Visual Basic 6 is ready to take on the Internet with a variety of options for Web development, both on the server and client side. That's the argument of
Professional VB6 Web Programming, a wide-ranging tour of the strengths of VB for Internet development on the Microsoft DNA platform. This book provides essential information for intermediate to advanced VB developers who want to make the shift to the Internet/intranet development using their favorite tool.
Professional VB6 Web Programming provides in-depth coverage of an entire spectrum of options for VB development on the Web. For instance, it contains a guide to using Visual Basic to create business objects used with Visual InterDev and the ASP for delivering Web pages on the fly. (When used with MTS, this approach greatly improves scalability within the ASP model.)
While there are a number of books on VB business objects, this one is unique when it turns to using WebClasses for creating ASP-based applications from within VB. (The author's example here--a soup-to-nuts tour of a message board application created with Web classes--is itself probably worth the price of the book.)
Another potential standout, which most developers probably don't think about, is using VB to process CGI scripts. (The authors write a custom class to manage stream I/O, usually missing from VB, to pull this off. They also show how to use regular expressions from within VB.)
Throughout Professional VB6 Web Programming, the team of authors cover virtually every new and emerging technology, such as XML, RDS, and CDONTS (for messaging), but they also manage to cover essential VB Web development techniques in depth. In all, this book shows that VB is ready to take on Web development, including cross-browser solutions. It's all you need to take your existing VB skills to the next level for today's Web. --Richard Dragan
Topics covered: Internet and Microsoft DNA overview, HTTP and HTML, Visual Basic Web support, WebClasses: intro and advanced features, DHMTL, ActiveX Documents, ASP applications, VBScript, JavaScript, XML, ActiveX Control Pad, custom ActiveX controls, WebBrowser clients, ExecWB commands, VB server-side components, ADO, RDS, MTS, MSMQ, CDONTS and mail messages, CGI and VB.
User review
Book was very useful to me professionally. But not perfect.
I rated this 5 stars because it has the most useful writeup on writing Server Components in VB for use with ASP - chapters 9-11. I wanted to do this and had trouble getting working samples and explanations. I feel that industrial strength ASP is very ugly and unweildy if you don't encapsulate the code into components. MSDN has lots of reference material about this but little, if any, useful `how to` stuff that i could find.
This book showed me how to do exactly what i wanted to do.
Other than that, it is a good introduction into a good number of web concepts, old and new. The first 3 chapters were a good overview of Microsoft web concepts and techniques. The writeup on web classes, if you like them, is good. I really liked the CGI case study including how to implement standard input/output via the win32 API.
The relatively free use of various win32 API functions in VB help overcome a general fear of mixing VB and CC++ functionality.
The book was a bit large but was well organized. In general it gave me a much higher opinion of Wrox books.
User review
Very SQL serve-centric
If you are just starting to use ASP and have access to a MS SQL server, then this is a good read. However, don't even consider it if you have any previous APS experience or don't have access to a SQL server. In fact, there is no mention of MS Access in the entire book! It is pratically usesless as a reference for ASP and just sits and gathers dust.
User review
Total junk
There seems to be a pattern with the books from Wrox. If there is more than one author on the cover, it usually stinks. This book is no exception. They try to cover too much, and end up leaving you mad because you actually spent money on something this bad. This book is nothing more than a door stop!
User review
Not well clearlly writen - too many authors
I have 4 years VB programming experience, but after read 7 chapters of this book, I'm still feel confusing. Everything are talked a little bit, but nothing is discussed in detail.
Each chapter is not well connected, this not like a book but like a huge magazine with a bunch of articles -- too many authers can mess up a good name book. They seems never talk to each other before and after writing this book. for examble, in beginning of chapter 9, it says: `By now you have learned how Active Server Page (ASP) use components. In the next two chapters, we will focus on ,,. (something base on use components)` -- False! I never learned, at least in this book!
In chapter 6 -- DHTML Application. The example application is only working in VB IDE even after making the package. It's either the author's problem or Microsoft's problem.
As a `Professional VB Web programming book`, it neither explains how to deploy a Web application well in general, nor teach you programming in detail.
This book turns me to other ASP books.
User review
Not well clearlly writen - too many authors
I have 4 years VB programming experience, but after read 7 chapters of this book, I'm still feel confusing. Everything are talked a little bit, but nothing is discussed in detail.
Each chapter is not well connected, this not like a book but like a huge magazine with a bunch of articles -- too many authers can mess up a good name book. They seems never talk to each other before and after writing this book. for examble, in beginning of chapter 9, it says: `By now you have learned how Active Server Page (ASP) use components.` -- False! I never learned, at least in this book!
In chapter 6 -- DHTML Application. The example application is only working in VB IDE even after making the package. It's either the author's problem or Microsoft's problem.
As a `Professional VB Web programming book`, it neither explains how to deploy a Web application well in general, nor teach you programming in detail.
This book turns me to read other ASP book.
