Rating: 
Summary: think before you buy it
Review: As a professional web programmer, I can honestly tell you that this is not a good programming/reference book. The coding in the books works perfectly, but this book didn't give you much idea about connecting the database, (I need to do some researching through the internet) or sending e-mail using asp...If you are serious about ASP, you should try WROX books
Rating: 
Summary: Best ASP book on the market
Review: Contract Web Developer, UK This is an excellent resource for applying and learning the ASP craft and it smoothly moves from beginner to advanced concepts while covering the key ground. Four things make this book stand out from the crowd: (1) It's an excellent introduction to HTML, VBScript,ADO and ASP and more advanced topics. (2) It's clear and uses relevant examples (3) It's comprehensive in it's coverage (4) It smoothly moves from beginner to advanced material. This book was written by a seasoned and certified developer and a regular contributor to the ASP/ VB community. And it shows: in the quality of the examples and the clear structure and layout of the book and code. The section on ADO essentials (Chapter 10) is excellent, and I liked the section that discussed remotely connecting to a database and using DataLink files (pages 212 to 216 in my book). That's not mentioned in most books but it's vital if you intend to connect to a database such as SQL server over a LAN or external hosting service. The script in this book is well structured, and uses a style familiar to VB programmers. That's invaluable when you actually put a site together, and want to debug and maintain your code. This book is a good companion to 'Instant ASP Scripts' by McGrawHill. The latter is a 'cook book' with ready recipes for most of the core functions you'll need for a site. ASP Bible, helps structure the 'spaghetti code' of the former book, while rounding out the missing parts and providing the depth you'll need to enhance your site. The downloadable code samples from the book which are listed in the preface worked fine (after adjusting the code to reflect my local drive settings, DSN name etc). Despite a few glitches in the commentary, there is plenty of good content and examples in this book. For best results use this with a 'cook-book' or 'application-ready.' A good resource if you want a book that provides a practical walk through, and plenty of bite sized examples of what you'll need to know and use as a web developer.
Rating: 
Summary: I find this book good for totally newcomers to ASP!
Review: Despite the unsatisfied buyers of this book, I was quitepleased with it. I'm a vb programmer but have never really looked atasp programming and needed a book mostly for explaining the database reference and variable passing and this book did a splendid job explaining this. The only downside to the book is lame examples, that mounts into a large program. Totally useless, they should have been broken into small pieces that explained that function only. Me
Rating: 
Summary: ASP 3.0?
Review: Don't buy this book. I bought it because it looked good upon first blush at the store, and I had been very pleased with Danny Goodman's JavaScript Bible, also by IDG. I have learned the painful lesson that not all books by the same publisher are subject to the same quality control, etc.. As others have noted, the book is full of bugs. For example, in the lengthy app in chapter 12, Smith goes through the code piece by piece, and then the whole app is printed out at the back of the chapter. Nothing really wrong with this in theory and other books do it too, although it is kind of a waste of paper (and the book could have been much smaller, as there are several places where apps were printed out numerous times!). Anyhow, the two code sets are different in some places. For example, the EditRecord subroutine on pages 277, and 291 - it doesn't even work as is on 277 - but will work with the changes on 291. Although it wasn't that hard to fix, the AddRecord subroutine didn't work properly in either printing. There's a few interesting tips here and there, but they aren't worth the money when you consider what you can get elsewhere. Chapter 18 is called "Integrating Microsoft Transaction Server". I learned, upon reading another book, that MTS is now called "Microsoft Component Services" in W2K. The appendix at the back of the book, "What's new in ASP 3.0" is 8 pages long. Anyhow, you get the picture. This book is trying to cover ASP 3.0 - doesn't do it - code is full of bugs. It seems to be covering the previous version more than anything else - but I suspect that numerous other older books do this better. I've also purchased Professional Active Server Pages 3.0 from Wrox Press - this is a much, much, better book. Very detailed, and if they don't cover something, they tell you where it is covered. Just what you wanted.
Rating:
Summary: Great ASP Guide
Review: First, let me say that after reading the other reviews listed here I found myself questioning the skill sets of the other reviewers.... This book is very good at what it is attempting to cover - ASP. The book is not entitled "The ADO Bible" or "The SQL Bible". The biggest complaint I often hear about this book is that its coverage of ADO and/or SQL Server is very incomplete. That may be true, but the main topic of the book is not ADO or SQL, it's Active Server Pages and that topic is covered quite completely and accurately. One reviewer compains in his review that the author (Eric Smith) continuously sets up database connections using the ConnectionString property of a connection object (provider=.....) instead of establishing the DSN as a constant value (DSN=...). Perhaps that reviewer hasn't heard that using OLE DB Providers rather than DSN's is more efficient and gives the developer more control over the resulting connection. The author continuosly does it this way because that's the preferred way of doing it. If the reviewer had read chapter 10, he would have known that. I can't help taking someone's review with a grain of salt when other statements that they make clearly indicate that the reveiwer doesn't know what he/she is talking about! The ASP object model is covered in great detail with WORKING code examples. The flow of topics through the chapters makes good logical sense (HTML,VBScript, ASP, DB Connectivity, etc.). The material is explained in plain terms (when possible) and insight into the networking aspects of ASP are covered as well. The appendicies are extensive and accuate and include a VERY useful comparison of ASP 2.0 and 3.0.
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Summary: A fantastic introduction to ASP!
Review: For those not looking to work with ASP+, this text is a very good introduction to scripting and working with databases using ASP 3.0. It is sadly lacking if you are VERY new to databases, as it does not fully explain the very basics in this area. However, it does go over almost all functions available to the ASP programmer, most of them in detail with good, working examples. I work primarily with ColdFusion, and I thought I'd give ASP a try for some "lighter" web applications that needed writing. There is a ColdFusion vs. ASP battle raging, and I must say that ASP has its benefits over ColdFusion in some areas. 1. ASP is free, nothing but an IIS server is needed. Compare that with the startup costs for ColdFusion and it's no contest. 2. Most web hosts will offer ASP as a standard feature with their Windows2000/NT hosting options. ColdFusion is usually an expensive option if it is offered at all. 3. All in all, the scripting follows VBScripting and it makes sense. ASP has it's drawbacks, too... ColdFusion is much easier to pick up from the start, it's not as picky as ASP is. When I first started working with ASP, I found that connecting to the database and working with resulting recordsets was not always easy. Working in ColdFusion with databases, however, is very simple. I thought that this book did not cover database connections and SQL queries very well AT ALL! All in all this is a good beginner's book for ASP if used in conjunction with good web sites.... After you've used ASP for awhile, this book might collect a little dust on your bookshelf.
Rating:
Summary: A fantastic introduction to ASP!
Review: For those not looking to work with ASP+, this text is a very good introduction to scripting and working with databases using ASP 3.0. It is sadly lacking if you are VERY new to databases, as it does not fully explain the very basics in this area. However, it does go over almost all functions available to the ASP programmer, most of them in detail with good, working examples. I work primarily with ColdFusion, and I thought I'd give ASP a try for some "lighter" web applications that needed writing. There is a ColdFusion vs. ASP battle raging, and I must say that ASP has its benefits over ColdFusion in some areas. 1. ASP is free, nothing but an IIS server is needed. Compare that with the startup costs for ColdFusion and it's no contest. 2. Most web hosts will offer ASP as a standard feature with their Windows2000/NT hosting options. ColdFusion is usually an expensive option if it is offered at all. 3. All in all, the scripting follows VBScripting and it makes sense. ASP has it's drawbacks, too... ColdFusion is much easier to pick up from the start, it's not as picky as ASP is. When I first started working with ASP, I found that connecting to the database and working with resulting recordsets was not always easy. Working in ColdFusion with databases, however, is very simple. I thought that this book did not cover database connections and SQL queries very well AT ALL! All in all this is a good beginner's book for ASP if used in conjunction with good web sites.... After you've used ASP for awhile, this book might collect a little dust on your bookshelf.
Rating:
Summary: Ruining the "Bible" series
Review: How can Hungry Minds not notice that ASP Bible is ruining the Bible series? Despite the wonderful Javascript Bible by Danny Goodman, I would think many times and read many reviews before buying my next "Bible". ASP Bible made me spend an awful amount of time researching the Internet trying to find answers for/verifying the bugs from the book. The online errata is ridiculously small and the author doesn't answer messages -- not only for his e-mail address from the book (which doesn't work), but also for the message board from the book's website. The errors of chapter 10 are the end of line for me -- I'll buy another book.
Rating:
Summary: Horrible book for users of any ability level
Review: I agree with most of the comments supplied by other reviewers on this page. I have coded complex database-driven web sites running on UNIX/LINUX platforms and wanted to learn web database programming for NT platforms. I am very fimiliar with VB and felt that this book would be a good choice to get into ASP/VBScript. I was wrong. This book is terrible for someone unfamiliar with VBScript and ASP programming conventions. For example, I would like to know how to write to ASCII text files using ASP. This book simply mentions that this can be done with a particular server object, but never actually explains how to do it! Then, later in the book, the author writes that it would be a good idea to store a webcounter in an ASCII text file, and refers back to the section that didn't actually tell you how to do it! This book is full of little glitches like this and the code is very buggy. It is almost as if they tried to get this book to press as fast as possible without doing the editorial homework.
Rating:
Summary: The Perfect Alternative
Review: I came to this page after seeing this book in the bookstore. I fell in love with it. I'm not a newcomer to ASP though. I've already read Beginning Active Server Pages 2.0 by Wrox Press. At this point I'm looking for a great reference book and this seems to be it. All the VBScript functions I've ever had to go searching for are all right here. If so many beginners hate the Bible, then I STRONGLY recommend you check out Beginning ASP. It is full of worthwhile examples and everything is explained clearly and fairly concisely. If the bible isn't for you, then please, do yourself a huge favour, and buy Beginning Active Server Pages 2.0 by Wrox Press Ltd. You won't be sorry!
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