Rating: 
Summary: An Excellent Book
Review: "I know some of the writers by reputation which encouraged me to buy the book. I was not disappointed. This is a talented group of coders that collectively have written a Bible on tips and tricks ranging from using XML to common code techniques. I don't think anyone will be disappointed at their wide coverage of all the details you hope and expect to find. Beginners and experts alike really should add this to their "must have" list. Spanning almost 900 pages and including a CD-ROM it is an excellent value for the price.
Rating:
Summary: Developers, Add This To You Library
Review: As a serious developer, nothing is more valuable than nicely annotated code samples. This 878-page book is packed with code, with server-side code in VB. I bought this book together with Programming Data-Driver Web Applications With ASP.NET by Mack and Seven. (These two are among the authors of this book, Tips, Tutorials, etc.) Between the two I have a nice library to draw on for help on my current .NET development project. I have found the SAMS Teach Yourself series very useful in spite of their beginner level content. This book is part of a newer series from SAMS (blue spines with glossy photos of the galaxy) that are intended as in-depth resources for professionals. SO far the six that I have rank with the very best professional series from Apress and seem a bit beyond the always timely and usually useful WROX books.
Rating: 
Summary: Somewhat disappointing. No info about the .NET OO-concept.
Review: As an ASP professional I found this book somewhat disappointing.
A lot of examples and tutorials in this book are too simple for advanced developers and stops when it gets interesting. I my opinion the authors should have explained more about the .NET concepts, and how it is used in ASP.NET. Things like inheritance are just shortly mentioned in this book, without showing how to use this to your benefit.
For example: somewhere in the first chapters, there is a code-example about a queue that stores all pages that the user has visited. The author advises to embed this code in a user-control, so you can include it on every page. Better would have been to show the reader how to create your own page-object, and inherit the Page_Load method to add the visited-pages code. Whenever things get too complicated (like explaining the syntax of Regular Expressions), the book only shows some most commonly-used examples, and gives a list of further readings. I think in most cases a short list and explanation of the syntax or methods would have helped a great deal. However, I think this book is a good start for intermediate ASP developers who are currently building all their code in just VBScript (so no COM/MTS), and want to know what's new for them in ASP.NET. I also liked the chapter about XML and ASP.NET. If you're interested about the XML support in ASP.NET, you should buy "XML for ASP.NET developers". It contains a good explanation about XML and how to use it in ASP.NET If you're a professional ASP developer who is currently also using COM/MTS, and you're looking for a complete book about ASP.NET, I'd advise you "Professional ASP.NET" (Wrox). This book covers everything about ASP.NET and explains how it is an integrated part of the .NET runtime. Also, most examples in that book are both in VB.NET and C#.
Rating:
Summary: This book is a definate must !!!
Review: I found this book to be REALLY REALLLLY EXCELLENT !!! It covers absolutely EVERYTHING from Webservices to indepth ADO.net !! As a "Classic ASP" developer, I could really relate to the examples in the beginning of the book, where comparisons are made between how "Classic ASP" does it, and then how ASP.net does it. This book is REALLY REALLY good ! It has TONS of examples and source on (just to name a few) reading and writing to the event log, reading/writing to the filesystem, e-mailing, performance monitering, Creating user controls, Validator controls and how to use them properly, Do's and don'ts.... database connectivity, using datasets correctly, binding to the DataGrid and other controls... MAN OH MAN... the list goes on and on !!! This BOOK is a DEFINATE must for any person who wishes to become a competent ASP.net developer !!! There is SOOO much to learn about this topic and this book does an EXCELLLENT JOB !!!! OH YEAH !!!!! ... Using Mobile Software Simulaters... XML, using the Output Cache, managine session state, configuring application settings, web.config stuff.... So like I was saying... if you're SERIOUS about learning ASP.net, then take a look at the title of the book and think about it : "Tips" "Tutorials" and "CODE !" TIPS
TUTORIALS
CODE Say these 3 words again.... and then think about it... ? Sounds nice doesn't it !!! But Seriously... this book is ABSOLUTELY BRILLIANT !!! Its set out in a REALLY excellent professional manner, and makes learning ASP.net seem like a breeze !!! Knowledge is Power... and this book is SERIOUS knowledge ! Hope I've been able to help you decide if this book is for you !
I know it's GREAT for me !! Cheers
Tony
Rating: 
Summary: Saved Me....
Review: I got this book about a year ago along with a couple of other .Net books but because my organization was not heading in that direction for some time, the books sat on the shelf. When I was told to become the 'goto' person for .Net, I cracked the book quickly trying to get up to speed. Although it is not a complete referenc by any means it has proved a very valuable resource for getting existing classic ASP pages converted.
Rating:
Summary: A good start that gets better...
Review: I had reservations about jumping directly into .Net with a 'tips & tricks' book. My reservations were unwarranted. This book is so clearly written that it affords a good starting place for programmers just getting started in .Net as well as an excellent resource for programmers already experienced in the language.
Providing clear descriptions of common techniques the book outlines the presumably easy stuff that often gets tangled up in syntax when dealing with a new language. The essential subjects which one may not expect to find in a 'tips' book are thoroughly covered in this book (connecting to Databases, creating/reading/writing files, page display tips, paging). The extensive classes and capabilities of .Net are richly represented. Some of the subjects that were detailed with lots of info I found useful were: writing .net pages for mobile devices, reading web.config files, web services, performance tips, separating code from content. Most notably this book is written from the perspective that the audience is new to .Net and new terminology is carefully explained so as to provide the reader with a clear understanding of the language. The book is absolutely loaded with more advanced information than I am unable to comment on. As my experience with .Net increases and I am able to apply more of the information to our web structure I believe it will be one of my favorite .Net books.
The authors did a great job of representing .Net as the phenomenal & versatile platform that it has shown itself to be.
Rating: 
Summary: Content is very good, but book bindings crummy.
Review: I have bought many books over the years to aid in my career as a computer programmer from all the major vendors (Microsoft, Wrox, Sams, Osborne etc..) I have 3 SAMS books with a "blue cover" (like this one) and there is something about them.
They all FALL APART!!!
The other 2 I have like this (with the same problem) is: "Microsoft .NET XML web services" and "Building E-commerce sites with the .NET framework".
All three of the books that are made like this from SAMS have all the pages falling out of them, the cover falls off. I tried to glue them but it doesnt come out that great. Its very annoying to have a book you spent maybe 35-40 bucks for and to have the pages all falling off of it and trying to deal with it. It basically makes the reading experience unacceptable because you get tired of dealing with all the pages separating..
I tried to let Sams know about this issue, they need to fire their book binders, but its like pulling teeth getting any customer service from them. The content is actually quite good, but I cannot recommend a book that falls apart as you read it (literally). Sorry Sams but you need to address this. I have many other books and I have not ran across this issue but with these "blue-cover" Sams books. Stop trying to cut costs with these cheap book bindings and cheap covers.
Rating:
Summary: A Must Have Book
Review: I have read quite a few of the books out there right now on ASP.NET. There are those that are good reference books like the Wrox Press Professional ASP.NET one, but there are not a lot of books (programming in general) that actually read well and leave you feeling like you could actually implement the ideas after one pass of the material. This is one of those rare books that does that really well. Even if you own some other ASP.NET books, you might want to look at this one. The presentation is fast enough to not be boring, and it has a nice overall flow to it. If you like books that get right into the code, this would make for a good choice. The book does not get extremely deep into all areas, but it would be a bit much to expect one book to do that anyway. If you have programmed in ASP before, I think you will really appreciate the book's perspective.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent starting and intermediate book
Review: I have used this book many times for quick look ups and more general perspectives on coding ideas and directions. It covers a large array of subjects, so it is not extremely in depth on any one subject. However, that does not detract from its overall usefullness. Definitely worth buying.
Rating:
Summary: Simply awful
Review: I just picked up this book yesterday and have already found numerous errors in the code samples. I was expecting advanced material but most of this is pretty elementary introductory stuff. On top of that, some of their designs are just plain stupid. For example, their "technique" of paging through large record sets using ranges of the primary key ID is just wrong wrong wrong. The technique won't work unless your entire record set consists of perfectly continuous IDs! It's absolutely incredible that they would foist such (...) upon us. Stay away from this one.
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