by Shawn Wildermuth
Addison-Wesley Pub Co

The world of ADO.NET can be confusing to someone who is used to the old versions of ADO. I remember the frustration of trying to wrap my mind around the new concepts of the “disconnected data” world.

I read a couple of books that had information on ADO.NET and some decent examples. Even though the examples helped me grasp some of the “how to do” questions in my mind, none of them really explained how the new version of ADO.NET worked, why it was designed the way it is, or gave any best practices. Luckily, I was able to review this book and a million pieces of the puzzle came flying into place.

Pragmatic ADO.NET is an excellent teacher of what ADO.NET is, how it works, and how the everyday developer can use it. This is THE book to read if you want to understand how ADO.NET works, and learn best practices of how to use it.

This book has many examples, but is not over laden with them. They are shared in a very clear and precise manner, which is always straight to the point. The examples will help you put into play the best practices that are discussed in the book. One thing I would have liked to see were more examples in VB.NET. 99% are in C#.

The book is very well written, and flowed very smoothly from one topic to the next. Shawn has a way of explaining things very clearly, and in such a way that anyone can understand. That being said, this is NOT a beginner’s book. I would say that this is a “Must Read” book for anyone who knows ADO and wants to get into the world of ADO.NET, or for intermediate and higher level .Net developers who want to know more about ADO.NET. Without a doubt, even seasoned developers would benefit from this book. The best practices that Shawn shares are priceless, and come from his real world experiences.

Summary:

Chapter 1: Why ADO.NET
This chapter gives a short history of Universal Data Access, and then gives a primer on ADO.NET. It discusses why the new ADO.NET is better than the old ADO, and also goes into things like ADO.NET data structures and managed providers.

Chapter 2: Getting Connected with ADO.NET.
This chapter deals with connections in the ADO.NET world. SQL Server, OLE DB, Oracle, and ODBC connections are discussed. Connection pooling for all these connection types are discussed. Returning OLE DB database schema information and ADO.NET exception handling are also covered.

Chapter 3: Commanding the Database.
ADO.NET command types are discussed, as well as how to execute them. Some other topics include, wrapping stored procedures, using parameters, and parameterized queries. The chapter ends by covering Transactions and Batch Queries.

Chapter 4: Reading Data.
All about the world of DataReaders. How they are made, how they work, etc. Dealing with Database locks, multiple result sets, and working with datareader Meta Data are some of the other topics covered.

Chapter 5: Constructing DataSets.
This is one of my favorite chapters. It helped put a lot of my “missing puzzle pieces” in place. DataSets are thoroughly discussed, and topics include TableMappings, multiple DataTables, DataAdapters, creating DataSets from XML, etc. The chapter also covers defining the DataSet schema, which includes how to work with primary keys, relationships, constraints, triggers, and many other things.

Chapter 6: Typed DataSets.
This chapter discusses Typed DataSets. What they are, how you make them, and how to use them. The chapter ends with a discussion on simplifying Business Object Layers with Typed DataSets.

Chapter 7: Working with DataSets.
Now that we know what DataSets are, this chapter begins working with them. Topics covered include changing, navigating, searching, and merging Data in DataSets.

Chapter 8: Updating the Database.
Disconnected data is great, but it “comes at a cost” as Shawn puts it. This chapter teaches the ins and outs of concurrency in the ADO.NET world. Inserts, updates, deletes, and the different concurrency types are covered. It is a great chapter and you will finish with a great understanding of how to get the DataSet changes back into the actual Database.

Chapter 9: ADO.NET and XML.
This chapter is all about the DataSet and XML. Getting the data into XML, saving it as XML, and getting XML to fill a DataSet are a few of the topics discussed.

Chapter 10: Data Binding with ADO.NET.
This chapter discusses the different types of ADO.NET data binding for Windows forms and ASP.NET.

Chapter 11: Scalability and Performance.
This is another one of my most favorite chapters from the book. Shawn’s real world experience shines light on to the world of performance and scalability. When to worry, why to worry, and how to avoid problems are all discussed. The last section of the chapter is all about best practices, and is a great read.

Appendix: ADO Migration Strategies
Broad overview of migrating to ADO.NET from ADO. How to migrate ADO recordsets, connections, and a few other related topics are covered.

In conclusion, I give this book a 10 out of 10. It is an excellent book, and one that is worth your while to read. I highly recommend it. I wouldn’t really change much about it, except I would tell Shawn not to use Atlanta Braves players in his examples... He should use a better team, like the Arizona Diamondbacks.