There are many books about Delphi in general, but few specific about database development. The generic books have only one or two chapters about this subject, but this one (with almost 1000 pages) talks only about database development with Delphi, focusing in Client/Server databases.
The book is divided in four parts:
- Getting Started - gives an introduction to Delphi, client/server databases, and CASE tools. Here he shows the fundamentals of client/server developing, giving solid foundations to a good application design. He uses the CASE tool SilverRun, that has a demo included in the CD. With a special authorization get in the Silverrun Internet site, the book projects can be fully done.
- Tutorial - here is developed a real application, the RENTMAN, a mortgage management system. Thes part is fundamental and useful to everyone, specially for those who came from DOS environment, using XBase languages, not because he teaches how to convert from one to another (which he doesn't do), but because he presents the development focused on Delphi, client/server development: the system design, the database design and the application development.
He shows forms inheritance, a concept that brings interface uniformization and eases the development.
Then he presents a chapter on report building and application finalization: Help, Hints, About box, ending this part with testing and application deploying.
- Reference - this section presents topics about many databases: SQL Server, Oracle, Interbase, Sybase - it's shown how to connect Delphi to the database and the specifics of the SQL language on every one.
- Advanced topics - here are shown advanced topics on database development: report creation, business rules creation, multi-tier development, concurrency control and performance optimization.
Then it's shown BDE API programming, component creation, followed by a chapter about Internet programming.
The book ends with a chapter about InstallShield and application deploying.
The appendix, with almost 70 pages, shows the migration from other languages to Delphi: C/C++, Powerbuilder, VB and XBase. He shows here a function SendKeys, to send keys to other applications and functions to migrate from Xbase to Delphi.
This is one of the few books directed exclusively to client/server development in Delphi. Although its primary focus is clien/server databases, it's not entirely dedicated to them: the chapters about application design and development are very useful to everyone, specially those who already use desktop databases. It shows obscure subjects that may times scare the newbies, in a clear and objective manner.
The component part doesn't focus on data-aware components, as is common, but creates components that aid application develpment, as the LiveQuery component, a descendant of the TTable, showing the result of a query.
The reference section about databases, although a little repetitive (each chapter repeats the same concepts for each database), is fundamental to everyone who wants to know how to link Delphi to databases and their specifics.
This book is highly recommended to everyone beginning with client/server development, specially for those who came from less complex environments, like Xbase.
The book comes with a CD-Rom with all the source code in the book and some components and demo programs.
Author: Ken Henderson
Editor: SAMS Publishing
904 pages
Level: Beginner+ to Advanced-
ISBN: 0-672-31024-4
Price: 59.99
Rank: 
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