There are a number of goals in Developing Applications with Visual Basic and UML, and this text succeeds on several levels. Besides introducing the author's own Synergy software development process, the book also provides a thorough tour of today's UML for creating design documents, plus Microsoft's DNA solution for component-based distributed computing in VB. By centering on tools-based design and coding (using Rational Rose as the modeling tool and the VB environment itself), this book is able to show off UML for design and then the steps for building and deploying data-aware VB components on the Windows NT platform.

This step-by-step tour from initial project proposal and planning to elaboration and construction phases never gets bogged down in software engineering jargon. The author provides his expertise of what works and what doesn't. (For instance, he offers a generic VB component for returning records regardless of your chosen database connection strategy.) The book culminates in a multitiered VB database for a hypothetical music store. A final chapter shows how to create ASP-based Web interfaces with the same components.

This title strikes just the right balance between covering essential tools and design strategies and can be a valuable asset for VB programmers who want to learn component-based Internet development using their favorite programming tool. This book is all you need to bring your knowledge of traditional client/server VB into the world of enterprise development, including how to build Web-based interfaces. --Richard Dragan

Topics covered: Visual Basic and UML overview; the Synergy Process Model (a software design process); the Rational Rose modeling tool; VB as an object-oriented language; object design, including interface inheritance, encapsulation, and polymorphism; UML support in VB; project inception and planning; use cases and pathways; designing classes (relationships, attributes, and operations); prototyping; screen design; sequence; collaboration; state and activity diagrams; usage matrices; Microsoft's Distributed interNet Architecture (DNA) overview and n-tiered application basics; database fundamentals; database translation and data access services; building VB components from UML, DCOM, and MTS basics; using transactions, VB, and ASPs for Web-based interfaces.