Amazon.com Review
Visual InterDev 6 Unleashed provides an almost invaluable field guide to using Visual InterDev 6 in the real world. With its mix of short, useful case studies and expert programming tips, this practical guide can let the working Web developer take full advantage of today's VI for projects. Most computing books claim to use real programming examples, but in the case of Visual InterDev 6 Unleashed, its focus on real-world Web development makes all the difference. First, the book pulls no punches when it comes to determining what niches Visual InterDev fills, with recommendations pointed at sticking to HTML or DHMTL and generally skipping Internet Explorer-specific solutions.
The book opens with a great tour of what cross-browser compatibility really means. There's full coverage of Web applications done "the Microsoft way" on the server side, with good coverage of database programming (with ADO, DTCs, and SQL Server) as well as the latest in business objects done in Visual Basic and Microsoft Transaction Server (MTS). Yet the focus of cross-browser compatibility means that your ASP Web applications created with VI will run on most of today's Web browsers. The book's advice and tips on deploying Web pages (and particularly business objects) can save you hours of frustration.
Short, effective case studies are the rule here. These are neither just demoware nor overly complex examples of entire Web sites. Instead, focused examples on such crucial topics as Web registration, cookies, security, and even basic e-commerce (with an online catalog and shopping basket) are included here. In short, Visual InterDev 6 Unleashed provides an excellent guide to essential Microsoft Web technologies with a real-world eye for problems to avoid and overcome. Provided you know the basics of HTML and ASP already, this book can let you get a lot more out of Visual InterDev and the Microsoft Web platform for real-world development. --Richard Dragan
Topics covered: Introduction to Visual InterDev 6, JavaScript/VBScript basics, DHMTL and CSS, transition and filter effects, Scripting Object Model (SOM), debugging, team development, deployment, security with Windows NT, firewalls and digital certificates, Microsoft Universal Data Access (UDA) and ADO 2.x, SQL Server and TSQL, Design-Time Controls (DTC), Web database programming, personalization and cookies, Visual Basic components using MTS, e-mail and Collaboration Data Object (CDONTS), index server, online catalog, and e-commerce basics.
From the Back Cover
Using Visual InterDev 6 Unleashed, the reader will learn to take their Visual InterDev development to the next level. The book is designed so it can either be read a chapter at a time or from front to back. Each chapter will present a topic along with tips, cautions, and other notes. Additionally each chapter will contain coding examples that the reader can adapt to their own Visual InterDev projects. The topics will include the following: Part I: Programming with Visual InterDev- Writing cross-browser compatible Web applications, DHTML, OOP w/ HTML, Cascading Style Sheets, data binding, debugging, Scriptlets, and more; Part II: Building Dynamic Web Applications- Universal Data Access, ODBC access, ADO programming, data connections, using the Query designer, stored procedures, security, and more; Part III: Integrating Visual InterDev- Building ASP components, writing IIS applications, creating Visual Basic front-ends, MTS, CDO, using Index Server, workign with e-commerce; Part IV: Server Administration- IIS performance tuning, ASP performance tuning, deployment, team development, site security, and more.
