Product Description

Customer Reviews (3)

Very Dissapointed
I spent $45.00 on this book and it is worthless to me. I am trying to learn ASP.Net on my own and spent 3 hours on the first chapter!This book was a complete waste of money. There is NO STEP BY STEP at all. Screen shot are worthless, it skips all around. No explaination as to what the goal of the solutions will be. I wish I could take it back.

Not worth the paper printed on
This is really a bad step by step microsoft book, MSoft should be ashamed for publishing a book on this important topic.
The author does not really have a step by step, and skips over many of the details which are necessary.

Terrible!!
This book has so far proven to be totally useless.I am an experienced programmer and was looking for a book on the basics of programming in ASP.net.This definitely was not it.Everything I've looked up how to do is not in there, even simple stuff.Total waste of my money. ... Read more

Product Description

ASP.NET 3.5 Unleashed is the most comprehensive book available on the Microsoft ASP.NET 3.5 Framework, covering all aspects of the ASP.NET 3.5 Framework--no matter how advanced.

This edition covers all the new features of ASP.NET 3.5. It explains Microsoft LINQ to SQL in detail. It includes a chapter on the two new data access controls introduced with the ASP.NET 3.5 Framework: ListView and DataPager. With its coverage of ASP.NET AJAX, this book shows you how to take advantage of Microsoft’s server-side AJAX framework to retrofit existing ASP.NET applications with AJAX functionality. It also demonstrates how to use Microsoft’s client-side AJAX framework to build the web applications of the future: pure client-side AJAX applications. All code samples are written in the C# programming language. (Visual Basic versions of all code samples are included on the CD-ROM that accompanies this book.)

• Take advantage of Microsoft’s new database query language, LINQ to SQL, to easily build database-driven web applications
• Learn how to use the new ListView and DataPager data access controls to build flexible user interfaces
• Take advantage of ASP.NET AJAX when building both server-side and client-side web applications
• Use the AJAX Control Toolkit to create auto-complete text fields, draggable panels, masked edit fields, and complex animations
• Design ASP.NET websites
• Secure your ASP.NET applications
• Create custom components
• Build highly interactive websites that can scale to handle thousands of simultaneous users
• Learn to build a complete ASP.NET 3.5 website from start to finish–the last chapter of the book includes a sample ASP.NET 3.5 web application written with LINQ to SQL and ASP.NET AJAX

CD-ROM includes all examples and source code presented in this book in both C# and Visual Basic.

Customer Reviews (45)

Great book for beginners...despite the other reviews
I am a beginner in ASP.NET.I first purchased the Sam's Teach Yourself ASP.NET in 24 Hours, which was just "okay", and I felt like I learned very little.ASP.NET Unleashed 3.5 is phenomenal.It was a book that I could start with Chapter 1 and learn the basics of ASP.NET, while at the same time I can skip ahead to Chapter 14 to implement a quick ListView for a project.

The book gives plenty of GOOD examples covering each function for just about every control.I started with the first few chapters, but find myself in the meantime skipping ahead to get a quick overview on a new control that I need to use.

One of the best aspects of the book is its organization.Several other books tend to lack in this area for me.This book gives you a very, very organized walkthrough of ASP.NET controls, building up from the basic ones (Labels, TextBoxes, etc.), to more complex controls (FormView, GridView, etc.).At the same time, the book doesn't go over basic OOP concepts like other books do.Great reference book, and also great book for ASP.NET beginners.

Excellent resource
This is a great resource for ASP.NET developers. The book covers almost every single feature of ASP.NET. I especially like the presentation order. The author first starts with simple controls, then shows some advanced controls and by the end of Part IV of the book, you are ready to build solid ASP.NET applications based on .NET 3.5 using LINQ or ADO.NET and SQL Server, etc. But if you want more, chapters 19 and above are describing more advanced techniques. There were some minor code problems (Visual Basic code appearing when it should not) but this is such a minor thing that you do not notice it. Every single code sample has worked flawlessly which shows that the author spent some time running his code. I am not going to repeat the table of contents here because you can see it if you click Search inside this book.

Excellent! - worthwhile
Book review - "ASP.NET 3.5 Unleashed, by Stephen Walther.
ISBN-13:978-0-672-33011-7
ISBN-10: 0-672-33011-3
I am a member of the Inland Empire .DOT NET users group (a Microsoft .NET programmer's user group based in Southern California) and have been a professional programmer / programmer analyst for about 22 years now. I was tasked with reviewing this book so I dug right in and started reading. I particularly was interested in this book because I have read at least 4 other books written by Stephen Walther, I consider his books to be among the best around. Now, this book has 1,890 pages in it, and it all deals with the topic of programming Microsoft ASP.NET websites, so I think it's safe to say everybody interested in ASP.NET will learn something useful about the technology.
Note:all sample code printed in the book is written in C#, which reflects the current market shift (I believe) towards the C# language. Sample code is available on the download CD in both VB.NET and C# programming languages.
The book covers pretty much any ASP.NETtopic you could ask for, server controls, viewstate, introduction to the .net framework, page event lifecycle, code behind pages, asp.netserver controls, ado.net data access, multi tier development, viewstate, master pages and themes, cascading style sheets, caching, application and session state, security, site navigation, the objectdatasource and sqldatasource controls, validation etc..
The newer ASP.NET topics I was especially interested in include topics such as LINQ, LINQ to SQL,ASP.NET server side and client-side AJAX, the new ASP.NET securityand membership provider features and the new ASP.NET listview and datapager controls.
One topic that I did not see covered very well was WCF (windows communication foundation), but WCF itself is a topic that could cover an entire volume itself, it's not an easy topic to learn either.
The sample CD has a website called the "Code Sample website"; I compiled the source code and created the code sample website, with virtually no problems.One interesting thing about the Code Sample website is the code samples can actually be executed within the context of a "virtualpathprovider".In other words, one could post sample code onto the website and the code would dynamically execute in real-time within the code sample website.I thought that was neat.
Overall, the author did an amazing job covering the vast topics in asp.net, his explanations are very understandable and he does a good job providing numerous examples of working source code to illustrate his points.
I highly recommend ANY Stephen Walther book; he is certainly one of the best authors that I have come across in my readings.The sheer usefulness of the content of this book makes this a very worthwhile investment for any programmer interested in using Microsoft ASP.NET to build dynamic websites.
Any programmer interested in SOA (service oriented architecture) however, would do better to buy a book for that specific topic (asmx web services) or wcf (windows communication foundation). As I stated, SOA in itself is a topic that could easily cover 700-800 pages by itself.One must realize though, that the target market for the asp.net 3.5 book is for those programmers who want a broad understanding of all the technologies involved in asp.net 3.5, this book is excellent for that.I truly believe this book has useful content from the beginner to the seasoned veteran programmer and is well worth any investment you would make in this book.

Only book on ASP.Net worth buying
This is by far the best book available on ASP.NET 3.5.The copious examples are shown in C#, with VB code available on an attached CD. Examples are what most new coders need to master this complex skill.I have not read anything on this subject that is explained more clearly.The prose is mostly excellent, though very concise and explanations are minimal.Fortunately, the author focused on sample code.That is a good thing, but a tough read for beginners.

The book is not perfect.The examples are sometimes hard to follow and sometimes don't cover useful real-world examples.Furthermore, the ObjectDataSource is not as well covered as it should be, which slightly obsoletes the book.Much ink is wasted on the SqlDataSource.Also, the coverage of Object oriented data management constructs is minimal.And that is the most important concept in dotnet development with datases. If you are starting a new dotnet application, start with the ObjectDataSource.Put your data reads, updates, calls to stored procedures in one or more separate classes. This code does not belong in the page.

The above not withstanding, based on a comparison of over 12 books on this subject, this is the only book I would buy at this time.However, a decent book for beginners is "Build Your Own ASP.NET 2.0 Web Site Using C# and VB" by Darie and RuvalCaba.

I am a webmaster and a full time SQL Server and Visual C# programmer.

Book Review for ASP.NET Unleashed
This is one heavy book, and I don't only mean only in subject content. The book weighs 5.8 lbs. Why? Well, it has 1,892 pages of complete ASP.NET instruction. If you wanted to read this book before falling asleep at night, you'll need a table to put it on, or your wrists will break. I really would like to have seen this book broken up into two volumes; with that said, let me say also that this is a fantastic book for learning ASP.NET. If you can stay focused and work through this very lengthy, but complete book, you will learn ASP.NET. In my opinion, if you are a beginner with ASP.NET, you might want to get a beginner's book.

This book was written using C# code in its pages; however, you can get all of the VB.NET code from the accompanying CD. So, you've got both C# and VB.NET code covering the same subjects through the entire book.

The author does not use code-behind pages in this book, which surprised me. All of the code for ASP.NET and C#/VB.NET is placed into the same ASPX page. In addition, there is no mention of the Model-View-Controller (aka MVC) concept being used with ASP.NET. If you want to learn about MVC, you will need to buy a book specifically to learn that concept. It isn't in this book.

All of the ASP.NET Controls and Rich Controls are covered, as well as use of Validators, creation of Master Pages, data access using SQL Server 2005 Express, ADO.NET, LINQ to SQL, the SQLDataSource Control, Site Navigation, Remapping URLs, use of Login Controls, Application State, Caching, use of AJAX for both client and server side, using the AJAX Control Toolkit, and ultimately, you are shown how to make a code sample web site.

This is an extensive book, perfect for use in colleges and universities, and for anyone who wants to make the effort to learn ASP.NET on their own. What I really like about this book is that it covers all of the aspects within ASP.NET (excepting MVC) extensively, with lots of screen shots and source code. Each program is fairly small and easy to understand. As you work through each program, your knowledge and experience with ASP.NET will increase, building competence and confidence in your coding skills with Microsoft's way of developing web sites.

I hope you enjoy this book.
... Read more

Product Description
Focusing on the essential knowledge needed to quickly learn how to write Active Server Pages, this book teaches by example rather than theory. Containing 24 examples of ASP coding, with each followed by a detailed explanation, tips are given and new concepts are introduced along the way, both in the body of the text as well as in the examples. Topics covered include editing ASP files, branching, conversion with JavaScript, arrays, debugging, and cookies. In order to fully understand ASP, SQL, Access, PWS, and VBScript are covered. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (18)

Joseph Justice
This is a pretty good introduction to real-world ASP programming.It doesn't discuss theory or technique all that much, but I don't believe it claims to be a book on theory.So for what it is, it's a pretty good book.

Examples OK but CODE is an embarrassment
I have been out of coding for a few years, so picked this book up to teach myself ASP. Did it teach it to me? Yes. But considering that he has been teaching for as long as he claims the coding standards are _shocking_. Any programmer with half an ability knows that the bad old day of few comments and zero indentation are a thing of the past. I found following the code near to impossible, I have not seen code this badly formatted and written in twenty years since I first started coding. Robert B Mellor should be embarrassed, I am for him!

Not for beginners
I bought this book to learn ASP after reading all the positive ratings. This little book starts with the examples and then give you only hints here and there. If you have no knowledge of ASP beforehand you simply get lost in no time. This may be a good book for experienced webdesigners or tutors to use as a tool. For beginners it is not on.

Great Teaching Text
This is exactly what i was looking for.i am teaching novices at a community college and this method worked perfectly for them.Together with an introduction to SQL that i put together, this stretched perfectly to 15 weeks.

The only qualm i would have is that there are typos in the book which make the code not work which is less than ideal but as i was able to catch these before the students did, it worked out.

ASP: Learning by Example
I've read other ASP books, but this book showed me alternate ways of using ASP, making me understand the subject more, in a way that you can not find in other books.The author explained and showed a complicated topic in simple terms.He summarized the subject into topics that really mattered and in an organized way, much like how a computer instructor would summarize his notes as preparation before delivering the subject in a classroom.I'd recommend the book to instructors, students and to anyone who would like to grasp the subject of ASP. ... Read more

Product Description
For the current edition of this book, please see Murach's ASP.NET 3.5 Web Programming with C# 2008 (ISBN 9781890774486).

Are you trying to decide which ASP.NET 2.0 book to buy?

As its title implies, this book teaches you how to develop web applications using ASP.NET 2.0. That means it teaches all the features that are new in ASP.NET 2.0, including master pages, database access using both SQL and object data sources, the new code-behind model, site navigation features, authentication using the Web Site Administration tool and login controls, profiles, themes, and web parts.
But thatÂ’s just the beginning! Here are just a few of the features that set this book apart from other ASP.NET 2.0 books:

#1: It gives you a 5-chapter section on database programming
This is an area thatÂ’s changed dramatically from ASP.NET 1.x. So this section teaches you how to use SQL data sources and the GridView, DetailsView, and FormView controlsÂ… all new in ASP.NET 2.0 Â…to develop database applications with little or no C# code. Then, it teaches how to use object data sources, also new in ASP.NET 2.0, to create 3-layer applications that let you separate the presentation code from the data access code in an application.

#2: It teaches you ASP.NET 2.0 development the way it should be done, using Visual Studio 2005
Today, no developer should miss out on the productivity features of Visual Studio 2005 by using limited tools like Notepad. So section 1 in this book teaches you how to use Visual Studio 2005 to design, code, and test multi-page web applications that get database data and manage session state. Then, later chapters cover time-saving VS tools like the Query Builder and the Web Site Administration Tool.

#3: Complete applications show you how all the pieces interact
The key to mastering ASP.NET 2.0 is to have plenty of real-world applications that guide you in using the new features youÂ’re learningÂ…and that help you avoid the problems that you can run into as you build complex web sites. ThatÂ’s why this book gives you complete applications, including the web forms, the aspx code, and the C# code.

So if you need to learn ASP.NET 2.0, we hope you'll try this book first. We're convinced that it will deliver the training you need in record time. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (23)

Murach's ASP.NET 2.0 Web Programming with C# 2005
Murach's ASP.NET 2.0 is a very nice book for up coming programmers like myself. One thing I do admire about this book is, it has step by step instructions to follow. It also has pictures and snippets which give one the picture what is really being talk about. Overall I will recommand it any day of the week.

Great Seller
I received the book extremely fast and well before the due date. The book was in fantastic shape. I would highly recommend this seller.

OK resource, but poor excuse to not explore a valuable resource.
This is an OK book. It was helpful in coming up to speed in C#, and I won't pretend that the subject of this review made it completely worthless to me or anything, but at the same time, I have to put a dig into the author/publisher.

The Repeater is a valuable tool that I have seen implement the main content of a web page in just a few lines, and this book leaves out the Repeater with the following explanation:

"Before I present the DataList control, though, you should know that you can also create a list using the Repeater control. The Repeater control has one major drawback, however. That is, you can't define it using a visual interface. Instead, you have to enter code directly into the aspx file. Because of that, we won't present the Repeater control in this book."

This is a pretty lame excuse for not explaining how to use a control. Just because there isn't a whizzy UI that allows you to set all of the features of the control when you plop it onto a page, is no reason for the control to be completely left out of the book. I have only used the book as a reference for things that I was working on at the time, so I haven't read the whole book, but this does make me wonder how many other features on which they might have done this same thing.

Great service
Book arrived as promised and although it was stated as being used it was nearly brand new and in excellent condition. Shipping prices beat my schools plan and I had the book before the rest of the students in my class! I will definately order from this seller again! Thank you...

Extremely helpful
I have bought this book about a year ago. Now that I have to go back to .Net development I have rediscovered it.
It is very much to the point and easy to follow. Its format is outstanding: it is easy to follow authors' assertions looking at subject description on one side, andimplementation on another. It describes general material, and then goes into precise details, which is good for both novice and professional in all faucets of ASP.Net development.
I am using it as complimentory to the enterprise .Net development book I am going through now, and found it extremelyhelpful, almost reference type.

Vladimir Kievsky ... Read more

Product Description
Updated to cover ASP 3.0 and IIS 5.0, ASP in a Nutshell provides the high-qualityreference documentation that web application developers really need to create effective Active Server Pages. It focuses on how features areused in a real application and highlights little-known orundocumented features.The main components covered in this book are:

Active Server Pages IntroductionObject ReferenceComponent ReferenceAppendixes

Topics covered:

ASP overview Application of ASP objects ASPError ObjectContext Request Response Server Session Global.ASA Installable components (ActiveX Data Objects 2.6) Ad Rotator Browser capabilities CDO for Windows NT

Content linking Content Rotator Counters File access Logging utility MyInfo Page counter Permission checking Tools Converting CGI/WinCGI applications ASP on other platforms Configuring IIS

... Read more

Customer Reviews (61)

Excellent ASP reference book
This is an excellent companion book to 'Professional Active Server Pages'. Like most O'Reilly Nutshell texts, this book is designed more as a reference aid, rather than a learning text. If you buy both the Professional ASP tome, and this reference guide, you've bought everything you need for ASP.

Excellent book!
As a student in college, I want to learn some advanced web programming language. I found this book is very helpful for beginner. I also get a discount from couponsky.com when buying this book. This book is not only useful for beginner's studying, you also can take it as reference after you finish the studying. I recommend this book to the beginners in ASP.

Good reference and code samples, but...
Somewhat in a rush and while trying to learn ASP I purchased this book.I thought it was aweful and it collected dust for nearly 6 months while I searched elsehwere to boot myself up on ASP.However, now that I'm fairly proficient at ASP, this book has been helpful as a reference.No so much for the actual reference value but becasue the sample code helps put things in perspective.

Best book to brush up ASP concepts before moving to ASP.NET
I was an ASP programmer several years ago after which I moved to a different technology. Now, I need to come to speed on .NET, but unfortunately all the ASP.NET books make innumerous references to the old ASP which I have almost forgotten.

The book helped me *VERY* quickly go through ASP 3.0 and now I feel very comfortable reading the .NET books and can now truly appreciate ASP.NET.

A GREAT reference book!

Needs a VBScript/JScript book to complement it...
Be warned, if like I did, you think that this is the only book you'll need to be able to build ASP scripts; you're very much mistaken. Whenever I recommend this book, I always recommend it alongside VBScript in a Nutshell as you really need knowledge of an ASP supported scripting language before you can use ASP in a Nutshell to it's full potential!

This is yet another reference book that I've owned both editions of because I thought it was useful enough to update; but then, my site is developed using ASP, so I'm probably biased in this respect. Ok, so I got the 1st Edition late on in the game and was a little reluctant to part with cash for the new edition - but as IIS 5 started to become standard for Windows hosting, and I had access to it after getting Windows XP Pro... I thought it was about time I updated it.

ASP in a Nutshell is my first point of reference when I'm looking up the properties of a particular ASP object. I've also found it an invaluable guide for connecting and manipulating ASP scripts that used ADO for data storage and manipulation. For a while it was the only book I owned that covered the issue of connecting ASP scripts to databases.

Most of the installable components I'd never heard of before getting the book, just as well really because few are of much use - even if they aren't available on your system, a lot can be easily reproduced. The areas I find myself most frequently refering to are the main set of ASP objects, the FileSystem Object and the ActiveX Data Objects. These go into enough detail to keep all but the experienced programmers happy.

For those new to the Windows scene, there is a brief but detailed guide to setting up ASP to work with your IIS server; but it's hardly rocket science since a clean install of IIS will set up most (if not all) of what you need anyway! If you use ASP regularly, or you intend to, then ASP in a Nutshell should be on your desktop... but please remember it won't fulfill all your ASP development needs without another book to fill in the language gaps. What book you choose to accompany it depends on your language and experience... I personally like VBScript in a Nutshell. ... Read more

Product Description

To be a successful ASP.NET 4 developer, you need to know how to apply the vast array of new functionality available in the latest release of the .NET 4 Framework and Visual Studio 2010.

This book will immerse you in a variety of advanced topics, including architecting different application data tiers, memory caching paradigms, data mining, and search engine optimization. Working through step-by-step exercises using P/LINQ, DLR, MEF, MVC, IronPython, Axum, and Ajax, you will learn a variety of approaches to building each of the key application tiers common to all web solutions.

Using a proven technique of illustrating advanced concepts with functional solutions, all topics in the book are modeled on a fully operational content management system (CMS), built from the ground up. This ensures that you’ll be introduced to real-world examples that demonstrate the full functionality of the .NET 4 Framework for ASP.NET, and that you’ll be able to apply your new skills to any web development situation.

Product Description

Customer Reviews (6)

The best book for AJAX beginners
Excellent book, probably the best out there for someone who is beginning to learn AJAX. I went through number of books and online tutorials but so far haven't found anything that is as easy to comprehend as this book. In my opinion it's an absolute must have for any web developer beginning AJAX.

The book consists of 6 parts:

Part 1 talks about the basics of AJAX, XMLHttpRequest and XMlDocument objects, JSON and some basic javaScript.

Part 2 is dedicated to JavaScript extensions, functions, features, client versions of .NET classes, Web Services, Updatepanel control and its usage, AJAX profile services and authentication.

Part 3 contains AJAC Control Toolkit information, as well as information on adding animation, pop ups, autocomplete and other things to spice up your web page, including custom controls.

part 4 talks about event handling, components, and data validation, server data, remote web services and web parts.

Part 5 talks about using AJAX with PHP, and Part 6 contains Apendixes.

great starter book on the subject
using this book and the Programming ASP.NET, Third Edition by Jesse Liberty
I was able to immediately begin developing an ASP.NET 2.0 website in C#
using the very practical examples and explanations

If you want to know about AJAX using .NET buy this book
This is the best book I have come across so far on the topic of AJAX within a .NET environment. It is very clearly presented and leads you through in methodical style - much like you would need if you were aiming to begin an AJAX implementation. There is no jumble of technologies, just a very well approach to implementation

OUTSTANDING SERVICE !!!
The book arrived in perfect condition and fast delivery. I paid the basic $3.99 shipping and arrived earlier than i expected......meaning, i got my shipping cost used up properly. Continue the good job !

Good book for beginner in AJAX
This is a great book if you just started learning AJAX and wanted to get a good overview of all the aspects of it.This book touches very lightly on all subjects of how AJAX is implemented in the real world.
I would recommending starting with this book, but If you've already been working on AJAX I would recommend ASP.NET AJAX Programmer's Reference. ... Read more

Product Description

Steven Sanderson has seen the ASP.NET MVC framework mature from the start, so his experience, combined with comprehensive coverage of all the new features, including those in the official MVC development toolkit, offers the clearest understanding of how this exciting new framework could improve your coding efficiency—and you’ll gain invaluable up–to–date awareness of security, deployment, and interoperability challenges.

The ASP.NET MVC Framework is the latest evolution of Microsoft’s ASP.NET web platform. It introduces a radically new high–productivity programming model that promotes cleaner code architecture, test–driven development, and powerful extensibility, combined with all the benefits of ASP.NET 3.5.

An integral benefit of this book is that the core Model–View–Controller architectural concepts are not simply explained or discussed in isolation, but demonstrated in action. You’ll work through an extended tutorial to create a working e–commerce web application that combines ASP.NET MVC with the latest C# 3.0 language features and unit–testing best practices. By gaining this invaluable, practical experience, you can discover MVCs strengths and weaknesses for yourself—and put your best learned theory into practice.

What you’ll learn

• Gain a solid architectural background to ASP.NET MVC, including Model–View–Controller and REST concepts.
• Explore the ASP.NET MVC framework with detailed coverage of all aspects of the framework and the official MVC development toolkit.
• See how it works with test–driven development in action.
• Capitalize on your existing knowledge quickly and easily through translation and comparison of features in classic ASP.NET to those in ASP.NET MVC.
• Learn about the latest security and deployment issues, including IIS 7.0.

Customer Reviews (72)

Its redundant 2nd edition is out
Its redundant 2nd edition is out, by the time I checked this and went back to cancel it with amazon page loading taking an age it was filled #*&^$#% aaaaaargh

An excellent resource and enjoyable to read
The author has done a superb job of putting together a work that includes the right combination of experience, knowledge, and writing style.When it is beneficial, the experience is leveraged with recommendations and best practices.Specific areas receive just the right treatment.

If you have done ASP.NET webforms development in the past, and are looking for an MVC book, this will not disappoint.Or if you need something more relevant, Steven has an updated version for MVC2.You may actually find yourself enjoying reading this book.Which is saying something because most programming books are a bit dry.

One negative - all technical books have mistakes.The compensating control is usually to publish an errata page(s) on the publisher website.Some publishers are better than others.Sadly, the errata section on the Apress web site is a mosh-pit of not so useful information.

Just Awesome
One of the best books I have read so far.

Very simple language, straight forward examples, made me a huge of fan of ASP.NET MVC. Author focused on most of the regular problems we face in everyday web development. I hope he writes more and more books like these.

Great Second Book
This is a great second MVC book. What I mean is that it's not the best book to start with. As another reviewer said, it is the next logical step after the NerdDinner tutorial. This was the first book I got on MVC, and I ended up having to push it aside for a few months and come back to it after I understood the basics better. By basics, I don't mean necessarily basic ASP.NET MVC, but specifically the MVC design pattern, and design patterns in general. You need a bit of a foundation before jumping in, if you really want to understand what is going on. But, with the proper foundation, I found this book to be the best one out there for learning.

That being said...don't buy it!!! Why?! Simple: the new edition is due out in a few weeks (June 30, 2010 according to Amazon). Buy that one! But, make sure you are up on your SOLID OOP concepts if you really want to understand how to effectively use ASP.NET MVC, in general.

Good One
I went with this over the In Action book, and I'm pleased.The example application is real-world enough not to skip over issues that will come up in actual use. More than once I was thinking, "...ok, but what about..." and the answer was found on the next page.Not too many books can do that! ... Read more

Product Description
Did you volunteer to create a Web site for the softball team? Is it time to take your small business to the next level and let your customers shop online? Well, you can relax! ASP.NET 3.5 makes creating a dynamic site faster and cleaner than ever before, and ASP.NET 3.5 For Dummies makes it easier.

First, you’ll get an introduction to all the tools and terminology you need to understand ASP.NET. If you’ve used earlier versions of ASP.NET and Visual Web Developer, you can probably skip that part and jump right into what’s new in 3.5. You'll make friends with LINQ and SQL, create sites in Visual Web Developer 2008 Express, and much more. Before you know it, you’ll discover how to:

• Integrate data, track shopping cart contents, and whisk away bugs
• Create user interfaces with easy navigation
• Use the ListView control for sophisticated formatting
• Write LINQ queries
• Add a table to a database
• Create an event handler
• Take advantage of the drag 'n' drop feature that lets you write less code
• Put all the features to work to develop dynamic Web applications

The softball team is going to love that Web site, and your customers might enjoy shopping on your site so much that you’ll have to expand your business to fill all the orders! We can’t promise that, of course, but we’re pretty sure that ASP.NET 3.5 For Dummies will make creating Web sites easier and a lot more fun. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (16)

Vague at Times
In general, this book has been helpful to me.However, at times I find that the book provides vague instructions that left me scratching my head.

Excellent Step By Step Guide On ASP.NET 3.5
This is an excellent and enjoyable text for getting up to speed on ASP.NET 3.5.This step-by-step guide has numerous examples in VB (and C# versions on the author's site) that allows one to get practical exposure to the most current version of the ASP.NET technology.The book is well suited for both the beginner and anyone who has worked extensively with earlier versions of ASP.NET and needs a primer for getting up to speed on the ASP.NET 3.5 technology.Finally, the author Ken Cox is very responsive to questions regarding the examples shown in his book (he responded to my Email within a couple of hours).It is refreshing to see an author that takes so much pride in his work and produces such a fine, well written text.

Too confusing
The book gets off to a good start, but then becomes confusing. I seldom knew if I were working on the same project, starting a new one or what? The author Ken Cox will explain some steps in detail and then completely assume you know something elsewhere. I finally bogged down in the Linq section, which is near the front of the book. I will continue to try to comprehend his instructions. To me, this isn't a book for dummies. I am now supplementing it with the Beginning ASP.Net by Wrox. Maybe that will help.

Excellent overview of asp.net 3.5
I recently finished this book and feel so much better about the subject.I was a classic ASP programmer and took a couple of years off from programming.When I returned, I downloaded Visual Web Developer 2008 and was lost.I was used to programming in Notepad, and all this click and drag stuff was foreign to me.

After reading this book, I realized that things that took me hours to do in classic ASP, now only take minutes.The book is well organized, adds lots of humor and reads well from cover to cover.It is also a nice reference, and most of the chapters are set up so that if you want to skip forward a bit (which I did here and there), you aren't lost.

I really liked the sections on LINQ and site security.Ken Cox explains these subjects like butter: nice and smooth!This is a great guide for anyone interested in the subject.I have a very complex project that I am working on, and I feel comfortable moving forward with the project after reading this book.

fast shipping
this book came very fast and it is easy to understand what it is trying to teach you. ... Read more

Product Description

Customer Reviews (10)

Excellent Book
This was my first Dino's book. Though this book was not the top-rated ASP.NET book, I took a chance. I am glad I did it, I love the book, I love his writing style. I recommended it to a colleague and he liked it too. I must admit that I have become a fan of Dino.

I have couple of other ASP.NET books too. This is the only one that I keep going back to refer.

Comprehensive source of information about ASP.NET
This book is an excellent source of information about ASP.NET 2.0 to 3.5, for developers new to ASP.NET and experienced ASP.NET 2.0 developers. I picked the book to prepare for the 70-562 exam. Even though the book does not contain verbatim texts and exercises to prepare you for the exam, it contains all the required material and teaches you how to use ASP.NET 3.5.

I found very useful the chapters about HTTP handlers and HTTP modules as well as the chapter on the ASP.NET page life cycle. The author uses accessible language to describe complex topics.

The AJAX programming part of this book is rather weak. It covers mostly UpdatePanel. This is good enough to get you going from ASP.NET 2.0 and to get you through the certification, but is not sufficient to write good AJAX applications in ASP.NET 3.5. For a deep dive in AJAX I recommend "Developing Service-Oriented AJAX Applications on the Microsoft Platform" by Daniel Larson.

Dino - Best ASP.NET Advanced Topics Books on the Market
I own Dino's last book (Programming ASP.NET 2.0 Applications Advanced Topics) and this book continues his excellence in writing about advanced topics in ASP.NET.There are many things that he covers that you come across on a day-to-day basis and he explains those topics well.

The topics in this book are not simple.That's why sometimes I think people who have reviewed this says it can be a hard read.Well, again that's because the topics are NOT SIMPLE.When you are diving into creating your own custom controls, Virtual Path Providers, Asynchronous Commands & Callbacks, Http Handlers and the rest, of course the language is going to have to be pretty verbose...there's not really a good way around this unless you're going to write a 1000 page Head First type of book that explains it in more simple terms.

You will search the internet for a while trying to find this kind of information.I don't know how many times I have opened Dino's book to find what I'm looking for especially when we need to create custom providers, controls and to just really understand the processing of asp.net and all the low-level details that can really become overwelming.Dino does a nice job by not overly explaining things (since you could to way into depth on many of these advanced topics) but also does not leave you short in most of his sections.

His examples are more real-world also as well as his explaination and solutions while talking about a topic.I have been at 3 .coms and all of us used his book to figure out how to do a lot of advanced tasks quite literally by him explaining (examples Virtual Path Provider, custom Http Handlers, etc.).

He also takes the time to show you diagrams more than any book I've ready on the processes.I appreciate this time he has put in to the books he writes.He doesn't just write, he diagrams a ton in his book and this is important because the concepts here are very dry and you can get lost very quickly in all the things that happen behind the scenes in ASP.NET at a very low level.

Anyway, not sure why people are complaining about the expectation of perfection when this book provides a better review of advanced topics than you'll find in any other book as well as the internet itself in a lot of cases.

It's pretty much the Bible for our team in terms of advanced topics for ASP.NET.When in doubt open Dino's book.

good overview
like the book says, there's no step by step in there but, it's a good over view of the differences however few there are in 3.5

Good overview of technology with some poor design tips
The book is pretty well tooled to ASP.Net 3.5. But it is as much a marketing pamphlet for Microsoft as it is a resource for ASP.Net programming.The author also seems to have some really terrible understandings of OO design.Early in the book he states that you should always favor base classes over interfaces.Sometimes base classes are favorable to interfaces but the founding principal of all common OO design patterns is that you should code to an interface and not an implementation.Frequent use of classes instead of interfaces can create unwanted dependencies on implementations that do nothing more than facilitate unnecessary coupling.Do a little more research before considering any of the design recommendations that the author suggests. ... Read more

Product Description

• More than one million developers now use ASP.NET, the Microsoft technology for creating dynamic, data-driven Web sites
• Published day and date with the new Visual Studio 2005 release, this revision of our bestselling book covers new language features as well as the much-anticipated Visual Web Developer tool
• Requiring no previous Visual Basic or C# experience, the author walks complete beginners through ASP.NET 2 basics, from working with objects, building user interfaces, and killing bugs to accessing databases and handling user input
• The CD-ROM includes all code and bonus content

Customer Reviews (46)

Great for the beginner
Love the "Dummies" books because they explain the basics and are clearly written without an excess of technical information when one is just starting out. This one is no exception.

ASP.NET for those who don't want to use Visual Studio
Bill Hatfield wrote the "Dummies" books on the original versions of ASP so you would think he would be the perfect person to carry over into the ASP.NET books, right?The problem for me with this book (and his previous ASP.NET Dummies book) is that Microsoft has created this marvelous environment called Visual Studio but Bill seems to think I prefer hand coding my pages using Notepad or FrontPage.While he does give a 'nod' to Visual Web Developer Express in one chapter of the book, he pretty much ignores it and Visual Studio throughout the rest of the book and assumes that I like to mix my presentation code with my business logic code.A better buy is 'ASP.NET 3.5 for Dummies' by Ken Cox if you are ready to take the leap.

Great first book!
I just happen to find this book in the library when I was looking for a quick guide/tutorial. I've read 3 books before this and so far this is the book that stands out from the rest. I give Bill 5+ stars for clearly explaining the tech stuff clearly. Nevermind the typos, that's up to the proofreading group. Kudos to this book!

A better title would include the words "visual basic"
I think Dummies books are hit-or-miss. I always start with them, when embarking on something I am a dummy at. About half the time, they put you off to a good first step. That's not a bad record at all.

I'll always be grateful to the Dummies series, which got me started writing code with the help of Wallace Wang's Visual Basic 6 for Dummies.

This Dummies book is the best one I have read yet. But I like it for reasons that may not serve every customer of the book, so be warned. What makes this book such a gem is the author's ease at conveying the basics (and then some) of the V(isual)B(asic).Net language and framework. His ability to present concepts like objects, classes, functions, sub-routines in a simple manner using simple language is like nothing I have ever read. And I have a TON of reference manuals on my shelf. Truly, I have never REALLY understood what a "class" is, how to think about it in a way that my mind honestly gets around the concept, until reading this book. And I have been a fairly serious amateur programmer now for nearly a decade!

This book is without question a better primer on the Visual Basic language than Bill Sempf's Visual Basic 2005 for Dummies. Crazy, but true.

Still, it should be noted: ASP.NET works with lots of different programming languages. If you are a C# person, this book is probably going to seriously irritate you.

I can't imagine someone who isn't a Visual Basic programmer getting much out of this book. And I can't imagine someone who does use the VB language finding a better start at ASP.NET programming. Or a better start at understanding basic Visual Basic language concepts as well.

Hatfield hasn't written anything since this; I hope he hasn't retired, because I want him to teach me the next thing that I am a Dummy at...

ASP.NET for DUMMIES
Only having truly scanned through and hit the highlights of this book thus far. I already see many familiar concepts broken down into much simpler terms which allow me to quickly grasp the meat of the ASP language and paired with my new understanding of C# feel as though I will be able to use this book as a reference for a long time to come. The CD examples are also very good for visual and hands on learning. ... Read more

Product Description

ASP.NET revolutionized Web application development. The platform handles many of the complexities of creating Web applications. Now ASP.NET AJAX takes the development platform even further. The lines between rich client applications and traditionally less interactive browser-based applications are being further blurred with the use of this technology.

The ASP.NET AJAX Library brings object-oriented programming to JavaScript development for modern browsers, and the ASP.NET AJAX Extensions makes it easy to write rich Web applications that communicate with the Web server asynchronously. Again, the complexities are made easy by using ASP.NET.

The new server controls that are part of ASP.NET AJAX make it simple to designate parts of the page to be updated automatically without making the user pause and wait while the data is refreshed. You can have partial page updates without writing a single line of code. Other new controls let you alert the user that background work is happening and designate regular intervals at which updates occur. In addition, the ASP.NET AJAX Control Toolkit makes it easy to make your user interface really come to life with animations, modal dialogs, transition effects, and more.

Ajax is definitely the hot buzzword in the Web application world at the moment. Ajax is an acronym for Asynchronous JavaScript and XML and, in Web application development, it signifies the capability to build applications that make use of the XMLHttpRequest object.

The creation and the inclusion of the XMLHttpRequest object in JavaScript and the fact that most upper-level browsers support the use of this object led to creation of the Ajax model. Ajax applications, although they have been around for a few years, gained greater popularity after Google released a number of notable, Ajax-enabled applications such as Google Maps and Google Suggest. These applications demonstrated the value of Ajax.

Shortly thereafter, Microsoft released a beta for a new toolkit that enabled developers to incorporate Ajax features in their Web applications. This toolkit, code-named Atlas and later renamed ASP.NET AJAX, makes it extremely simple to start using Ajax features in applications today.

Prior to Visual Studio 2008, the ASP.NET AJAX product used to be a separate application that developers were required to install on their machine and the Web server that they were working with. This release gained in popularity quite rapidly and has now been made a part of the Visual Studio 2008 offering. Not only is it a part of the Visual Studio 2008 IDE, the ASP.NET AJAX product is also baked into the .NET Framework 3.5. This means that in order to use ASP.NET AJAX, developers are not going to need to install anything if they are working with ASP.NET 3.5.

Overall, Microsoft has fully integrated the entire ASP.NET AJAX experience in that developers can easily use Visual Studio and its visual designers to work with your Ajax-enabled pages and even have the full debugging story that they would want to have with their applications. Using Visual Studio 2008, developers are now able to debug straight into the JavaScript that they are using in the pages.

In addition, it is important to note that Microsoft focused a lot of attention on cross-platform compatibility with ASP.NET AJAX. Developers will find that the Ajax-enabled applications that they build upon the .NET Framework 3.5 are able to work within all the major up-level browsers out there (e.g., FireFox and Opera).

This book is aimed at experienced ASP.NET developers looking to add AJAX to their applications, and experienced Web developers who want to move to using ASP.NET and AJAX together.

In this book, I assume that you already have an understanding of how ASP.NET works. For an in-depth discussion of ASP.NET, I recommend Professional ASP.NET 3.5 by Bill Evjen, et al. (Wrox, 2008). The focus here is on how you can extend ASP.NET applications to update portions of the page asynchronously and to add richer UI elements to a page. ASP.NET AJAX makes it easy to enrich your existing application or to design a new application to provide a better experience for users. The differences among modern browsers have been abstracted, allowing you to write to a common set of APIs and trust that the user will get the correct behavior whether they are using Internet Explorer, Firefox, or Safari.

If you know how to author ASP.NET pages, you can easily start using the Microsoft AJAX library to manipulate the browser’s Document Object Model and communicate with the server to update the user’s view of data without forcing them to wait for the entire page to be refreshed.

This book covers ASP.NET 3.5 AJAX. It does not cover ASP.NET 3.5, on which ASP.NET AJAX is built. The examples lead you from the core of what is included in the ASP.NET AJAX Library through the core controls you would first start using. You build on that using the core JavaScript library and the ASP.NET AJAX Toolkit before covering debugging, deployment, and custom control development.

The ASP.NET 3.5 release includes the Microsoft AJAX Library as well as the server controls that can be used in ASP.NET pages to extend applications, making them more rich and interactive. It does so by leveraging the ASP.NET AJAX Library, which is JavaScript that runs in the browser. The server controls and JavaScript Library work together to let you update HTML with data obtained asynchronously from the server. The ASP.NET application services are exposed to JavaScript classes in the ASP.NET AJAX Library, making authentication and personalization accessible from the browser.

Chapter 1 introduces you to ASP.NET AJAX. This book discusses the need for AJAX Libraries and explain how ASP.NET AJAX compares to other AJAX Libraries. You will see how ASP.NET AJAX is composed of client and server pieces and that you can use the client library with any server platform you choose. In Chapter 2, the focus is on the most popular and easily applied feature of ASP.NET, the UpdatePanel control. This control allows you to automatically update portions of a page asynchronously, without subjecting the user to a visible pause while the page refreshes. Chapters 3 and 4 give you some key information about working with JavaScript and how the ASP.NET AJAX Library makes development with JavaScript easier. The book then works through several key features, including control of script resources and working with the ScriptManager control in Chapter 5, the new ASP.NET 3.5 ability to work with the back button in Chapter 6, and the ASP.NET AJAX Toolkit in Chapter 7 and all it has to offer for creating rich user interfaces. The next chapter, Chapter 8, looks at how to use ASP.NET’s application services (such as the Membership and Role management systems) with ASP.NET AJAX. Chapter 9 looks at networking objects. Chapter 10 looks at working with animations in ASP.NET AJAX. Chapter 11 shows you how to develop custom AJAX controls. Chapters 12, 13, and 14 shows the reader how to incorporate Ajax in some other ASP.NET core features such as Web Parts, localization, and state management. Chapter 15 looks at what is required to test and debug Ajax applications, and finally, Chapter 16 explores how to deploy ASP.NET AJAX applications.

... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Good Overall Book
There are quite a bit of books on the market about ASP.NET and AJAX.The book "Professional ASP.NET AJAX" from Wrox is a good overview of the AJAX framework.The authors of the book cover a wide array of subjects that you don't find in every AJAX book.The book covers topics like localization and globalization, custom AJAX controls, web services, the WebRequest object, AjaxControlToolkit overview, and more.
As a professional series book, the book does cover a good amount of material to deserve the label.After introducing the reader with the basics, the book moves into the ScriptManager control and all it has to offer, including the new script combining feature.This is followed by a chapter on the back button, history points, and partial updates features.
The book covers AJAX networking and using the WebRequest object and its ability to request information from the server, which has the ability to contact the server and receive the updated HTML as a response.This chapter surprisingly didn't cover web services, but an adjacent chapter covers the in-built application and profile services that allow profiling and login/logout functionality all in client script.The book continues to cover state management; error handling and Sys.Debug; and deployment of AJAX-enabled applications.For deployment, there was a lot of information that's important to know about deploying an application I never knew about.
The book covers customization; it features developing a custom AJAX control that changes its content on the client-side, along with an AJAX extender using the AJAX Control Toolkit.The book looks at the basics of these, as the development approaches vary significantly.The subsequent chapter focuses on embedding AJAX code into web parts using the existing web part framework.
Overall, the book is well-written and conveys its points clearly.I think some of the content is organized in an awkward way; for instance, the book briefly looks at localization early in the book with a good explanation, then features a full chapter later in the book.It felt like it was repeating itself in a few places.The chapters are written fluently; the reading of the book isn't dry at all, which makes for a good tech book.

Very good introductory book updated and improved
Updating and improving upon its predecessor Professional ASP.Net 2.0 AJAX, this book now provides fuller discussion of the AJAX Toolkit and how to build custom client- and server-side controls, and dedicated chapters on animations and localization.It also added one chapter each on how to ajaxify WebParts when building portals and how to enable browser navigation history support, a feature that is not enabled in the framework by default because of overhead in the potential need to create iframes behind the scenes for some browsers.Both additional chapters are very well written and make the book even more valuable.I would have liked to see more discussion of recommended practices addressing security and testing concerns, including availability of AJAX-aware testing tools that work well with the framework. Also, I think that removing the brief section on accessibility concerns with AJAX from the previous edition is a mistake.Overall, however, I like this book very much. ... Read more

Product Description
Aimed at enterprise developers who use Visual Studio 2008, ASP.NET, C#, and SQL Server to deliver business applications, this book focuses on implementing patterns that can be used for real-world solutions. Each chapter establishes a problem, examines which solution will provide the best results, and then demonstrates how to go about executing that solution. The experienced author addresses building a framework for corporate intranet apps, designing the data access layer, implementing the Microsoft exception handling app block, customizing view and reports with Query Builder Control, installing the application, and much more. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (8)

Good book; Interesting ideas; Wish it included other technologies
The ASP.NET Enterprise Application Development book, which is part of the Problem/Design/Solution series, is setup as a book that illustrates the problem first, then moves to the design (and looks at various design possibilities), and finishes up with the solution to implement.The sample project for this book is a time-tracking opportunity, an application to log employee's time.

Each chapter of the book looks to layout the fundamentals of a business application, starting with the data access, business, and presentation layers.The rest of the book is spent looking at the various features that the application needed (exception handling, security, workflow, etc.).Most of the scenarios in the chapters use a code-specific implementation to solving the problem, rather than using other tools available to developers (for instance, the workflow chapter doesn't leverage Windows Workflow Foundation).Though there are a few tools used, like Crystal Reports and Enterprise Library.

The book has an interesting approach in how it implements the business logic; business applications are much different than personal web sites and other application types because they depend on the success of their business rules.That is one of the focuses of the book, setting up how to structure your code so that you may handle the various business needs of the application.

The chapters that create specific features for the application (reporting, workflow, etc.) use a code-specific approach to creating these features.The book lays out the changes to the database and data model, illustrates the stored procedures for the change, and then moves into the design solution.Each new feature has a new ASP.NET page that he demonstrates fully along with any changes to styles, master pages, etc.Each book discusses the chapter to the fullest detail, from the proc to the finished solution.

The style of the book typically follows the explanation of the business problem at the beginning.When the book illustrates code, the author shows the code first, and follows up with an explanation of the solution.In the design section, the book does discuss the various components that it does use to complete the solution (such as Crystal Reports for reporting and Enterprise Library for exception handling).

I was hoping the book was going to look more into using various design patterns within ASP.NET.Although there are some, the architecture is pretty much the same throughout the application.Additionally, the UI later doesn't use much ASP.NET AJAX JavaScript implementations or a script library like JQuery, but leverages most of the logic on the server-side and, when necessary, leverages the update panel control.

While I don't know that I would use the same architecture, I do like some of the features he implemented in the app and look to see how I may utilize this for my own development.

The quickest and easiest way to catch up with ASP.NET 3.5
I would wholeheartedly and highly recommend this book to anyone who is serious about learning the best practices a programmer needs to build an Enterprise application using ASP.NET 3.5

It's under 500 pages, and I found it to be very easy to read and understand. The book also keeps you away from all the extraneous info which divert a reader from the current topic. The author did a good job at explaining in detail all the IMP topics in building a real world EA, discussing each topic in detail and highlighting some of the best ways of doing handling each one of those. It's not one of those too much info and boring Professor-to-Student books, but more of a interesting Lead Architect-to-Programmer book.

[...]

Great for Beginners, Otherwise Disappointing
I read through this book thinking, with a title like "ASP.NET 3.5 Enterprise Application Development with Visual Studio 2008," that it would take me through creating an enterprise-class application, complete with all of the things one would think are a part of such an app. As it turns out, I think the title should be something more like "Introduction to N-Tier Development in ASP.NET."

Each chapter is set up in the same format, and it's a decent format - outline the problem, explain the design, implement the solution. The chapters are:

1) A Framework for Enterprise Applications
2) The Data Access Layer
3) Designing the Business Logic Layer
4) The User Interface Layer
5) Exception Handling
6) Role-Based Security
7) The Workflow Engine
8) Notifications
9) Reporting
10) The Query Builder Control
11) The Dashboard
12) Auditing
13) Code Generator

If you go in never having built a multi-tier app where you separate your data access from your business logic and your UI, this is a good intro to that. The explanation of the separation and showing how to keep those things separated is a good education for the ASP.NET developer who has only ever just thrown a DataSource on a page and let the controls do the work.

If you have any experience with multi-tier apps, though, the goodness, unfortunately, is not to be found. Even if you have a light amount of experience, I probably wouldn't recommend this book since it could do more damage than help. There are several reasons for this.

First, there are little things through the code that are just bad practice.

The naming conventions for everything in this book are absolutely horrible. "ENTBaseBO" is the name of the base class that all enterprise business objects derive from. The names only get worse and more unintelligible and distracting from there. When cruising through the method bodies presented you sometimes wonder if he's using Hungarian notation in C# and then you realize that it's just bad naming.

Almost every exception that gets thrown in the code is the generic System.Exception type. Even if a more specific exception type would be more appropriate, it's always a general Exception.

Rather than overriding the ToString() method on business objects, a new "GetDisplayText()" method gets added in one of the myriad base classes which gets used throughout the book when displaying the object in UI.

The data access layer uses the Microsoft Patterns and Practices Data Access Application Block, which is good... but the book urges you to use an old version of it "because it's simple to use and easy to understand" - even though the new one has many improvements over the old.

Larger things start creeping up on you once you get past the smaller stuff.

There's no localization and no mention of it. Every string seen in any UI is hardcoded somewhere in the system (not necessarily just in the UI) rather than being stored in resource files. Even if you only plan on supporting one language, it's still good practice to separate your strings from your code.

There are no tests anywhere and no mention of them. We're building an enterprise application and we're not going to test it? Really?

Rather than use standard functions built into ASP.NET like the SiteMapProvider and navigation controls that can bind to it, a lot of effort goes into writing your own site map management system and custom controls to bind to that proprietary system. Role-based security that doesn't hook into the RoleProvider.

Chapter 7, on "the workflow engine," is almost 100 pages showing you how to write a proprietary state machine workflow system. I actually had to flip back and look at the cover to make sure we were in .NET 3.5, then I got really curious as to why this wasn't a 10 page chapter showing how easy that sort of thing is to implement using Windows Workflow Foundation, which comes for free with the .NET framework.

Why is the "code generator" chapter about creating a Visual Studio wizard but has no mention of T4 or any third-party code generator? With all the code generation options out there, would I really want to roll my own using StringBuilders?

Other stuff just sits in the background and bugs at you more subconsciously. The code snippets in places are inconsistently formatted and hard to read. You start wondering why there's a little bit of logic in stored procedures and a little bit of logic in the data access layer and a little bit of logic in the business layer and whether there might have been a way to break that up in a way that would be more maintainable. No mention at all of design patterns. No mention of MVP or MVC.

Long story already too long, if you've never written an n-tier application, if you're used to just creating a single web application project that just has pages in it that were created in the Visual Studio designer and that's it... this book will give you some ideas about how to change the way you look at your application's structure and separate the logic out of the codebehind of your pages into different layers. If you have written any sort of n-tier application before, this is most likely not for you.

Still Waiting for ASP.NET 3.5 Problem - Design - Solution?
For those who've been waiting for ASP.NET 3.5 Website Programming: Problem - Design - Solution to arrive, wait no further -- there's a great ASP.NET 3.5 P-D-S book on the shelves right now, and this is it.

This book faithfully follows the very popular Wrox "Problem - Design - Solution" format, evolving chapter by chapter while analyzing business requirements, examining various design scenarios, and implementing a beginning-to-end solution in a reusable framework. The book uses LINQ to SQL for data access (though you could easily adapt this to Entity Framework or your third-party ORM of choice), and unlike the BeerHouse books, the emphasis is more on developing line-of-business applications. It covers a lot of important material the 3.5 BeerHouse book won't go into, such as workflow, notification, reporting, and auditing. It also incorporates a number of current architectural trends, such as dynamic querying, code generation, and so on.

For those not familiar with author Vince Varallo, you are in for a treat. His writing style is clear, concise, and easy to follow. Explanations are well-detailed and are liberally augmented by code samples.

Still waiting for your BeerHouse fix? I urge you to give ASP.NET 3.5 Enterprise Application Development with Visual Studio 2008 Problem - Design - Solution a shot. All in all, a very highly recommended read.

No Entity Framework
This book uses Linq-To-Sql which has pretty much been replaced by Entity Framework. Microsoft is urging people to use Entity Framework, so in that sense this book didnt pretty much deliver for being such a new book. The books itself is good, but if it was written using Entity Framework it would have been really worth it. ... Read more

Product Description
Microsoft .NET Development Series

“Supported by the leaders and principal authorities of core Microsoft technologies, this series has an author pool that combines some of the most insightful authors in the industry with the lead software architects and developers at Microsoft and the developer community at large.”

– Don Box

Architect, Microsoft

“This is a great resource for professional .NET developers. It covers all bases, from expert perspective to reference and how-to. Books in this series are essential reading for those who want to judiciously expand their knowledge base and expertise.”

–John Montgomery

Principal Group Program Manager,

Developer Division, Microsoft

“This foremost series on .NET contains vital information for developers who need to get the most out of the .NET Framework. Our authors are selected from the key innovators who create the technology and are the most respected practitioners of it.”

–Brad Abrams

Group Program Manager, Microsoft

ASP.NET AJAX server controls can encapsulate even the most powerful AJAX functionality, helping you build more elegant, maintainable, and scalable applications. This is the first comprehensive, code-rich guide to custom ASP.NET AJAX server controls for experienced ASP.NET developers. Unlike other books on ASP.NET AJAX, this book focuses solely on server control development and reflects the significant improvements in ASP.NET 3.5 AJAX and the latest Visual Studio 2008 features for streamlining AJAX development

Adam Calderon and Joel Rumerman first review the core Microsoft AJAX Library and JavaScript techniques needed to support a rich client-side experience. Next, they build upon these techniques showing how to create distributable AJAX-enabled controls that include rich browser-independent JavaScript client-side functionality. The authors thoroughly explain both the JavaScript and .NET aspects of control development and how these two distinct environments come together to provide a foundation for building a rich user experience using ASP.NET AJAX.

• Create object-oriented cross-browser JavaScript that supports .NET style classes, interfaces, inheritance, and method overloading
• Work with components, behaviors, and controls, and learn how they relate to DOM elements
• Learn Sys.Application and the part it plays in object creation, initialization, and events in the Microsoft AJAX Library
• Build Extender and Script controls that provide integrated script generation for their corresponding client-side counterparts
• Localize ASP.NET AJAX controls including client script
• Discover ASP.NET AJAX client and server communication architecture and the new support for Windows Communication Foundation (WCF)
• Understand ASP.NET AJAX Application Services
• Create custom Application Services
• Design controls for a partial postback environment
• Understand the AJAX Control Toolkit architecture and the many features it provides
• Develop highly interactive controls using the AJAX Control Toolkit
• Understand AJAX Control Toolkit architecture and build controls that utilize the toolkit

Foreword xxv

Preface xxvii

Acknowledgments xxxv

About the Authors xxxix

Part I: Client Code

Chapter 1: Programming with JavaScript 3

Chapter 2: Microsoft AJAX Library Programming 51

Part II: Controls

Chapter 3: Components 121

Chapter 4: Sys.Application 169

Chapter 5: Adding Client Capabilities to Server Controls 207

Chapter 6: ASP.NET AJAX Localization 255

Chapter 7: Control Development in a Partial Postback Environment 317

Part III: Communication

Chapter 8: ASP.NET AJAX Communication Architecture 371

Chapter 9: Application Services 425

Part IV: AJAX Control Toolkit

Chapter 10: ASP.NET AJAX Control Toolkit Architecture 481

Chapter 11: Adding Client Capabilities to Server Controls Using the ASP.NET AJAX Control Toolkit 513

Appendixes

Appendix A: JavaScript in Visual Studio 2008 547

Appendix B: Validating Method Parameters 555

Appendix C: ASP.NET Handlers and Modules 559

Appendix D: Client Error Handling Code 569

Index 577

Customer Reviews (10)

Demystifies some misty stuff
This book is really quite good. After having read through it I decided against the creation of AJAX oriented server controls in my projects implementation of AJAX. AJAX on the Microsoft platform is pretty varied and there are plenty of alternatives. For the most part, I've gone with vanilla, "poor man's" AJAX implementations and use UpdatePanels extensively.

That being said, the contents of this book were very enlightening to say the least. So many developers out there are working for companies where there is not enough time to think. So they forge ahead as fast as possible and start throwing UpdatePanels on their pages. Then weird, inexplicable things happen. They learn a few things in quick Google searches but obstinate bugs remain. This book will clear some of that up.

Think you're not using AJAX server controls. Think again. Just look at the source of your web page and you will see the Sys.Application.initialize method being called. Wonder why your registered scriptblocks are exhibiting indeterminate behavior. Well, you better start registering some handlers in your startup scripts with an assignment to Sys.Application.add_load. add_load is called only after AJAX is fully loaded and not before. Tidbits like this can help prevent hours of hair pulling madness.

In addition, this book has details on WCF proxy generation with the ScriptManager, JSON and the WCF RESTful protocol for AJAX, how to utilize script resources, embedded web resources and some details on the HTTP pipeline. My opinion is that if you are doing AJAX on the Microsoft platform you should really read this book. If you are planning on developing AJAX server controls then you should really, really read this book. Yes, AJAX 4.0 is about to come out, but from what it looks like, that will be on top of all this and only add the next step which is client-side data binding and support for HTML templates. If nothing else, try to get this book used for a good deal and it will provide a solid foundation going forward.

Almost Thorough Coverage of ASP.NET AJAX
Overall, I find this book to be quite detailed, unraveling the deeper "secrets" of ASP.NET AJAX architecture far better than any other book in the market. My only gripe, I guess, is the lack of a more practical coverage on AJAX Control Toolkit; it shows you how to extend the library but doesn't cover examples on how to use the various controls in the toolkit.For that, you should either refer to ASP.NET 3.5 AJAX (Unleashed) by Robert Foster or the CodePlex's examples online.

Great primer on MS AJAX framework and Javascript
I found this book as very resource full and requires a serious and focussed read. I have a good ASP.NET 2.0 server development experience and little or basic experience on the client scripting and AJAX. I wanted to learn this piece of web development and being a professional I picked up this book even though the title says 'Advanced' only because the advanced and pro series books generally tend to have more technical details that are needed in a real project and have more serious material.
I have tried most of the example code and took my own time learning the details before moving forward to a new concept.
The authors really know their subject very well. The topics were well paced and well structured. I suggest reading the book thorougly and not to skim the material. The book also features a great chapter on JavaScript.
All in all, a worthy buy for serious learners.

Thorough Book
These guys know there stuff. It's not a book you can skim. That's because the book is quite detailed.To me, that's good.The errata that often plagues technical books is minimal and the downloadable source code provides some very informative examples.

A Fine Resource
This is a fine resource for ASP.NET developers who want to build high performance, data-driven Web applications with a richer user interface. The introduction of ASP.NET AJAX 2.0 extensions caught many of us off-guard. We were suddenly thrown into intensive JavaScript programming on a Microsoft platform. Faced with a major learning curve, many of us fled to the convenience of the UpdatePanel control as a stepping stone.

There's no getting around it, it's going to take effort to get to the next level of AJAX capabilities using Microsoft's library. This book takes you into that journey - but not necessarily by the most direct route.

The first third of the book feels more like a solid ASP.NET AJAX reference than a "how-to-do-it" tutorial. The early chapters cover the library's types, namespaces, and classes in depth. It just seemed too early and too dry to be dealing with the nitty-gritty of the platform.

In my view, the book should start at Chapter Five. That's where you really make use of client-side functionality by adding it to server-based controls. As the authors point out, the AJAX library extensions help you overcome inconsistencies among browsers. You learn practical steps such as adding script resources, configuring ScriptManager, and getting into extender controls. The book leads you through the creation of an Image control extender that loops through a series of images at runtime. It's in this hands-on chapter that you really start to grasp the concepts. There's a substantial chapter of localization in ASP.NET AJAX. If you're taking on a translation, it would certainly be worth the price of the book.

At the outset, I referred to the UpdatePanel. It could be called the "lazy developer's AJAX control". What I learn from Chapter 7 is that the UpdatePanel can be a real headache for control developers. The authors warn of unexpected problems when your carefully-crafted control finds itself inside a partial postback environment.

The book's coverage of the asynchronous consumption of web services is solid. The authors go into all the important acronyms such as REST, and explain WCF from many angles including creating data contracts and service contracts.

In the chapter on Application Services, I discovered how much I didn't know about the client-side use of ASP.NET's Membership, Role, and User Profile services. If these AJAX extensions to the server-side API's escaped you too, you'll really benefit from the chapter.

Every ASP.NET developer knows about the AJAX Control Toolkit but Calderon and Rumerman take it further. They explain the overall architecture and then dig into how you can harness the Toolkit (and especially its animation support) in your own controls.

In summary, this is a very good book for learning to write your own AJAX controls. My main complaint is that the cart comes before the horse... You want to dig into building something interesting (call it 'instant gratification' if you wish) but need to wade through several chapters of dry architectural and reference-type information.

... Read more

Product Description

In this book, world-renowned ASP.NET expert and member of the Microsoft ASP.NET team Stephen Walther shows experienced developers how to use Microsoft’s new ASP.NET MVC Framework to build web applications that are more powerful, flexible, testable, manageable, scalable, and extensible.

Writing for professional programmers, Walther explains the crucial concepts that make the Model-View-Controller (MVC) development paradigm work so well and shows exactly how to apply them with the ASP.NET MVC Framework. From controllers and actions to views and models, Walther demonstrates how to apply each ASP.NET MVC Framework feature in real-world projects.

In Part II, you’ll walk step-by-step through building a full-fledged ASP.NET MVC blog application that implements capabilities ranging from data access to validation. Through this case study, you’ll learn how to build ASP.NET MVC applications using test-driven development processes that enable rapid feedback, greater productivity, and better quality.

Throughout, Walther presents extensive code examples, reflecting his unsurpassed experience as an ASP.NET instructor, a leading commercial developer, and now as a member of Microsoft’s ASP.NET development team.

Understand how to:

• Build enterprise-scale web applications far more rapidly and effectively
• Develop web applications that are easier to maintain and extend over time
• Gain unprecedented control over the appearance of your website or application
• Expose intuitive URLs that are friendlier to search engines and users alike
• Create ASP.NET MVC models that contain all your application’s business, validation, and data access logic
• Make the most of HTML helpers, model binders, action filters, routing, and authentication
• Efficiently deploy your ASP.NET MVC applications
• Use the lightweight JQuery JavaScript library to easily find and manipulate HTML elements
• Create ASP.NET MVC applications using unit test and mock object framework

Customer Reviews (24)

Great for learning ASP.NET MVC and real word applications.
this book is really great for any one who wants not only to learn ASP.NET MVC but also apply it to real world projects.
the author even describes how to implement real world design patterns and how to produce neat code. I really love that.

mediocre at best
Seems like this book was rushed out as the author went to take a job at Microsoft. Very little in depth detail. It is an overview of the MVC.NET world.

Not too bad for an introduction
Received the book a few weeks ago. Need to bring myself up to speed with MVC. Found some typos and errors. Not sure if the examples will work for me because of alternative methods used by my employer. If you need a general introduction to MVC then this book could be useful.

A decent introduction
Having been out of the ASP.NET loop for a while, this book introduced some new interesting concepts like LINQ, Test driven development, ORM, Entity Framework and of course MVC.That said, the book had numerous problems which really made it a chore to read past the 3rd chapter.The author for whatever reason decided to include both C# and VB code for all examples.This was incredibly annoying to have to scroll past all the VB examples as I was reading the book.Second, as I was reading on the kindle for PC, the figures containing code are low res images that are hard to read.If you are going to include the figures as pictures, then at least have them color coded like they are in any modern IDE for improved readability.The book had dozens of typos and I even looked for a link to post submit errors to the publisher and there was none.I was expecting that one of the advantages to reading books on the Kindle was that fixing trivial errors would be quick and easy for the publisher.Another serious problem with this book is that it superficially goes over the details of numerous aspects of the framework leaving the reader to come up with their own exercises on how to test the features.We have to wait until CHAPTER 17 until we get an example to work our way through.This example of a blog application was extraordinarily trivial, for example the author walks you through how to add items to a database but never bothers to add essential features like ***update*** or delete.Last but not least, the trivial walkthrough is missing steps like how to create the BlogEntry class (in case your wondering just go to the code downloads and figure it out for yourself).The book has great potential if the author is willing to work at it a bit more.

The title of this book should be called ASP.NET MVC FRAMEWORK: AN OVERVIEW

OK intro to ASP.NET MVC
This is an OK ASP.NET MVC book. The structure of the book is that first Stephen describes various features of the ASP.NET MVC framework with shorter code examples and then in the later 6 chapters of the book we are building a larger blog application. I think the idea of first decribing the ASP.NET MVC features in shorter code examples and then later employing them in a larger app is good. It makes it easier to understand. All the way through the book Stephen is consistently testing his code with Visual Studio Unit Testing, so it's cool that you also get an introduction to this practice. When we are building the blog app in the second part of the book, Stephen is practicing Test Driven Development. Her start each chapter with some user stories (Use cases) which he wants to implement. The initial tests he then also generates from the user stories. So it's also cool to get an introduction to TDD. Stephen is an OK teacher. I think it's cool how he ties use cases, to tests to coding. The picture Stephen is painting is simple and clear. One drawback to the book is that Stephen is using some projects (RouteDebugger and MvcFakes) for test and debugging, which he don't explain the code of. It maybe falls outside the scope of the book, but I think I would have liked to understand how the codes of these projects worked. The book is a rather quick and light read. If you pick this book up to get introduced to the ASP.NET MVC framework you will be OK. ... Read more

Product Description

ASP.NET 3.5 is the latest version of Microsoft’s revolutionary ASP.NET technology. It is the principal standard for creating dynamic web pages on the Windows platform. Pro ASP.NET 3.5 in VB 2008: Includes Silverlight 2 raises the bar for high–quality, practical advice on learning and deploying Microsoft’s dynamic web solution.

Updated with everything you need to integrate Silverlight 2.0 into your ASP.NET applications, this book teaches you all about Silverlight’s exciting new features so that your ASP projects can be rich in visual flair and compelling to the user. You’ll learn how to use the new levels of abstraction in the Entity Framework to design elegant, powerful application architectures.

Seasoned .NET professionals Matthew MacDonald, Mario Szpuszta, and Vidya Vrat Agarwal explain how you can get the most from these groundbreaking new technologies. They cover ASP.NET 3.5 as a whole, illustrating both the brand–new features and the functionality carried over from previous versions of ASP. This book will give you the knowledge you need to code real ASP.NET 3.5 applications in the best possible style.

The book will teach you ASP.NET 3.5 starting with core concepts to more advanced topics. You will learn

• Core concepts of ASP.NET 3.5. Why it’s special. What its fundamental principles are. The basics of Visual Studio. How ASP.NET 3.5 controls are created, and how they fit into ASP.NET 3.5 pages, ultimately creating full applications.
• Security. Once considered the Achilles’ heel of all Windows web applications, security has vastly improved and is a cornerstone of ASP.NET 3.5. This book explains the various forms of available security and how to best apply them.
• Taking things further using advanced user interface techniques. This includes user controls, customer server controls, client–side JavaScript, and GDI+.
• Web services. In an increasingly connected world, working with web services grows in importance. This book will show you how to work with them.
• ASP.NET AJAX, with an emphasis on contemporary web development techniques.
• Development using Internet Information Services 7, Microsoft’s premier web hosting platform.

And much more.

About the Apress Pro Series

The Apress Pro series books are practical, professional tutorials to keep you on and moving up the professional ladder.

You have gotten the job, now you need to hone your skills in these tough competitive times. The Apress Pro series expands your skills and expertise in exactly the areas you need. Master the content of a Pro book, and you will always be able to get the job done in a professional development project. Written by experts in their field, Pro series books from Apress give you the hard–won solutions to problems you will face in your professional programming career.

Customer Reviews (3)

Decent book
Very thorough book, and at 1600+ pages, it ought to be.That being said, there are some weaknesses.I have read parts of the book, and then later when trying to retrieve same information, could not find it in the index.This was frustrating having to re-read entire chapters until I found what I was looking for.

Also, there is no background information on OO techniques.While technically not the purpose of the book, it would be nice to know how pages can be inherited from one another and how that technique differs from, say, using Master Pages.

Another thing the book did NOT have that I was hoping it would is detailed information on how to programmatically add controls to an ASP.Net web page.Nothing in the book at all.

Last but not least, the book claims to explain ASP.Net in VB 2008 yet some of the examples are clearly C# syntax.This is a typo for sure, but frankly an unacceptable one in my opinion.If I wanted a C# book, I would have purchased one.

Great Book - Covers Everythin about ASP.NET From a Professional point of view
Excellent Book, includes hundreds of detailed examples that cover everything from ASP.NET From basic concepts to Client Side Programming,From Chapter 7 to 14 it explains different types of data access techniques including Linq, ADO.NET, SQL Server Classes, Datasets, and XML.
On Part 3 you Will learn how to build ASP.NET Websites using Custom user Controls, Themes and Master Pages, and also how to define and bid Site maps. In this section you will also learn all about CSS and how it works in conjunction with HTML or XHTML.
Another interesting Section is the Security Section, It explains how to authentificate forms and create memberships to control access for specific users.
The Last Section talks about client-side Programming including JavaScript, Ajax and the most interesting one,Silverlight(the Flash Killer).

Excellent reference with good samples
This book is packed full of good information.Lots of good samples including implementing real-world solutions.Nice chapter on custom server controls. ... Read more

Product Description

Customer Reviews (11)

Great Book!
Building a Web 2.0 Portal with ASP.Net 3.5
Warning: This book is meant for developers who already have prior knowledge of asp.net technology.

This seems like such an interestingly good book for those who already have some knowledge of ASP.NET technology. I unfortunately did not have prior knowledge of asp.net. But having read through it I felt the author wrote very interesting stuff. I have since started learning asp.net 3.5, hopefully I will be able to grasp the concepts in taught in this text.

If you are new to asp.net please buy asp.net beginner books like Beginning ASP.NET 3.5 in C# 2008: From Novice to Professional, Second Edition (Beginning from Novice to Professional) written by Matthew Macdonald. Or get another very good asp.net text(ASP.NET 3.5 Unleashed) written by Stephen Walter.

Must have book for web developers
I have bought several technical books over the past 16 years and have rarely read any cover to cover (I did skip the last chapter as it really didn't apply to my corporate environment).This book covers all aspects of developing a portal using ASP.NET and explains in great detail all the technical aspects of development and implementation.In addition to the diagrams and code samples, the CodePlex base and [...] examples are bonus references.

I would not recommend this book for novice/beginner developers.The reader should have experience in ASP.NET web development and core Microsoft technologies.

ESSENTIAL For ASP.NET Web Developers/Admins!!!
Wow this is a great book.

When I first opened up 'Building a Web 2.0 Portal with ASP.NET 3.5' I expected this to be just any old ASP.NET web development/admin book but I was very pleasantly surprised.

Brevity is the champ here, with this book coming in at just under 300 pages but man the content is dense.The focus is on managing and developing your ASP.NET 2.0 portal (as the title suggests).Here's a McKinnon Overview:

01. Introducing Web Portals
02. Architecting the Web Portal
03. Building the Web Layer Using ASP.NET AJAX
04. Building the Data and Business Layers Using .NET 3.5
05. Building Client-Side Widgets
06. Optimizing ASP.NET AJAX
07. Creating Good Web Services
08. Improving Server-Side Performance
09. Improving Client-Side Performance
10. Solving Common Challenges

The focus is on portal development but I feel that all the content within is applicable to all .NET web developers.Applying Web 2.0 concepts, you will learn how to architect more efficient solutions in todays web world.You will learn the ins and outs and it will be fun at that.

Great book, pick it up today.

***** HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

Terrific book
This book is very well written. It provides lots of good tricks to handle real-world problems that come up when developing a website. One of the best ASP.NET books I have read. It is about developing a website all the way through, not about explaining the newer technologies. Not for beginners.

Great Book
With this book Author has set bar very high on how to write technical books. It dose a good job of explaining finer points of all technologies involved in AJAX asp.net programming in the context of building portal. Its a must read if u are looking for techniques to build high performance web sites. ... Read more

Product Description
Get the hands-on, step-by-step guide to learning the latest enhancements in ASP.NET code name Orcas. ASP.NET continues to be an important application platform that delivers a simplified, high-performance, and powerful Web development experience. Building on your familiarity with the Microsoft .NET Framework and Microsoft Visual C#®, you can teach yourself the essentials of working with ASP.NET in the Microsoft Visual Studio® environment one step at a time. With STEP BY STEP, you work at your own pace through hands-on, learn-by-doing exercises. Whether you re a beginning programmer or new to this version of the technology, you ll understand the core capabilities and fundamental techniques for ASP.NET and begin building practical Web applications and Web services. Includes a companion CD with code samples, data sets, and a fully searchable eBook.

Features easy-to-follow, logically planned lessons to help you learn at your own pace

Delivers a solid understanding of how to use Visual Studio Orcas with ASP.NET to create Web applications and Web services

Includes a companion CD with code samples, data sets, and a fully searchable eBook ... Read more

Customer Reviews (11)

Terrible book
Typically, a "Step by Step" book from Microsoft Press is considered a "Beginner's Book", introducing you to the topic of the book.For this book, it is not the case.You will need a good background knowledge of both HTML and Visual C#.

Also, as one other reviewer has already pointed out, the code examples in this book are full of errors.If you do purchase this book, refer to the code examples on the accompanying CD which does have the examples coded correctly.You will save yourself a lot of time and avoid frustration trying to debug it.

***Update***
I have now made it to chapter 10 (out of 24) and I am giving up.At this point you are actually instructed to copy the example code files and setup a SQL database for ASP.NET.I tried following the instructions, but it does not work.I will not waste anymore of my time.I am a "Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer" (MCSE) and have an Associates Degree in Computer Technology, so I do know my way around a computer.If I find a better book, I will update this review again.(That should be fairly easy!!)

****Final Update****
I found the perfect book.It is "ASP.NET 3.5 Unleashed" by Stephen Walther.

Perfect for[...]
Being a Java and PHP developer with nearly ten years experience, and having read two other books about the C# language itself, I have chosen this book as an introduction to ASP.NET.

Surely it is not the all-in-one perfect book for any programmers, moreover it must be very basic for an advanced ASP.NET developer, but for me it seems to be a perfect choice. It gives a fast overview of the philosophy and the most important aspects of ASP.NET, and therefore it is an ideal book for any experienced programmers who switch from any other technologies to .NET, and want to get a rough (and very fast) overview of this huge area.

Touches on a lot
I gave three stars because it's content is largely ASP.NET 2.0 based. It touches on other unrelated topics like WCF (??) and Silverlight (???) but it does not go over the new 3.5 controls - ListView, DataPager. For anyone on 3.5, the Listview should replace all previous choices for any kind of tabular data (although repeater may still have uses). It is an important omission from a book with the 3.5 title. There is no mention of the LinqDataSource or EntityDataSource controls. As an ASP.NET developer, I try to stay within the declarative framework provided and do as little codebehind as possible. I feel that an ASP.NET book should have detailed examples of all the important ASP.NET controls, and focus on explaining the page lifecycle in detail. It briefly touches on LINQ and WCF and those technologies require their own volumes to explain in depth. The book quickly covers custom controls, web parts, tracing and debugging, authentication, session state, caching, and other fundamental topics. All of the examples in the book are in C#.

What this book does do right is to show you solid techniques and explanations for all of the ASP.NET core functionality, along with a decent section on AJAX, with a few pages of new 3.5 stuff mixed in. I would recommend this book to anyone who has done C# or Windows Forms development but wants to move into ASP.NET web development. The ASP.NET system is a complex web development platform even without discussing the ASP.NET UI controls. There are very important fundamentals that he explains well (and give example solutions for), that any good ASP.NET developer should have and know.

Missing steps book
Author undoubtedly knows his subject very well. I could not use his ASP.NET 2.0 from 2005, it was missing steps and had lot of errors, not really meant for a beginner and not written well for a step by step type of book; I wasted lot of time. Reading reviews on this, same seems to be the case. Be cautious before you invest a whole lot of time, evaluate and see if it is suitable for your level.

Good for practical use
It's a good fast read. Introduce the main selling points of .NET without the boring talk. Code sample and walk through of Visual Studio is an effective way of teaching most engineers with some experiences.I would agree that it may be a difficult read for the very beginners. Anyone with a couple of years experience in web development should feel fine with it. ... Read more

Product Description
The most up-to-date and comprehensive introductory ASP.NET book you'll find on any shelf, Beginning ASP.NET 3.5 in VB 2008 guides you through Microsoft's latest technology for building dynamic web sites. This book will enable you to build dynamic web pages on the fly, and it assumes only the most basic knowledge of VB 2008. The book provides exhaustive coverage of ASP.NET, guiding you from your first steps right up to the most advanced techniques, such as querying databases from within a web page and tuning your site for optimal performance. Within these pages, you'll find tips for "best practices" and comprehensive discussions of key database and XML principles you need to know in order to be effective with ASP.NET. The book also emphasizes the invaluable coding techniques of object orientation and code behind, which will start you off on the track to building real-world web sites right from the beginningrather than just faking it with simplified coding practices. By the time you've finished the book, you will have mastered the core techniques and have all the knowledge you need to begin work as a professional ASP.NET developer. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (9)

Not a well written manual.
I am using this book for a scripting languages class I am currently taking. I have not read the whole book at this time. What I have read, is poorly written. The book says it is from beginner to professional. Well I am a beginner and if there is any beginner information in this book I have yet to see it. It reads to someone who has a very good understanding of Visual Basic and not to a beginner at all. They throw a lot of terms at you and do not back them up with examples. This would be extremely helpful. There is a lot of assumptions being made. The instructor selected the book for the class so I am stuck with this book (hopefully it will have some value when I get a better understanding of Visual Basic). The good part is Amazon had it for a much better price than the book store. If you are purchasing this manual to learn Visual Basic as a novice/beginner I strongly urge you to save you money. You will only be wasting your money and be more confused than educated.

Good book for starters
Overall I found this book well written and easy to follow and understand. My main complaint is that it doesn't go into enough detail in some areas, especially the gridview and formview controls. What I would like to see is more content on customizing these controls. The book covers the built- in properties pretty well, but could spend more time explaining how to work with the templates. It also lacks detailed information on modifying these controls dynamically with code and relies mostly on setting the properties available in the designer. I still rate this book highly because it gives a good explaination on ADO.net, caching, application state, and security.

Great reference for ASP.NET 3.5
Very thorough and easy to understand presentation of ASP.NET 3.5.I would recommend this book to beginners as well as those who already use ASP.NET and would like information about some of the differences between versions.

A MUST have!
I'm a database developer that dabbles in application development. I've worked with every version of Visual Basic released by Microsoft, every version of "Classic" ASP, and ASP.NET 1.0/1.1 (Sorry, no .NET 2.0).

I needed a book that would give me the basics of ASP.NET 3.5 using VB so that I could get up to speed for a new project. This book was perfect!

Too many other books have either completely abandoned VB and are now strictly for C# developers, or, give lip service to Visual Basic and "offer" to let you download VB examples from their website. Not much help to those of us that aren't C# gurus. (Ever try converting C pointer reference syntax to something comparable in VB? Not so much...)

This book starts with a short history of .NET, gives you a couple chapters of VB.NET basics (syntax/control structures/classes/objects/etc.), and then jumps into building web pages. I used (FREE) Visual Web EXPRESS 2008 as my platform and never missed an example in the book.

I spent about an hour or two a day mulling over the different chapters and within a week or so was pumping out web pages filled with bound and unbound data from a MS SQL 2005 database.

While this isn't a monkey-see-monkey-do (step-by-step) book, it is full of code snippets and detailed explanations of how things work. If you need, you can always download the full source code for all the examples and then step through the code using the debug feature of VW 2008 Express.

Considering the very limited number of Visual Basic books on ASP.NET 3.5, this book is a MUST HAVE for anyone/everyone looking to move up from previous versions of .NET (And a good starting point for .NET newbies). It is a fixture in my cube for use as a quick reference to answer the too often question of "How did I do that before..."

The only reason I didn't give it fives stars was because it's coverage of Ajax was so sparse (one quick/short chapter). But, considering that Ajax is a language/architecture in itself, it really wouldn't be fair to expect too much coverage in a "Beginner's" book.

Great book on ASP.NET
I have to say this is one of the first technical books that I actually enjoyed reading.It provides a more solid understanding of what ASP.NET is and what it encompasses for someone who has learned it on the job but never really took a class on it.

It's well written and I learned some cool stuff.The sections that stuck out to me were the first chapter on what exactly the .NET Framework is, the section detailing the page life cycle and the chapter on ASP.NET AJAX.Great job Matthew. ... Read more

Product Description

Customer Reviews (48)

Nice, Thank you
Company shipped quickly and the item was in great shape. Would buy from seller again. I would suggest offering alternative shipping such as ups or fedex. USPS takes FOREVER!

jToo narrow a focus even for beginners
This book has a particular focus, to build a very simple website. But it also tries to cover (some) C# and VB, and doesn't do much for either language, and for such a simple example site, the languages don't much matter.
What did bother me was leaving out information - for instance, in discussing building a Master page, they decide to skip how to build the sidebar menu, say they'll just build the header and footer, and then forget all about the footer, too!
It would be better for someone who wants to learn C# to just get a book on that, or learn it however they can; and then pick another book on ASP.NET

Did get what I purchased
The book I received is not the one I ordered. Though it has the same name as the one I ordered it was an older version (10 years old) most of the coding examples used in the book is out of date.

This will be the last time I buy a book from you.

You are in good hands with this book
I learned the basics of ASP.NET with the second edition of this book. Having skimmed through the latest third edition, it appears the information has been refined even further and includes more material including practical tutorials and advice for deploying your ASP.NET site as well as the inclusion of AJAX.

To my knowledge, it was the first book to incorporate both VB and C#, which was its initial appeal.The author(s) very deliberately chooseto avoid the some of the latest trendy topics that could stand to overwhelm or confuse you and instead focus on making sure you know what it is all built on and providing you with enough practical working knowledge of ASP.NET, VB and C# to make you "dangerous". I had no issues getting the code to compile and simply Googled my way through a couple typos in that second edition, which is actually a very healthy learning activity if you are truly engaged in the topic.

It is an easy and engaging read.Nearly all of my questions that arose as I worked through the book were anticipated and addressed at the perfect time.The book is also packed full of practical aside tips and hints that one will encounter in most of the daily ASP.NET development tasks.

Within a short time, I was able to tackle ASP.NET projects at my job. What I hadn't learned from the book, I was able to figure out by leveraging what it had covered.In a nutshell, it was the perfect starting point.From there, I read Imar Spaanjars' excellent Beginning ASP.NET book (always a good idea to learn from at least 2 good sources as a novice) and moved up to the comprehensive professional ASP.NET book(s) by Scott Hanselman & Devin Rader.

I really wanted to like this book, but...
In one sense I liked that this book showed both the C# and VB approach to ASP.net - it was extremely helpful in determining which language I wanted to standardize on.However, because it attempted to tackle two languages, I feel it does a poor job of covering the essentials of each language.As a beginner this quickly became very frustrating as I was unsure why certain code would work or wouldn't work.

Also, as a few other reviews suggest, this title appears to use some old approaches.In some instances, after struggling to figure out why I received a compiler error, I would simply load the authors code (found on the Sitepoint website) and it wouldn't compile correctly either!I admit it is possible I did something wrong.In fact, I thought that for some time and almost gave up on ASP.net.Then I decided to try another title:"Beginning ASP.Net 3.5 in C#" published by Matthew MacDonald Beginning ASP.NET 3.5 in C# 2008: From Novice to Professional, Second Edition.I've found this title to be a much better fit for me.In this book, much more time is spent on C# fundamentals which has been enormously helpful.

Generally, I really like Sitepoint titles and I own quite a few of them.I also think the authors know what they are talking about.My advice to Sitepoint would be to focus on one language or the other (C# or VB).Give readers a deeper understanding of one approach rather than a broad view of two different approaches. ... Read more