Murach's VB.NET Database Programming with ADO.NET

Murach's VB.NET Database Programming with ADO.NET
by Anne Prince & Doug Lowe
Copyright 2003
Mike Murach & Associates, Inc.

Find out more about this book, or purchase it, from Amazon.com

If you develop in VB.NET or ASP.NET, you will undoubtedly use ADO.NET to access a back-end database, such as SQL Server. And that is the focus of the new book, Murach's VB.NET Database Programming with ADO.NET. This book is for those individuals who are new to ADO.NET programming and want a tutorial in order to master the basics.

Like other books published by Mike Murach & Associates, this one presents all of the essential skills in a simple, easy-to-understand fashion. Here's what the book covers:

• An Introduction to Database Programming and ADO.NET

• An Introduction to ADO.NET

• How to Develop a Simple Database Application

• How to Work with Typed Datasets and Bound Controls

• How to Work with Typed Datasets and Unbound Controls

• How to Work with Untyped Datasets

• How to Work with Data Views, Parameterized Queries, and Relationships

• How to Work with Data Commands

• How to Work with Dataset Schemas

• How to Develop and Use Database Classes

• A Complete Order Entry Application Example

• An Introduction to Database Programming with ASP.NET

• Programming Techniques for ASP.NET Database Applications

• How to Use the DataList and DataGrid Controls

• How to Work with XML Data

• How to Use Crystal Reports to Develop Reports

• How to Use the Server Explorer

As you may guess from the above contents, the discussion focuses on ADO.NET and how it is used to generically access databases. The book is not database specific, although all of the book's examples use the MSDE database engine.

One thing notably absent from the book is a solid discussion on how ADO.NET affect's an application's and database's performance. While there are a few minor references made to performance, they are minimal. I would have liked to see much more on the performance area, especially as it is how an application uses ADO.NET to access a database that so often the performance bottleneck of an application.

If you already have a good background in VB.NET, and are now ready to begin learning about how to apply it to ADO.NET, this book is a good beginning. And once you have mastered this material, then you may want to take a look at another book from the same publisher, called Murach's SQL for SQL Server, which will help you better understand how to use VB.NET and ADO.NET to get the most out of SQL Server.