Murach's VB .Net Database Programming with ADO .Net

I took on the project of constructing a database application to track our customers since there was nothing out there off the shelf that would do exactly what we needed done. I had not programmed in 12 years and did not know a first thing about VB.NET or object-oriented programming. The book is so well structured that I managed to build a database application from the ground-up while learning to program all over again within 6 months - it would have taken shorter but the only times I could dedicate to the project was nights and weekends. And guess what; after I beta-tested the program and ironed out the bugs, the program never even crashed once! On average 15 concurrent users are on the program and enter about 200 transacions daily. This book helped make my project a success.

I was in several Oracle's training classes. In most classes, each takes approximately from two to five days. If you were in the class, you would get a handout book printing from Instructor's PowerPoint slide. The handout, in bullet format, covers only the closed-to-a-real application examples. It is concise. Instructor covers the slide for 30 mins. Then, he gave you many lab exercises to follow. With this method, I think you can understand the context in the short time. This book is using the same method. By pursuing this book, you do not need the real instructor. All instructor suggestions are already in the book. At the end of each chapter, you will have a chance to modify the project that you already did in the chapter. For example, if the author shows you how to write create adapter, you will have a chance to enhance those statements to be more complex. You are also able to do extra projects that the author has not taught in the text. As a result, you can apply those skills to develop your own projects. Another good thing about this book is that the screen captures are very clear. You can see what the points of the author. In many books, they fail to do so because readers cannot read words on those screens.

There are very few publishers in the IT world that follow the approach taken by the Murach's series to teach. All the left hand side pages of this book are theory and explanations and all the right hand side pages of this book are code/explanations. It is a new and unique approach that seems to work. It is clear when you read the book that the authors are definitely geared towards teaching the subject and making it as easy as possible for you to learn. This is obvious even in the way things are explained where the authors make no assumptions and start from scratch in explaining everything in great detail. This is an excellent approach to teach beginners.The book is split into two parts - using VB.NET to build desktop applications and using VB.NET to build web applications. But for both sections, it MAINLY addresses the issue of connecting to databases through ADO.NET. And if you are looking at learning how to develop just web applications, you are forced to learn how to build desktop applications first. The reason for this is that the book starts with the desktop applications before proceding to the web applications and it doesn't repeat the knowledge presented in the earlier chapters. So you can't start directly reading the web development chapters. But we found that it isn't that great an inconvenience. If you are in a rush, you are better off looking at another book in the market - 'Programming the Web with Visual Basic.NET' by Torkelson, et al. This book only addresses how to develop web applications using VB.NET and it does an equally fantastic job at teaching if not better. It also goes a lot deeper into the subject. This other book does does claim to be only for Intermediate/Advanced users though we believe that if you are an experienced programmer but just new to VB.NET, you should be okay.The book being reviewed here does have a website where you can download the sample code and we have been able to successfully use a lot of the code with very few problems in implementing the code. There are almost no negatives to this book with the exception that it isn't for an advanced user and it forces you to learn how to build desktop applications first. Everything it addresses, it does a fantastic job but it does leave out the very advanced topics.We thoroughly enjoyed reading this book and wanted to share this valuable find with others (not just this book but also other books by the Murach's series). We hope you too enjoy learning from this book as much as we did. Our copy will continue to be used for a long time to come to give you an indication of how much we like this book. Good luck!

This is the best ADO.Net book I have read. It covers most everything you need to learn to develop an application using ADO.Net. The book is relevant for beginning all the way through expert level developers. It starts out with the assumption that you know nothing about databases and database programming. There is a good primer on client server systems, relational databases, and SQL. After the intro, it goes into the basics of ADO.Net. It then builds on that foundation and provides in-depth details of the syntax and usage of .Net database programming.The authors are clear, concise, and explain things very well without being verbose or chatty. There are also many useful and relevant tips throughout the lessons. After you have learned the syntax and functions of ADO.Net, they give you two sample applications, an order entry Windows program and a vendor maintenance web app, that apply the lessons learned in the previous chapters. My one problem with the book is that the code samples do not contain comments, which would be useful with the sample apps. All examples and code are available for download. I haven't done this yet so I can't speak to how well the code works.Besides ADO.Net, there are excellent sections on ASP.Net and N-Tier applications, but what I especially like is the chapter on Crystal Reports. Most every application requires some type of reporting but almost none of the .Net books I read cover the subject. This book devotes 30 pages to Crystal. I wish I would have read this book before I wrote my first .Net app using Crystal; it would have saved me a lot of time.If you need to quickly get up to speed with .Net database programming, this is the book. It covers most every aspect of database development in a little over 500 pages and despite the complexity and detail of the subject, it is very easy to read and understand. I wish they would write a C# version! I recently converted to C#. It is an excellent book. My compliments to authors Anne Prince and Doug Lowe.

As a small business owner who has just moved up from Access to SQL Server, I needed a book that would get me up to speed on VB.net programming quickly so that I could start creating the applications I need for my business. Like every small business owner I realized that I would never be able to afford the technical help to get what I needed done, so I was going to have to learn to do it myself. I have a small library of books now, including many of the very fine Wrox books, but I found the Murach series to be the best so far for me: a business owner who needs to learn programming geared towards business problems quickly. The other books seemed to spend an exorbitant amount of time on non essential issues, and I bogged down in creating non relevant examples. This book went right to the heart of the matter: creating a usable interface to my sql server database and explained it all very clearly. I have learned more in the last two days with this book than in the last month with the other titles. In fact, this book will probably provide clarity for those other books on my shelf and allow me to understand their concepts more clearly as well. If you are like me: a small business owner, not a professional programmer, this book is for you. I have spent over a $1,000 in books in the last month. I would have saved myself a lot of money had I bought this first.