SAMS Teach Yourself ASP.NET in 21 Days

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SAMS Teach Yourself ASP.NET in 21 Days

One ofthe most difficult tasks facing authors of instructional computer books thesedays is compacting the years of knowledge and experience required to master askill into an approachable final product. Such was the case with SAMS TeachYourself ASP.NET in 21 Days: Author Chris Payne had to write to twoaudiences: those being exposed to Microsoft-centric server-side scriptingprogramming for the first time, and accomplished ASP developers looking toupgrade their skills to Microsoft s next-generation technology. In doing so,Payne had to introduce newcomers to VBScript, JavaScript, C#, VB .NET, HTML,XML, XSLT, and SQL syntax. Payne generally succeeds at this monumental task. Toteach the main aspects of ASP.NET, Payne had to reduce the syntax details tothe most rudimentary just enough to show how a particular example scriptworked. Thus, individuals learning ASP.NET without any prior Internetprogramming experience may be overwhelmed by about the fourth chapter.Experienced ASP developers, however, should have no trouble keeping up with theauthor s pace. In fact, the end of each chapter features a section targetingexisting ASP developers. Entitled That s Not ASP, these sections clearlyillustrate the differences between ASP and ASP.NET.

Giventhe wide and varied scope ASP.NET developers need to comprehend, Payne does acommendable job with not only capturing basic ASP.NET scripting, but alsotouching on advanced ASP.NET abilities such as securing Web Services andprocessing XML. Payne dedicates a chapter to the importance of separatingbusiness object from presentation layer code.

The bookcontains three helpful appendices: Common ASP.NET Mistakes, ASP.NETControls, and ADO.NET Controls. The first is especially useful because theauthor divulges his hard-learned lessons on the pitfalls of ASP.NETdevelopment. And although the book advertises 21 days, it actually contains 23days/chapters. The first extra chapter provides a walk-through ASP.NET developmentproject; the second provides an introduction to Mobile Web Forms.

Theprinted code samples, all written in VB .NET, can be entered using a standardtext editor. None of the examples provided in the book require Visual Studio.NET s IDE. Oddly, the book s CD doesn t contain the code samples listed in thebook (the source and sample databases, however, can be downloaded from thebook s Web site).

The bookis best suited for the casual ASP script developer looking to graduate toASP.NET. For this audience, reading SAMS Teach Yourself ASP.NET in 21 Dayswill prove to be a rewarding three weeks.

Mike Riley

SAMS Teach Yourself ASP.NET in 21 Days by Chris Payne, SAMS, http://www.samspublishing.com.

Rating:

ISBN:0-672-32168-8

CoverPrice: US$39.99

(1,024pages, CD-ROM)