Chapter 3. Effective Use of ADO.NET: Creating a Survey Application

In This Chapter:

• ADO.NET Overview

• The Survey Application

• Extending and Modifying the Survey Application

• Deploying the Survey Application

This chapter talks about effectively using ADO.NET. I'll spend the first part of the chapter introducing ADO.NET, mostly how it relates to the SQL Server managed provider. In the second half of the chapter, I'll walk you through a Survey application that was built using ADO.NET, and which focuses on a number of best practices along with some recommended design patterns.

Because this is an odd-numbered chapter, the featured program's (the Survey application's) source code is shown in VB.NET (VB). For the full C#.NET (C#) source code, just go to www.ASPNET-Solutions.com, follow the links to the examples for Chapter 3, and download the C# source code. (You can also download the VB.NET source code from a link on the same page.)

I have included a section toward the end of the chapter named "Extending and Modifying the Survey Application." In this section, I talk about ways to enhance the application so that it's even more useful. I'll post any changes I make to the Survey application (including these suggestions) on the Web site. Check for them on the Chapter 3 page. The site also includes a forum for discussion about the Survey application. And if you want to send me your modifications, I'll gladly post them for other users.