Rating: 
Summary: A very good book for advanced visual basic programmers
Review: Visual Basic Business Objects by Rockford Lhotka. This book is a very good guide to advanced object oriented programming. But I stress ADVANCED. This is NOT for the beginner. However if you have been using object orientation for some time and wish to go to the next level, this book is for you. Chapters 1 through 7 give a very thorough coverage of object orientation. Chapter 8 discusses n-tier solutions. Chapters 11 - 15 give you such advanced topics as DCOM, Internet Information Server apps, DHTML applications, and Active Server pages. Its a great book if you are an experienced programmer, but it is probably to deep for beginners
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Summary: Great book, but almost no changes from the VB5 version.
Review: If you've read Professional Visual Basic 5.0 Business Objects, then you've pretty much read this one. No discussion of VB6 UDTs. It's pretty obvious that the publisher simply wanted to slap VB6 on the cover so it would APPEAR to be current. Disappointing.If, one the other hand, you haven't read the old version, then buy this one. NOW.
Rating: 
Summary: This is the best Visual Basic Book on the Market!
Review: I used this architecture to design a web enabled project. Essentially - business objects were reused for a VB and ASP front end. This book is very thoughtful and much ahead of its time. Microsoft might consult it while considering VB programing enhancements.
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Summary: A great book for the experienced developer.
Review: But if you already own the previous edition (VB5) this edition (VB6) adds very little.
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Summary: Still Good But Expected More
Review: I read the Business 5.0 Objects Book three times with this new version I was expecting to see revisions for building Business objects that included VB 6.0's new abilities to pass UDT's in classes and persistance. There were almost no changes made between the 5.0 and 6.0 book. If you have the 5.0 book don't bother getting this one. If you don't have either book then buy it. This book is the best coverage of coding real objects I have seen. Even if I am dissapointed in the lack of changes.
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Summary: Best Real World Visual Basic Programming Book
Review: This book is THE book for serious programmers wanting to create full-fledged applications incorporating design methodologies and state of the art Microsoft technologies. The two fundamental concepts of object modeling and inheritance are thoroughly covered. As a software developer in IT this book details all steps in IT development covering topics such as simple design, DCOM, MTS, UML. All the tools of the trade needed to create maintainable and usable code. Not only does Lhotka fully explain these topics but more importantly gives you real world examples of their implementation. The first book I have seen that organizes and shows how and when to use current technologies to make scalable and efficient code.
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Summary: Rocky hits the mark
Review: What a great book! The title should actually be, "I Can't Believe I Was Able To Program Anything Without Using Class Modules". This book is really about back-end programming. It's about writing a DLL that abstracts what you want to do from the nuts and bolts work of actually doing it. And the best thing about it is that the components you write are COM compliant so they can be used with basically any language; specifically I've used them with ASP and ColdFusion. Imagine writing an ASP page like this to update someone's salary: <% set objStaff = server.createobject("MyCompany.StaffMember")
objStaff.beginedit
objStaff.load 10
objStaff.Salary = 60000
objStaff.applyedit
set objStaff = nothing %> Notice that there's no database code, no business logic, no MTS stuff, no nothing. All of these things get encapsulated in a DLL so that the front-end programmers don't have to worry about them. They just create an object, do stuff, and kill it. If that StaffMember was a non-manager, the DLL could be written to raise an error if the salary was over a certain threshold, or whatever. It's up to you, the back-end programmer, and it's not possible to bypass the business's rules by forgetting to include the logic in the GUI. Also, this is great if you are selling your app to a customer, because your code is compiled and can't be "stolen" or modified. The book got a little bit confusing to me at times in chapters 4 and 5, but I hadn't touched VB in about two years since an intro college class, so that may have been to blame. Also, it was more like "Where are we going with this?" rather than "What's going on?". However, if you struggle through to chapter 6 or so, you will have an "A-ha" moment and then it will all make sense. Believe me! I now feel like a VB 6 Expert from reading this book. It goes deeply into Debugging as an added bonus, and I don't really know how I got along without the "Immediate" window for so long. Also, VB components are so much faster and more reliable than writing (and re-writing) your business rules in ASP code. Your web apps will stop sucking and start being fast and reliable. I whole-heartedly recommend this book, and I can't wait for the VB.net update.
Rating:
Summary: Great
Review: If you're gonna use vb, learn to use it right. This is the right way. As close as you can get to oo in vb.
Rating: 
Summary: Be sure to test drive first...
Review: As a beginner to business objects, I found some of the material beneficial. Not to say that what i found was not of great value and therefore making the book overall worth keeping. It was simply a needle in a haystack of overly complicated topics that could have been stated more simply. Such a nice table of contents (perhaps over extended in the middle to end too) is deserving of better work. I admit i have not read the entire book. But who has the time to read an entire book of this length? I read it as I have all of my other 30 or so and had more trouble linking the different parts of the book together than i should have. I would almost recommend reading this book front to back sequentially, which is frustrating. I have never purchased a CS book before with code in each chapter that did not function. This author certainly did not outdo himself in that respect. So, at the end of the chapter and the end of the day, you can download his code and it will not function as expected; If it functions at all. Even more bothersome is the inexcusable errors in the 'functioning' application. For a book praising robustness, it is quite watered down. In closing, chop the book in half, eliminating all of the redundant chatter, give it functioning downloadable code, and call it a beginning book on business objects. This book could have been much better but is still worth looking at, maybe buying; be sure to test drive first though.
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Summary: Excelent Book
Review: Fantastic coverage of concepts as well as terrific examples, and code samples. For VB programmers who have only dabbled a little with classes, this book will show you how to use them effectively. After reading this book, you'll be able to create well organized professional VB apps.
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