ASP.NET by Example

Rating:
Summary: A must for ASP.NET Developers
Review: As the title says "ASP.NET by Example", this book is full of examples that we can use in a day to day ASP.NET web development environment. This book has everything that a ASP.NET Web developer should know.

Simple Statistics
Steven A.Smith, Nicholas Chase, Glenn Cook, Nathen Grass, Vincent W.Mayfield, Wynn Netherland, Scott Swigart and William Wise.

Publisher: QUE Pages: 527 Chapters: 18 (Including Appendix)

Table of Contents
Chapter 1: Overview .NET
Chapter 2: An Introduction to ASP.NET
Chapter 3: Migrating from ASP to ASP.NET
Chapter 4: The New ADO--ADO.NET
Chapter 5: HTML/Web Controls
Chapter 6: Using ASP.NET List Controls
Chapter 7: Using ASP.NET Rick Controls
Chapter 8: Using ASP.NET Validation Controls
Chapter 9: Using ASP.NET User Controls
Chapter 10: ASP.NET Applications
Chapter 11: ASP.NET and Web Services
Chapter 12: Custom ASP.NET Controls
Chapter 13: Debugging ASP.NET Overview
Chapter 14: Case Study in Ecommerce with ASP.NET
Appendix A The ASP.NET Syntax
Appendix B The ADO.NET Object Model
Appendix C VB.NET Programming Reference
Appendix D C# Programming Reference

Who is this Book for?

ASP.NET by Example is intended for people with some prior knowledge of Microsoft's Active Server Pages (ASP) technology who are familiar with programming and dynamic data-driven Internet applications. However, you do not need to be an expert with VBScript, JScript or any other scripting language because they play a limited part in the future of ASP that is ASP.NET.

An insight into some of the Chapters

Migrating from ASP to ASP.NET is discussed very well in Chapter 3. This chapter gives you an over all idea about the major difference between classic ASP and ASP.NET. This mainly include the new file extensions that we have in ASP.NET, how to maintain state between ASP and ASP.NET, Language differences, how to declare the new Server controls in ASP.NET and so on. This chapter will be very helpful, if we need to convert a Classic ASP website into an ASP.NET website.

Chapter 4 gives us an overall idea about the major differences between ADO and ADO.NET. This has some good examples such as retrieving data from a table, calling stored procedures, inserting records into a table etc. This chapter also has some cool examples that deals with DataReader Object, SqlDataAdapter Object, DataSet Object, DataGrid Control, Repeater Control and DataList Control. Oh Man! You should keep this chapter always open while you are developing a web application using ASP.NET.

Another very interesting chapter in this book is the Chapter 8, "Using ASP.NET Validation Controls". Validating the user input is very simple with ASP.NET. This chapter has several examples that we use everyday. This chapter goes through all validation controls that is available in ASP.NET. RegularExpression is also discussed very well in this chapter. Now, you can use regular expressions to validate any input format that you may have in your web pages.

A vital concept in ASP.NET is the code behind concept. Chapter 9 takes you a tour about "User controls" in ASP.NET. If you wanna learn about creating user controls in ASP.NET, then you should read this chapter. The examples discusses in this chapter can be used in a real time environment. This chapter has a very good example on how to create a "Login user control". This example is a very useful one and is a must for every web site that has secure information that needs to be shared among different users.

Debugging ASP.NET applications is a must for every web developer. Chater 13 has all information regarding how to debug a ASP.NET application. This chapter has a cool example that can be used to "read the contents from event logs". Another interesting aspect of this chapter is the discussion on "Frequently encountered bugs" in ASP.NET.

If you are a ASP.NET developer, then you should have this book. I would rather like to call this book as "ASP.NET MSDN". Grab a copy of this today itself!

Rating:
Summary: You'll want this one in your .net library.
Review: Finally! This is actually the first .NET book I've read that does not have the same vague "cookie-cutter" descriptions and examples that I've seen in every other .NET book so far. The authors have a good sense of humor making it easy and fun to read, but they get back to the content just before it becomes annoying. Every example in the book is written in C# as well as VB.NET, which is very cool if you're a VB programmer still thinking about moving to C#. I wish the book had included a CD with all the code, but they've got a website where you can download all of the code. The website is pretty ugly and it was kind of a pain downloading all the examples, but hopefully the authors will read this review, and give the rest of you all a .zip file. Then again this might be the first book I've bought where ALL the code examples have actually worked!

It's a great starting point for anyone interested in .NET, but it won't be the only .NET book you'll need to buy. You'll definitely want another good VB.NET or C# book as well (My favorite so far is "Introduction to C# Using .NET" published by Prentice Hall.)

I took the time to write this review because this was a great book FOR ME. I pre-ordered it... , and I have to say it was worth every penny. It definitely won't be the right choice for everyone, but the following bullets might help you make your decision.

* If you've had some experience with C++, VB or Java, and don't consider yourself an expert, you'll definitely want this book on your bookshelf.
* If the title on your business card reads Web Developer" and you're wondering where your future is going, save yourself some headaches and start it with this book!
* If you've already been experimenting with .NET and consider yourself a more advanced programmer, don't waste your time with this one unless you are looking for something to recommend to less experienced coders.

Rating:
Summary: Landfill
Review: I too purchased ASP.NET by example and I feel strongly about how terrible I think it is. The positive reviews may have been written by the Authors or their friends. I feel that this book has been slapped together quickly in order to sell books rather than to impart knowledge. Never before have I seen a book with so many glaring errors. The website of examples was not even responding when I tried to access it. Then when it was back online, the same errors were in the example code as the book.

For example Chapter 9 (Using ASP.NET User Controls) is missing the fundamental InitializeComponent() and all of the related constructor methods that are required for the software to compile and run.
This book is full of information that looks good at first but when you start to really try and use it there is a lot of information missing.
DO NOT BUY THIS BOOK. I am sick of handing over good money for poorly written reference books.

I agree with the reviewer who mentioned that this book would do more harm than good.

Rating:
Summary: Concise lessons to get you going fast
Review: The title says it all; if you don't have a lot of time to read and just want examples that show you how to get started, this book is for you. The sections on validation controls and ADO.NET were particularly helpful to me: simple code that works, helping me gradually shift my paradigm while still being productive in the transition.

Although the appendices contain some lightweight "refresher" language and class references (which do what they are expected to do), your deeper needs may not be met here. If you need a more complete view of the .NET framework, try Steven Walther's ASP.NET Unleashed; on the other hand, if you want to get your brain around the web controls and data access that form the core of most ASP.NET applications, look no further than ASP.NET By Example. It does what it claims to do, without being everything to everyone... which works very well for its typical reader, the time-starved developer who just came to be shown how to get the job done.

Rating:
Summary: ASP.NET ABCs
Review: This book seems to be geared towards classic ASP developer who wants to learn about ASP.NET. There are chapters explaining the difference between ASP.NET and classic ASP and migrating Web applications from classic ASP to ASP.NET. Some code examples use HTML with embedded VB, some use HTML with code-behind files coded in C#, and some use HTML with embedded C# code. The book discusses .NET architecture/framework in some detail and explains complicated topics such as: MSIL, CLR, and JIT quite well. The book covers a lot of territory, including ADO.NET, working with XML data, HTML and Server Controls, Validation Controls, Debugging, User Controls, and Web Services. There are several appendixes which cover ASP.NET syntax, ADO.NET object model, VB.NET language reference, and C# language reference.

This book is a concise and incomplete reference of ASP.NET, but that appears to have been author's intent. It's well written, well organized and easy to understand. I think the intended audience, which is a beginner-to-intermediate Web developer, will find it useful. The author makes an assumption that the reader is familiar with HTML, XML, VB or C#, and knows how to use Visual Studio.NET. DO NOT buy this book if you studying for Microsoft Certification exam/s, it's not intended for that purpose.