Building ASP.NET Server Controls

Rating:
Summary: A Masterpiece
Review: Ever wanted to learn everything and anything about ASP? This is your book. It's a little expensive, as with most Microsoft books, but you get what you pay for. Aspiring web developers looking to bump their game up a notch should read this.

Rating:
Summary: A Masterpiece
Review: Ever wanted to learn everything and anything about ASP? This is your book. It's a little expensive, as with most Microsoft books, but you get what you pay for. Aspiring web developers looking to bump their game up a notch should read this.

Rating:
Summary: Guzel bir kaynak.
Review: Guzel bir kaynak. Bana degisik gelen bir yontemle konulari anlatiyor. Bu sayede bir derste birkac konuyu ogrenebildim. Dogrusu hos da oldu. Ornegin WebControl sinifindan miras almayi anlatirken aslinda Style sinifini anlatarak konuya baslamis. Degisik alternatiflerle Control ve WebControl siniflarini kiyaslamis ve denetim yazarken ne zaman hangisini miras alacagimizi da guzelce aciklamis. Bu benim icin biraz puslu bir nokta idi. Diger yandan sablonlu denetimler konusundan da basari ile cikmis. Sablonlu ve veri bagli denetimler benim icin tam bir karmasa idi. Bu konudaki MSDN makalesinin (RssFeed) hakkini da yememek lazim. Sonucta artik sablonlu ve veri bagli denetim yazabiliyorum, simdi tasarim zamani ile ilgili bolumlerdeyim. Bu kisma kadar bile olsa kendisini ispatladi. Kutuphanemde saygiyi hak eden bir yer edindi.

Rating:
Summary: useless book, waste of money
Review: I really like this book. Chapters 1-3 are rudimentary in that they explain the different types of server controls (html controls vs. web controls, and user controls vs. custom controls). Towards the end of chapter 3, however, you get into the real work that pays dividends. You create a custom web control that inherits from System.Web.UI.WebControls.TextBox. Great stuff! Then the authors provide a quick overview of design-time attributes since these are found in the automatically generated code when creating a new web control library.

The remaining chapters, 4-14, are progressively more advanced and discuss custom control state management, adding events to your controls, data binding, mobile controls, validation, and design-time support (among other topics). You gradually learn how to create very sophisticated custom controls that reduce your need for any 3rd party components. This book is simply a must for anyone serious about leveraging the power of inheritance to implement very useful - and ultimately time-saving - custom controls.

The authors also explain concepts in a clear, straightforward manner and assume little regarding the reader's knowledge of controls. Rob told me in person that he put a lot of effort into this book, and his hard work is evident by the quality of what's written in Building ASP.NET Server Controls. Buy it today and watch your code benefit from it.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent guide to creating custom ASP.NET server controls
Review: I really like this book. Chapters 1-3 are rudimentary in that they explain the different types of server controls (html controls vs. web controls, and user controls vs. custom controls). Towards the end of chapter 3, however, you get into the real work that pays dividends. You create a custom web control that inherits from System.Web.UI.WebControls.TextBox. Great stuff! Then the authors provide a quick overview of design-time attributes since these are found in the automatically generated code when creating a new web control library.

The remaining chapters, 4-14, are progressively more advanced and discuss custom control state management, adding events to your controls, data binding, mobile controls, validation, and design-time support (among other topics). You gradually learn how to create very sophisticated custom controls that reduce your need for any 3rd party components. This book is simply a must for anyone serious about leveraging the power of inheritance to implement very useful - and ultimately time-saving - custom controls.

The authors also explain concepts in a clear, straightforward manner and assume little regarding the reader's knowledge of controls. Rob told me in person that he put a lot of effort into this book, and his hard work is evident by the quality of what's written in Building ASP.NET Server Controls. Buy it today and watch your code benefit from it.

Rating:
Summary: Stop here...Buy This Book!
Review: OK, first off I am not sure what the other reviewer was ralking about...he gave the book 5 stars, but take note that this is not an ASP book (see the title), and this is not from Microsoft Press..it is from Apress. Now that I have said that, I want to go on with my review.

First of all there are only a few books out there like this now, and none of them come close to this one. This one will really teach you how to write your own server controls, and will show you how to do it for ASP.NET using C#...oh yeah, they use Visual Studio.NET (thankfully) and they also do it code behind (there is no other way for server controls, but in general they use VS.NET like it should be). The code which can be downloaded from Apress also works, and is updated for VS.NET 2003.

In regards to the book, the author(s) make this book a fairly easy read. The first few chapters go through a bit of ASP.NET and then explains about HtmlControls and WebControls. The author explains the differences between the two, and when and why to use each one in a specific scenario. The book goes on to talk about OOP in general and how it fits in (they don't expalin OOP, but they show it and make passing references, not a lot...throughout the book, I have seen less than a total page worth, but they put it in the right spots). The chapter on Viewstate is excellent, and the chapter on binding and creating your own repeater server control inheriting from the DataRepeater was an eye-opener.

The last 5 chapters in the book deal with more complicated server controls. The author dedicates time to speak about mobile controls...I read it quickly since I don't really do that, but it seemed good. Then there is a chapter which puts a lot of things together (everything you have read in the book so far) and shows how to make an image gallery (well sort of..it's more than just a gallery of course). The last chapter deals with how to use the Google API and create your own search engine...which was very cool.

The author dedicates time explaining attributes and how they are used for server controls. He also spends time showing how to create a server control that can be easily put into VS Designer, which is good for someone selling a custom control. There is so much more to say, but Amamzon limits my words to 1000, and I have not slept in 36 hours...deadlines, and this book helped a ton!

Just to end off, this book is C# (not VB.NET), and it is for advanced programmers working with ASP.NET...this book did not give a primer on C# or ASP.NET (thanks Dale/Rob). The authors know what they are talking about, and the book is easy to read.

Enjoy!

Rating:
Summary: So much precious informations for writing good designed SC
Review: Server control in ASP.Net is not so much documented. Each "professional" book have only 1 or 2 chapter on client control and server control. Client server are easy to create but are not versatile like server control. In this book, the author's take time to explain every aspect to create rich and smooth server control with OOP in mind. They explain Event and Delegate like real teacher. Not like professional programmer!!
Style, validation, client script and much much more are explain in detail.
But this book is not for beginner programmer. Intermediate programmer with some basic in ASP.Net and C#,Java, VB.Net or C++ will, with no problem be able to understand and appreciate this book.

Good reading. Take in mind that in 2005, we will have to read another ten to twelve books to understand Vs.2005!!!!
For no more money in the pocket...

Rating:
Summary: useless book, waste of money
Review: Very bad book. Deeply disapointed, because i didn't learn one singel peace of information. i started to read the book and very soon realised this is at least not for me. I think this book is for someone who already know anything about the subject. the book is confusing, i can't understand it, there is no order, to me is just a big bag of chaos. i'm about 4 years in computer world and i think that this book will be understod of someone who is 50 years in the bussiness. okey, not 50, say 10 years.

if you want to learn how to code ordinary and powerfull asp.net server controls this is definitly not the book. if you want to code server controls which composes of 4 hyperlinks! and if you want to get bored to death and if you want to hear a bit of philosofy lessons and if you want to get frustrated this is definitly book for you!
what a waste of money..
This book will be useful if you already know everything about the subject and you want to hear somebody elses point of view on the subject and get what is going on behing the scenes of the subject you have been working with in months and years.
And also, why does this book have 800 pages, it's comletely overkill, i scanned every chapter and underchapter and it's always the same. if you, i don't know, look in the chapter 7 e.g and chapter 2 or 3 you ask your self 'what's the difference?'..
Maybe i'm wrong but this is precisely the way i experienced the book..i red the first and bit of next chapter and rest of the book i have just scanned but i pretty sure about what i'm talking about.

sincerely
anonymous