Professional ADO 2.5 Programming (Wrox Professional Guide S.) - Softcover

The best thing about this book has to be its comprehensive tour of Microsoft database APIs over the years (from ODBC, DAO and RDO) to today's Universal Data Access (UDA) strategy centred on OLE DB and ADO. This book also shows where UDA fits in with Microsoft's recommended approach for building applications on the Web (which take advantage of multi-tiered architectures). If you want to manipulate database objects (such as modifying databases and tables), you'll want to look at the sections on ADOX here. And if you find yourself having to write a custom OLE DB Provider, tutorial sections will show you how (plus there's a working sample of a custom provider that hooks into the Windows registry).

There is plenty for the enterprise programmer here, with coverage of the new Active Directory in Windows 2000, plus background on LDAP and using the ASDI interfaces for programming with corporate directory information. The book culminates with a useful case study on a business-to-business e-commerce (for an online florist, with virtual suppliers). Most of the code here uses Visual Basic, though there is mention of Visual C++ as well. Reference sections on all ADO APIs (and constants) will help make this title a must for the working programmer.

There are many facets to today's database standards in the Microsoft platform. Professional ADO 2.5 Programming covers virtually all of them, with a detailed tour of a lot of useful information that can benefit any intermediate or advanced developer. --Richard Dragan

The book contains detailed, practical hands-on examples and discusses the new features of semi-structured data. It goes on to examine the growing role of XML as a data transfer mechanism.