This book has a lot of good information. I found myself skimming forward just a little but there was still lots of good info to make me want to keep reading. I wish there was sometimes more explanation of why the author feels a certain way but all and all this is book worth owning.

I have 16 years experience as an adjunct instructor at a community college. I have a BS in Engineering and I'm 3 credits away from my Master's in Comp Sci.
I'm taking time from my class prep to write this review...
I have been assigned to teach a Visual Basic programming class with this book. Had I been given the opportunity to read the text beforehand, I would have fought hard to use some other book. The example code is formatted so poorly that I am embarassed to use it in class. Some of the example code in the book doesn't even match what's available for download on the WROX web site. The QC staff at WROX should be reassigned. I've QC'd many programming textbooks myself and I can see that this stinker was rushed to print without enough editing.
Don't be fooled by the title. The majority of the examples are SQL Server-specific. OK, Visual Studio has a SQL Server bent, given that both are Microsoft Products. That's no secret. However, if the title of the book references Oracle and MySQL, then all the examples should also. If a particular paradigm can only be implemented in SQL Server, then the authors have a responsibility to provide work-arounds for the other DBMS's that are listed on the cover of the book. Arrrgh.

Chapter 1 covers the History of Data Access. That doesn't fit with the remainder of the book. Part of chapter 2 covers normalization, also not a good fit with the remainder of the book. The authors even admit that the book is aimed at software developers who have prior knowledge of ADO .Net and SQL Server. That implies prior knowledge of normalization and database design.

Recently I was at the bookstore with my 11 year-old. I was agonizing over which ASP .Net book (both WROX titles) to purchase, so I held up two possibilities and asked her to help. She noted that one cover had 3 author's faces on it and the other had two. She concluded that the book with 3 faces must be better. I couldn't argue with that logic. This book has seven faces on it, but it just doesn't deliver.

I have 16 years experience as an adjunct instructor at a community college. I have a BS in Engineering and I'm 3 credits away from my Master's in Comp Sci.
I'm taking time from my class prep to write this review...
I have been assigned to teach a Visual Basic programming class with this book. Had I been given the opportunity to read the text beforehand, I would have fought hard to use some other book. The example code is formatted so poorly that I am embarassed to use it in class. Some of the example code in the book doesn't even match what's available for download on the WROX web site. The QC staff at WROX should be reassigned. I've QC'd many programming textbooks myself and I can see that this stinker was rushed to print without enough editing.
Don't be fooled by the title. The majority of the examples are SQL Server-specific. OK, Visual Studio has a SQL Server bent, given that both are Microsoft Products. That's no secret. However, if the title of the book references Oracle and MySQL, then all the examples should also. If a particular paradigm can only be implemented in SQL Server, then the authors have a responsibility to provide work-arounds for the other DBMS's that are listed on the cover of the book. Arrrgh.

Chapter 1 covers the History of Data Access. That doesn't fit with the remainder of the book. Part of chapter 2 covers normalization, also not a good fit with the remainder of the book. The authors even admit that the book is aimed at software developers who have prior knowledge of ADO .Net and SQL Server. That implies prior knowledge of normalization and database design.

Recently I was at the bookstore with my 11 year-old. I was agonizing over which ASP .Net book (both WROX titles) to purchase, so I held up two possibilities and asked her to help. She noted that one cover had 3 author's faces on it and the other had two. She concluded that the book with 3 faces must be better. I couldn't argue with that logic. This book has seven faces on it, but it just doesn't deliver.

I had hoped that working through this book would bring extra insight and new techniques. After all, I have been a database consultant for 15 years and designed, programed and implemented many large solutions.

I found that the book left much unsaid and detailed instructions non existant. I had problems with the download code. It appears to be tied up with VS team system, so if you are a home or small business who is unfamiliar with tem system then you may have problems.

I contacted Wiley Customer Support, but they just told me the code works and provided nothing helpful.

I will not be buying any more Wrox / Wiley books.

i guess more authors means more wisdom, but this doesnt happen in this books.

in fact, it seemed that none of the authors have in-depth knowledge of ado.net, which really surprised me as ado.net is a relatively narrow topic. i figured the authors were thrown together by some kind of contract and no one of them is really sure about the subject and didn't have the self-confidence to do it alone.

There are a number of great things about this book, from my perspective. For me, perhaps the best chapter was the one on the custom ADO.NET provider. Even if you do not want to create a custom provider (and honestly, I do not think I will), reading through that chapter helps explain how the various standard interfaces work.

In addition to covering ADO.NET 2.0 proper, the book covers specifically how you can use ADO.NET in very practical ways, interacting with SQL Server, as well as doing server side programming in SQL Server. Unlike one other reviewer, I appreciate the book covering these other areas. While the chapters on topics such as SQL Server server-side programming obviously do not cover all that a dedicated SQL Server book will, it covers most of what you need.

I do understand how the term "Professional" in the title might lead a reader to expect one thing or another, but before I buy a book, I tend to read through it and determine if the publisher's idea of "Professional" matches my expectations.

I was really looking forward to this book, for both ASP.Net and WinForms development, since I really thought that's what the book was really about. Boy was I surprised. if that was all it had, I'd probably be very happy. However - that was just the tip of the iceberg! It has quite a wide focus, so, in some cases, it was kind of dificult to know where the book is going.

However, The reader is somewhat warned right off the bat, that the book focuses mainly on the new features of ADO.Net 2.0, so prior knowledge of ADO.Net is expected, but I believe there is still a lot of text that covers a lot of the basics - just without a hand-held experience.

For those so inclined, there's quite a bit of information concerning subjects like usinc CLR objects, TSQL Enhancements, Notification Services, Service Broker and Reporting Services, though it's definitely not JUST about SQL Server. There is quite a bit on the popular open source databases like MySQL and PostgreSQL, along with a chapter on Oracle, just for good measure.

Many times, on different forums, I find questions concerning how to create a Database/table/etc, in code. Professional ADO.Net 2 has this plus a whole lot more about SQL Server server-side programming

Going into the book, I knew there were quite a few new features of ADO.Net, but I really had no idea concerning the extent of new features. This book contains 584 pages of great information. Though what I'd consider a bit wordy, at times, I'll definitely keep this book around.

If all you do is ASP.Net web page development, maybe this isn't the book for you - but if you do a lot more and really like 'nuts and bolts', and widening your experience, I think it's a go!

I was really looking forward to this book, for both ASP.Net and WinForms development, since I really thought that's what the book was really about. Boy was I surprised. if that was all it had, I'd probably be very happy. However - that was just the tip of the iceberg! It has quite a wide focus, so, in some cases, it was kind of dificult to know where the book is going.

However, The reader is somewhat warned right off the bat, that the book focuses mainly on the new features of ADO.Net 2.0, so prior knowledge of ADO.Net is expected, but I believe there is still a lot of text that covers a lot of the basics - just without a hand-held experience.

For those so inclined, there's quite a bit of information concerning subjects like usinc CLR objects, TSQL Enhancements, Notification Services, Service Broker and Reporting Services, though it's definitely not JUST about SQL Server. There is quite a bit on the popular open source databases like MySQL and PostgreSQL, along with a chapter on Oracle, just for good measure.

Many times, on different forums, I find questions concerning how to create a Database/table/etc, in code. Professional ADO.Net 2 has this plus a whole lot more about SQL Server server-side programming

Going into the book, I knew there were quite a few new features of ADO.Net, but I really had no idea concerning the extent of new features. This book contains 584 pages of great information. Though what I'd consider a bit wordy, at times, I'll definitely keep this book around.

If all you do is ASP.Net web page development, maybe this isn't the book for you - but if you do a lot more and really like 'nuts and bolts', and widening your experience, I think it's a go!

If you are like me, you struggle every time Microsoft changes ADO. We have to rely on "experts" and their books to help us through the ADO direction of year. Unfortunately, I would not use "ADO.Net 2 - Programming with SQL Server 2005, Oracle and MySQL" as one of them. After a slow start with database fundamentals not related to .Net, the book seems to start in the right direction and then quickly derails. The authors make a serious point about how ADO.Net 2 is suppose to help us develop against any database system, but then spends the rest of the pages bypassing this ability without informing the reader. So not surprising, the examples are confusing; not database agnostic, disconnected, abstracted and difficult to follow. Nearly all the example code only works for SQL Server 2005. The book attempts to recover with specific chapters for Oracle and MySQL, but is thin and short on examples.

I found something interesting from each chapter, but I personally would rather have just one reference book on each subject. With this book, you might end up needed additional references.