Rating: 
Summary: This book helped me develop complete content site myself
Review: After spending a lot of timing researching books on ASP, I fortunately ordered this one. I was able to go from zero knowledge to a decent grasp of the basics in a short period of time. While my goal was not to become fluent in the language, I had enough knowledge to be able to modify the very limited scripts provided in Dreamweaver Ultradev 4. I finally managed to achieve my goal: develop a full-blown content site (an online version of our company's print publication). Since launching the site a few months ago, we've signed up 4000 users, a good number for our very niche audience. I couldn't have done it without this book, and it saved our company tends of thousands if not hundreds of thousands of dollars because we didn't have to outsource development to Web experts who charge an arm and a leg for this kind of thing. Some gaps though such as total lack of discussion of CDONTS object to enable web-based email, something I'm picking up from other books. But overall, a fantastic pick. I keep referring to it over and over.
Rating: 
Summary: Excellence for beginner and Intermediate web programmer
Review: I used to program Coldfusion and knew nothing about ASP before (though too difficult to learn!). When I picked up this book, it's surprising easy to read. Even though it didn't cover a whole world (class & object, transaction... advanced topics) but I found that this book covers most what you need for a Pre-professional dynamic web page. It's very good for someone who knows nothing or knows a little about ASP, this is the book you must have! Highly recommended.
Rating: 
Summary: Misses the Forest
Review: I picked up this book because I was told that learning ASP would be a good introdction to web programming. While the book is thorough, it tends to bog down in detail while not making clear what is central and what is secondary. So the authors spend one scanty chapter on control structures--absolutely crucial to any programming--and then devote the next chapter (of equal length) to a terminally detailed discussion of built-in functions--which should have gone in an appendix. This might be a good reference book for someone who is already a programmer, but by the end of the first "week," this newbie was completely lost. I had to put the book aside and learn more about programming from some better written JavaScript and beginning programming texts before I could come back and make sense of this text. Advice: Don't purchase this book unless you already have sufficient programming background so that the introductory chapters are really "review" and that you can distinguish what is important from what is secondary.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Book to learn ASP
Review: Prior to this I have no knowledge on ASP. I have found this book to be very comprehesive, easy to use and very detailed, especially if you want to learn ASP yourself or just use it as a reference for your work or project. Every example in each chapter teaches you step by step, works perfectly and is very detailed Its not like in other books where they just briefly teach you and then skip to the next chapter. I especially like the teaching style in which the authors Scott Mitchell and James Atkinson present to the readers. They explain very clearly and will reiterate important points to the readers even when the users has proceed to further chapters. I was able to get up to speed quickly on programming ASP with databases using this book and proceed to do my project in my work successfully. I also use it as a guide when I forgets something. I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to learn and understand programming with ASP.
Rating: 
Summary: What a Disappointment
Review: I bought this book believing that it would help me build better web pages but how disappointed I was to find that the coding that is provided within the text to demonstrate what is being described does not work!!! From the outset even just using the Option Explicit code generated an error. If you are new to ASP be carefull this could destroy any attempt at further learning
Rating:
Summary: Understandable, Extremely Helpful; Best Book for ASP 3.0
Review: The title says that you'll learn ASP 3.0 in 21 days, but you'll learn so much more! You'll learn how to write your code so that you or a co-worker can expand or change it years later; how to use business objects (and Microsoft's built in objects); how to design multi-page projects for maximum efficiency; how to read and write from a database; and, most importantly, when using a certain method (such as connecting to a database) is most helpful and when it's a resource-wasting idea. This book has its own support forum linked off of the 4guysfromrolla.com webpage so that Scott Mitchell and millions of 4guysfromrolla.com fans can provide you with help if a code example isn't working. ASP and ASP.NET folks seem to be the happiest 'been-there, debugged that' programming community on the web, so don't be shy. If you want to build interactive applications, but your servers aren't running Microsoft.NET or a similar runtime, this book is for you. If you want to learn how to make cool webpages, this is your book. Learn VBScript in a browser-independent format? Buy the book. It's just that good!
Rating:
Summary: Great book
Review: I have used this book for 4 quarters in a beginning ASP course and it has proven itself to be rock solid. It is easy to read, the choice and sequencing of topics is excellent and the examples work. It gets consistently positive feedback from my students. Many thanks to Scott Mitchell and James Atkinson for doing such a great job.
Rating: 
Summary: 2 cents from an ASP beginner and ColdFusion intermediate
Review: I bought this book because my workplace is slowly moving away from ColdFusion. I have been doing self-taught ColdFusion programming for 2+ years now, and I enjoy the programming language (for its relative ease of use), but I must keep up with my workplace. Plus, I wanted the flexibility and additional power of ASP. This book was highly recommended for ASP beginners, especially those without too much prior programming experience to begin with. The writing is excellent -- very even-handed and informative. I learned a lot about the language (or languages) that power Active Server Pages. The VBScript was pretty straightforward, and I caught on rather quickly. These guys really know how to write for the intended audience. Unfortunately, I had to give the book 3-stars because my IIS 4.0 web server simply would not work with the last 7-days worth of database application programming. I did everything possible to update MDAC and other components on the NT machine, but to no avail. When I showed some of the sample database applications to other folks who are more familiar with Active Server Pages, many questioned the samples as incorrect or too complicated to accomplish simple tasks. They could get some samples to run on their departmental servers, but I could not, and I had no other option but to stop at the 15th chapter. Bottom line -- I only got 14 days worth of the 21 days included in the book. I'm going to have to buy another one now (or just wait for ASP.NET to take hold) to get another set of database application samples to learn from on my web server. I'm hoping that they'll work, or I'll have two unfinished ASP books. ;-)
Rating:
Summary: I'm not a programmer, but I play one in the office.
Review: I enjoy the tone of this book and Mitchell's website, 4guysfromrolla.com; but as a non-programmer, I haven't learned ASP in 21 days. I've had a difficult time applying my knowledge. The book is definately for beginners, but of course, not all beginners are created equal. I, for one, didn't need to spend two days looking over HTML code for making forms. I know how to do that part. What I don't know is how to collect the information and do something with it. And I seem to be slow picking up that understanding. In short, this is a good book for beginners, but it strays a bit from the point. To give you more of an idea (since you can't just flip through the book right now), I'll summarize the book subjects for you:
Week 1 starts off with the easy stuff, discusses VBScript functions and control structures, and deals with variables and objects. The final chapter on the Response Object is the best of the seven.
Week 2 has a couple light chapters on forms before getting into the Request Object, Session Object, and reading or writing to the server. One chapter is on components, another on error handling.
Week 3 starts easy again with a few words on databases. It moves on to the Connection and Recordset objects for three chapters, and throws in SQL statements and other techniques at the end.
Rating:
Summary: sets the standard for all "21 Days" books
Review: I wholeheartedly agree with all of the other positive comments here. The authors have a knack for instruction, walking you through the basics of VBScript and ASP. Examples are relevant and accurate, and the exercises are complete and help solidify the chapter. Everyone is always looking for the "get rich quick" book when it comes to acquiring knowledge--this one actually delivers.
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