The best recommendation for this book is the first sentence of the first chapter, "If you have never written a Visual Basic .NET Web Service before, you are in the right place." With a nod to tradition, the book starts with "Hello World" - as a Web Service! Using primarily the wizards and automatically generated code provided by VB.NET, they demonstrate that it's only the work of a few minutes to create a service that can be invoked to return "Hello World" as an XML encoded string using HTTP.

There's a lot of magic under the covers, but there's also a lot of instant gratification. To get you launched immediately. By chapter 3, you're off and running with SOAP, WSDL, and UDDI. That's the great thing about this book. It takes off like a rocket.

In fact, after beginning from a standing start, the book has great chapters on how to debug and trace Web Services from both the point of view of the server and the client, security, scalability and performance, and maintaining state. The material is well written and presented, but if you don't already have some background in software, a lot of it might not be completely meaningful. The part of the book that deals with foundation software technology concludes with a chapter on the most likely partner for VB.NET in providing Web Services: Microsoft's SOAP SDK.

Learn how to turn data into solutions with SQL Server 2000, Visual Basic .NET, and XML. Find out the fastest ways to transform data into potent business solutions with this definitive guide for developers. You’ll get a fundamental grasp of SQL Server™ programming techniques for data access, data manipulation, and data definition with T-SQL, and you’ll learn how to make the most of the language enhancements in Visual Basic® .NET, the programming advances in the Microsoft® Visual Studio® .NET integrated development environment, and the state-of-the-art technologies of the .NET framework, including ADO.NET, ASP.NET, and XML Web services. You also get in-depth coverage of SQL Server database security management, SQL Server Web releases, and features for interoperability between ADO.NET and XML. If you’re looking for expert insights on how to build powerful, secure solutions with SQL Server 2000 and Visual Basic .NET, this is the book for you. Coverage includes these topics:

• XML Web services
• SQL Server 2000 XML functionality
• XML data-processing techniques
• Class, event, and error-processing innovations
• Tables and data types
• Programming data access with T-SQL
• Programming views and stored procedures
• Programming user-defined functions and triggers
• SQL Server 2000 security
• Creating Microsoft Windows®–based applications with SQL Server 2000 and Visual Basic .NET
• Programming Windows solutions with ADO.NET
• Programming ASP.NET solutions

This book has been fully tested on and is compliant with the official release of NET.

Almost all applications have to deal with data access in some way or another. This book will teach you how to build Visual Basic .NET applications that make effective use of databases. Visual Basic .NET is the latest version of the most widely used programming language in the world, popular with professional developers and beginners alike.

Starting with a guide to the basic principles of database design, we then examine how to query databases and how to access their data - both in Windows applications and remotely using the Internet and Web Services. Every new concept is explained thoroughly with Try It Out examples, plenty of code samples, and end-of-chapter questions to test you.

This book covers:

- The basic principles of relational database design

- Microsoft SQL Server Desktop Engine

- Querying the database with the T-SQL language

- Visual Studio .NET and the Server Explorer

- ADO.NET and the DataSet

- Data binding, updating the database, and conflict resolution

- XML's role in ADO.NET

- Accessing data with ASP.NET and Web Services

Written by a Microsoft insider and well-respected Visual Basic expert, Matthew Curland's Advanced Visual Basic 6: Power Techniques for Everyday Programs is a unique guide to extending the reach of VB into COM and object design. This compendium of tips and strategies for doing more in VB is perfect for intermediate to advanced developers who seek to overcome bottlenecks in performance and functionality in their favorite programming tool. The underlying message is that VB lets you work more efficiently with Microsoft COM if you implement a few extra routines that look under its hood. The more notable techniques use memory more efficiently (including code that creates large numbers of objects faster). More advanced readers will appreciate the in-depth guide to building COM objects programmatically within VB. (The book shows you how to create lightweight COM objects by using custom routines.) For the real guru, there's even a section on how to use inline assembly language within VB. Later sections turn to a host of techniques for multithreading, doing more with windows, and how to manage and customize COM-type libraries for successful real-world deployment. Armed with these custom routines and an expert's-eye view of VB internals, you'll be able to get more out of VB with faster, more versatile programs.

Step-by-Step Instruction on Complex Topics Leads You to the Expert Level
Do you scour VB.NET books seeking solutions for esoteric database programming, debugging, security, or printing challenges, but can't ever find them? Are you wrestling with VB.NET's newer topics, such as asynchronous programming, Web services, employing Office objects, using reflection, and the .NET Compact Framework? Could you use some assistance making the transition from VB6 to VB.NET? If so, peer inside.
Visual Basic .NET Power Tools is intended for professional programmers geared up to tackle the complex, cutting-edge, and sophisticated aspects of VB.NET. In this rare book, two world-renowned VB authors thoroughly describe a broad range of fascinating and important aspects of VB that aren't addressed elsewhere.
This solutions-oriented guide teaches you how to:
* Get under the hood of the .NET Framework, and find out why it works the way it does
* Employ serialization techniques
* Leverage Microsoft Office in your applications
* Master encryption, hashing, and creating keys
* Learn advanced printing techniques
* Use the new reflection technology to look inside executing assemblies
* Build data-driven Web applications
* Design data-driven Windows applications
* Work with regular expressions
* Employ advanced graphics techniques
* Create professional-looking forms
* Design effective User Interfaces
* Use the .NET Compact Framework and its emerging technologies