Book Review
Beginning SQL Server 2000 for Visual Basic Developers
by Thearon Willis
Copyright 2000
Wrox Press
 |
Find out more about this book, or purchase it, from Amazon.com |
Traditionally, many VB developers have used Microsoft Access as their database engine. While Microsoft Access is OK for smaller, individual or group-based applications, it just doesn’t have the “right stuff” for enterprise-based applications. For the really big jobs, SQL Server is needed.
Unfortunately, or fortunately, depending on your point of view, developing VB applications for SQL Server is a lot different from developing applications for Microsoft Access. In fact, you need to change your whole way of thinking. And this is where Beginning SQL Server 2000 for Visual Basic Developers fits in. If you are an experienced VB developer, but have little or no experience with SQL Server, then this book has been written just for you.
In the tradition of other Wrox books, Beginning SQL Server 2000 for Visual Basic Developers, provides a first-rate, step-by-step guide on how to develop VB applications that work with SQL Server 2000. The book assumes no background in SQL Server at all, hand-holding you each step of the way. No, it doesn’t waste time on SQL Server 2000 issues not related to VB developers, so all of your time is devoted to learning just what you need to know in order write great VB/SQL-based applications.
The book is very example-heavy, showing you how to write the code you need to know to access SQL Server with VB. To make the book more real-life, the author hand-holds you through the development of a VB application that includes developing a VB front-end, VB business server components, and even XML web-based reports, all of which help to round out your new skills.
In this book, you will cover these topics:
-
Introduction to SQL Server 2000
-
Installing the Personal Edition of SQL Server 2000
-
Designing and Creating the Development Database
-
SQL Server Security
-
SQL Server Query Analyzer
-
Database Connections
-
Introduction to Stored Procedures
-
Stored Procedures versus SQL Statements
-
Selecting Data
-
Inserting Data
-
Updating Data
-
Deleting Data
-
Working with Text Data
-
Installing Internet Information Server
-
SQL Server and XML
-
XML Web Reports
-
Building an English Query Application
While the book is a great book for VB developers learning how to access SQL Server, one topic that it doesn’t cover well enough is performance. While performance is mentioned from time-to-time in the book, it is not emphasized. Even in a beginner’s book, such as this one, I think it is important to teach about how to design scalable, high-performance SQL Server-based applications. This is because most scalability and performance problems are application-related, and are not the fault of SQL Server itself. Although the book is weak in performance topics, it still is a great book for beginners, and besides, you can pick up your performance-related content here at this website.
I recommend this book highly for VB developers who are new to SQL Server. Once you master this book, then you will be ready for some more advanced books, such as this other Wrox title, Professional SQL Server 7.0 Programming, which includes many more advanced topics on SQL Server development.
]]>