Microsoft Silverlight Books

An excellent resource and enjoyable to read

The author has done a superb job of putting together a work that includes the right combination of experience, knowledge, and writing style. When it is beneficial, the experience is leveraged with recommendations and best practices. Specific areas receive just the right treatment.

If you have done ASP.NET webforms development in the past, and are looking for an MVC book, this will not disappoint. Or if you need something more relevant, Steven has an updated version for MVC2. You may actually find yourself enjoying reading this book. Which is saying something because most programming books are a bit dry.

One negative - all technical books have mistakes. The compensating control is usually to publish an errata page(s) on the publisher website. Some publishers are better than others. Sadly, the errata section on the Apress web site is a mosh-pit of not so useful information.



G. Askew
05 August, 2010

Just Awesome

One of the best books I have read so far.

Very simple language, straight forward examples, made me a huge of fan of ASP.NET MVC. Author focused on most of the regular problems we face in everyday web development. I hope he writes more and more books like these.

R. Ravuri
07 July, 2010

Great Second Book

This is a great second MVC book. What I mean is that it's not the best book to start with. As another reviewer said, it is the next logical step after the NerdDinner tutorial. This was the first book I got on MVC, and I ended up having to push it aside for a few months and come back to it after I understood the basics better. By basics, I don't mean necessarily basic ASP.NET MVC, but specifically the MVC design pattern, and design patterns in general. You need a bit of a foundation before jumping in, if you really want to understand what is going on. But, with the proper foundation, I found this book to be the best one out there for learning.

That being said...don't buy it!!! Why?! Simple: the new edition is due out in a few weeks (June 30, 2010 according to Amazon). Buy that one! But, make sure you are up on your SOLID OOP concepts if you really want to understand how to effectively use ASP.NET MVC, in general.

A. DiMauro
11 June, 2010

Good One

I went with this over the In Action book, and I'm pleased. The example application is real-world enough not to skip over issues that will come up in actual use. More than once I was thinking, "...ok, but what about..." and the answer was found on the next page. Not too many books can do that!

David W. Martines
08 June, 2010

Tips for absorbing this book faster

Currently I'm a little over half-way thru this book and really like it, although (for me personally), I found that the book organization could have been done differently. That said, I realize not everyone is the same. So instead I'm offering a few tips on this book.

- If you need a good high-level overview, Start at Chapter 7

The first half of Chapter 7 covers what all these folders/files in a project are. Which ones are optional and which ones are not.

The second half of Chapter 7 (starting at P. 214) covers a "High-level" overview of how ASP.NET MVC works the way it does. (IIS => Routing => ControllerFactory => Controller => Model => Controller => Action/View)

- Download all the Source Code from the author/publisher website

Typing in all the code is arduous at times. In fact the author even recommends taking code wholesale from the ZIP file and pasting it in.

- The Castle Windsor files are already in the SourceCode ZIP file. Use those.

The IoC/DI framework Castle Windsor no longer offers the installer the way the book describes. So instead of hunting around and figuring it out, just use the files available in the SourceCode found on the author/publisher's website.

- The SourceCode ZIP file also contains the SQL script to create the databases you need.

Version 2.0 of this book (featuring MVC 2.0) should be out soon (Late-May/Early-June 2010)

TwistedPretzel
20 May, 2010

excellent

Loved this book. Sanderson nails TDD, IoC, and other essential methodologies in an accessible and straightforward manner.

Timothy P. Heckel
28 April, 2010

Excellent

This book fills in a ton of gritty blanks that are hard to find on the Web (e.g. a good way to mock HttpContext), and Part 1 has been perfect for one of my junior developers to get up to speed. Thanks, Steven!

Todd C. Sprang
21 April, 2010

The definitive ASP.NET MVC book

I checked out a couple MVC books at my local library and I decided to buy this one because it presented the MVC Framework in a way that allowed me to understand the internals of MVC, program using best-practices, and most importantly create a real-world application. I am a novice ASP.NET developer but my interest piqued when Microsoft announced the MVC Framework. I was hesitant to pick up this book thinking it was for professionals only, but after carefully reading through the material, I will happily recommend it to someone who has even limited experience with ASP.NET.

The author structured the book appropriately and repeatedly stressed important best-practices. I liked the examples given and the real-world e-commerce application using testing using Moq, dependency injection using Castle Windsor, and clean code. Note, you aren't required to do unit-testing to complete the project and you can use any other DI tool out there. I think the author will be using NInject in the next edition. I learned a great deal just by following (note: actually coding) the application example in Chapters 4 through 6.

I don't think I've read a book introduce me to a new framework as well as this book has. Pick this up if you intend to learn and program ASP.NET MVC. Note, this book targets only MVC 1.0, released back in 2009 and will have some errors if you try to use the recently released MVC 2.0. I eagerly await the second edition.



G. Flores
14 April, 2010

Author's writing style very conducive to learning

The author's thorough understanding of this newer framework is very evident, and the writing is among the best I've come across in any technical work.

The only reason I haven't given this five stars is the somewhat-backwards sequencing of the book; very early it launches into a sample application that makes little sense without the knowledge one obtains from reading the remainder of the book.

Out of the currently available books on the subject, this is at the top--and by a considerable margin.

Gordon
07 April, 2010

Very well written. Easy to follow, read, learn.

All I have to say is, Steven Sanderson, "he got hops".

I have to agree with the other reviewers/comment-ors. Very good book. It's one of the few that I would re-read.

Isaac
06 April, 2010

worth reading

I really did like the structure of this book, the first part introduces the concepts and possibilities while developing a small (but kinda real world smell) mvc web app, while the second part lets you dig into the internals of each part of the mvc framework with a lot of pointers. Can't wait the second edition, which hopefully shows mvc 2 rtm.

Recommended highly, but you have to have existing c# and asp.net skills, then you can read it with light speed.

Daniel Szabo
31 March, 2010

Great information!

More than any other book I've read about ASP.NET MVC, Steve Sanderson talks about how the framework works, as well as how to use it, and how to make your own custom features to extend the framework.

Great job!

King L. Wilder
15 March, 2010

Too many addons, not enough explanation

If you want to key along with the code, good luck. By page 134, I was done. 3 obvious errors in either code or implementation. This book is very evangelistic. It imposes additional requirements on the user that bear only a tangential relation to MVC.
1) It requires you to download Windsor Castle, an "Inversion of Control" Controller Factory. Maybe I don't want to use IoC.. that should be my choice after I have learned how MVC works.
2) It is highly tied to Automated Testing tools like Nunit or Moq, which may be useful but are for another book at a later time.
3) It requires the download and use of an experimental DLL from Microsoft, using MVC Futures technology. Anybody who's worked with Microsoft knows that anything that's OFFICIAL is only half-guaranteed to work in the next version. As far as I can tell, the Html.RenderAction method that's supposed to exist on Page 133 is either deprecated or non-existent.
4) Errata page is very poor. I don't believe I've ever used Apress for this before, no real list of things to change, just a list of inquiries.
5) Very little explanation of why things are the way they are; that's OK for me, I tend to learn by coding anyway, but if you expect to understand why you are removing code, creating 3 separate projects, adding classes to a variety of folders, not using the Framework that Microsoft designs, you won't get it here.
6) If the code is any indication, this implementation is SLOW! I don't know how it could be implemented in the real world!


J. Fleming
14 March, 2010

This book has completely opened my eyes to a Microsoft game changer.

I literally have hundreds of technical books in my library, yet not a single one comes even close to the readability, flow, and usefulness of this one. It not only focuses on the amazing new ASP.NET MVC framework, but does it using a holistic approach highlighting a broad spectrum of related enabling technologies and practices such as Agile, TDD, IoC, JQuery, LINQ, and Moq that make this latest Microsoft endeavor a true game changer.

Until now, I've always begrudgingly developed using WebForms as a necessary evil, but it always felt like a step backward from the rich environment many of us were accustomed to with thick-client technologies such as WinForms. That has now changed after reading this eye-opening book and going step-by-step through its excellent detailed tutorial... I can't wait to push this new approach to a new level.

The only thing I would like to see in a book at some point, if feasible, would be examples of ASP.NET MVC and Silverlight.




Bill Mattox
09 March, 2010

One of my favourite tech book

At the beginning: English is not my native language, but I have no problems with reading. Steven made this book simple but not trivial. I love the way that autor wrote this book. Very important thing: autor uses TDD in practice. He gave me a lot of samples how to make good TDD with ASP.NET MVC. This is the best book about MVC I ever read!
Regards
Darek


Dariusz Tarczyski
17 February, 2010

The only ASP.net MVC book you will need if you are already familiar with .NET

This is the first tech book that I read cover to cover. I cannot recommend it enough as it is a definitive guide to learning A to Z in ASP.net MVC. However familiarity with .Net framework and C# is recommended to get the most out of this book. The book goes through tons of examples demonstrating setting up IOC, test driven development.. Highly recommended.

Kotendra Kode
12 February, 2010

Best Technology Book I've Used

Steven Sanderson's ASP.NET MVC book is probably the only technology book that I have read and actually enjoyed doing so. The beginning chapters cover some basic architecture modeling design and then it jumps into building a site with MVC. After you build a sample application, he points out what you were doing when building the sample application and why its important. This was the perfect format for me as I built something and then was able to relate the descriptions of the best practices and techniques of MVC to what I had coded up. By the end of the book I was actually excited to start building a site on my own with MVC. I really hope the author continues to write .NET technology books as his writing style was easy to follow. Thanks for a great book!

Jeffery A. Zickgraf
02 February, 2010

Best book for learning ASP.Net MVC

This is the one, by far the best book for ASP.Net MVC. The wrox book is just ok. The Manning book by Palermo and crew is good, but not really for learning the framework. I would recommend getting both this book and the Manning book. But if you only have time to choose one, this is it. Thank you Steve Sanderson for putting together so much good information in such a well written package.

Rudy Lacovara
23 January, 2010

ASP.net MVC I'm Sold

If you have any questions over MVC, this is the book.

While it will be helpful to know a little about MVC beforehand, it is not entirely required. The book goes into webforms vs mvc a little. At the end of the day, the 2 have their own strengths.

The book is well structured with lots of examples. There is even a section dedicated to testing, or test driven development.

Recommended for entry to intermediate MVC programmer.

M. Gulabdas
06 January, 2010

This book is good

This is one of the best programming books I have read. The author describes the MVC framework well and also gives a peek under the hood about how it works. It's a good technical book and does not waste your time by describing how to use Visual Studio (none of the right click this and select that stuff) and there are no painful attempts at contrived humor (unfortunately much too common with some of the other publishers).

foureyes
04 January, 2010

Great for both getting started and then going deeper

The explanations are great - the sample code is great, and while I don't fully agree with the authors style of writing unit tests, the very fact that he approaches development of the sample application in a TDD fashion really brings to light many benefits of MVC that aren't as immediately obvious by just writing code for controllers and views (which is what I found to be the case with many of the other samples out there). Roughly the first half of the book introduces MVC through the lens of a sample application. The second half then drills in on specific features of the framework itself. I would highly recommend (and personally use) this book for both getting started with MVC and for reference.

Howard L. Dierking
27 December, 2009

This is a real treasure

This is my first review on amazon since I was so amazed with the material that decided that I have to write a review to give the author his credit.

It is always obvious whether the author knows in great depth the topic he writes about. Steve does and extraordinary job explaining not only what MVC is all about but where this all came from and how it evolved to what we currently have. In addition to deep knowledge he shares, he has a great talent to write about complex topics in such a manner that I believe even non professional can understand.

He perfectly explains the topics of lose architecture, covers all topics related to web applications, covers many tools available in the industry and demonstrate real solution applicable for real world applications. I have used many ideas from the book in my applications and they performed well.

Having such a talent as a technical writer I would encourage Steve to continue writing the technical books. I will be the first one to buy his next book. One of the topics that is not covered because it is just out of scope of the book but would be definitely interesting is to write about architecting asp.MVC distributed application with distributed cache and best practice in designing DB schema. In other words the best practices to use MVC for enterprise level applications.


Iov Mishiyev
25 December, 2009

Good MVC book to get a grip on.

I like this book, detailed and with the good examples, I am still in the middle of the sample project (Sport store) but understood MVC by now. MVC implementation and fitting different design boxes in it is fear to say well explained book.

Hasan Fawad
23 December, 2009

Learn the ASP.NET Framework the Right Way

Steven Sanderson has written a great book on ASP.NET MVC which is the latest evolution of Microsoft's ASP.NET web platform. It introduces a radically new high-productivity programming model that promotes cleaner code architecture, test-driven development, and powerful extensibility, combined with all the benefits of ASP.NET 3.5.

Chapter 1: Overview
Chapter 2: First MVC Application
Chapter 3: Prerequisites
Chapter 4: SportsStore: A Real Application
Chapter 5: SportsStore: Navigation and Shopping Cart
Chapter 6: SportsStore: Administration and Final Enhancements
Chapter 7: Overview of ASP.NET MVC Projects
Chapter 8: SURLs and Routing
Chapter 9: Controllers and Actions
Chapter 10: Views
Chapter 11: Data Entry
Chapter 12: Ajax and Client Scripting
Chapter 13: Security and Vulnerability

There is lots to learn about ASp.NET MVC and things such as gaining a solid architectural background including Model-View-Controller and REST concepts; reviewing detailed coverage of all aspects of the framework and the official MVC development toolkit; exxplain how MVC works with test-driven development in action;
explain the differences of features in classic ASP.NET to those in ASP.NET MVC; learn about the latest security and deployment issues, including IIS 7.0.

This new technology using ASP.NET framework has gotten lots of press revently and will probably an important skill for current ASP.NET web developers so this book can be the beginning to learning new skills that can help you in the current job market.

Get this book if you want to stay on the curve of current popular web technologies.

A great buy!

Frank Stepanski
19 December, 2009

Great for experienced .NET developers

I thought it covered every aspect of the ASP.NET MVC in great detail. Very informative on the technical details.

However, not a great choice if you are a beginner ASP.NET developer. The book by Scott Guthrie is better for beginners (takes you by the hand).

Gabriel Tocci
14 December, 2009

A Great Read That is Sure TO Teach You Ins and outs of MVC

I enjoyed this book very much, after a rather disappointing read of the Wrox "elongated head" book. This book restored my faith that MVC is the way to go. Sanderson is a very gifted author on presenting the case for DDD practices and within the first five chapters you see this. Because rather than build some kind of demo ware application that is only meant for "demoing" and is coded fast to try to keep the reader interested. The Author took a different approach, he focused on teaching skills that many programmers should be seeking. Writing well architected maintainable and testable code. He did not just throw a whole bunch of stuff together and said there that is what can be accomplished. He actually takes you step by step through the application. And what's so great is that he introduces methodology for "green horns" on how to use TDD with MVC.

This is a big thing for a lot of programmer's out there, those that are really trying to make the leap from hobbyist developer to Enterprise Developer. The first five chapters alone are worth the price of this book. But what is so great that after he shows you what you can do (with unit tests in tow), he actually explains the how in great detail. He goes over even some common scenarios, that you may need such as using some of the built in providers that came with the [...] stack except adapting them to use the MVC stack. Its humbling to read such a tome of information where you get the feeling that the author did more than rewrite the tenuous amounts of information that is already available on MSDN. I loved particularly how he at least provided a introduction to some Domain Driven Design Concepts (like Behavior Driven Design, Entities and Services). The only complaint I can think of, is that in some areas and this is not really any fault of the book's author is that it does not explore those areas.
Because of the way author's ability to simplify new and complicated concepts, I really wish he would added more DDD primer scope to it. Because of the naiveté of the [...] camp to finally get into proven development methods like DDD it is my hope that author's like Sanderson approach the concept of less on how to use the technology, but at least present a way to think in it. Tools are great, but without proper use on to properly wield the tool it becomes rather tiresome to hear these new "fangled" technologies and then trying to make the case to your decision makers become hard. If authors wrote more like Sanderson making these arguments for the technology would not be as difficult and would present a easier way to allow us to use a "useful" technology to get the job done because it would clearly demonstrate the use of the tool.

Thinking back, what I also like versus the other MVC book I have read, he at least showed some type of best practices to use for validation and controller creation. Instead of copping out to use the designer he actually shows you how to use LINQ2SQL with the mappings, so that you're in control of your DAL. It's not a hodgepodge of 50 classes, but rather a creation of entities that make sense to your business case. It's one of those times where your Domain model is dictating the requirements of your database. Not the other way around.
In regard to validation Sanderson the author of xVal (which I got to say its nice to only hear once about a product the author made and not be used as a audience to constantly pitch their tool). It actually appears that the author was aware of this and tried his darndest, to not alienate the reader. In fact the author showed extensive use of how to use IDataErrorInfo which is the lowest level way to do it and not great with complicated validation scenarios, but he took the high road and used the tools people might start out with rather than his own. Also, I like how almost everything he recommends his Open Source and in most cases free, as this helps with small shops that cannot afford the enterprise editions of Visual Studio find a practical use of the tools.

I really could go on and on about all the things this book is, and if you're a developer who is striking into the MVC framework this is a RECOMMENDED READ. Because, you get the best bang for your buck on this book. And it is somewhat a discussion of the practices that you need to ad hear to reach the next level in development.
This goes up on my shelf as one of the books, I actually finished cover to cover that did not put me to sleep. All in all a 10 out of 10 book.


Michael T. Roth
08 December, 2009

Great and Easy to Understand!

This is an excellent book about ASP.NET and it has received the Most Valuable Content (MVC) seal right on the cover of the book!

judowalker
02 December, 2009

Excellent advanced resource

I was pleasantly surprised by the authors mastery of the technology. Introducing the concepts of dependency interjection, NUnit, and low level theory of LINQ was a welcome addition above and beyond the topic of ASP.NET MVC, and wouldn't have even been covered in a beginner's guide. It was very much appreciated and really helped me wrap my head around some of the new concepts. Excellent book.


M.S.
30 November, 2009

Great book!

I just finished reading this book and totally enjoyed it. One of the few 500+ page
developer books that was hard to put down (is there such a thing :) ). The author
is outstanding at making the concepts easy to follow and gives practical code samples
that you're likely to want to make use of. If you're fairly familiar with ASP.NET,
basic MVC concepts, and TDD principles, you're sure to really enjoy this book. Highly
recommend it.

Mel L.
29 November, 2009

Excellent Book

Lots of people write, but few know what the hell they are doing. When I cannot put down the book, I know the author must be a rare beast in the jungle out there!

T. Trinh
26 November, 2009

Excellent resource for learning ASP.NET MVC

I purchased this book after becoming interested in the ASP.NET MVC Framework. My knowledge of ASP.NET MVC was limited to brief research and exposure to the Nerd Dinner tutorial that can be found online. I found that this book was perfect for someone with decent knowledge of ASP.NET and C# and little experience with MVC. The writing style was incredibly easy to follow in that it kept the reader interested but didn't stall out with awkward phrases and winded comments that typically bring readers out of the zone. The author takes care to introduce the reader to related concepts like C# 3.0, .NET 3.5, and JQuery without attempting to teach the reader those subjects. My favorite parts of this book were the chapters covering the Sports Store example and the chapter on Ajax and client coding (JQuery). The Sports Store example covered a wide range of topics (Separation of Concerns, Inversion of Control, Unit Testing, Controllers, Views, third-party tools like NUnit and Castle Windsor, etc.) and served as a fantastic working introduction to common techniques used in ASP.NET MVC. The chapter on Ajax and client scripting was eye opening in that it showed you how easy it is to have a rendered page work with the server without refreshing.

Michael Mayo
24 November, 2009

Outstanding book

This is one of the best books that I have ever read, not just for ASP.Net MVC. The writing style of the author is excellent, and you do not feel bored at all while reading this book. I have been reading this book like a novel. Having said that, this book present all the concepts in a very clear manner, and does not bother explaining the documentation, as that can be easily obtained from msdn. This book explains all the prerequisites in a nice manner as well, so that you can find a natural flow. Also, this book encourages using TDD, and introduces concepts such as IOC and how can they be used with MVC.

Over and all this is an excellent book, and is a must read.

Utkarsh Narvekar
14 November, 2009

Simply Awesome!

If you want to create a website with the ASP.NET MVC Framework, you *must* have this book. This is easily one of the best tech books I've ever read.

J. M. Gorman
13 November, 2009

I have yet to read a book on .Net as great as this one!

The book is very clearly written, has a wealth of information and reads like a novel that you can't seem to put down. I have read the entire book and created a sample Sports Store e-commerce app (from chapters 4, 5 and 6) in just a few days time. In addition to anything and everything about ASP.Net MVC and how to extend and customize every part of it you will learn (if you don't already know) unit testing with NUnit, mocking with Moq, inversion of control (IoC) pattern, an intro to domain driven design (I would recommend Eric Evens' Domain Driven Design book for an in depth explanation of DDD) and best practices of everything combined. In addition there's code in this book that you can literally reuse with little or no tweaking at all in your MVC projects :) Steven Sanderson, THANK YOU FOR THIS BOOK!



Alexander Khotanov
06 November, 2009

Must Read on MVC! Great Book!

I believe Pro ASP.NET MVC Framework is one of the best books on the market about MVC. This book is crammed with a lot of information that you need to know as a developer. While he doesn't cover each subject fully (no book really does that), he does cover the major topic points related to MVC in-depth, and touches upon the other concerts that you need to be aware of to implement or customize MVC for your own purposes. I've broken up my review into several major subsections related to the book and analyze each one individually. From an overall level, I think the book really did well in its explanation and examples of MVC.

Book's Knowledge

This book is really crammed with lots of valuable information. I find myself referring back to the book when working with MVC, because it has a lot of various important sections about how to use JQuery to dynamically change MVC partial views within a view, how to customize the creation of a controller, and other important facts. There is so many small or medium details regarding the MVC framework that is important to know about covered in this book, that it does really make it a very beneficial book.

The chapters on each major feature (views, routing, controllers, etc.) are very long, which is great because they contain so much information about each of the subjects. I was really impressed with the information packed into each of these chapters. After reading the book, I felt comfortable enough to work on MVC and understand some of the concerns when implementing MVC for my own applications. I felt there was minimal downtime trying to play with MVC to understand its inner-workings; I really felt confortable jumping in.

Writing Style

I really like Steven's ability to clearly articulate points about MVC. If the writer is not fluent, I tend to lose interest, but I didn't lose interest at all in this book. This book doesn't just talk about the functionality, but actually illustrates its use through examples and theory, which is important for such a big subject. That's not to say he doesn't explain his code, which he does in the right amount of detail.

Content Structure

Though a pro book, the author ensures that he covers the basic prerequisites for the book, to fill in the user how MVC works. The book continues on with three chapters of a sample MVC application, explaining it some as he goes, following up with most of the book detailing each features.

The main complaint of the book that I have is that Chapters 4, 5, and 6 cover the basics of creating an MVC sports store application and tries to get you familiar with MVC by jumping right in without a lot of preliminary discussion. While he does discuss what he's illustrating, I feel it would have been helpful to cover the documentation of the features first, and then rolled through the example last, with a bigger/more complex example.
The plus to this design is that the sample walks you through the basics, and the subsequent materials enhance your understanding of routing, views, controllers and actions, data entry and model binding, AJAX and client-scripting, and security.
I found much use alone out of the chapters on using AJAX to use an unobtrusive JavaScript approach and the concerns to have with implementing security (since ASP.NET web forms handled certain security features for you automatically and MVC does not).

Implementation

While I do have a deep technical background, the concept of MVC is somewhat foreign to me; I had a familiarity to the pattern, but didn't know anything about the product. After reading this book, I felt very confident about my ability to create an MVC site. There were some curveballs and I had to reference the book again and again, but I felt overall that this book was a fantastic resource to get me going. It's the only book I read on the subject (outside of the NerdDinner resource provided by Scott Guthrie).


Brian Mains
17 October, 2009

Absolutely First Rate

I wish the Index had been more thorough--I read this cover-to-cover and then sometimes had difficulty finding passages I remembered. That said, I still have to give Sanderson an A++. This book nourished me through my first MVC project and was a good portion of the reason for its success. Just very intelligent, low-key key writing that anticipated my concerns without pretension, fluff, or glitz. It doesn't tell you why you should be so impressed; it just impresses you. I read a lot of technology books and especially Microsoft stuff--this was one of the very best. Many thanks.

M. Arner
13 October, 2009

Great Book

This is an excellent book and I highly recommend buying this if you want to improve your software skills

Anthony Grande
13 October, 2009

Absolutely the best technical book I have ever read

I tell you, this is simply the best technical book I have ever read (and I have read a few). I agree with several reviewers that I could not put this book down. I actually followed thru each example project and the pace, explanation and (Steve's) ability to build each concept up and highlight the applicable functions and details ... brilliant. This book is a must-buy if you are wanting to get started with MVC.
Excellent job, Steve!

Daniel B. Davidson
09 October, 2009

Simply the best tech book I've read in years..

An amazing blend of simple (not simplistic) step-by-step instructions and in depth understanding of the plumbing involved are far too rare in these .NET books lately. The explanation of how the newer .NET language features allow things like Linq to happen are worth the price of admission alone. Buildind a best-practices MVC app, using all the "flavor of the day" techniques like Linq, IOC, ORMs, etc can be daunting to wade into, but this book does a fantastic job of guiding you through the maze.



R. king
07 October, 2009

Fantastic book

Requires a decent handle on .Net, but is a fantastic book, possibly the best technical book I have ever read. It even makes learning this stuff fun! Introduces a lot of important programming techniques like mocking and inversion of control (IoC, aka Dependency Injection).

S. Naspinski
06 October, 2009

One of the best Tech books I have read

I have read Professional ASP.NET MVC 1.0 which I thought was a good overview of ASP.NET MVC. However, once I read this book, not only did I get a better in-depth prespective of ASP.NET but also picked up a LOT of helpful tips you usually would find on the web. The examples and explanations were clear cut and perfect. I have re-read a lot of segments of this book and will use it a a reference in the future. I have already referred this books to many of my colleagues who were curious or unaware of ASP.NET MVC. Highly recommended.

ASP.NET MVC Newbie
30 September, 2009

Excellent book, and a quick read

I've been programming asp.net webforms for about 5 years now, and have recently dived into the MVC arena. This is one of the better books that I've read through, on asp.net MVC. It was a quick read and easy to understand. It comes with a complete website sample, though the Model is a bit simplisting. And while it is not a Linq to SQL book, I wish the Model in the Sports Store was a bit more complex and showed how to implement child parent relationships with Linq and the MVC framework.

I would highly recommend this book to anyone who is looking to get into MVC in the .net world.

And additional bonus is the downloadable e-book for only $10 (for a limited time) as well as all the source in the book from APress.

Argrithmag Neocram
09 September, 2009

Great Learning Book

This is the book you need to make the transformation from Classic ASP.NET to the new ASP.NET MVC.

Roy Bradley
07 September, 2009

One of the best technical books I've read in a while

I buy and read a lot of technical books but only review the ones that are exceptionally bad (to warn others) or exceptionally good (to give kudos). This is certainly a case of the latter. The author does an excellent job of covering the asp.net MVC framework but what makes this book even more valuable is the great concise coverage of other associated technologies and the small notes and tips sprinkled throughout the book. In fact, one of my favorite chapters is chapter 3 which covers technologies closely related to asp.net MVC and ones very likely to be used in a real-life project (everything from Domain-Driven Design and TDD to even LINQ-to-SQL and lambda expressions in C# 3.0). Beginners will find it to be a brief but solid introduction and more advanced users will find it a very nice refresher. As a specific example, the author offers an excellent summary of the different approaches for using LINQ-to-SQL, one that's better than any I've seen in even the highest rated books on LINQ. This is just a small example but since other reviewers already covered how great the book is in terms of covering asp.net mvc, I just wanted to point out that any asp.net developer would benefit from this book whether or not they end up adopting the mvc framework. And certainly if you're a WebForms developer and on the fence with regards to MVC (as I am), get this book so that at least you can make a more informed decision when the "WebForms or MVC" question comes up (and it will sooner or later). I certainly look forward to Mr. Sanderson's next book.



Web Dude
06 September, 2009

Perfect Book for MVC developers

I highly recommend this book. The book not only helps you understand what ASP.NET MVC is, but also explains how ASP.NET MVC framework works in detail.
The first part of the book gives reader a clear idea of what MVC is and why MVC is needed in current ASP.NET development. Chapter 1 to 3 helps reader established fundamental knowledge base of ASP.NET MVC. Particularly, the author emphasizes Domain Model is not the entity classes simply generated from LINQ to SQL. The author introduces Domain-Driven Design (DDD) in this chapter, which helps developer to fully understand what is `Model' in MVC. Following the well organized example from chapter 4 to 6, you should have enough knowledge to start your own practical ASP.NET MVC application at work.
The second part of the book will help developers to get in-depth knowledge of ASP.NET MVC framework. With the ASP.NET MVC source code provided by Microsoft, readers can take a more systematic look at each aspect of the MVC framework and fully understand how Routing, Controller and View work, and learn how to implement AJAX and classic web forms with MVC framework as well.
No matter you are a new starter or advanced developer of MVC, you will find it is very helpful for your MVC web development.

Sean Xiao
04 September, 2009

Thorough, possibly daunting for beginners

Thorough treatment, great exposition of both the general principles of model-view-controller design and the specifics of implementing them in asp.net. Beginners will probably want to skip quite a few sections (for example, custom view engines) but will still learn the basics much more readily from this book than from other more dumbed-down titles. For developers migrating from WebForms this is a must-read.

Paul Connelly
03 September, 2009

Another 5 star review

What a concept: a technical book that's well written. Steve's knowledge of the topics presented is obviously thorough and he's been accurate with his language and anticipated his reader's questions, so not once did I have to do the Scooby Do "HUH?". Of the three ASP.NET MVC books I've now read, Steve's is the one I feel is the most authoritative - or maybe I should say the one I trust the most to tell me all sides of a story. Development takes place in a wide world these days, a fact that Steve embraces by including other software tools for testing and IOC. He's also made very clear the architectural benefits and drivers of the MVC Framework's design, like TDD and SOC. A fine book - keep 'em coming and thanks for the blog too - more good ideas there. This overwhelming response in Amazon reviews, so many 5 star votes, is the first I've seen; it's rare, real and it's deserved.

TooParanoidToName
02 September, 2009

A must have

I always like to wait to write a review until after I've been through a book and I see how much I return back to the book as a reference. I consider how many times I refer back to the book and the ideas within as a great measure of value. Using this measure, I consider Steve Sanderson's book one of the best purchases I've made in a long time!

Regarding ASP.NET MVC, he does an excellent job covering the topic from top to bottom, beginning to end. You can put together a quick and dirty app, or build a lasting infrastructure using his guidance.

What's even more valuable is his enlightening coverage of topics beyond just the basics of MVC. I've been in technology 23 years, and I get very excited when I run across someone who has a true passion for what they do. And with their passion, they look at it from every angle and share their perspectives and insights with real-world applications and implications.

For anyone involved in a web project, I would highly recommend reading this book. You will not only understand what ASP.NET MVC is all about, but you will also gleen keen insights into the core web technologies and applications of which you need to be aware.

Finally, I would recommend reading from cover to cover before doing any of the exercises. Because after understanding the entire perspective from Steve's well laid out plan, you will be even more impressed with the approach and results.

Patrick

Patrick Cooper
02 September, 2009

Not Microsoft MVC

This book has a misleading title. It says ASP.NET MVC but the author promptly replaces the Microsoft MVC engine with another. If you need/want to learn Microsoft MVC this is NOT the book for you!

William Pilling
07 August, 2009

Best technical book I've read in ages

This is the best book I've read in years covering any programming topic. It is clear, concise, well written and explains the subject in a logical progression. The first three chapters provide an overview of asp.net mvc development and chapters 4 - 14 take you through development, testing and into deployment. The last two chapters explain how to interop with asp.net.

Don't hesitate to get this book.

Wayne Tanner
29 July, 2009