Rating: 
Summary: This will get worn out quickly
Review: The .NET Framework can be a pleasure to use but there's so much to use and master that it's an all-too-often event when we start out with something basic only to realise we've forgotten exactly how it's done. For that very reason, the concept of cookbooks exists-references whose sole existence is to refresh the memory and suggest best practices.Cookbooks often suffer from being too subjective. What the public tend to get is a set of tips specific to the author's line of work; very useful in places and sorely lacking in others. What makes this book different is that the whole ASP Alliance community has sourced the material for this book and filtered through Smith and Howard a comprehensive and well-considered collection of some 250 basic techniques. If there is a bias to any given topic, it's because an ASP.NET developer has more problems and solutions to remember in that topic and not because it's the author's area of speciality. Perhaps there's a slight bias to the classic ASP origins of the alliance with all the examples in VB.NET, but C# equivalents can be downloaded from the book's support website as required. The first half of the book looks at the core topics in ASP.NET and ADO.NET-controls, state management, XML, and data handling-while the second covers more generic .NET tasks which are just as applicable to ASP.NET applications as they are elsewhere-text and image manipulation, collections, Web services, and so on. Each topic is given its own chapter and each technique follows the same pattern for easy access. A problem is stated, followed by a brief description of the technique used as a solution and some sample code to demonstrate it. A concise but complete discussion of what has been done is then given along with links and references for further information. Indeed, these links are one of the stand-out features of this book, making it more useful than most other tomes of the same ilk. At the same time then, we are presented with an easy-to-follow, basic working solution for each problem, and are confident that we can use the links to work on a more complex version of the solution should the need arise. If there is a flaw in this book, it's in the decision to make the solutions code-only and not cover using development IDEs at all. Surely a chapter each on the most common tips and tricks for use with, say, Visual Studio .NET, Dreamweaver MX and Web Matrix wouldn't be out of scope for a book such as this? I know I'd much rather use an IDE to generate a basic paging solution for a DataGrid than type it out by hand. You could also debate that there isn't enough 'sticky' contextual text in the book itself to inspire readers to give new areas a go without them having already decided that they'll need to anyway, but the simple counter is that ASP.NET Cookbook is a pure reference book and a damn fine one at that. Beginners won't learn ASP.NET development by reading it, but established ones will remember a whole lot they've probably forgotten. Steven Smith, Rob Howard, and the ASP Alliance have been around the block a good number of times and their experience shines through in this book. They've asked themselves what they would most like out of a technique reference and delivered it with panache. If you're an ASP.NET developer, buy two copies-the first will be falling apart from overuse in weeks.
Rating:
Summary: Demonstrating useful, practical, effective solutions
Review: The collaborative effort of Steven A. Smith, Rob Howard, and The ASP Alliance, ASP.NET Developer's Cookbook is a definitive resource designed especially for experienced programmers who are using (or aspire to use) ASP.NET, Microsoft's platform for designing data-driven web applications. Demonstrating useful, practical, effective solutions to common problems, the text is enhanced with a wealth of examples, straightforward instructions and easy-to-adopt techniques. ASP.NET Developer's Cookbook is a confidently recommended instruction manual and dilemma-solving answer guide that lets the code speak as plainly as written advice.
Rating: 
Summary: It helped me, but no c# code
Review: This book doesn't really show me anything new that I didn't already know. Most everything in the book has already been done in other books.
Rating: 
Summary: not that great
Review: This book doesn't really show me anything new that I didn't already know. Most everything in the book has already been done in other books.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Resource for ASP.NET
Review: This book is a great reference for doing various tasks in ASP.NET. It however is not written from a perspective of using Visual Studio .NET for Development, so some of the code is not needed if using VS IDE, but for someone who programs in ASP.NET all examples are completely understandable!
Rating:
Summary: Book for the novices
Review: This book is definately for the novice crowd. I was expecting some more advanced concepts or examples, but found very basic info. I didn't learn a single new thing about .NET by using this book, and especially when you compare it to other books.
The book really just goes into some basic examples in each chapter followed by some code to go with it, but there are no real tips or tricks of value. Everything in here is a rehash of what's on MSDN, the web or in other books.
Rating:
Summary: Good Content, Accessible Format
Review: This book takes an interesting and highly effective approach to ASP.NET. The book contains a large number of "recipes" that can best be described as mini-articles that state an issue and then present a solution, with a code sample and a short conceptual explanation. The recipes are broadly broken out into chapters that group recipes on a common topic, such as caching, and manipulating strings. The authors state at the beginning of the book that you are not meant to read it from beginning to end. Rather, you should selectively read recipes as you need them. Still, I found it fascinating to page through the large number of topics, and to come across challenges that I face regularly when developing an ASP.NET application. The book covers a number of standard topics such as caching, working with ADO.NET objects, and working with files. It also tackles some less-covered topics such as how to access LDAP/ASDI Directory Services, and how to manipulate images. The selection of topics is highly varied, and is bound to include something for everyone. This book will be most useful for intermediate developers, because it assumes a basic understanding of ASP.NET, and enough experience with ASP.NET that you are ready to tackle the harder issues. Advanced developers will no doubt find some useful material here, but the topics are presented in a short capsule format that cannot address deeper, multilevel problems. I picked up some interesting tips on several topics, and in other cases I found that the book validated approaches that I had dreamed up myself without having the benefit of an outside opinion. This book is written by experienced developers (and a member of the ASP.NET product team) and they have successfully distilled their deep experience with ASP.NET into a readable and highly accessible book.
Rating:
Summary: It helped me, but no c# code
Review: This is not a beginner's guide it is a book full of examples. I was able to use the examples in the book to build what I needed. I just started with ASP .NET and don't really have the concepts down yet. This book offered some examples that allowed me to better understand the concepts while giving me code that works (meaning I didn't have go figure out how to apply the concepts to write the code). I'm writing in C# and sometimes the VB code is a little confusing, but this book saved me.
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