Essential ASP.NET 2.0

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Essential ASP.NET 2.0

Essential ASP.NET2.0 discusses Web development using the .NET Framework 2.0 platform. Thisbook covers topics such as the architecture of ASP.NET, state, data binding,and security. There are small samples of code sprinkled throughout the book inC# to drive home the author s point.

The book assumes you have a basic understanding of ASP.NETprogramming. If you are starting out with ASP.NET 2.0, this is not the book foryou. If you are a developer migrating or considering migrating from ASP.NET 1.0or 1.1, this is a good book for you.

The first part of the book goes into detail about thearchitectural differences between ASP.NET 1.x and 2.0. This is a good sectionto read if you are creating a migration plan for your existing sites. There isquite a bit of detail on the code-behind model used in 2.0. The book discussesthe use of partial classes, as well as how code is compiled differently. I like the chart discussing how the events are fired and in whatorder.

There is a great section on master pages and themes. Iconsider master pages a great improvement to ASP.NET. It s nice to create asite that has a consistent look and feel without a great deal of coding. Essential ASP.NET 2.0 shows you how toprogrammatically control your master pages, as well as how themes can be usedon your site. The book makes it easy to pick up on these topics. If you haveconcerns about specific browsers and how your site is displayed, there is asection on control adapters. There s also a section in the book for Web Parts,which is discussed toward the end of the book. Web Parts allow users tocustomize how the site looks and feels to them, without requiring codingchanges.

The majority of Web sites are database driven; that topicis covered in Chapter 3. It s one of the biggest changes in ASP.NET. Microsofthas made it very easy for you to incorporate databases into your site. Theauthor also does a good job of trying to help make sure you don t createsecurity risk with your SQL or connection strings. This section is consistentwith the rest of the book, explaining the differences from 1.x to 2.0. It trulymakes you appreciate how much easier database interfacing is with 2.0.

The state management section covers such topics asprofiles, cross-page posting, and wizard controls. The profiles sectiondiscusses how you can save state information. It makes a good comparison of thesession variable to profile variables. The wizard control section is easy tofollow and intuitive. Something classic ASP programmers will take notice of isthe use of cross-page posting to pass information back and forth.

The security section discusses the new features of ASP.NET2.0, such as the log-in controls, the use of a SQL database to store userinformation, and how to control what users can see using the web.config file. Thebook points out how easy it can be for a developer to have a site with usersand log-in authentication in no time at all. The book will make you appreciatehow much is automatically done for you. The book also points out what can becustomized, so you don t have to worry about flexibility. The last few chaptersdiscuss debugging and performance-related issues. Everything is a trade-offwhen it comes to programming; EssentialASP.NET 2.0 will let you weigh your options before making decisions.

I found EssentialASP.NET 2.0 very useful; it helped point out what I faced when moving mysite from ASP.NET 1.1 to 2.0. Beginners could benefit some from the book, butnot nearly as much as someone who has experience with 1.1. There are a fewplaces I felt some keywords should have been highlighted to draw the reader sattention, but that slight shortcoming aside, it s a good book if you haveplans to migrate you ll know what s in front of you.

David Mack

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Title: Essential ASP.NET 2.0

Author: FritzOnion, with Keith Brown

Publisher: Addison-WesleyProfessional

ISBN:0-321-23770-6

Web Site: http://www.awprofessional.com/bookstore/product.asp?isbn=0321237706&rl=1

Price: US$44.99

Page Count: 384