Advanced Delphi Developer's Guide to ADO

Rating:
Summary: Use it as a door stop
Review: Absolutely dreadful!! This is probably the worst computer book I've ever bought. The authors must have been "on" something when they wrote it, and I can confidently say it'll be getting pulped by the publishers soon.

Gives nothing the regular Borland documentation doesn't already cover. The code examples do not fill me with confidence that the authors actually understand Delphi programming basics either.

You are better buying Understanding ADO from Microsoft press - I had to after reading this drivel.

Rating:
Summary: Not only about ADO
Review: Based on the title of this Delphi and ADO book: Advanced Delphi Developer's Guide to ADO, I expected "only" coverage of ADOExpress in Delphi. However, that's only a part of this book. The book consists of 23 chapters, starting with the Microsoft Data Access Components (MDAC), OLE DB Providers, ADO and its role in the Delphi Database Architecture. ADOExpress components like TADOCOnnection, TADOCommand, TADODataSet etc. are covered in a lot of detail - as expected. However, apart from these "basics", the book also contains chapters that explain how to actually build ADO Applications, and how to do Business Graphics and Reporting with ADO. Even after those chapter, we're only still halfway the book.
Further topics include OLAP and ADO, ADOX in Delphi, JRO Objects, and a very helpful chapter on deploying ADO applications. Chapter 19 and later introduce Distributed Computing; Windows DNA (Distributed interNet Applications), including RDS and MTS with ADO. There's even a chapter on MIDAS ADO Applications.
There are also a number of appendices; and the most interesting one covers BDE to ADO migration issues!

Rating:
Summary: Not only about ADO
Review: Based on the title of this Delphi and ADO book: Advanced Delphi Developer's Guide to ADO, I expected "only" coverage of ADOExpress in Delphi. However, that's only a part of this book. The book consists of 23 chapters, starting with the Microsoft Data Access Components (MDAC), OLE DB Providers, ADO and its role in the Delphi Database Architecture. ADOExpress components like TADOCOnnection, TADOCommand, TADODataSet etc. are covered in a lot of detail - as expected. However, apart from these "basics", the book also contains chapters that explain how to actually build ADO Applications, and how to do Business Graphics and Reporting with ADO. Even after those chapter, we're only still halfway the book.
Further topics include OLAP and ADO, ADOX in Delphi, JRO Objects, and a very helpful chapter on deploying ADO applications. Chapter 19 and later introduce Distributed Computing; Windows DNA (Distributed interNet Applications), including RDS and MTS with ADO. There's even a chapter on MIDAS ADO Applications.
There are also a number of appendices; and the most interesting one covers BDE to ADO migration issues!

Rating:
Summary: Gets ADO working but you are none the wiser as to how!
Review: Bought this book because of the poor coverage of this crucial subject in my other Delphi books. Wish now that I hadn't bothered. This is a very basic book indeed, and does not touch on the architecture of ADO at all. It is written to get you a quick result, but you will not know how and why ADO works so you can't fix any problems you encounter later.

A book on ADO which does not even have an index entry for "Action Queries" is a complete joke. Save your money

Rating:
Summary: Much Ado about nothing
Review: I found essentially nothing new in this book that I had not already found in Delphi's DG. I can't think of anything that I took away from it. If this was advanced I better run and take my Mensa test!

Rating:
Summary: disappointing
Review: I found this book disappointing; it lacks essential ADO error handling details. Never having used ADO before, I had to deliver an ADO delphi application in a thight schedule and unfortenately this book didn't help me much.

Rating:
Summary: Advanced?
Review: Save your money! This book is terribly written and disorganized. I initially purchased it hoping to get more information about ADO with regard to Delphi. You are better off going to newsgroups.

Rating:
Summary: Starting with ADO?
Review: The reviews on this book are really mixed(up). Some rate the book high and others low. If you are just getting started with ADO, I would recommend this book. If you are looking for an advanced ADO reference book, this isn't it.

I found this book to be very logical and presented the topics very well. Since the authors are from Russia I thought the English would be lacking. However, the book is well written and I found myself not wanting to put the book down. I was learning.

The book does not take you to the expert level. You will need other resources for that.

I highly recommend it to those new to ADO.

Rating:
Summary: Save your cash...
Review: This book is written very poorly, and leaves out so much information I find myself wondering exactly why it was published. There are much better ADO resources than this book. I have not found anything useful in this book, and think it is way to basic for even a beginner.

Rating:
Summary: Save your cash
Review: This book isn't really worth the paper its printed on. The code examples are very incomplete, and the book covers the subject matter very poorly in my opinion. I don't know how well Mastering Delphi 5 covers ADO, but Delphi 5 Developers Guide barely mentions it, which is why I purchased this book. The examples in this book are terrible, and it skips over a lot of information that I had to hunt down in newsgroups. All in all, I'm sorry I purchased it, and did better using newsgroups and mailing lists then with this book.