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Week at a Glance

Week 1 focused on developing skills necessary to build Visual Basic database applications in the desktop environment. Week 2 focused on the skills needed in the workgroup environment. This week focuses on skills needed for developing enterprise-level Visual Basic applications.

The following topics are covered this week:

When you complete this week, you will have several reusable code modules that you can place into any Visual Basic application.

Day 15: This is the first of two days dedicated to learning Structured Query Language (SQL). In Day 9, you learned how to use SQL to SELECT data from tables. In this lesson, you learn how to use SQL Data Manipulation Language (DML) to create and modify databases, tables, relationships, and indexes. You also learn how to use SQL-VB, a tool that can read text file scripts developed in any standard text editor or word processor to create and modify databases.

Day 16: You continue your study of SQL, using Data Manipulation Language to insert records into tables, append records to tables, and update records that currently exist in data tables. You also learn how to use Make Table queries to build tables with data from other tables. Finally, you learn how to create Delete table queries that remove multiple records from a data table.

Day 17: This lesson focuses on using data normalization to increase database integrity processing speed. The "Five Rules" of data normalization are covered, with logical examples that build upon your knowledge of SQL.

Day 18: Today's exercises center on multiuser considerations. You learn the nuances of cascading updates and cascading deletes. You spend time on transaction management using the BeginTrans, CommitTrans, and Rollback methods. By the time you finish, you will have a good understanding of database-level, table-level, and page-level locking schemes.

Day 19: Open Database Connectivity (ODBC) via the ODBC API Interface is the topic of Day 19. You learn how to create data forms that use low-level API calls to access existing databases. This chapter presents topics that are essential in development of client-server Visual Basic applications that can run on both 16-bit and 32-bit operating systems. You see how to build Visual Basic applications that bypass the Microsoft JET database engine and link directly to the data source through the ODBC interface. You also learn how to build reuseable code that creates data-entry screens for applications that connect to ODBC data sources.

Day 20: Securing your Visual Basic database applications is the main focus of Day 20. All quality applications have security to protect the precious data they control. Database security, encryption, and the securing of processes are covered. You look at applying audit trails to track critical activities in your application. Throughout the day, you build security modules that you can insert into any Visual Basic project you create.

Day 21: In this final lesson, you learn how to add Windows Help to your database application. You learn how to use word processing footnotes to add titles, contents, jumps, and keywords to a help file. You also learn how to compile help files and attach them to your Visual Basic database application.