The MS .NET Framework represents an exciting new world for developers who work with MS Access, Visual Basic, and Visual Basic for Applications. This book provides complete, practical details on how to take advantage of this world by building or upgrading Access-based client applications with Visual Basic .NET. It gives you specific instructions about how the .NET Framework pertains to Access development. Then it explores programming with Visual Basic .NET and ADO.NET, and puts it all together with examples and code samples that show how to develop robust Web applications and services with these tools.
This book targets developers and computer fans who use Access databases and want to get a firm grasp of the MS .NET Framework. These two defining elements (Access and the .NET Framework) define the book’s scope and its treatment of topics. While other types of databases can be used to create solutions with .NET, this book deals almost exclusively with Access databases. The book demonstrates Visual Basic .NET programming techniques instead of addressing a broad range of languages compatible with the .NET Framework because developers creating solutions with Access and MS Office are likely to have experience programming with VBA. Beyond that, many classic Visual Basic developers have substantial experience with Access databases even if they currently work primarily with another database type, such as SQL Server.