After submitting the last re-writes of manuscripts last June I began to move my household. I am now ensconced on the other side of the world and my hard drives have caught up with me.

For the Biz Objects chapter I will find the VB versions and add to the downloads. I'll post a note here when that is done.

The Chapter 9 TIO under discussion is one of the trickiest techniques in the book. Brad & I debated at length over whether to include it or toss it over to the Professional authors. I argued that it answered a need for even beginning designers and thus should be in. I also said I could explain it. I am going to go through it again this week and see if there are additional sentences I can add to make it more clear.

Thanks.

John,

First, thank you for the response. I have purchased (5) Wrox books. VB 2005 (beginner and pro) ASP.NET 2.0 for beginners, ASP Instant Results, and then your book.

I must say, I am happy and a little dissapointed with the book. I cannot completely bash it, as I am honestly learning alot from it--but I think alot of that is due to knowledge I have already picked up so I can see the fix errors on my own and make assumptions where things are left out.

It does a really good job at teaching.

The issues I have a real problem with have been first, understanding providers...differences between OLEDB, ODBC, ADO..etc. Your book talks about that..but it's still a little confusing. Any other suggestions?

Lastly, the one thing your book was very good at is helping me understand SQLDataSource/ObjectDataSource and DataSets. In all the books I bought, things were presented differently. For example, your book, and the Beginning ASP.NET 2.0 book, depends alot on dragging and dropping code. Obviously, the VB Book talks alot about writing code and creating objects. So---in VB, I was writing code to create adapters and fill DataSet's and return them. With ASP, you use the SQLDataSource and ObjectDataSource...and I finally realized that the Object can be used to tie to your own code/object and then you write connectivity instructions on your own. Your book helped me get this..although still a little fuzzy due to trying to understand and coorelate the VB book objects I am writing by hand and the objects that ASP allows you to drag in themself. (ie tableadapter vs SQLDataSource and ObjectDataSource).

Any thoughts on more readin to help make these distinctions clearer?

Thank you John!

Regards,
Rob Searing.

John,

Lastly, the TIO 0905 subject...it gets confusing because you tell us to write

WHERE state = IsNull(@state,state)

But the "How This Works" talks about:

WHERE state=@state AND state = IsNull(@state, state)

What confuses me is that you can achieve both scenarios (having the list full of all states and having it completely empty) by the following:

Entire list:
WHERE state = IsNull(@state,state)

Empty list until you pick one:
WHERE state = @state

So where does WHERE state=@state AND state = IsNull(@state, state)fit in?

Thanks again,
Rob