Data Binding with Windows Forms 2.0: Programming Smart Client Data Applications with .Net

By Brian Noyes

"Brian Noyes' writing style easily captures your attention as he elaborates on all aspects of data binding in his book. He has a refreshingly clear and crisp delivery as he starts each chapter with a simple tour of each topic, and then leads you into practical concerns for sound practices and extensibility opportunities. Most importantly, as Brian explains approaches to data-binding architecture, patterns of usage, the value of data sets, binding controls and the rest, he always describes how he reaches his recommendations on the topic. This book is perfect for newcomers to .NET 2.0, but also for those that have some experience. Anyone who cares about data in their applications (okay, that should be almost everyone) is guaranteed to learn something new and useful by reading Brian's book."
--Michele Leroux Bustamante, IDesign chief architect, Microsoft regional director, and MVP "Brian has saved me a lot of time. I'm writing The Hitchhiker's Guide to Visual Studio and SQL Server 2005 (7th Edition) and I'm not going to have to cover data binding nearly as deeply because Brian has done it for me. His book gets right to the meat of the subject and makes data binding look easy. I was also pleased to see that the book focuses on the misunderstood and under-applied Windows Forms architecture. It's a must-read for anyone trying to make their application more interactive and to leverage the new Visual Studio 2005 technology. I'm planning to point my readers to this resource when they need an in-depth treatment of data binding."
--William Vaughn, president, Beta V Corporation "Data binding has finally come of age in Windows applications. Back in the Visual Studio 6.0 days, I ignored data binding completely and wrote my own repetitive code to encapsulate my business logic. With Visual Studio 2005, we finally have a robust and compelling data-binding technology. To ignore it today would make you inefficient and put you behind the curve. Brian delivers a clear and concise discussion of a core topic of development for Windows today. A combination of an easy-to-follow conversational yet technical tone, excellent examples, and solid explanations make this a must-read for any developer writing for Windows or learning to write for Windows."
--Stephen Forte, chief technical officer, Corzen Inc. "This book provides a clear, readable, and in-depth treatment of data binding, with detailed discussions of best practices in the presentation and use of data. Brian communicates his knowledge on the mechanics of data binding to give the low-level understanding that makes all the difference when building sophisticated applications and troubleshooting difficult problems. Effective data binding can enormously reduce the amount of code in your applications and will allow new levels of sophistication in your development. Read this book."
--Jonathan Cogley, chief executive officer, Thycotic, ASPInsider, and C# MVP "The .NET Framework 2.0, Visual Studio .NET 2005, and Windows Forms 2.0 incorporate the most powerful data-binding platform yet, and absolutely need a book like this to expose it. Brian's extensive data-binding knowledge and experience shine through as he comprehensively explores its many facets, starting with the fundamentals before tackling a wide variety of real-world scenarios. I've always thought a data-binding book was necessary, and I'm glad Brian found the time to write his."
--Michael Weinhardt, freelance author and application developer " Data Binding with Windows Forms 2.0 earns a gold star and a prized place in my development book library. Brian is an exceptional teacher of technology, best practices, and technique. He continues to educate at every presentation I attend; his book carries that quality to paper. I found this book to be highly informative and full of all the important steps and examples necessary to learn this technology. In this book, Brian demonstrates a firm grasp on the concepts and I really enjoy his efforts to promote best practices at every chance. Definitively a cover-to-cover read."
--Randy Hayes, president, Expert Network Solutions, Inc. "Brian's direct and well-organized presentation makes this much misunderstood topic finally understandable."
--Sahil Malik, author of Pro ADO.NET 2.0 and C# MVP

Data binding is the most important part of many business applications--and one of the most difficult things to understand. Data Binding with Windows Forms 2.0 is the first book to focus on this crucial area of development. It will quickly get you up to speed on binding data sources to Windows Forms components. The book contains clear examples in C# that work with SQL Server 2000 and SQL Server 2005. Visual Basic .NET examples are available on the book's Web site.

Brian Noyes, leading consultant and speaker on .NET programming, teaches you both the theory and practice of data binding and provides numerous samples ready to run in Visual Studio 2005.

From his in-depth coverage, you'll learn how to

Use Visual Studio 2005 to generate a data-bound application from a database Use the new Visual Studio 2005 typed data set designer, and how and why to use typed data sets and typed data adapters Perform simple and complex binding of data to controls, and how to use the .NET 2.0 BindingSource Use the Binding object for simple binding with automatic formatting, and how to handle binding events Generate bound controls with the Visual Studio Designer, and how to use Data Sources Present data with the new DataGridView control, and how to implement advanced features of the DataGridView Implement custom data-bound controls in Windows Forms Create custom business objects and collections that are suitable for use in data binding Implement validation and error handling at the Win

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 032126892X
• ISBN13: 9780321268921
• Release Date: January 2006
• Publisher: Addison-Wesley Professional
• Length: 696 Pages
• Weight: 2.36 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.3" x 7.1" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

The Best Book on Data Binding and .NET 2.0. A must read for windows forms developers.

This is a really great book. Like most technical books it covers a lot of ground: 1. Shows through example how data binding works in windows: how to use the Binding class to bind a property on a control to a property on an object; how the new .NET 2.0 BindingSource class is used and why it was created; and a clear explanation of the currency manager and how the BindingSource class replaces it. I didn't even know you could bind arbitrary properties on an object to a property on a control. This book showed me how to do it. Too Cool! 2. A detailed explanation of how to use and extend the DataGridView. It is the best one stop shopping treatment of the DataGridView I have seen anywhere. 3. How to implement custom data-bound controls in windows forms. 4. A detailed explanation of the Data-Binding interfaces, including how to bind the DataGridView to something other then a DataTable. 5. And so much more... I consider this one of the few .NET books worth reading. One big plus about this book is after the first couple of chapters you can skip around and read what you need to get your job done. Using the information from this book I was able to create an adapter to our custom business object and display the data in a data grid view. Using the data grid view the user can perform the standard CRUD (create, read, update, and delete operations) on the data. This provides a nice addition to our graphical rendering. Big thanks to the author. I couldn't of done it without this book.

Well Worth the Money

This book lived up to and surpassed my expectations. Going into this book, I had very little knowledge of how to implement data binding support for my custom entity classes. After reading this book, particularly the custom entity object chapter, I was able to implement very rich data binding support (filters, sorting, error provider support, etc.) to my custom classes. Of course, all of the various pieces of information on how to implement this support is out there in MSDN or in web articles here and there. But it was well worth the price of the book to have all of these pieces put together in this cohesive text. I thought that the book started off a bit slow, but after the 2nd or 3rd chapter, it quickly picked up with the technical details and provided everything that I needed to know. I would highly recommend this book if you need to implement data binding support yourself.

Excellent Book

What's really cool (and missing in all the reviews and sample chapter) is how the author actually does things like they would be done in a real project. For instance, his typed dataset definition is in a dll, not lumped into the main project. He seems to make a continual effort to keep things loosely coupled and logically separated, just like seasoned programmers do. His assumption seems to be that the reader wants to learn the right way to do things, rather than just getting a surface level understanding of major concepts. It is blatantly obvious that while the author is an excellent writer, that he got his start as an excellent developer (unlike many authors, who only code so that they can write a book about it). By the time I got 100 pages into the book, I felt like I had gotten my money's worth. The book is very informative, and is not full of filler material like so many others. This is hands-down the most clear and helpful book on .NET I've read to date.

Excellent Data Binding Coverage

This book is a one stop shop for all your data binding needs. It is very thorough and well written. It thoroughly covers every aspect to data binding and then cover its specific use in ASP.NET, Windows Forms, WinFX, and ADO.NET with 4 appendixes. The only downside to it is that it alludes to smart client development in the title. The only part of smart client it covers is the data binding on the UI. It doesn't cover the entire smart client gamut, like data storage, communication, or architecture in context to smart client applications.

More than just data binding

This book is about so much more than data binding. I'm not sure why they titled it this way. The book is really about forms from start to finish, including what is new in the 2.0 framework. It's an excellent work on proper forms programming and data flow. I highly recommend this book for anyone doing a lot of Windows forms work.