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	Beginning ASP.NET 1.1 Databases: From Novice to Professional (Apress)
	Author(s): Damien Foggon, Dan Maharry
	Published: 2004, ISBN 1-59059-369-3, 632 pages
	Publisher (more . . .): Apress

Review

Reviewed: November, 2004

Reviewer: Kurtis Halvorson

     This is one of the better introductory books I have seen on accessing databases in ASP.NET. The authors are very clear and concise in their writing, and rarely did I have to re-read a paragraph to understand it. All of the examples are written in C#, and WebMatrix is used as the primary development environment.

     The book is best read in order, as the concepts tend to build on each other through out the book. Depending on experience level, some chapters can be skimmed over briefly, but it is not recommended to skip them.

     Part One: Introduction will be greatly appreciated by the novice user. Chapter 1 gives a great explanation how data-driven web sites work and why you would want to do them. Chapter 2 is a good introduction to relational databases.

     Part Two: Core skills are exactly that, the core skill one will need to write data-driven web applications. Data is shown to be accessible from a wide variety of data-sources such as MSDE, Access, MySQL, Excel spreadsheets and CSV files. This information is very useful for those who do not have access to SQL Server. It also covers queries, stored procedures, as well as when and why you should use a datareader or a dataset.

     Part Three: Case Studies did a good job of tying everything together with a decent real-world example. Concepts learned previously in the book are put to use, as well as emphasizing analysis and design at the very beginning of the project.

     Part Four: Appendices covered installation of WebMatrix and databases, as well a quick primer on SQL, and sample database information.

     Two common sub-chapter headings through out the book are ‘Try it out:’ and ‘How it works:’ making it very easy to find the what you are looking for when looking things later.

     The authors did a great job of covering error handling. This topic is usually not covered or glossed over in other ASP.NET/Database books. Not only was code-level error handling covered, but site-level error handling was covered as well.

     The use of WebMatrix as the development environment is fine for folks testing the waters in .NET, but some novice users may have problems following the examples using Visual Studio .NET. The book assumes that the reader has some basic knowledge and background in C# and ASP.NET. Readers who have this background should have no problem running the examples Visual Studio

     For the novice programmer with some C# experience and little or no database experience, this is a great book. The concepts are covered in a logical order with good supporting examples. The intermediate level programmer will also find much useful information, filling in gaps in current knowledge, and a foundation for the transition to professional level programmer.