How This Book Is Organized

This book can be thought of as containing three parts. The first part, consisting of Chapters 1 3, comprises the preliminaries. The coverage of database basics, SQL, and SQL Server is meant to provide the fundamentals required for the novice to proceed comfortably throughout the rest of the book. At the same time, these chapters provide a good review of these topics even for someone who is experienced is these areas.

The second part can be thought of as the core of the book. Chapters 4 7 provide in-depth explanations and numerous examples of the major ADO.NET objects and the use of their properties and methods. Chapter 7 goes beyond the basics to explore advanced features and techniques of the ADO.NET objects.

The third part of the book shows how the ADO.NET technologies and techniques previously presented can be used to build real-world applications. This part includes the use of Visual Studio Database Projects for managing SQL scripts in Chapter 8, a discussion of XML in Chapter 9, and the integration of XML and ADO.NET in Chapter 10. Finally, we present additional types of applications that utilize ADO.NET: Chapter 11 covers ASP.NET Web Applications and Chapter 12 covers Web Services and middle-tier objects.