Murach’s ASP.NET Web Programming with VB.NET

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Murach s ASP.NET WebProgramming with VB.NET

Another day, another ASP.NET tutorial book... or so Ithought. I have to admit when I received Murach sASP.NET Web Programming with VB.NET for review, I skeptically wondered whatwas going to be so special about this title that justified its existence beyondthe heap of ASP.NET texts already piled high in bookstores.

Then I read the Why you ll learn faster and better withthis book section in the introduction, which articulated and addressed my concerns.The authors were attuned to the reality of the flooded ASP.NET book market, yetaccurately assessed and approached the ASP.NET knowledge transfer problem witha more pragmatic solution.

Rather than spend countless pages on theoreticaldissertations and reams of code listings, the book reads like a succinctthree-day training course. Matter-of-fact explanations and real-world codeaccompany when necessary, with the majority of the book broken down into atwo-page format of How To on the left page, and a description of that inquiryon the right. Remarkably, it works quite well and does wonders forcomprehension. Other teaching texts often left me fatigued after reading a lengthy passage or particularly complex code listing. Thedownside to this approach is that the book literally scratches the surface onmany topics. But if the intent is to make the ASP.NET neophyte productive asquickly as possible, Murach s approach succeeds.

The pace of instruction is effectively distilled into 20chapters that each rarely exceeds 40 pages. The first half of the book orientsreaders to Web application development and how ASP.NET and VS.NET can be usedto achieve application objectives. It also covers ASP.NET essentials such asdatasets, cookies, debugging, input validation, and state management. ADO.NETcommands and related technologies are discussed in the third section of thebook. The last section reviews security, Web services and custom servercontrols, using Crystal Reports, e-mail and Web application deployment.

And since the book advertises VB.NET in its title, allcode is provided in that syntax. Note, however, that no space is allocated toVB.NET tutorials. This is another reason why the book accelerates throughexplanations and descriptions: it doesn t have to drill readers down to theatomic level to convey the intent of a practice or procedure.

I was impressed by how quickly and effectively thecontents of the book were presented. Nearly every new ASP.NET developerquestion is addressed. I especially appreciated the workaround insights forcommon hang-ups, like forcing a page to use a secure connection, or dealingwith back-button refreshes problems that often plague inexperienced ASP.NETdevelopers. These gems alone will be worth the price of the book for manyfirst-time .NET Web authors.

For those information hounds who need to know more aboutASP.NET than Microsoft s very own .NET product managers, this book will notsatisfy their needs. However, those developers who are seeking to learn ASP.NETWeb development, but are too busy or impatient to wade through the deep andsometimes murky material sold by other publishers, will most certainly want toconsider buying this book.

Mike Riley

Rating:

Title: Murach sASP.NET Web Programming with VB.NET

Authors: DougLowe and Anne Prince

Publisher: MikeMurach & Associates, Inc.

ISBN:1-890774-20-0

Book Web Site: http://www.murach.com/books/vasp

Price: US$49.50

Page Count: 718pages