This book picks up where Beginning ASP.NET: From Novice to Professional left off, focusing on database programming with ASP.NET. As an ASP.NET developer, you probably need to access your databases quickly and efficiently. This book will provide you with the skills to do so, teaching you best practices and methods that will help achieve professional ASP.NET and database solutions.

Beyond the basics of building a Web form and placing a few controls on a page, the most common task required of ASP.NET developers is building a Web site possessing content that is stored in a database. Because general ASP.NET beginner books usually invest so many chapters going through basics, the books don't cover everything involved.

Beginning ASP.NET 1.1 Databases: From Novice to Professional is a complete, thorough introduction to this particular topic. The authors show how you can connect a Web site to many different data sources — not just databases — and use the data to dynamically generate page content. They also show how to build a relational database, use SQL to communicate with it, and understand how they differ from each other. You’ll learn that you often have several ways to achieve the same task, and you’ll find out how to decide which option is the most appropriate for the task you face.

Of course, this kind of knowledge is only as good as the solutions it helps build. The authors cover the real-world issues you’re likely to face, such as design, transactions, error handling, optimization and scalability. We work with SQL Server, Jet, and MySQL databases throughout the book, and we point out the practical differences among these. Finally, we set you on your way at the end with a handy case study that brings together all the things you’ve learned.

Author Information

Damien Foggon is technical director and lead developer for Thing-E Ltd., a company specializing in the development of dynamic web solutions for the education sector. He was responsible for the development of several ASP and ColdFusion websites, and he's now in the process of moving most of them to ASP.NET. Before coauthoring .NET XML Web Services, Damien was a regular technical reviewer for numerous .NET books. After several false starts, he's busy assembling his personal site.

Dan Maharry is a writer and developer based in Birmingham, United Kingdom, where he lives with his fiancée, Jane. He has worked on more than forty technical books since 1997 and co-written ten books including Beginning ASP.NET 1.1 with Visual C# .NET and Beginning ASP.NET 1.1 Databases. When not writing, he works as a developer and manager for the .Coop Domain Registry. Outside of work, Dan is an avid filmmaker, and recently blew up a car in the name of cinema. He'd like to do it again.