Microsoft Silverlight Books

Good Way to Get Started with ASP.NET 2.0 - Wish it had more advanced topics

For those transitioning from ASP.NET 1.x this is a fantastic introduction to learning how things should be done with 2.0. The book is well-written, concise, and easy to absorb the concepts it presents.

I've always loved the "Cookbook" format, which is to present a list of tasks 100 or so tasks that you might want to accomplish, and then give detailed instructions on how to accomplish each one. The one thing I would like to have seen, and the reason it didn't receive 5 stars, is that the book focuses on introductory tasks. Since I've been working with 2.0 for several months I already knew how to do most of the items they discussed.

Overall, this book will serve as a great reference.

R. Walling
15 January, 2007

Awesome for those moving from ASP 1.1 to ASP 2.0

This is the perfect book for those who know ASP 1.x and need a find a way to solve a problem QUICKLY in ASP 2.0. It covers the vast majority of new features in ASP 2.0 as well as new ways acomplish tasks that were more difficult in ASP 1.0. A must have in for ASP 2.0 Programmers!

Steve Harrison
28 September, 2006

COOKING WITH ASP.NET 2.0!!

Are you journeyman programmer who knows the basics of ASP.NET? If you are, then this book is for you! Authors Geoffrey T Leblond and Michael A Kittel, have done an outstanding job of writing a second edition of a book that is a collection of ASP.NET 2.0 recipes that aims to help you quickly and efficiently solve many of the day-to-day problems you face when developing web applications with the .NET platform.

Leblond and Kittel, begin by showing you how to make the most out of the master pages. Then, the authors show you how to make well-informed decisions about which control to use. Next, they provide recipes that perform a number of data validation tasks. The authors then provide you with series of nonobvious solutions for working with forms. They continue by showing you how to use time- and work-savers. Then, the authors show you how to use custom controls to build your own user interface. Next, they show you how to maintain the state of the application. The authors then cover error handling at different levels of detail. They continue by providing recipes that delve into some of the most common solutions. They also cover a host of new ASP.NET 2.0 profile features. Then the authors show you how to use web parts in your applications. Next, they show you how to configure your applications. The authors show you ways on how to ensure that your applications work as anticipated in their first release, through the effective use of testing and debugging. Then, they will show you how to create and consume XML web services. Next, the authors will show you how to deal with a design that uses images for buttons, but the button labels need to be dynamic. The authors then will help you sort through the issues of caching the output of pages or portions of pages in memory to reduce latency and make your applications more responsive. They continue by showing you the basics of how to internationalize your applications. Then, the authors show you how to download files from and upload files to the web server. Next, they discuss how to measure performance. The authors then show you how to create your own custom HTTP handler. Finally, they help you with recipes that do not fit conveniently into the other chapters of the book.

This most excellent book contains dozens of code examples, ranging from relatively simple 10-liners to comprehensive, multipage solutions. More importantly, this book focuses directly on problems you face today or are likely to face in the future.


John R. Vacca
13 August, 2006

ASP.NET 1.1 with a bit of 2.0 patched on

Much of the content was clearly taken from earlier 1.x versions of the book without being re-written to take advantage of 2.0. Yes, the samples may compile and work, but they are often not 2.0 best practices.

While there are several 2.0-specific sections, much 2.0 function is ignored. You'll learn more from other books.

Kevin Ireland
09 August, 2006

Recipes run from the very simple coding solution to entire development strategies

Michael Kittel and Geoffrey LeBlond's ASP.NET 2.0 Cookbook appears in its updated 2nd edition to include all new tips for version 2.0. Here are over a hundred solutions in C# and Visual Basic aimed to web developers who want an edition completely revised for 2.0. Recipes run from the very simple coding solution to entire development strategies and use O'Reilly's problem-and-solution oriented approach. This format lends to at-a-glance reference consultation - or to use as a classroom text. Either way, the authors' some thirty years experience working with ASP.NET lends to an authoritative text of solutions to common problems.

Midwest Book Review
04 June, 2006

Solving Common ASP.NET Problems

Topics covered in this book:

01. Master Pages
02. Tabular Data
03. Validation
04. Forms
05. User Controls
06. Custom Controls
07. Maintaining State
08. Error Handling
09. Security
10. Profiles and Themes
11. Web Parts
12. Configuration
13. Tracing and Debugging
14. Web Services
15. Dynamic Images
16. Caching
17. Internationalization
18. File Operations
19. Performance
20. HTTP Handlers
21. Assorted Tips

While this book is good, and chock full of lots of helpful information, I really think this text is just too big to be very useful. Some books are made to be really massive texts, but when I think of a "Cookbook", I don't expect to be wading through 1,000 different pieces of food before I can cook my meal. I couldn't even begin to imagine how heavy the text will be if there were a version 3 in the future.

A second point to be made is that lots of the "tips" mentioned here are things that you can find in any other ASP 2.0 book, but here they are marketed to be kind of special things that you won't find anything else.

I don't mean to razz on this book and say it isn't helpful for ASP.NET programmers (the new material here in version 2 is nice), but it's really bloated. I feel that cutting out a lot of the extra fat, trimming the size down a couple hundred pages, and focusing on the true "cookbook" suggestions would have been a better approach and made this a more essential purchase.

**** RECOMMENDED

Daniel McKinnon
01 May, 2006

This should be your Second ASP.NET book

While this book doesn't go through all the details of writing an ASP page or application, it does tell you how to do all the little things that are going to occur to you after you commit to writing one. It's THE power programmer's reference.

K. Lange
06 April, 2006

Not what you expect from O'Reilly

Since the beginning of my web development career, O'Reilly has been the source for me. Perfect reference books, always organized and giving only the information I needed to figure out syntax and parameters. This book, however, falls short on far too many key points that made previous books by this publisher superb.

The main complaint is the rush to get through the descriptive materials, attempting to make a book that is rich in source code seem smaller. While there are many, many pages of code, the description of the code is lacking in concise, easy-to-read language. I understand many technical terms associated with programming; but when I am trying to learn something new or use a reference to find specifics, the last thing that is needed is a mental gymnastic exercise on the latest and most complex terms. If I wanted this, I would have stuck to Microsoft's elitist help files that do little to explain in plain language what I want to know.

If you are looking for a book to help guide you through learning ASP.NET 2.0 from a reference standpoint, this is not the book for you. Even with a very good understanding of ASP.NET 2.0, I would not recommend this book; it seems far too rushed and crammed to be the high standards I am used to from O'Reilly.

If you are seeking books for helping you learn the nuances of ASP.NET 2.0, I would instead recommend the Wrox books. Hopefully this review will save you some time and money.

Tarcash
10 March, 2006

Good Format accurate examples D/L code is there

Well I just D/L The code as well as the sql .bak file all installed as directed.

The book is in a good format I've been doing .Net 1.0 and 1.1 since beta 1 2.0 I have not done much I found this book to be just what is needed to find the answers to the 2.0 questions, if you are a 1.1 experienced programmer and are moving or porting to 2.0 this is well worth the under $50.00 price tag. I can see keeping this one handy for a year or so.


David R. Kozikowski
01 February, 2006

Good book for some purposes, not quite cooked

There are lots of tips and tricks in this book on ASP.NET 2.0 presented in a "Problem: Solution" format that make it a worthwhile timesaver for experienced developers. Code is shown for both VB.NET and C#.

The problem I have is that is little or no discussion of alternatives or the circumstances when a particular recipe should be used. This means inexperienced developers might implement recipes that work for their immediate problem but add maintenance, performance or architectural issues down the road.

For example, there are 72 pages on using the DataGrid control. Except for backward compatibility there is no valid reason to use the DataGrid in ASP.NET 2.0 -- use the GridView control instead. I'd go so far as to say use of the DataGrid in 2.0 is deprecated -- don't do it in new code.

Likewise the data binding examples use SqlDataSource -- never XMLDataSource or, importantly, ObjectDataSource. ObjectDataSource is the way to go when we want to build a modern architecture application where we have separated business logic, data access code, and the UI.

It appears that this book was written quickly to get something out for the 2.0 market before the "2.0ness" of the recipes was fully baked in.


William Addington
21 January, 2006

Don't judge the book based on one review

This is the URL for book examples:

www.dominiondigital.com/aspnetcookbook2

enjoy!



T. Fowler
03 January, 2006

No where to download source code

I bought this book and try to run it but no where to download source code. Book tell me to go to www.dominiondigital/aspnetcookbook2/ but get nothing but error.
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Today (1/3/06), I can download source code for samples.

S. Wang
30 December, 2005