Customer Reviews

Active Server Pages 3 Weekend Crash Course (with CD-ROM)

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This book will take you from zero to intermediate level in fewer pages than I've ever seen. Its objective is to be concise and easy to read and it achieves that. But expect to invest in a reference like ASP in a Nutshell if you want to go any further. (Most notable omission from the book is the File System Object.) As for whether one can absorb this book in one weekend: if you can program Web pages in another language, and you have a long attention span, that is not impossible, but most programmers will take one to two weeks. Crash courses like this are for those who are no strangers to programming. If you've never programmed before (HTML is not a programming language!), you are likely to find the pace of this book daunting.

I was pleasently surprised after reviewing this book. Its laid out nicely. What I liked probably the best it wasn't heavy reading. This book covers all the way from the beginnings of how to setup your environment to dealing with Arrays and the architecture of them. It will a bit slow for an advanced person but definately ranks up there with other quality ASP books such as ones from Wrox and Scott Mitchell's Learn ASP 3.0 in 21 days by sams. The book is targeted at beginners and novice intermediates(which I am). Its worth checking out!

I'm really proud of this book and the material that it covers. Contrary to a previous review, the CD-ROM does include all of the complete files used in the book. There are some snippets of code in the book that are just a few lines that are not on the CD-ROM. You can also download all the code from the book's web site: aspcrashcourse.com.

ASP 3 Weekend Crash Course by Eric A. Smith is a good book to teach a beginner how to get started with Active Server Pages. The early chapters do a good job to ease the reader into ASP and provide him or her with a good foundation to build upon. Unfortunately this book has fallen victim to a number of typos, which can frustrate the reader. The approach of the book is to build up one's skills and then utilize each in an application (called eOrganizer). Unfortunately there are problems with some of the code and even the application that can be downloaded from the web site needs to be tweaked to work right.

In summary- I feel that this book needs to be corrected and reissued. If all revisions are done, this book will be an excellent resource and worthy of more than 2 stars.

If the title and description of this book appeals to you, you should buy it! I like to pick up programming languages when I get tired of reading other things, and this is the best self teaching book for a language that I have ever read! ASP came surprisingly easy with this book, especially since to use it you really need to also learn HTML & SQL. This book explains ASP and gives you just enough HTML & SQL to get cracking. The only thing that was missing was a JavaScript primer, and as one of the reviewers already mentioned not all of the source code is on the CD ROM (no big deal to me, at least). If you are looking to create dynamic web content, I reccomend this book as well as it's companion for Java Script.

In the future, I will always look for this series of book when learning a new language!

Easy reading and not intimidating. This book covers the basics smoothly and progressively. If you are trying to pick up the basics of asp quickly this is highly recommended.

Perhaps the words "Crash Course" in the title are just a bit to seductive for the newbie to ASP and VB Script. As a reader of many programming and application books over the years, (but in no way a professional programmer), I flipped through the book at the store and was pleased to find a "spoonfull" approach to the coverage of material. As a professional trainer, this was really a good sign so I bought the book.

First the good news. For someone who needs a brief yet understandable introduction to HTML, SQL, and Database design, this book was up to the challenge. The explanation of the role ASP plays in Web development was also clear. So I entered the material on VBScript with high hopes. That's when things began to go downhill.

First, if I had not had some knowledge of what a function or subroutine is I would have been totally lost. As it was I was stretching to understand. When I hit the section on "structured code" I really hit the wall. Here I was, coming from learning HTML and some JavaScript, being presented with the idea of generating all of my pages in ASP! (I don't dispute the advantage of this approach but this was not the place to put this material! (Just looking at all the "Write Lines" stressed me out!

I then began to run into many instances where I think the author assumed I knew concepts and terms. A whole bunch of information on server variables, "includes", and error handling blew me away, so by the time I got to databases and the application piece (eOrganizer)it was all over. Nothing really hung together at all. Objects, methods, collections, includes, etc.,all fogged my brain. How do they work together?

In all fairness, my rating is based on how the book met my needs as a non-professional programmer with limited experience in writing code. I was interested in learning the concepts involved in creating database driven web pages for training and educational purposes. I had a basic working knowledge of HTML,exposure to Javascript and Access, and WYSIWIG editors like FrontPage, so I wasn't completely ignorant. I believe learners like me would benefit from a more comprehensive book that adequately covers the vocabulary,concepts,proceesses involved in developing ASP. I would also suggest an approach that builds an actual application throughout the book (similar to Paul Wilton's excellent book "Beginning Javascript". I just don't think the "examples" throughout the book are robust enought to teach a concept.

I am convinced that there is no way for the "beginner" be ready to do anything productive after reading a "crash course"type book. They may be fine, however, for developers who already understand quite a bit about application development. I know the siren song of titles like "learn in a weekend" or "21 hours" may be smart marketing ploys but not very effective as training tools.

When I first picked up this book I knew nothing about ASP or VBScript programming. In literally one weekend I had a working database driven site up and running that was customized beyond the basic structure in the book. The author does a great job of describing not only WHAT to do but why. Understanding the logic and structure behind 'catching the fish' teaches you 'how to fish'.

There were a couple of errors in the book... However a small bit of internet searching revealed these errors were documented online and corrections offered.

Thanks for such a great book.

Paul

I already had good success learning HTML and Javascript from other Weekend Crash Course books and put it to use at work. So I expected the same from this book. After 23 chapters of things I already knew about HTML and Visual Basic, Mr. Smith begins his application. Like another reviewer here, I was absolutely lost. (The errors in the book don't help.) I loaded his eOrganizer example from the CD, changed the connection to the Access database I built according to chapter 22, and I can't get any further.

His insistance on structured programming is the death of his lesson. I know the value of structured programming, but structure has no value if I can't write a program. The basics should be taught before forcing style upon the reader.

I need to connect web pages to databases. Sorry, Mr. Smith, I'll have to buy a different book to learn how.

I would like anybody looking at this book to know that none of the key source code is included in the CD, though the book cover states that it does.