Beginning ASP.NET Using VB.NET [Paperback]

Chris Ullman (Author), Ollie Cornes (Author), Juan T. Libre (Author), Chris Goode (Author)

Book Description

Series: Programmer to Programmer | Publication Date: August 2001

ASP.NET is the latest incarnation of Microsoft's Active Server Pages (ASP) - a powerful server-based technology, designed to create dynamic and interactive HTML pages for your Web site, or corporate intranet. ASP.NET also constitutes a core element in Microsoft's .NET vision, providing web-based access to an immensely powerful new development environment, .NET; in this respect alone, it's a great leap ahead of all previous versions of ASP.

This book will provide you with a step-by-step introduction to ASP.NET using VB.NET, with plenty of worked examples that will help you to gain a deep understanding of what ASP.NET is all about, and how you can harness it to build powerful web applications.

This book covers:
Creating basic ASP.NET pages
Learning the basics of VB.NET
Understanding the concepts of Object Oriented Programming
Working with Data and XML
The ASP.NET Server Controls
Creating User Controls and Components
Exploring the world of Web Services
Configuring your ASP.NET Applications
The future of VoiceXML technologies, including VoiceXML 2.0

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

This book is aimed at relatively inexperienced web builders who are looking to enrich their sites with dynamically-generated content, and want to learn how to start building web applications using ASP.NET. Developers who have a little experience with previous versions of ASP (and are looking to move over to ASP.NET), may also find this book helpful in getting a simple grasp on what ASP.NET is, what it does, and how it can be used. Experience of basic HTML is required, but previous experience of ASP or VBScript is not essential. We'll be teaching the basics of VB.NET in this book, so prior experience of VB.NET is not required.

This is one of two editions of Beginning ASP.NET. This version presents all code examples in Visual Basic .NET. The C# version of the same title (Beginning ASP.NET using C#, ISBN: 1-861006-15-2) will be available from November 2001.

About the Author

Chris Ullman is a Computer Science graduate who came to Wrox five years ago, when 14.4 modems were the hottest Internet technology and Netscape Navigator 2.0 was a groundbreaking innovation. Since then he's applied his knowledge of HTML, server-side web technologies, Java and Visual Basic to developing, editing and authoring books.

Ollie Cornes has been working with the Internet and the Microsoft platform since the early 90's. In 1999 he co-founded a business-to-business Internet company and until recently was their Chief Technical Officer. Prior to that his various roles involved programming, technical authoring, network management, writing, leading development projects and consulting. He has worked with Demon Internet, Microsoft, Saab, Travelstore and Vodafone. Ollie holds a degree in computer science and is Microsoft certified.

Juan T. Llibre is the Director of the Computer Sciences and Distance Education departments at Universidad Nacional Pedro Henríquez Ureña in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. He has been a consultant to the Caribbean Export Development Agency and the Dominican Republic's Central Bank and is currently the Technical Architect for the Caribbean Virtual University. Juan has been an Active Server Pages Microsoft MVP for 4 years and can regularly be found in the newsgroups and mailing lists, offering advice on ASP and ASP.NET in English and Spanish. He co-authored Wrox's "Beginning ASP 2.0" and "Beginning ASP 3.0", and has been a Technical Reviewer for over a dozen books on ASP and its related technologies.

Chris Goode is a Technical Architect in the .NET team at Wrox, currently specializing in ASP.NET. She has a degree in Mechanical Engineering, but decided that the engineering world wasn't for her. She's now back firmly in the world of computers, finding that life at Wrox combines the fun stuff with the work stuff pretty well.

Product Details

• Paperback: 800 pages
• Publisher: Wrox Press; 1st edition (August 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1861005040
• ISBN-13: 978-1861005045
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 7.3 x 1.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (22 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,776,902 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

26 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Here is the Book to Start With, September 18, 2001

By 

Cliff Schneide (New Castle, DE United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Beginning ASP.NET Using VB.NET (Paperback)

I have been developing ASP pages for 4 or so years. I have done some VB in that time. I came into the web from the front end, design and continue to work my way backwards. I found this book filled with very easy to understand explanations on what is .Net and how I need to adjust for the new way of doing things. I think you could pick up this book without much background in ASP but I do believe a basic understanding of classic ASP will make the learning curve on this book faster. I would deeply suggest start with this book instead of the Professional one, for this walks you though the basics but also fills in details that even more advance developer miss from time to time.

I have read a ton of books in the last 5 or 6 years and this one is up at the top for easy learning and great basic details. This book will give you the information to do 95% of the daily task of developing and the last 5% you will get from the Professional Book. Yes the Professional book keys off the large scalable web sites which you will need to learn but like most of us, we all start a new technology on a smaller scale to see how it works and then tackle the larger jobs later.

.Net will be one of the most needed skill in a year or so, learn it now and be ahead of the curve and you will see a higher pay check too.

Excellent Reading...

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Good for beginners to ASP or those wanting a refresh, December 24, 2001

By 

Mr John Pawlowski - See all my reviews

This review is from: Beginning ASP.NET Using VB.NET (Paperback)

This volume is suited to the beginner and is therefore a fairly simple book to work through. A desirable prerequisite, while not mandatory, would be some basic HTML web page development experience using both Forms and Tables. A previous knowledge of ASP is not a requirement.

The book provides a good introduction into coding many areas of ASP.NET without delving too much into the Microsoft .NET Framework itself. It uses the WROX style of "Try It Out" to get you used to the code, followed by a detailed explanation and description of "How It Works".

The experienced classic ASP developer will find little of interest in the first few chapters but it is an easy read and you can quickly move through it concentrating on areas of interest. Having said that if you haven't done much OOP (Object-Oriented Programming) then you should review Chapters 8 and 9 as the entire .NET Framework is based on objects. If you've been working on ASP for some time and already have a basic understanding of how ASP.NET operates then you should look to a more advanced book such as "Professional ASP.NET" also by WROX.

The only negative I found was that it has more than the customary level of typos but I personally don't believe it detracted that much. The errata on the WROX site should be downloaded to indicate the more important publishing errors.

In summary, this book is targetted at beginners. As an experienced web developer I found it an easy read and gave me the opportunity to refresh some of the knowledge I hadn't used recently while giving me a quick INTRO into the .NET version of ASP.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Nice Intro as well as a refresher for the well rounded pro, November 10, 2001

By 

"lsinboston" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Beginning ASP.NET Using VB.NET (Paperback)

I thought that this book provided exactly what the title says. If you've been down this path before(meaning, having to pick up a book to get you up to speed with a project) then this is a good place to start, following up with "Professional ASP.NET" and "Professional VB.NET", both Wrox titles as well. For those who complain about theory, go to your local university and enroll in a class. For those who need bottomline results, like most of the "run and gun" type positions that most techies have then this is it. Even if you've done ASP or VB before and have stepped away from it for awhile, this book is a great refresher. Gone are the days of specializing technically in one or two areas. Most of us have to be all things to all people and it is a pleasure to be able to have a goto resource when we have to revisit or learn a new technology. Wrox has been and still is that all important resource. By the way, the typos aren't that bad, anf if that's all you can focus on, then no book can help you.