Programming Microsoft Web Forms

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Programming Microsoft Web Forms

Now that Visual Studio 2005 has been officially releasedto the world, the floodgates for related books and products have opened. Majorpublishers have launched their collections of subject-matter expert interpretationsof VS 2005 and the shock and awe affect of so many titles from which to choosecan be overwhelming at times. In an effort to differentiate between the sea of.NET 2.0 titles, several publishers, including Microsoft Press, have approachedthe market with more creative names than simply pasting ASP.NET 2.0 somewherein the book s title.

Such is the case with Douglas Reilly s Programming Microsoft Web Forms. Eventhough the title alludes to a possible deep dive into the internal workings andbest practice optimizations of ASP.NET Web page delivery, the book is reallynothing more than an ASP.NET 2.0 new-feature tutorial in action. As such, thereis little new information in this book that hasn t already been discussed indetail by other ASP.NET 2.0 titles. In fact, the book could have been renamed ASP.NET 2.0 Step-by-Step, but that wouldhave conflicted with another Microsoft Press title with the same name, at thesame price, and which, unlike ProgrammingMicrosoft Web Forms, includes a CD-ROM of the book s code.

This 300+ page book is separated into eight chapters andan appendix, and features all code examples in C# syntax. Chapter 1 is theobligatory VS 2005 IDE orientation and IIS configuration. Chapter 2 reviews thenew, predominantly user interface, controls in ASP.NET 2.0. The third chaptercovers Web form layouts via HTML tables, CSS, themes and skins, and MasterPages. This chapter touched on a few helpful hints for dealing with controlsand text on a Web form and placing them in just the right order for a moreeffective user presentation.

The next chapter briefly orients readers with MicrosoftWeb Parts. Chapter 5 dives into data binding using the DataSource, GridView,DetailsView, and MultiView controls. Chapter 6 discusses building custom controlsusing either Visual Studio or by converting an ASP.NET Web page into such acontrol. Chapter 7 offers a step-by-step walkthrough of ASP.NET 2.0 s usersecurity and administration via Microsoft s new Web site administration tool.

The last chapter has a somewhat misleading title: Integratingwith Windows Forms Applications . I had high hopes that this chapter wouldoffer something unique, perhaps by demonstrating how an n-tiered application can easily consume data from a commonrepository and present it in a Web UI as rich as a Windows Forms UI. Nope. Instead,the author shows how readers can embed the WebBrowser managed-wrapper ActiveXcontrol into a Windows Form to view the Web pages constructed throughout thetext. Lame. The book closes with an appendix on IISapplication creation and deployment.

Is this book worth the cover price? Not compared tosimilarly priced ASP.NET 2.0 books. I m not sure what Microsoft was trying tosay with this book that hadn t already been said in other ASP.NET 2.0 titles includingits own. It s not a bad book, per se; it s simply an average book with an aboveaverage price.

Mike Riley

Rating:

Title: Programming Microsoft Web Forms

Author: DouglasJ. Reilly

Publisher: MicrosoftPress

ISBN: 0-7356-2179-9

Web Site: http://www.microsoft.com/MSPress/books/8410.asp

Price: US$39.99

Page Count: 368