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Summary: The REAL power of ASP
Review: I have been designing web pages for years and never really saw the point of using "Programming" in them for my purposes. I kew a bit of VB, so I just skipped the Begining ASP book and dove into this one. I spent about 40 hours with this book and used it cover to cover. I have never done that with a technical book before. The fact that John is a teacher is very evident in this book. There are very few mistakes and the structure is incredibly easy to follow. I followed all the examples and hand coded most everything rather than just using the prewritten code from the Wrox Site. I learned so much from the book that I couldn't help but to totally change my design methodology. Now when I am writing for an IIS server, I always use ASP. Databases are now integrated into almost all of my work. It's given me a completly new creative outlet. John has focused on good design practices while he explained the details of connecting to the databases and the methods of interacting with them. I didn't fully digest all of the methods of connecting with ADO, but I just applied his methods to similar work, and it all comes out nicely. This book focuses strongly on Access, but most of the scripting can be adapted to SQL server easily. All of the Server Side Scripting is done in VBScript and any Client Side is done in Javascript primarily for form validation. That's the standard method for most people, and it's not really confusing when you see it. You don't need to know ASP before using this book, but it would be helpful to have a good ASP reference available to you. I ran into a few situations where I wanted to do something a bit diferent from the book, and I got stuck becuase I didn't know the syntax for a command I wanted to use. I borrowed a co-worker's "Beginning ASP" a few times, but probably would have been better served with an something which had an index of commands. After reading this book, I immediately set out to do a fully database driven site for my company and they love it. I could easily take a job as a Web "Developer" now. If you are doing anything complex from an IIS server, whether it's maintaining records, using search capabilities, or just managing a large site, I highly reccomend this book. And ASP in general is very useful if only for the server side includes that can make your site so much easier to maintain.
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Summary: What's a book!
Review: This is the best database book I haven't seen in entire of my life. It's good as it get.
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Summary: Best technical book ever read
Review: This book worths every penny and more. I am waiting for the advance one. If every programming book were so well written, programming would be too easy, and there would be too many programmers; thus less money for me...)
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Summary: The finest technical book I've read
Review: A book like Kaufman's Beginning ASP Databases establishes Wrox as the premier publisher of programming books. This book is fantastic. Kaufman is a patient teacher, without being condescending or annoying, and leaves almost no rock unturned. By the time you finish this book, if you don't feel at least somewhat confident using ASP and ADO to generate dynamic database web content, maybe this field is not for you! Every chapter is worth reading and Kaufman stresses fundamentals over tips. You really *understand* ASP and ADO after reading this book. The book is full of code examples and Kaufman goes over practically every line of code so there is no doubt what is going on. You really should have a basic understanding of ASP before you read this book. If you can get through half of "Beginning ASP 3.0" (from Wrox), you are ready for this book. Even if you are an intermediate ASP programmer, you may still appreciate the pulverizing clarity of this book. It remains a cornerstone of my technical book collection. BRAVO!
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Summary: A great how-to guide for web developers!
Review: This book is the best description of how to hook your web site into your database I have seen. Honestly, this and *the horrors* active server pages for dummies is enough to do complex database interactions on the web. [well this, a server, a database, and notepad]. Descriptions are consise, and the content is laid out in a step by step fashion, so you can cut to exactly what you want to do. The troubleshooting tips @ the end of each chapter are worth the price all on thier own. I wouldn't trade this book for 3 other ASP books.
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Summary: Not For Newbies
Review: This is a very good book but not for newbies to asp, if you read beginning asp first and then this one you would be better off. I enjoy the book and it's refrences about building the database, I believe they could have added more about the server problems you will have. not enough trouble shooting. This is a book you should buy if you want to develope asp pages and databases.
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Summary: An excellent introduction into Database Web-Design
Review: If you have basic knowledge of Active Server Pages than this book is an excellent introduction into the world of Database driven Web-Pages. It does not go into every last detail on the subject but it will let anyone with just basic knowledge of VBscript(The default ASP language) get a database site up and running in very little time.
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Summary: Excellent book! Thanks John!
Review: I am quite new to ASP but I have some experience in HTML and XML and database engineering. I am currently employed at a E-Business company and things are going quite fast. At the company programmers work a lot in ASP and I had to learn it quickly. They suggested me Kauffman's book, and I must say that they were absolutely right! It's very readable, well documented, and you can see that Kauffman has a lot of experience in writing, teaching and programming. He takes you step by step through ASP programming for databases by setting a business goal in the beginning, let you work with the code and later add more features to it. I can recomment this book to everyone!
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Summary: Exaclty what the title says, no more, no less
Review: Firstly, let me say that this is a great book. It provides some great information on how ASP can be used for database applications, covering the basics such as recordsets, connections and commands. There are also a lot of examples in the book all set out in a very logical way: Here is what we want to do, Here's how to do it, now review what we have done and why. That said, bare in mind that the title of the book EXACTLY describes what the book does. Do not buy this book if you want to learn about ASP in general, perhaps with a focus on databases, because this book does take for granted that you have a reasonable knowledge of the ASP language. A lot of concepts such as session and application variables and others are not covered, refering these to other Wrox books. Also note that this is the "Beginning" book and perhaps there will be a book titled "Completing ASP Databases" because this book does not cover it all- data security, encryption and other concepts which are also important, especially when your application is destined for the World Wide Web, are not covered here. That in mind I guarentee that this book will help anyone planning on using ASP to put data on the web - Perhaps I expected a little more depth for my money.
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Summary: Finally! A good learning book!
Review: This book is WELL worth the money. Why? Because it teaches you ASP/ADO with examples, the results and then step by step explanation of how it works. I wish other books could be as good as this. This is a book for people that understand the basics of programming (a little Basic/VB/VBscript is helpful) but not the finer details. Definately worth the money, get it!
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