ASP.NET Evolution

Rating:
Summary: Would give it zero stars if I could
Review: DO NOT buy this book. I can't even get past the installing of the database in the first chapter. And I've already found many errors and inconsistancies from what's said in the book and what's on the disk. The book seems to assume the user has a complete understanding of SQL Server and knows how to install and troubleshoot the sql scripts provided with zero instruction other than use the scripts provided. If I were an expert I wouldn't be in need of this book.

To top it all off I go to the place it says to go for help, the forums at evolutionbooks.com, thinking I'll quickly find the answer there. What a shock it was to discover the forums don't even exist.

I've purchased a lot of technical books that turned out to be a disappointment, but this one tops them all.

Rating:
Summary: Terrible
Review: Don't waste your money. I picked up this book because the process described in learning ASP.Net seemed like a good route to go, however, they do a terrible job of helping you understand how to get the application started. In the book it states that you can get help by going to the forum, however there is no such forum.

After about an hour of trying to get the site working I finally figured it out, only to find out that it's not even set up like it is in the book.

This book is a complete waste of time and money.

Rating:
Summary: Some Errors but worth the trouble
Review: I encountered some of the problems mentioned below but found that working through these problems actually increased my knowledge of the application. Having said that, this book was not meant for beginners, in fact I consider myself somewhere between a beginner and intermediate developer and I find much of the material over my head. But that is why I bought this particular book. I wanted something that would take me beyond the simple controls and pages that my current library provides.

True, I would be a lot happier with the book if there were fewer errors but the challenge of getting things up and running was somewhat worth it and once it is setup the code all seems to work fine.

I should also note that this is a VB.Net book, which you wouldn't know if you read the back cover which states you should have a general understanding of C# to use this book. That is an example of the apparent sloppiness that went into putting this book together that you'll find as well as those already mentioned but I wouldn't necessarily write the book off because of that ..... yet. (I am about a 1/4 of the way through it)

Hopefully they will get a errata page up real soon and fix some of the sloppiness in the next revision.

Rating:
Summary: Not enough explanations!
Review: I must say that I am not very far into this book, say ch3. But I did fine part of the setup annoying. I don't expect to purchase a techie book and expect to figure out why it won't work the way they say. I have written this post to mostly help people out as there isn't a forum for this book (as stated in the book!).

I didn't have any trouble copying the files from the cd except for webctrl_client as it doesn't exist on the cd, and for the application to work, this folder it is needed. I had to source IEWebControls controls from www.ASP.NET. This got the app working ok. The other annoying thing is the sql script to make the user 'community' doesn't do the job completely as it leaves out that user's permissions, I have to change the connection string to point to user SA for the time being.

Other than this I have found the book interesting, and I am hoping as I get further into the book I won't encounter any further problems. Maybe I brought the wrong book as a ASP.NET newbie, but I do llike the idea of working through an application from start to finish and the author (from his bio) knows what he is on about.

Rating:
Summary: Hmm...
Review: Not exactly sure what problems these other two guys had installing the sample application, but I got it up in running in about 10 minutes with no problems. I can see where the one fella got confused about the scripts, since one is labeled 'createdatabase.sql' and 'populatedata.sql'.

Seriously, the book does a good job of explaining some core asp.net and architecture techniques, and one of the first books that I have read that uses an O/R Mapper component. Dont let the other posts fool you. Once you get that initial ten minutes out of the way for installing the app, you wont be disappointed with the book.

Rating:
Summary: DO NOT BUY!
Review: Unfortunately I've already bought the book. But I totally agree with R.Reichard. Stay away from this book.

I finally managed to install the database, but only after writing my own sql scripts. But the application script is full of mistakes too! I gave up after i received this error message:
"Server Error in '/Community' Application....Requested Url: /Community/notRegsitered.aspx"
Well, notRegsitered.aspx doesn't exist (nor does notRegistered.aspx).

To install the database you're told that there is a SQL script in the Starting_Point folder. Wrong, there are three SQL scripts and nothing tells you in which order to execute them. Although it's fairly simple to determine that once you read the scripts, it really doesn't help. Because they don't work.

Later you're told to copy the webctrl_client folder from the Startig_point folder on the CD. But there is no webctrl_client folder. It's called aspnet_client, of course.

I could go on - but there's really no point. Just don't by the d... book.