This book explains and demonstrates how to create web applications, using Microsoft's premier web development tool - Visual InterDev 6. In this book you'll learn what a web application is, look at the major technologies behind web development, including object oriented programming and how to incorporate data from databases into your pages using Active Server Pages and ActiveX Data Objects, and be taken through all of the major features of Visual InterDev 6. From installing the necessary software and a basic guide to HTML, to writing your own VBScript pages and JavaScript ActiveX components, you'll create lots of useful samples for your real-life applications and will be encouraged to practice at every step of the way.
Written for those with minimal programming experience,
Beginning Web Development with Visual InterDev 6 puts serious Web programming within the reach of any newcomer using an effective tutorial demonstrating the tools and technologies needed to use Microsoft Visual InterDev effectively on the Windows platform.
The best thing about this book has to be its common-sense approach to essential APIs and tools needed for Web development today, centering on Visual InterDev. It contains what you need to know about HTML (and DHTML), ASPs, VBScript and JavaScript, as well as database programming with ADO.
The title excels at showing off the features of Visual InterDev (and other tools) with hands-on exercises. There are dozens of screen shots here for installing and configuring not only VI but also SQL Server, Personal Web Server (PWS), and MTS. This book also has a good sense of the choices Web designers must make between universal access (and pure HTML) versus other features (like cascading style sheets, DHTML, and client-side script) that will add functionality while restricting browser access.
As it progresses, this text turns to Microsoft's recommended strategies for scalable design, namely using MTS-enabled COM business objects built with VB. In all, it's the thorough and efficient tutorial on essential Web standards (from HTML to XML, with excellent coverage of the support for JavaScript and VBScript available in VI) that make this book a success.
It used to be that the best way to learn programming was to concentrate on a single language like C, C++, or Visual Basic. But today's programmers must learn a variety of languages and standards to begin working on the Web effectively. Beginning Web Development with Visual InterDev 6 covers a number of the key Web technologies, with enough depth to get you started but without bogging you down in overwhelming detail. --Richard Dragan
Topics covered: Web application and HTML/HTTP basics, managing browser incompatibilities, ASP basics, Visual InterDev 6 installation and feature overview, layouts, themes and site navigation tools with VI, database basics with SQL Server 7 and Access, Design-Time Controls (DTCs) and data binding, VBScript and JavaScript tutorial, DHTML basics, using ActiveX components, ADO databases, introduction to XML, error handling and debugging, VB COM components, MTS and transactions, VI deployment.
