This book has very little general coverage of e-commerce. The entire text is devoted to the step-by-step construction of "Jo's Coffee," a fictitious Web storefront that winds up at the end of the book with a sophisticated order-processing pipeline, online discussion groups, XML integration with outside systems, and much more. In the introduction, the book sets a lofty goal: "... to take you gently from knowing nothing about e-commerce, to a point where you'll be able to put up a Web site that will make money for your business." This text meets this goal for readers who are familiar with the development tools mentioned in the title.

The book does a great job of providing complete commentary for each stage of the development process. It walks the reader through defining an application object model, implementing it with VB COM components, interfacing with a SQL Server database, and adding a number of sophisticated features. One of the most interesting techniques illustrated in this title is a VB COM component-based order-processing pipeline similar to the type found in Microsoft's top-of-the-line Site Server product. Using the example in this book, developers could easily construct custom pipelines for every commerce site they build.

If your core competencies lie in Microsoft-based technologies, this book is a wise investment in the future. It offers eye-opening possibilities for creating your own industrial-strength e-commerce sites. --Stephen W. Plain