Roger Jennings' Database Developer's Guide With Visual Basic 6

The first part of the book does an excellent job of relating older Microsoft database APIs, such as open database connectivity (ODBC), Remote Data Objects (RDO), and Data Access Objects (DAO), to the new ADO and object linking and embedding database OLE-DB standards. The author reviews database basics (including normalized tables) and provides a solid introduction to SQL (including joins and grouping).

Generally, this book highlights the built-in tools and capabilities of Visual Basic 6, such as bound controls, charts, graphs, and reporting features. To illustrate ADO, the author provides a sample application that works with Microsoft's WebTV database (with over 5,000 lines of sample code on the accompanying CD-ROM).

Next come the basics of corporate networking and then running Access in a networked environment. Coverage of SQL Server 6.5/7.0 follows, including transactions. The author's how-to guide to moving client-side SQL code to stored procedures on database servers is a standout here.

Later sections look at Visual Basic 6 Internet programming, including its support for ActiveX Documents, WebClasses, and the Remote Data Service (RDS) in Internet Explorer. (Overall, though, this is a book written for serious intranet corporate development rather than the public Internet.) Final chapters look at middle-tier transaction management in Microsoft Transaction Server (MTS) and even the basics of data warehousing.

Best for its explanation of new Microsoft database technologies and how to bring older code up to speed, this book can serve as a valuable choice for any serious corporate Visual Basic database programmer. --Richard Dragan