Pragmatic ADO.NET: Data Access for the Internet World

I have been a data application developer for over ten years. I've read, on average, two technical books per year on theory or practical application. This book has been my favorite for a number of reasons: 1) It covers the topics that are necessary to develop data applications in a .NET environment. 2) It gets to the point and doesn't waste your time needlessly. 3) It has concrete examples that are applicable to many situations with detailed descriptions. 4) It fully addresses the .NET focus on disconnected data centering around the Dataset. Making the paradigm switch from ADO to ADO.NET can be a daunting task. The sequence and examples of the book put all of the pieces of the puzzle together and allow you to start thinking in terms of disconnected data and not just DataReaders. Data is the foundation of most every business application and it's essential to have a full understanding of the database/application interaction. Taking ADO.NET for granted is a common mistake, but spending time understanding to movement and manipulation of your data will result in a more stable and successful overall data application. Mr. Wildermuth has done a great job. Highly recommended.

Pragmatic ADO.NET: Data Access for the Internet Worldby Shawn WildermuthAddison-Wesley Pub CoThe world of ADO.NET can be confusing to someone who is used to the old versions of ADO. I remember the frustration of trying to wrap my mind around the new concepts of the "disconnected data"world. I read a couple of books that had information on ADO.NET and some decent examples. Even though the examples helped me grasp some of the "how to do" questions in my mind, none of them reallyexplained how the new version of ADO.NET worked, why it was designed the way it is, or gave any best practices. Luckily, I was able to review this book and a million pieces of the puzzle came flying into place. Pragmatic ADO.NET is an excellent teacher of what ADO.NET is, how it works, and how the everyday developer can use it. This is THE book to read if you want to understand how ADO.NET works, and learn best practices of how to use it. This book has many examples, but is not over laden with them. They are shared in a very clear and precise manner, which is always straight to the point. The examples will help you put into play the best practices that are discussed in the book. One thing I would have liked to see were more examples in VB.NET. 99% are in C#. The book is very well written, and flowed very smoothly from one topic to the next. Shawn has a way of explaining things very clearly, and in such a way that anyone can understand. That being said, this is not a beginner's book. But, is a "Must Read" book foranyone who knows ADO and wants to go to the world of ADO.NET. More seasoned developers would also greatly benefit from this book. The best practices that Shawn shares are priceless, and come from his real world experiences.Summary:Chapter 1: Why ADO.NETThis chapter gives a short history of Universal Data Access, and then gives a primer on ADO.NET. It discusses why the new ADO.NET is better than the old ADO, and also goes into things like ADO.NET data structures and managed providers. Chapter 2: Getting Connected with ADO.NET. This chapter deals with connections in the ADO.NET world. SQL Server, OLE DB, Oracle, and ODBC connections are discussed. Connection pooling for all these connection types are discussed. Returning OLE DB database schema information and ADO.NET exception handling are also covered. Chapter 3: Commanding the Database. ADO.NET command types are discussed, as well as how to execute them. Some other topics include, wrapping stored procedures, using parameters, and parameterized queries. The chapter ends by covering Transactions and Batch Queries. Chapter 4: Reading Data. All about the world of DataReaders. How they are made, how they work, etc. Dealing with Database locks, multiple result sets, and working with datareader Meta Data are some of the other topics covered.Chapter 5: Constructing DataSets. This is one of my favorite chapters. It helped put a lot of my "missing puzzle pieces" in place. DataSets are thoroughly discussed, and topics include

There are so many books about .NET now, so it's very difficult to make a right choice. You can't go wrong with this one - it provides very systematic coverage of .NET database programming and guide you through DOs and DONTs of it.This was my second ADO.NET book. After I read (and in fact reviewed) an excellent Bob Beauchemin's "Essential ADO.NET", I thought I wouldn't need another ADO.NET book. But actually I did. There are plenty of ways to solve a database task using .NET, and Shawn Wildermuth carefully guides you through alternatives, not only identifying the best approach but also explaining his reasoning. Here is a brief example: data scalability (chapter 11). Shawn explains different caching scenarios (per user, per application, per server), its drawbacks, discusses how to scale out a DataSet, and if you should duplication or segmentation. Then he gives the following advices (again, with explanations):1. Use DataSet schema2. User typed DataSets to create business rule layers3. Reduce roundtrips to the database4. Cache data early and often5. Use the DataReader6. Use connection factories7. Do not hard code connection stringsThis is just one example of in how this book can help .NET database developer. It helped to get cleaner understanding of .NET database interfaces and its best use.

I have been fortunate enough to read "Pragmatic ADO.NET - Data Access for the Internet World", a truly great book. I've got a decent enough knowledge of data access as used by the .NET Framework, but this book gave me a wake-up call to precisely how things are done, and how I can better optimize my apps. As such, I got a lot out of it. It's less of a "techie ramming programming concepts down your throat" approach with impractical and illogical examples you'll never wind up using. On the contrary, author Shawn Wildermuth uses iterative examples using a similar coding design that is consistent throughout the book to connect to a database, and extract/update/manipulate or analyze information, so it sticks with the reader more. I've let some members of the user group I run preview the book and they got more out of it than any other book on ADO.NET so far. The book is perfectly suited for the intermediate-level, professional developer, as it's not intended to be an introductory book on ADO.NET programming (or database technology, for that matter), so most of the code examples are presented in a way that assumes the reader is familiar with writing data-driven apps. As such, the book doesn't waste time going through 5 meaningless chapters on "What is .NET?", "What is ADO.NET?","What is the CLR?", and other things that drive people just in search of good., useful information crazy. You hit the ground running. Wildermuth's writing style is great - he uses a tone that is learned, yet not domineering; knowledgeable, but not unfamiliar. Reading his book is like sitting down with a friend and chatting about data access principles. (It's also more than obvious very early on the in the book's code examples that Shawn is an avid fan of the Atlanta Braves). :) The numerous code examples are easy to follow and are presented in C#. He also runs ... for Web-based support. I also liked the fact that Wildermuth made reference to and cited examples using Visual Studio .NET, but did not explicitly marry the book to Microsoft's IDE, and include all of the proprietary code that is generated because of it, which in my opinion, tends to confuse a reader not using VS .NET, making the book counterproductive. The code is laid out raw, so a developer using some other IDE (or NotePad) can just as much out of it as the VS .NET jock. At 330 pages (with an excellent appendix on migration) it's a quick read, but nonetheless contains healthy chapters on the DataSet, uses of XML, designing middle-tier business objects, and schema. The book's physical properties are great....the cover is strong and bound tight, with thick paper, so it won't have a broken spine or fall to pieces after 4 nights in your lap while you code. To me at least, this is important. The book also includes an excellent chapter on implementing a best practice approach to managing your migration to ADO.NET, and appreciating the nature of an the scalability of an application. Wildermuth preaches that ADO

Shawn Wildermuth has done a great job of explaining ADO.NET's role and capabilities. This book is an invaluable resource for any developer seeking to learn or master ADO.NET. It goes far beyond the basics, providing best-practices insights and historical context (e.g., explaining how ADO.NET differs from ADO and other earlier Microsoft database interface models) as well as clear examples. ...