Visual Basic is the world's dominant programming language, with more than 4 million users. Microsoft now pushes VB as a serious enterprise application development tool, and the latest version allows programmers to develop complex Web and database applications. The Visual Basic Developer's Guide series targets intermediate to advanced VB developers who want to learn how to make use of Microsoft's latest technologies, including ADO and COM. The authors are recognized VB experts, speak regularly at industry events, and contribute to some of the leading programming journals.This unique book gives experienced Visual Basic developers all the information they need in order to develop sophisticated e-commerce solutions using Microsoft technologies. Readers learn how to build an online store, complete with shopping carts, order status elements, security, and other features, using Visual Basic, SQL Server, Visual InterDev, and Active Server Pages. This is a nuts-and-bolts book, not an executive overview. Author Noel Jerke is a member of Microsoft's Commerce Partner Advisory Council and the author of several Visual Basic books.
Aimed at the intermediate VB developer,
Visual Basic Developer's Guide to E-Commerce with ASP and SQL Server provides an appealing and approachable tour to the basics of building e-commerce Web sites powered by ASPs. Focused on real results, this book is all you need to start mastering e-commerce using some of today's most popular Microsoft tools.
The focus of this guide is on building an online CD store (with some clothing, like T-shirts, thrown in for good measure). The approach presented here combines ASPs using VBScript and ADO for calling SQL Server stored database procedures on the back-end. Instead of implementing every whistle and bell, the author shows what works for a small online store. Early chapters let you design the database and get up and running with a workable browser interface, including a shopping basket, order history, plus tax and shipping computation. Later chapters add administrative and management functions for changing what products are available (among other options). In its final version, this Web site gets support for cross-promotions and putting products on sale.
Although the solution here doesn't take advantage of MTS/COM+ on the middle tier, you can expect good results with this approach because of stored procedures. The book also does a good job with planning for scalability with sections on Web server architecture and performance tuning. For more advanced development, this title also provides a thorough tour of more advanced options for e-commerce on the Microsoft platform centring on Site Server, Commerce Edition (with its customisable pipeline model). The text closes with a consideration of the sample stores available within this package.
E-commerce on the Windows server platform can certainly be daunting. This easy-to-understand book delivers an approachable tutorial to practical and successful development with some most important Microsoft tools. This title can definitely let readers succeed in building sites that work for real-world, online commerce. --Richard Dragan, amazon.com
Topics covered: Tutorial for building an e-commerce site, ASP and VBScript basics, Microsoft Site Server, Commerce Edition and tools, SQL Server basics and stored procedures, Visual Basic 6, security and certificates, database tables for e-commerce, server farms and scalability, load balancing, the store foundation and basic user interface, shopping basket, checkout, taxes and shipping, administrative screens, promotions, cross-selling and up-selling, managing sales, the order processing pipeline, overview of Site Server sample stores, best practices and scalability.
