Rating: 
Summary: Book: Unfinished Exercise for the Reader
Review: Despite some strengths, this book has a number of problems. It's a shame because it could have been a sterling diamond in the book racks. The code isn't supported by the publisher (see previous reviews) so basically you have to figure out how to get the code to work on your own. There is no example website for the book. One wonders why the publisher and/or authors completely abandoned the project. Another minus is - why did they choose to use strongly typed data sets (being a somewhat advanced .NET topic) to hold data without an adequate explanation of theory beforehand? You'll have to go to other books to get adequate preparation for this topic. On the plus side, this is a fairly advanced e-commerce application similar to what you'll find in the real world. Some of the DB table designs and stored procs are decent. Therefore, studying the code and text will give you some ideas of what you might do in real-world application development. The best description of this book is: "This Book has been left as an unfinished exercise for the reader." But as a complete, comprehensive, finished work this book falls short, and whatever you do, don't buy it new!
Rating: 
Summary: DO NOT BUY THIS BOOK!!!
Review: Do not be fooled by the description of this book. It describes features that do not exist...
This book does not contain working code, and the example site has been broken for more than two years, from the date of the first review. There are files missing which are essential for the example code to work. The contact info for the authors is invalid also...
THIS BOOK IS NOT SUPPORTED BY THE PUBLISHER. I have emailed the publisher several times over the last two months, and I have gotten no response. They should not continue to sell this book...
I believe the only positive reviews here are either bogus or based on the positive impression the book gives before you really get into it and discover all of the flaws that make it unusable.
Rating:
Summary: DO NOT BUY THIS BOOK!!!
Review: Do not be fooled by the description of this book. It describes features that do not exist...
This book does not contain working code, and the example site has been broken for more than two years, from the date of the first review. There are files missing which are essential for the example code to work. The contact info for the authors is invalid also...
THIS BOOK IS NOT SUPPORTED BY THE PUBLISHER. I have emailed the publisher several times over the last two months, and I have gotten no response. They should not continue to sell this book...
I believe the only positive reviews here are either bogus or based on the positive impression the book gives before you really get into it and discover all of the flaws that make it unusable.
Rating:
Summary: The Code and the Sample Site do NOT work - A USELESS BOOK
Review: I bought the book and followed the instructions in the book, unfortunately, like others said that the code does not work. I tried the url listed in the book, but what I got is the error message! The book "Building e-Commerce Sites with the .NET Framework by Jason Bentrum (Author), James Whatley (Author)" is useless.
Rating:
Summary: Code doesnt work!!!
Review: I bought this book also for its case-study approach. At first glance, it appears very useful but when you actually try to work with the source code, it has major problems. I guess it still has some value because you can kind of go through the code, but it irks me that they do not provide a working example. It appears to me that the code was written with the beta version of .net which is all fine and dandy, but they really should post a working version of the code... I am attempting to get the code to work, so I guess about the only positive thing you can say is its giving me much experience debugging... But to me there are an unacceptable amount of errors in the source code, stuff thats just way out in left field. I emailed the authors and I got a response saying that they have a "working version " of the code and expected to be posting the code on the internet "soon"...
Hmm...
Rating:
Summary: Code doesnt work!!!
Review: I bought this book also for its case-study approach. At first glance, it appears very useful but when you actually try to work with the source code, it has major problems. I guess it still has some value because you can kind of go through the code, but it irks me that they do not provide a working example. It appears to me that the code was written with the beta version of .net which is all fine and dandy, but they really should post a working version of the code... I am attempting to get the code to work, so I guess about the only positive thing you can say is its giving me much experience debugging... But to me there are an unacceptable amount of errors in the source code, stuff thats just way out in left field. I emailed the authors and I got a response saying that they have a "working version " of the code and expected to be posting the code on the internet "soon"...
Hmm...
Rating:
Summary: A total let down
Review: I had high hopes of this book, the first case study using .NET, but it turns out to be a complete bust. The authors appear to have virtually no authoring experience and it shows. I have done a lot of ASP, but I find this book completely incomprehensible. Many of the downloads referred to in the text are missing, the web site doesn't work properly, and absolutely none of the download code works. Every single piece I tried comes up with errors. My copy is going straight back to the shop. Avoid.
Rating:
Summary: Don't expect the case study's site to work well
Review: I haven't purchased SAMS books in a few years due to the recycled nature of the content that was prevalent in many editions as well as incomplete resources provided with the books. The publication 'Building e-Commerce Sites with the .NET Framework' caught my interest based on the case-study format of its content and amount of source code I could see just flipping through the pages. It looked like SAMS had changed since I last purchased one of their publications. I was wrong. To download both the source code and the finished site required a visit to 2 different locations. After reading through Chapter 4, I attempted to build the database to be used and found that the SQL from both locations was (1) different, (2) did not create primary keys in the tables, (3) did not establish relationships between the appropriate tables and (4) contained absolutely no data to be loaded into the tables. While the content is well presented and educational, the title's utility is negated by the fact that the site's database is practically useless without any product data. It will be another few years before I seriously consider purchasing another SAMS title. For an example of a great job creating functional databases referenced in a publication and loading data into the database, refer to the downloadable source available for 'Database Programming with Visual Basic.NET' published by Apress, ISBN 1893115291.
Rating:
Summary: Great idea, Bad execution
Review: I loved the idea that this title puts forth and that was reinforced by the case study approach. I read through the book and it seemed to have a very slick approach. When I actually sat down and started working with the code, it was a different story. They reference code that isn't available for download and they breeze over sections that really need more explaination. The foundation chapters of the application, 3-6 leave a little bit to be desired, especially when it comes to the dataset and component class creation. I found it very difficult to work with. It's too bad there aren't any corrections available or a forum where other users of the book could go and talk about how to solve it's problems or something.
Rating:
Summary: Great idea, Bad execution
Review: I loved the idea that this title puts forth and that was reinforced by the case study approach. I read through the book and it seemed to have a very slick approach. When I actually sat down and started working with the code, it was a different story. They reference code that isn't available for download and they breeze over sections that really need more explaination. The foundation chapters of the application, 3-6 leave a little bit to be desired, especially when it comes to the dataset and component class creation. I found it very difficult to work with. It's too bad there aren't any corrections available or a forum where other users of the book could go and talk about how to solve it's problems or something.
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