and we have been able to successfully use a lot of the code with very few problems in implementing the code. There are almost no negatives to this book with the exception that it isn't for an advanced user and it forces you to learn how to build desktop applications first. Everything it addresses, it does a fantastic job but it does leave out the very advanced topics.

We thoroughly enjoyed reading this book and wanted to share this valuable find with others (not just this book but also other books by the Murach's series). We hope you too enjoy learning from this book as much as we did. Our copy will continue to be used for a long time to come to give you an indication of how much we like this book. Good luck!

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Practical Book, September 23, 2005

By	Ali Mutlu (Dallas, TX) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I took on the project of constructing a database application to track our customers since there was nothing out there off the shelf that would do exactly what we needed done. I had not programmed in 12 years and did not know a first thing about VB.NET or object-oriented programming. The book is so well structured that I managed to build a database application from the ground-up while learning to program all over again within 6 months - it would have taken shorter but the only times I could dedicate to the project was nights and weekends. And guess what; after I beta-tested the program and ironed out the bugs, the program never even crashed once! On average 15 concurrent users are on the program and enter about 200 transacions daily. This book helped make my project a success.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Must have, May 28, 2005

By	V. Sayakanit (United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I was in several Oracle's training classes. In most classes, each takes approximately from two to five days. If you were in the class, you would get a handout book printing from Instructor's PowerPoint slide. The handout, in bullet format, covers only the closed-to-a-real application examples. It is concise. Instructor covers the slide for 30 mins. Then, he gave you many lab exercises to follow. With this method, I think you can understand the context in the short time. This book is using the same method. By pursuing this book, you do not need the real instructor. All instructor suggestions are already in the book.

At the end of each chapter, you will have a chance to modify the project that you already did in the chapter. For example, if the author shows you how to write create adapter, you will have a chance to enhance those statements to be more complex. You are also able to do extra projects that the author has not taught in the text. As a result, you can apply those skills to develop your own projects.

Another good thing about this book is that the screen captures are very clear. You can see what the points of the author. In many books, they fail to do so because readers cannot read words on those screens.