Professional ASP.NET 1.1

PRObooks

ProfessionalASP.NET 1.1

Towardthe end of the 20th Century when Microsoft unveiled Active Server Pages, onepublisher s book on the subject stood out among the crowd: Professional ASP,published by Wrox Press. In fact, the book was so well received that itcemented Wrox s position as a respected publisher among developers focused ondeveloping and deploying Microsoft technologies. Sadly, with the rise and fallof the dot-com era, Wrox fell upon hard times. However, its imprint wasresuscitated by Wiley Publishing and has continued to evolve the brand and thebook s lineage from Alex Homer s original Professional ASP book firstpublished in 1998.

Alex isback and headlines Professional ASP.NET 1.1, having written 10 of its 24chapters (including all the appendices). Readers learn this because Wiley hasimplemented a fair practice that is long overdue in the multiple-authoredtechnical book market, namely, crediting the author with the chapters they wereresponsible for writing. Doing so not only helps to clearly identify the mindresponsible for the work, but also makes it easier for readers to associatewith a particular author s teaching style. Additionally, the book s three mostprolific writers provide their e-mail addresses for readers to directly sendinquiries about a particular chapter. Good move.

Thefirst four chapters of the book contain the usual .NET Framework and Languageintroductions, installations, and configurations, coupled with a quick reviewof the ASP.NET Page class and built-in Page Directives. Chapters 5through 7 hit the server-side controls for Web forms, including list controlsfor data binding purposes. The next four chapters cover ASP.NET s connection torelational databases, including reading and writing XML documents. Chapters 12through 14 cover configuration and security considerations, followed by severalchapters on working with collections and lists, other base classes and .NETcomponents, and building ASP.NET server controls.

Twochapters discuss exposing and using Web services, and are followed by a chapteron working with mobile controls. Chapters on debugging, performance tuning,migration, and interoperability are followed by the last chapter, whichfeatures an IBuyAdventure.NET case study summarizing most of the key conceptsdiscussed throughout the title. The example is a port of ASP 2.0 s AdventureWorks sampleapplication, completely rewritten for the ASP.NET platform in C# syntax. BothC# and VB.NET source code versions and sample database files can be downloadedfrom the Professional ASP.NET 1.1 book link at http://www.wrox.com/dynamic/books/download.aspx.Lastly, the book wraps up with four densely packed appendices that cover commonsystem namespaces, performance tips, changes in ASP.NET 1.1, and additionalreferences.

As withprevious editions before it, Professional ASP.NET 1.1 is jam-packed witheducational tidbits in both C# and VB.NET syntax. And like older versions, thisbook is much more tip- and reference-oriented innature. In other words, readers should already be quite familiar with C#,VB.NET, and ASP to gain the most benefit. Newcomers to the .NET platform andWeb-based programming will no doubt struggle through each chapter. But forintermediate ASP.NET developers seeking to upgrade their skills, ProfessionalASP.NET 1.1 is a must-have book to add to their ASP.NET referencecollection.

Mike Riley

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Title: Professional ASP.NET 1.1

Authors: Alex Homer, Dave Sussman, RobHoward, Brian Francis, Karli Watson, Richard Anderson

Publisher: Wiley Publishing, Inc.

ISBN: 0-7645-5890-0

BookWeb Site: http://www.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-0764558900.html

Price: US$49.99

PageCount: 1,337 pages