Rating: 
Summary: This book could have been something special...
Review: ...but it comes up short. WROX (WROT is too strong, but WRUSH or WROUGH is more appropriate) seems to *rush* books to press while they are in *rough* draft form. The editing in this book is far better than in "Professional C#", but the content is now sorely lacking. The book purports to cover both ASP.NET and .NET remoting web services. I do not know enough about remoting to either praise or condemn their coverage, but I do know that their coverage of (the relatively simple) ASP.NET web services is lacking. Example: they do not discuss the terrific things that can be done with the SoapHeader class/attribute and the overriding of SoapExtensions. (If they do discuss it, I can't find it. I initially thought the index was poorly done, but now I think the index is spartan because the content is thin.) Microsoft's (new) course on building web services with C# is a far better reference than this book; somebody will capture this content in a book soon enough. I'd try to wait for a second edition or another non-rushed non-rough tome to come out.
Rating: 
Summary: Needs a bit of polishing
Review: Although this book contains a great deal of useful information on using .Net Remoting, it is a little rough around the edges and in obvious need of further editing. Like many Wrox books I've owned, it shows signs of being hurriedly released. And though I think that producing a book on such a vast subject as Web Services is better accomplished with the efforts of multiple authors, a better effort should have been taken to blend the different chapters so that they flow more smoothly and do not repeat the same material. Also, I refuse to believe the pizza delivery example needs to be as awkward as it is. We might as well stick with COM if we have to jump through hoops like these to get objects to talk to each other. All-in-all though, considering what little is out there and the book's useful content, I would recommend it. But I do hope it's more polished in the next edition.
Rating: 
Summary: Hot Technology
Review: As a first read on web services this was not bad. It is a passable reference as well.The book starts with a summary of the technology and a brief overview of the component technologies - XML, SOAP, WSDL, UDDI - and how it fits into the .Net framework .A large section is devoted to .Net Remoting followed by more on consuming and updating web services and clients. There are ample examples of the design and coding of simple to moderately complex web services. While I noticed the usual mistakes and typos in a book that was probably rushed to meet demand for .Net literature, none were overly distracting or confusing. The book concludes with some case studies and more examples. While it is not really necessary to have a knowledge of C#, the reader should have a good grounding in object oriented programming languages and some knowledge of COM or RPC wouldn't hurt. I see this technology as the successor to COM (the fact that Don Box was involved in the SOAP standard definition reinforces that idea), perhaps even finally living up to the dream of plugable code modules. I could see using this as the text for teaching a web services class. P-)
Rating:
Summary: An OK introduction to web services
Review: Building web services is generally a simple task in .NET. This book covers the two methods available to .NET developers to build web services, ASP.NET (referred to as XML Web Services) and .NET Remoting (a technology similar to RMI, although with more flexibility). There are several books that cover building web services with APS.NET but this book is rare in that it covers both technologies. If you aren't interested in .NET Remoting then you may want to look elsewhere. Overall, this book does a nice job of covering web services in .NET although it could have been better. The book suffers from the common problem of multiple authors, it tends to be repetitive. For example, the SOAP protocol. is explained in detail in chapter 2 , and then again in chapter 4. The chapter on web services security gives a good description of cryptography but doesn't discuss other issues of web service security. Although the book does discuss user authentication (although briefly) it does not discuss the problem of passing user credentials from one web service to another. At least half the book is case studies and examples so the actual content is not deep. The book is a fairly good basic introduction to web services. If you are new to web services and you are looking for a book that covers ASP.NET and .NET Remoting, you could do a lot worse than starting with this book.
Rating:
Summary: An OK introduction to web services
Review: Building web services is generally a simple task in .NET. This book covers the two methods available to .NET developers to build web services, ASP.NET (referred to as XML Web Services) and .NET Remoting (a technology similar to RMI, although with more flexibility). There are several books that cover building web services with APS.NET but this book is rare in that it covers both technologies. If you aren't interested in .NET Remoting then you may want to look elsewhere. Overall, this book does a nice job of covering web services in .NET although it could have been better. The book suffers from the common problem of multiple authors, it tends to be repetitive. For example, the SOAP protocol. is explained in detail in chapter 2 , and then again in chapter 4. The chapter on web services security gives a good description of cryptography but doesn't discuss other issues of web service security. Although the book does discuss user authentication (although briefly) it does not discuss the problem of passing user credentials from one web service to another. At least half the book is case studies and examples so the actual content is not deep. The book is a fairly good basic introduction to web services. If you are new to web services and you are looking for a book that covers ASP.NET and .NET Remoting, you could do a lot worse than starting with this book.
Rating:
Summary: I found this to be a good source of information...
Review: Don't know why others are saying this isn't a great book. I think it is!
Rating: 
Summary: good enuf beginner, with c# and vb.net experience
Review: for someone who is a beginner and have a knack and
understanding for ms technologies, I was pleased that
most of the examples actually worked. I was however
disapointed in the poor explanations into how the
program worked. This was cruicial since if the example
did not work, i would have no idea how to debug it.
In addition the lack of or poor explanation would make
the book extremely difficult to finish off since the
foundations of the technology was never explained.
This is somewhat of an advanced book however, i did
give it 3 stars due to working examples did work, even
though I learnt v little in why. As mentioned from a previous reviewer, the downloads are badly disorganised, its a very tough book to get through and there are
already errors in chapter5 alongside missing downloadble examples
Rating:
Summary: The best book about Web Services with C#
Review: I am a "Microsoft-oriented" software developer just upgrading my Windows DNA skills to .NET. After reading a lot of general material about .NET, VB.NET and C#, this is the first book that really enlightens me in several areas concerning enterprise and distributed programming with the latest Microsoft technologies. Like another reader noticed, I agree that the Remoting part is great, along with many nice chapters such as "Web Services as Application Plug-Ins" and 2 complete case studies. If you have been working with .NET for a while and want to get yourself into more serious aspects of .NET, I think reading this book is the next logical step you should make.
Rating:
Summary: Good Read on Web Services in .NET
Review: I've been waiting for a book like this to come out, and I'm quite happy with this release from Wrox. Well written and much good material resides within. I highly recommend it!
Rating:
Summary: Probably the book that I used most
Review: If you want to get the understanding of .NET Remoting, this is the right book. XML Web Services with ASP .NET are quite easy to build, so, this book doesn't looses too much time on it. If you want to learn only ASP .NET web services then you can try other titles that covers only this.
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