Rating: 
Summary: MySQL and Oracle Coverage
Review: Actually I found book useful. Solved my MySQL connectivety problems. I like all ODBC .Net Data Adapter chapters. Even covers Oracle, Sybase and other DB connectivity.
Rating: 
Summary: Learn ADO.NET
Review: After moving to .NET, this was the book I used to learn database programming in ADO.NET. I found it pretty useful and straigt forward. Author starts with pretty basics and end up developing XML and Web applications. Developers use ODBC for their database connectivity (I nver did, i'm a SQL Server developer) will find it useful. Strong points - easy to understand, simple, and most of all, all code worked with no problem. Good XML and ODBC managed provider coverage. Not bad at all. You may also find some commonaly asked questions you see around. Advice to author - could put little more juice using ADO.NET classes and break chapter 5 into two small chapter. Too big chapter. If you already know XML, you will find first 10 pages of XML chapter waste.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Book
Review: Being a programmer for years, but new to the ADO / .NET environment, this book was really helpful. I like the way it was designed. It was easy to follow.
Rating: 
Summary: The worst computer book I have read
Review: Do not waste your money on this book. The author is a VB programming and not an C# geek. Does not use good C# programming standards or understands OOP. Example, he thinks its good programming to open a SQL connection and keep it open for the live of the app. Issue 2 - Formatting, the author list page after page of .NET object's prop/methods -- why not list the only the main one. In one section he show 3 code examples (SQL, OLE OD, ODBC) that take about 5-6 pages and there is only one line of code different between them. The graphic layout of the book stinks, it remembers me of high school when I would up the spacing to make a 2 page book report into 10. If the tech reviewer and/or APress would used common sense in reviewing and layout of the book - it would by 200-300 page(max) not the 700+. In fact this book is so bad, I will have to think twice before buying another APress book. Summary - the author tried to convert his VB book over to C# with no knowledge of C#/OOP and APress tried to release a book based on size, not content.
Rating:
Summary: The worst computer book I have read
Review: Do not waste your money on this book. The author is a VB programming and not an C# geek. Does not use good C# programming standards or understands OOP. Example, he thinks its good programming to open a SQL connection and keep it open for the live of the app. Issue 2 - Formatting, the author list page after page of .NET object's prop/methods -- why not list the only the main one. In one section he show 3 code examples (SQL, OLE OD, ODBC) that take about 5-6 pages and there is only one line of code different between them. The graphic layout of the book stinks, it remembers me of high school when I would up the spacing to make a 2 page book report into 10. If the tech reviewer and/or APress would used common sense in reviewing and layout of the book - it would by 200-300 page(max) not the 700+. In fact this book is so bad, I will have to think twice before buying another APress book. Summary - the author tried to convert his VB book over to C# with no knowledge of C#/OOP and APress tried to release a book based on size, not content.
Rating:
Summary: My 2 Cents
Review: First 2 chapters are just Introduction to C# language and Windows Forms. Chapter 3 intro to ADO.NET components. Chapter 4 is Data Components in VS.NET. After chapter 4, all chapters are worth and well explained. XML chapter is great. I definitely like ODBC.NET chapter which covers MySQL and Oracler database connectivity. Good cahpters on Web Services and ASP.NET. Not bad for beginners and intermediate developers. Didn't see any security and performance coverage though.
Rating:
Summary: Good. I Guess
Review: Good to write Windows and Web database applications. After reading it takes no time to write applications. Few things: ... says two authors but there is only one author. Author could've done a better job covering ADO.NET classes in more depth. I found good ceverage on couple of topics and some of them are XML Coverage, ODBC, ADO.NET Events handling. For beginners to intermediate programmers, not bad at all.
Rating:
Summary: Poor content, poorly written
Review: How come anyone can rate this book 5 stars? There's nothing in this book that deserves a rating like that. Its written in a
rather awful English although it seems that the editors have been able to improve on it. I also think its evident that the
author really does not know too much about databases in practice as suggested by another reviewer. There are so many
places in the book were I wonder if even a price of $[money]would be justified, but I just do not think so. This book deserves
a rating of 1, and its nowhere near the quality APress normaly publishes, like Vaugnhs books.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent
Review: I absolutely agreed - This book is an excellent introduction for the developer new to ADO.NET. The book is geared towards the C# developer using VS.NET so if that doesn't describe you then you will want to look else where. If that does describe you then this is the book you want. The book starts with an introduction to C# which is probably good enough for someone familiar with Java or C++. This is followed by a brief introduction to ADO.NET and how to use VS.NET to build data driven applications. Chapter 5, the longest chapter in the book, is an excellent explanation of using ADO.NET disconnected classes and data providers. The author does an excellent job of explaining these critical topics. The book goes on to explain how XML documents fit into ADO.NET and follows this with a discussion of web applications, web services, and ADO events. The book contains a nice discussion of the ODBC data provider including how to install it into the VS.NET toolkit. This information is not easily found elsewhere. I especially like the author's style, which makes the book feel like a discussion with an enthusiastic co-worker rather than as a dry treatise. The book contains quite a few step-by-step, screen-by-screen examples of building applications. If you are (or plan to be) a C# developer and are new to ADO.NET you are unlikely to find a better book than this one for making this complex topic easily reachable. I start working with ASP.NET Web Services and Web Application and use MySQL as back end. I've seen couple of books but none of them provides good coverage on ODBC data provider. Author has done an exellent explaing database connectivity with various ODBC data sources. Good coverage of XML Services and intro to Web Applications. An above average book for ADO.NET, XML and Web database programmers. I agree with other reviewer that the author's style, which makes the book feel like a discussion with an enthusiastic co-worker rather than as a dry treatise. Normally you would think developing Web Services are a "BIG DEAL" but author explained in a way which makes Web services a "Peice of Cake". Based on this book, I wrote a Web service, which works as a Database Layer for my three ASP.NET applications to send data back and forth. Cheers!
Rating:
Summary: Excellent
Review: I absolutely agreed - This book is an excellent introduction for the developer new to ADO.NET. The book is geared towards the C# developer using VS.NET so if that doesn't describe you then you will want to look else where. If that does describe you then this is the book you want. The book starts with an introduction to C# which is probably good enough for someone familiar with Java or C++. This is followed by a brief introduction to ADO.NET and how to use VS.NET to build data driven applications. Chapter 5, the longest chapter in the book, is an excellent explanation of using ADO.NET disconnected classes and data providers. The author does an excellent job of explaining these critical topics. The book goes on to explain how XML documents fit into ADO.NET and follows this with a discussion of web applications, web services, and ADO events. The book contains a nice discussion of the ODBC data provider including how to install it into the VS.NET toolkit. This information is not easily found elsewhere. I especially like the author's style, which makes the book feel like a discussion with an enthusiastic co-worker rather than as a dry treatise. The book contains quite a few step-by-step, screen-by-screen examples of building applications. If you are (or plan to be) a C# developer and are new to ADO.NET you are unlikely to find a better book than this one for making this complex topic easily reachable. I start working with ASP.NET Web Services and Web Application and use MySQL as back end. I've seen couple of books but none of them provides good coverage on ODBC data provider. Author has done an exellent explaing database connectivity with various ODBC data sources. Good coverage of XML Services and intro to Web Applications. An above average book for ADO.NET, XML and Web database programmers. I agree with other reviewer that the author's style, which makes the book feel like a discussion with an enthusiastic co-worker rather than as a dry treatise. Normally you would think developing Web Services are a "BIG DEAL" but author explained in a way which makes Web services a "Peice of Cake". Based on this book, I wrote a Web service, which works as a Database Layer for my three ASP.NET applications to send data back and forth. Cheers!
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