Rating: 
Summary: Not bad, but not great
Review: I purchased this book after reading all the rave reviews, and I must say I didn't think it was all that great. Much of the code is old and outdated. I tried to follow the examples in the book and apply them to real world situations, and more than a few times, I found myself being told not to code the way the book teaches because there was a better way to do it.
The book definitly has it strong points and I would recommend it to the ASP newbie, but on a scale from 1-10, I give it a 5.
Rating: 
Summary: THE best computer software book I've ever run across
Review: To say this is the best computer software book I've ever read is not something that I would ever toss around lightly. I am a programmer with approximately eighteen years of experience. I know how to present material to students to help them learn new software, since I have some experience both writing technical manuals and teaching new software to other programmers. I know what works in terms of a student's ability to learn new software. Evidently, the authors know too and know extremely well, because the material in this book is very well presented, taking the most basic of concepts and building on them until the student has a clear sense of how to use ASP databases. Their style is neither too elementary for the seasoned programmer, nor is it too advanced for the novice. Without a doubt, this book has been well worth the purchase price. I would recommend it highly to anyone interested in this subject.
Rating: 
Summary: This book is out of date
Review: This book is seriously out of date. It does a great job of covering ASP, ADO, database connectons and so on, but there is only one part of one chapter (6) that covers the use of OLE-DB, Microsoft's newest technology that provides the connection and access methods between ASP web pages and databases. The rest of the book, and all the examples, use ODBC which is the older and now out of date method. ODBC was current at the time the book was written, and Mr. Kauffman does a great job of explaining it. However, it is now being replaced by OLE-DB. Also, if you are using Windows 2000 or XP as your development platform, you do not even have the (built-in) option to install ODBC. Instead, OLE-DB comes native with IIS 5.0 which is included with all versions of Windows 2000. Don't buy this book, unless you're still in the dark ages using Win9x or NT.
Rating:
Summary: The real beginners may have trouble configuring the software
Review: I originally had difficulty getting past chapter 2 in the book that deals with setting up ASP/ADO. I had some misunderstandings and also some installation errors. I'll explain.
But first, I think you should have some prerequisites before you buy this book. In my opinion, you should know HTML, FTP, Windows 9x, and the theory behind webmastering. After all, you will be serving dynamic web pages... Also, a knowledge of VisualBASIC is good, since your ASP code will be just like VisualBASIC code.
Next, you need to have a preliminary plan. Do you have a web host that supports MS Access Databases or do you plan on practicing ASP/ADO on your own computer? If you want to have a web host setup, you might try http://www.interland.com, they have a really good (easy) database configuration console. If you want to use your own computer you'll need to install and configure a web server.
I had trouble installing Microsoft Personal Web Server (PWS) because I kept getting installation errors. (Hey, it's Microsoft...) You don't have to use PWS - just go to http://www.download.com and search for webserver. PWS however can be installed in Windows 9x by going to Start -> Control Panel -> Add/Remove Programs -> Windows Setup -> Internet and then clicking on PWS.
Once you have your plan and access to a webserver, you need to create a database. Just create one with one record. You can use any software you want to create the database, but this whole process works best using software designed to integrate together.
I recommend installing PWS and Microsoft Access. Then create an Access database. Then follow the book instructions on pages 65-66. If you want to access a different, non-MS Access style database, follow the book directions on pages 67-72. I was originally confused about this until I realized that the book documents 2 methods of creating a Data Source Name (DSN) - one method for MS Access databases and one method for any other non-Microsoft database. Had I realized this when I first got the book it would not have taken me forever to figure out what I was trying to do.
If you can get access to a webserver supporting ASP and Access, and can figure out how to create a DSN, you're all set. The book does a reasonable job helping you learn ASP/ADO. Aside from how it is written, some book errors, and little or no support at the website, you can start serving dynamic data in a few hours or so. Static content is a thing of the past...
Rating:
Summary: Great content to get on with develpoment
Review: I am very pleased with this book. After a slow start on this subject having purchased Visual Interdev and a not so helpful book I am now making rapid progress finding that your book ideally meets my needs, particularly because of the relevant examples and the detailed explanations.
Rating:
Summary: Best book for learning ASP
Review: I took me four tries to get a decent book for learning ASP and this was it. John Kaufman's experience as a teacher comes through loud and clear. He has excellent tips for debugging and testing. I think every example in the book actually works, a real rarity. He is careful to point out what works or doesn't work with Access of MS SQL Server, so that you don't go crazy trying to figure out why the example may not work. What I like best about the book is what is not covered: introduction to HTML, introduction to VB Script, etc. Besides being a great book for learning ASP, it is an excellent text for learning ADO.
Rating:
Summary: I like this book
Review: I bought this book about a 1 year ago. I had no experience with ASP, ADO nor database, but this book showed me the concepts and practical examples very well. Now I am reading this book for the 2nd time after creating a few Web dabatabase applications. It still provides me valuable information that I couldn't fully understand the 1st time I read it. I recommend this book for ASP/ADO beginners, but if you want to learn the lastest technology, I think you should learn ADO.NET instead.
Rating:
Summary: Good book for learning and reference
Review: I'm a former mainframe COBOL programmer, dabbling in web page design, mostly for my own use, but I also develop some Intranet pages for my company. This book has been very helpful to me in that I can use it by section, to learn new techniques, or as a reference guide, to find out how to code a particular command. I already knew some basic HTML coding techinques, but Beginning ASP Databases helped me understand the ASP code. I tried some other books but they didn't seem to have the clarity of this one. It isn't a lot of verbage, just format and instruction, like the good old mainframe days. it's worth its price and would make a good addition to your reference library.
Rating:
Summary: a must-read if you want to be an ASP professional
Review: I have not seen any book that comes close to this one on
teaching how to interact with databases in ASP. Written in clear, easily understood language, but packed
with great information.
Rating:
Summary: This Book Kicks Programming Butt!
Review: Beginning ASP Databases is perfect for those of us who are front end developers and are looking for back end talent. How quickly and easily one can obtain knowlege of ASP using this book is amazing, as is the salary increase you will receive with SQL and ASP experience. WROX rocks, all their books I own are great. Why do other publishers waste my time when we have WROX?
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