Beginning ASP.NET in VB .NET: From Novice to Professional [Paperback]

Matthew MacDonald (Author)

Book Description

Series: Expert's Voice | Publication Date: January 28, 2004

This book assumes only basic knowledge of VB .NET (although it contains a review of what is needed for those coming from a different background). But, by the end of it, the reader will have mastered the core knowledge needed to begin work as a professional ASP.NET developer. It places special emphasis on the techniques such as "code behind", that professionals need.

ASP.NET is the replacement for Microsoft's Active Server Page (ASP). It is more scalable, faster and is arguably the best thing Microsoft has ever done in the Web development space. The recently released 1.1 version should spur adoptions (since many people wait for the 1.1 version of any Microsoft technology) ASP.NET, like its predecessor allows a Web site builder to dynamically build Web pages on the fly by inserting queries to a relational database in the Web page. ASP.NET is different than its predecessor in that it allows use of modern languages like VB .NET instead of scripting languages and it encourages correct programming style by allowing the separation of the design from the operational code.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

These two titles represent the spectrum in ASP.NET guides. Both will be useful in conjunction with guides on related languages such as Visual Basic .NET (see Computer Media, LJ 4/1/02) and C#. A Beginner's Guide lives up to its name; the first two chapters explain how to set up .NET and how ASP.NET fits into the entire framework before teaching general programming basics. That information sets the stage for the discussion of topics such as using Visual Basic .NET to program for ASP.NET, web services, and ADO.NET. Mastery checks at the end of each chapter make this a useful self-study resource for all public libraries. Intended for those with previous experience in ASP or Visual Basic, The Complete Reference spends little time on programming basics but is much more thorough than A Beginner's Guide. It will serve as a helpful reference for advanced developers. Appropriate for large public libraries and college libraries supporting programming curricula.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

(Five Stars) ...examples are easy to follow and more importantly they work! Really good book - 10 out of 10 -- Channel4, May 7, 2002

(Five Stars) I was extremely impressed with the meat-to-gravy ratio. ...the examples are brief, the coverage is very extensive. -- Prakash Nakarni, August 18, 2003

(Five Stars) I would definitely recommend this book to anyone...familiar with ASP..and wants to learn ASP.Net completely. -- Ramesh Muthukumaran, March 20, 2002

ASP.NET, is explained... (to) experienced developers who have programmed in ASP or Visual Basic before. -- Book News, Inc.

Appropriate for large public libraries and college libraries supporting programming curricula. -- From Library Journal

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 983 pages
• Publisher: A-Press; 1 edition (January 28, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1590592786
• ISBN-13: 978-1590592786
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 7.1 x 1.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,125,161 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Matthew MacDonald is an author, educator, and MCSD developer who has a passion for emerging technologies. He is a regular writer for developer journals such as Inside Visual Basic, ASPToday, and Hardcore Visual Studio .NET, and he's the author of several books about programming with .NET. In a dimly remembered past life, he studied English literature and theoretical physics. Send e-mail to him with praise, condemnation, and everything in between, to [e-mail].

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Real ASP.Net Book..!, March 20, 2002

By 

i see the world (Falls Church, VA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: ASP.NET: The Complete Reference (Paperback)

ASP.Net is so different from ASP. I know that, having done Classic ASP for about 4 years now and ASP.Net from Beta1 onwards. And still this book changed the way I think of / do ASP.Net programming. The book can as well be titled "Object Oriented Approach to ASP.Net Programming". The author sticks strictly to best coding practices (than some easier way to code), goes thro most of the classes we will be using in ASP.Net and a lot more. He will go advanced but knows where to stop - telling you it's enouugh for ASP.Net (which I agree - I don't expect an ASP book to teach me .Net OOP tharoughly. I would rather turn to "OOP with Microsoft Visual Basic .NET and Microsoft Visual C# Step by Step" by Robin A. Reynolds-Haertle or the forthcoming "Visual Basic .Net Object and Component Handbook" by Peter Vogel ). The author explains you as if he is working with you in a senior position and has a relentless style to drag you thro all of the features in-depth and their benefits that someone new to .Net programming may be scared. VB.Net is used in sample codes (he explains every new concept with code) but initially he gives a real good comparison of C# and VB.Net including how to do the same thing in both languages (And again if I want to learn C#, I don't want to learn from some ASP.Net book - I'd rather learn from "Microsoft Visual C# .NET Step by Step" by John Sharp, Jon Jagger or "Programming C#, 2nd Edition (O'Reilly Windows)" by Jesse Liberty or "Programming Windows(r) with C# (Core Reference)" by Charles Petzold )

That said I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who has been familiar with ASP and done some programming and want to learn ASP.Net completely, tharoughly.

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Very good introduction to ASP .Net, March 27, 2002

By 

Jim Storey (Sydney, Australia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: ASP.NET: The Complete Reference (Paperback)

I am a VB programmer moving to ASP.Net and this book was perfect for me. It covers everything from the basics up including making very definite suggestions on the best way to achieve the results you want. This includes things like the philosophy of database access on the net as opposed to client/server. I much prefer this to books that cover the langauge but don't offer real solutions. The author is brave enough to distinguish good solutions from bad. He also skips rubbish solutions that you'd never use.

The other thing I liked about the book is that it left me wanting more. The style is very easy to read and I found myself spending hours trying the samples etc. If I got stuck I could move back to earlier sections to cover the basics.

This book actually deserves 4.5 stars but I'm limited in my selections. To get the full 5 stars I would have liked more details on data access and certain other areas. I also had to skip things far to basic like the few pages introducing SQL.

DON'T buy this book if you want a bible. There are plenty of those out there that cover every little detail about ASP.Net.

DO buy this book if you want a good introduction to ASP.Net. I'm writing a commercial web page and I don't know if I'll need to buy another book, this one could supply enough answers along with a little more research.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Concise, yet in-depth, August 18, 2003

By 

P. Nadkarni (Orange, CT United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: ASP.NET: The Complete Reference (Paperback)

The single most useful book I've read on ASP.NET. I was extremely impressed with the meat-to-gravy ratio ( a welcome change from some of the recent WROX books, which unfortunately seem designed to destroy the maximum number of trees and are endlessly repetitious, with the same code sometimes being repeated in VB, then in C#, and occasionally in JScript.NET).
While all the examples are brief, the coverage (in terms of the diversity of problems that are handled) is very extensive. "The Complete Reference" is probably a misnomer, since the online .NET framework documentation is vast, and each topic can only be touched on rather than covered in depth, but this book does a superb job in giving you enough knowledge in being able to make sense of the online docs. The examples are the right degree of complexity, with just enough lines per examples to illustrate a point (such as overriding the Render() method when creating your own control).
The only minor glitch (which would make me give it 4 1/2 stars) is that the README info in the examples file (which you download from MacDonald's site) isn't quite accurate - you MUST create a folder called C:\ASP.NET and make this a virtual directory using Internet Services Manager- if you create any other directory, none of the Visual Studio projects that are part of the bundle will open and run correctly.