.Net Enterprise Design with Visual Basic.Net and SQL Server 2000

by Jimmy Nilsson

.NET Enterprise Deisgn with Visual Basic.NET and SQL Server 2000 discusses factors and opinions developers should consider in order to create higher quality designs and applications. The author uses one large-scale business application throughout the book as the basis for all examples to clearly illustrate concepts being discussed. Coverage also includes a variety of aspects about design in the world of .NET; explanations of the business...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0672322331
• ISBN13: 9780672322334
• Release Date: December 2001
• Publisher: Sams Publishing
• Length: 500 Pages
• Weight: 1.37 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 7.4" x 9.1"

Customer Reviews

A book worthy of its title!

If you are looking for a book that gives you a blueprint for building a scalable enterprise database application using the .NET framework and SQL Server 2000 then this book hands it to you on a plate.Don't buy this book if you are looking to learn Visual Basic .NET or SQL Server because this one is all about applying those basic skills taught in other books to produce a "real" application.Most books on this subject fit the 80:20 rule, they take you 80% of the way and then ask you to just finish things off yourself. Anyone who is familiar with the 80:20 rule knows that the remaining 20% needed for completion is as much effort again as the first 80%.This one introduces, designs and builds a real application to completion, consisting of n-Tier architecture with full transaction control, business rules and data access with concurrency control. It doesn't ignore real world requirements such as performance, debugging and testing.The author imparts tips and tricks learned over the years and gives you a working example of one of the most important design patterns in database access, "Batch Command" (sometimes referred to as "Unit of Work"). This pattern minimises multiple trips to the database by compiling separate SQL statements into a single script that is send and executed in a single call. All code examples are in VB.NET and are accompanied by UML diagrams where appropriate.In summary this book fits hand in hand with Microsoft's .NET data access strategy and basically hands you the design, implementation notes and source code of a working, scalable, enterprise class application on a plate. Well worth it!

JC Oberholzer

There's enough "learn VB.NET" books out there, most of them not too bad, but nobody dares to stick his neck out at this early stage and suggest an "architecture proposal", which makes these books scaled down product manuals (although easier to read). Jimmy stuck his neck out and suggests do this and don't do that. Some of his suggestions are not totally OO and so on, but the beauty is that you can see these ideas have been tried and tested in real life scenarios. If you need to design and maintain enterprise apps, this book should be a very valuable companion.

Recommended for .NET developers and architects

First of all this book is not about learning a new language syntax! The book is also not filled with code listings. Code fragments are just printed if they have added value in the book. The author provides code examples separately (provided with comments). So it is not a book that the fellow below is looking for (a book that teaches him how to contact SQL Server from Visual Basic .NET)The book is focused on people that want to learn more about building (large scale) enterprise applications using the Microsoft .NET platform. I personally think this book is as well suited for architects as well as more code addicted people.The author provides guidelines and patterns for developing and designing data centric N-tier enterprise applications using the .NET platform (using ADO.NET, COM+/.NET Component services, VB.NET/C#) and SQL Server (including T-SQL). Some subjects being discussed in this book: where to put business rules, how to implement these business rules, a new data access pattern, concurrency control, transactions etc.The book also provides guidelines (not just on the end of the book!) for dealing with testing, error handling and preparing for debugging so it has a positive impact on quality as well as productivity.The author uses VB.NET for coding examples. I personally prefer coding using C#, but I don't find it inconvenient that the code is in VB.NET. I like the author's way of writing and the structure of the book. I like the way he describes the pros and cons for solutions and the influences on performance, productivity, scalability and extensibility. He also describes his own experiences (not just theory).The book gives you guidelines (not only how but also why) so you can evaluate for yourself what will be the best solution for your situation (after all, every advantage has a disadvantage).I found this book very helpful. It is a long time ago I read an ICT related book from beginning to end!

Above review incorrect

Although I haven't read this book, I wanted to make sure the above review does not discourage people from reading this book. This book is not about teaching Visual Basic.NET or SQL Server fundamentals. Instead it explains how to create an N-Tier architectue using those technologies. Furthermore, of course there won't be "complete" samples in a book like this. A decent size N-Tier application could possibly take a couple of hundred pages to thoroughly explain (look at the IBuySpy or Fitch and Mather applications). Instead (it appears from the sample chapter/table of contents) that the authors focus on specific points in the distributed application to examine closely. To reiterate, if you want to learn simple VB.NET or SQL Server - Don't buy this book or you'll end up frustrated like the fellow above. If you would like to learn about DNA or N-Tier architectural concepts (or if you would like to migrate your existing DNA skills to .NET) I would highly recommend this book.