Microsoft Silverlight Books

Programming Entity Framework

Best book on Entity Framework

08 November, 2010

I highly recommend this book to programmers both basic and advanced who uses the Entity Framework.

This book can be used as a learning book for someone who wants to learn about EF afresh or as a reference book for an advanced programmer. Even if you think you know everything to know about EF - you still want to read this book as it puts a better perspective on things you thought you know.

The book starts with the basic of EF and explains the difference between database schema and business schema and how the normalized tables of a database done by the database administrator may not be the same as your domain objects - and how EF helps you to fix that gap.

The book explains the Entity data model and the 2 way of querying it namely : LINQ to Entities and SQL Entity ( similar to T-SQL ). The later chapter covers both querying methods in detail. It also covers how to use the Stored Procedures with the EDM, data binding with Windows Forms and WPF application, EF object services like keep track of changes and relationship between objects, customizing entities, etc.

In short the author does a good job of covering all the topics related to EF in a nice way. Highly recommended.

Ayp

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RESTful .NET: Build and Consume RESTful Web Services with .NET 3.5

Good introduction to rest with .net

05 November, 2010

Good introduction to rest with .net. I'm a WCF dev so I can say that this book helps me a lot to design out rest API for our services consumers

Luis Rojas Mendez

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Beginning Silverlight 4 in C#

Providing an easy and solid start

01 November, 2010

This book is perfect for SL beginner. I had zero experience in SL programming prior to reading it and finished two SL apps before reaching the end of the book. I do not feel I need to read another book to advance my SL programming skill though there is always much to learn. With the foundation laid by this book, I feel I can utilize many online sources easily to get things done. Actually I did resort to online sources frequently when developing the apps while reading the book because the book is not meant to be a reference. The book is very readable and flows smoothly with practical sample code clearly illustrating the points. I enjoy it.

H. Zhang

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Pro Silverlight 4 in C#

Awesome

29 October, 2010

The book is an updated version of MacDonald's Silverlight 3 book with the same print quality which is superb - includes full color .

If you want to learn Silverlight 4, this is the book to own - period.

There is almost 50 meg of downloadable source code examples which all work.

MacDonald has done an excellent job with this book just like all of the previous version.

This book is an excellent starting point for Silverlight beginners with a good C# background; however, this book will also take the reader through the intermediate level of Silverlight 4.

If you can only buy one Silverlight 4 book, buy this one!

David Roh


David Roh

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Programming WCF Services

Best WCF book around

29 October, 2010

This book is a great resource for the WCF technology. You would not be disappointed.

Jane

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Sams Teach Yourself ASP.NET 3.5 in 24 Hours, Complete Starter Kit

Good starting point

27 October, 2010

As the title states, this is directed towards someone beginning their foray into .net and web programming. It focuses on VB providing a good foundation to research and explore more advanced topics and projects.

P. Lawry

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Illustrated C# 2008

The book for beginners and C#

26 October, 2010

Forget BrainFirst C#, forget Programming C# 4.0... I think this book slightly surpasses even Murach's C#. I spent an hour poring over about a dozen C# books at the store. This is the one I bought. Though I do think the word Illustrated in the title is being generous (more like monochrome diagrams) the diagrams do work to help for the topic at hand. Explains topics very methodically, and at a very good pace. Introduces 'larger' examples well, too, especially classes. I've only used this book for a little more than a week, but it's been a great purchase.

D. Garber

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Silverlight 4 Business Intelligence Software

An excellent book on BI visualisation

26 October, 2010

Business Intelligence applications have traditionally been aimed at the big players in the corporate market - with large data warehouses and large development budgets to match. Recent times have seen something of a change with self service BI applications becoming more mainstream and opening up the world of data analytics to a new audience and aimed at users with a different skill set.

It's this evolving view of business intelligence (BI 2.0) that is addressed in this book, and specifically how Silverlight can be used to create compelling visual representations of data. The book provides an excellent introduction to BI for anyone who's either new to the subject or more familiar with the traditional BI offered by the larger vendors and whilst the subject matter is often very technical, with numerous coding examples in Silverlight, there's still plenty or worthwhile reading for those less interested in the programming side of things.

For those readers who are particularly interested in developing a Silverlight visualisation of BI (the main target audience) then this book is highly recommended. One of the main challenges facing any analyst or developer in this area is the effective representation of information so as to provide the end user with a clear, effective and accurate view of the underlying data - and this book is particularly strong in this area. I would even go as far as to say that the book is worth reading by analysts/developers who may be considering developing such solutions in competing technologies.

The book is also bang up to date with the very latest BI technology and covers topics such as mobile, intelligence, Sharepoint integration plus Microsoft's latest Power Pivot and Pivotviewer products.

If you're looking for a book on developing BI visualisations - get this one.

JozephV

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ASP.NET MVC Framework Unleashed

Great for learning ASP.NET MVC and real word applications.

26 October, 2010

this book is really great for any one who wants not only to learn ASP.NET MVC but also apply it to real world projects.
the author even describes how to implement real world design patterns and how to produce neat code. I really love that.

Omar Mefire