Rating: 
Summary: Full of tips and best-practice methodologies
Review: Accessing databases and datastores via the internet is becoming commonplace today. This book gives developers the fundamentals of what databases are, how to connect to them with ADO.NET, how to access/manipulate the database information and, especially, how to present it in meaningful ways using ASP.NET controls and VB.NET. I highly recommend this book to anyone who is looking to grow beyond static-content web pages and begin development of data-driven web applications. Written by a team of 10 professionals with different areas of expertise, this book provides a solid foundation for creating web applications that rely on creating, modifying, and displaying information accessed from an SQL database, although the source can be any data repository that has an OLEDB or ODBC driver written for it. Filled with many rich examples, both in the text and in the hands-on exercises, the authors go beyond the "this is the code you need to insert" paradigm and explain what each section of code is doing, reinforcing lessons learned from earlier examples as necessary. The exercises can either be typed in or run from source downloaded from the WROX Press website, both are error-free. The book is full of tips and best-practice methodologies, with an entire chapter devoted to performance considerations. The exercises were tested on students in a school lab and common mistakes are presented in a section of each chapter. WROX Press also has multiple levels of support available to those who need it. The book finally culminates in a "real world" online-auction application that covers all the bases and gives comprehensive substance to the theory and examples previously presented. ---Reveiwed by William S.
Rating:
Summary: Full of tips and best-practice methodologies
Review: Accessing databases and datastores via the internet is becoming commonplace today. This book gives developers the fundamentals of what databases are, how to connect to them with ADO.NET, how to access/manipulate the database information and, especially, how to present it in meaningful ways using ASP.NET controls and VB.NET. I highly recommend this book to anyone who is looking to grow beyond static-content web pages and begin development of data-driven web applications. Written by a team of 10 professionals with different areas of expertise, this book provides a solid foundation for creating web applications that rely on creating, modifying, and displaying information accessed from an SQL database, although the source can be any data repository that has an OLEDB or ODBC driver written for it. Filled with many rich examples, both in the text and in the hands-on exercises, the authors go beyond the "this is the code you need to insert" paradigm and explain what each section of code is doing, reinforcing lessons learned from earlier examples as necessary. The exercises can either be typed in or run from source downloaded from the WROX Press website, both are error-free. The book is full of tips and best-practice methodologies, with an entire chapter devoted to performance considerations. The exercises were tested on students in a school lab and common mistakes are presented in a section of each chapter. WROX Press also has multiple levels of support available to those who need it. The book finally culminates in a "real world" online-auction application that covers all the bases and gives comprehensive substance to the theory and examples previously presented. ---Reveiwed by William S.
Rating:
Summary: Great for beginning!
Review: I found this book very useful just like any other Wrox book. It has everything one needs to start learning .Net database applications. I have not tried the code but the explanations are helpful. The thing I like the most was list of sequential steps needed to perform a task before any example. It really breaks down the whole exercise into some meaningful steps and helps one follow the example clearly.
Rating: 
Summary: Are the book examples written with Visual Studio .net?
Review: I have bought many books related to VB.NET, ASP.NET and ADO.NET and so far have found only one book that used Visual Studio in building the examples. The rest used the primitive Notepad. I do not believe that any serious programmer would consider getting into .NET without Visual Studio as the main tool. So why bother writing all these books using just a Notepad. I would be grateful if anyone that has seen the book on a shelf could let us know if this book does so. After being disappointed on 9 out of 10 purchases, I would like to know first before I purchase this book that yes the authors have written the book from Visual Studio perspective. From what I read about the book the content is just right but the approach is in question?
Rating:
Summary: Easy to follow
Review: I have enough programming books that if weighed would weigh as much as a car. I love this book. The best part is that I can read it and follow the examples without having to sit at my computer. The key word in the title is beginning. I have found it to be a great foundation book on its subject matter. The authors should get an atta boy for this one.
Rating: 
Summary: Mostly ADO.NET, very little ASP.NET
Review: I was very disappointed with this book. Yes, it's useful for understanding the new ADO.NET objects, but then keeps it's focus on RDBMS design instead of relating how to usefully implement ADO within an ASP.NET application, which is what I wanted.
Rating:
Summary: Mostly ADO.NET, very little ASP.NET
Review: I was very disappointed with this book. Yes, it's useful for understanding the new ADO.NET objects, but then keeps it's focus on RDBMS design instead of relating how to usefully implement ADO within an ASP.NET application, which is what I wanted.
Rating:
Summary: Good book
Review: I'm a project manager who has run a few ASP projects but have not used .net technology. This was a good way to learn some of the new ASP features. Well written.
Rating:
Summary: Frustrating Experience
Review: I've been reading some of the other reviews on this page, and I can't believe they are reading the same book. I have had problems running the code in several of these exercises, particularly with any code that has the DataGrid control. I've also noticed I'm not the only with this problem, since I have browsed the Wrox website forums and found others who were having the same problems with the code. I even submitted code from Chapter 3, page 67 to Microsoft Support, after receiving nothing but a blank page when I ran it. Microsoft noticed that the code was MISSING a required clause! The exercise in question is the FIRST exercise in the book. If the first exercise you attempt fails even though you made no typos, it's frustrating. I can easily see a novice programmer getting discouraged and giving up. I'm an experienced ASP programmer and even I was getting fed up! I've been a big fan of other books by Wrox, but this one leaves a lot to be desired.
Rating:
Summary: Frustrating Experience
Review: I've been reading some of the other reviews on this page, and I can't believe they are reading the same book. I have had problems running the code in several of these exercises, particularly with any code that has the DataGrid control. I've also noticed I'm not the only with this problem, since I have browsed the Wrox website forums and found others who were having the same problems with the code. I even submitted code from Chapter 3, page 67 to Microsoft Support, after receiving nothing but a blank page when I ran it. Microsoft noticed that the code was MISSING a required clause! The exercise in question is the FIRST exercise in the book. If the first exercise you attempt fails even though you made no typos, it's frustrating. I can easily see a novice programmer getting discouraged and giving up. I'm an experienced ASP programmer and even I was getting fed up! I've been a big fan of other books by Wrox, but this one leaves a lot to be desired.
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