Intermediate Visual Basic

If you're a Visual Basic programmer who wants to go beyond the introductory level to create the sophisticated and powerful programs business users need, this course is for you. As you focus on database applications, you'll learn the in-demand programming skills you need to get new work in the business world.

You'll begin by learning how to enrich the graphical user interface with custom menus and toolbars. Next, you'll explore multiple form applications, starting with built-in dialog controls, and then turning to helper forms and Multiple Document Interface applications. After that, you'll deepen your understanding of databases by learning how to access and modify data with data-bound controls, ADO .NET, and Structured Query Language (SQL). Finally, you'll finish up with a survey of other areas you might be interested in studying, including information on additional SQL functionality, web applications, and XML.

What you will learn

• Learn how to enrich the graphical user interface with custom menus and toolbars
• Explore multiple form applications
• Deepen your understanding of databases
• Find out how to access and modify data with data-bound controls, ADO .NET, and SQL

How you will benefit

• Learn the in-demand programming skills you need to get new work in the business world
• Become more confident in your development skills and ability to take on new projects
• Open the door to new freelance and employment opportunities as a Visual Basic programmer

Outline

OpenFileDialog and SaveFileDialog Classes

Sometimes it feels like everything in life is either dependent on or monitored by a computer. Indeed, most Visual Basic programs are all about data based on the things that people do. Whether it's the books they buy, the stores where they shop, or the restaurants where they eat, data like that is stored in a file on the computer's hard drive, and these programs enable users to locate and save changes to that data. By the time you finish this first lesson, you'll learn how to use the OpenFileDialog and SaveFileDialog classes to give your programs this functionality.

Menus

The term menu may bring to mind choices of delicious food (and high prices) at an elegant restaurant. Or it may make you think of what you see in the drive-through lane at the local fast food joint. Either way, menus inform you of your choices. They perform a similar purpose in programs, giving you choices depending on what you want to do, such as to open, print, or save a document. In this lesson, you'll discover how to use menus in your programs.

Toolbars

This lesson is all about bars, but not the kind that serve drinks. In this lesson, you'll explore a different kind of bar—the kind that allows you to enhance your application both visually and functionally. It's called the toolbar or toolstrip, and when you finish this lesson, you'll know how to use toolbars in your applications and how to coordinate them with menus.

Dialog Forms

In a movie, the leading actor or actress may be the star of the show. But rarely will one actor or actress perform all of the roles in that show. Similarly, the main form in your program may be the star, but as your applications become more sophisticated, you'll need other, helper forms. In this lesson, you'll discover an important type of helper form—the dialog form.

Owned Forms and Property Procedures

In this lesson, you'll learn about another important helper form and how to use it in your application. The lesson will discuss the modeless, or owned form.

Multiple Document Interface (MDI) Applications

You probably take for granted that, while you're typing text in Microsoft Word, you can also have other documents open. This function allows you to go back and forth between documents without having to close any. This ability is called Multiple Document Interface, and after this lesson, you'll know how to give this ability to your programs.

Introduction to Databases

In this lesson, you'll begin your journey into the world of databases. You previously learned about how people's entire lives are stored on computers—the books they buy, the stores where they shop, and the restaurants where they eat. That information is stored in databases, and they're what enable you to make sense of data and do useful things with it. You'll learn all about them in this lesson.

Introduction to Structured Query Language (SQL)

Now that you've learned about databases, you need to speak their language. That language is called Structured Query Language, better known by the abbreviation SQL. After this lesson, you'll not only know how to pronounce SQL, but more important, you'll understand how to use SQL to talk to your database. Of course, you won't literally talk to your database—your friends might start worrying about you if you did—but instead, you'll use SQL in your Visual Basic applications to communicate with your database.

Introduction to ADO.NET

While you've already learned a lot about databases in the previous two lessons, programming is about writing code. So, in this lesson, you'll learn how to write code to access a database.

Database Schema

Unlike people, databases don't scheme, but they do have a schema. This is the database's structure. It's very useful to know how to access this structure by code. You'll find out how to do that in this lesson.

Master-Detail Tables

The business world—the very people who pay programmers to write programs—has great demand for programs that help them easily find the data they need to make decisions. This is called drilling down into data. This isn't like oil drilling, but it's important to your applications. When you finish this lesson, you'll know how to create master-detail tables that enable users to quickly find the data they need.

Where Do I Go From Here?

This may be the final lesson, but it certainly isn't the end of your programming journey. Where do you go from here? This lesson will go over all the options that are now available to you!

Prerequisites:

Completion of Introduction to Visual Basic 2008 (or equivalent experience).