While billed as a reference, which it surely is, this title is also a strong choice for a tutorial designed to get you working with the powerful .NET Framework in a hurry. Early sections set the stage with a comparison of the older ASP standard and the advantages of the new ASP.NET. The authors then dig right in with essential APIs that will get you started here, like using built-in objects for requests, sessions, and cookies. Short code excerpts in VB .NET and C# illustrate just how to do it.

The new choices for ADO.NET components will surely challenge new .NET programmers. This book excels at describing all of your options, from simpler HTML controls to the new Web Forms options. Standout sections include full coverage of the variety of list components available in ASP.NET, from simple lists to grids and Repeater controls. For wireless development, the authors reprise their coverage of controls with those available for PDAs and handhelds in Microsoft's Mobile Internet Toolkit.

Successful ASP.NET development requires more than using Web controls. A really useful section here tours the "core" .NET system classes for collections, regular expressions, and file I/O, which will let you perform basic tasks in your Web applications.

Later sections turn toward server-side options available in .NET, from caching pages for better performance to configuration options (using new configuration properties files), and a rich tour of the security options for ASP.NET programmers (including the new Microsoft Passport service). Rounding out this book is excellent coverage of the standards and classes you will need to implement Web services and XML, as well as a reference section with complete code examples for common ASP.NET tasks (including building a simple Web service).

The .NET Framework is powerful and complicated enough, but armed with ASP.NET Programmer's Reference, busy developers can master the most important classes and APIs in order to start creating the next round of Windows software on .NET. --Richard Dragan

Product Description
ASP.NET is a totally new way of creating dynamic web applications, giving developers more flexibility and functionality than ever before. Its fresh approach of placing commonly-used code into controls, and separating presentation from business logic, makes developing and maintaining applications far easier. It is part of the Microsoft .NET Framework, and as such allows code to be created in any language that the Framework supports (currently C#, VB.NET, and JScript.NET out of the box).

This reference is divided into four sections. The first covers all the important ASP.NET namespaces for User Interface design, while the second looks at "behind the scenes" topics like caching and configuration. The third section looks at the important new arena of Web Services, and finally, the fourth deals with the remaining hot topics, such as data access and XML, as well as containing a chapter of short, fully-working examples relating to all sections of the book, to help you understand the concepts being presented.

This book covers:

However, the name ASP seems to be maintained to provide familiarity to those of us making the transition from ASP 3.0 to "any-web-application-built-with-.NET." This book fulfils that calling by giving the right mix of definitions, examples, and background information without using excess space or time.

The majority of the chapters cover most of the collections of objects (namespaces) that give an application functionality on the web. Without question, we used these sections the most. For those of us making the transition to C# at the same time we're getting used to .NET web development, these chapters were a life-saver. They gave all the answers we couldn't find in any C# reference manual tailored specifically for the types of web applications we were creating. Since we adopted .NET a few months ago, for the first time we were able to concetrate on functionality instead of C# as a frustrating language. I'm not sure how VB 6.0 programmers will look at it, but they seem to be getting the better reference books in the marketplace so far, so it was a relief to find every example done in both C# and VB.NET.

While this book would be key for beginning .NET developers ready for more robust applications or intermediate programmers moving from another language, I suspect that advanced programmers will be disappointed. For example, XML and Mobile Devices get chapters, but they don't conatain enough information for real development. You would need to have a much better background in either subject to actually develop. However, if you had that background, these sections wouldn't tell you anything you didn't already know.

The strength of this book is not as a "front-to-back" read, but as the dog-eared, coffee-stained reference that allows an intermediate level programmer to produce web applications that work--and work well. While not an expert, I've used ASP.NET Programmer's Reference to give myself a solid base of knowledge. By the time I master the material, I'll be well-prepared to tackle some of the more obscure .NET namespaces and cutting edge web technologies. ---Reviewed By Jay L.


Some useful information, but more errors and ommisions   April 19, 2002
1 out of 1 found this review helpful

I bought this book because I needed an ASP.NET reference. This book seems a bit schizophrenic. Part of it is tutorial and parts are reference. I haven't used it as much as I had hoped because I have run into several major errors.

Examples

Lists System.Data.ODBC when in fact this should be

Microsoft.Data.ODBC
Also forgot to mention the part about having to download it from MS website.

Lots of errors in ADO sections in general. I have tried several pieces of code from the book that simply don't work.

I certainly don't recommend this book.


What ever happened to the REAL programmers reference books?   January 23, 2002
J. Rowe (Coral Springs, FL United States)
4 out of 5 found this review helpful

I'm afraid I'll have to call this book a failure. I feel that if I buy a "programmers reference" book it should be just that. If I go to System.Web.UI.WebControls I want to see a list off all the web controls and a concise breakdown of all the parameters of each. I don't want a story about the control and a "let's make a web page with this control" exercise. I long for the days of my C++ BIBLE.


Excellent book as a reference !   January 22, 2002
Excellent book for ASP.net as a reference.


Excellent book as a reference !   January 22, 2002
1 out of 3 found this review helpful

Excellent book for ASP.net as a reference.