Customer Reviews

Beginning Site Server

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

 

 

This is a decent but not great book . . . By far the mostuseful chapter is the 168 page (!) installation chapter, which detailshow to get site server installed under a variety of configurations.

The rest of the book is a fairly high-level introduction to some of site server's features, such as pipelines, indexing, personalization and membership and site analysis. These chapters tell you what you need to know to get a barebones example of each of these up and running.

There are 3 chapters that basically go over the wizard which generates an e-commerce site, explaining the underlying database and how to do some modifications. These are quite well done (but I'm a little dubious as to how many companies are going to run the wizard-generated site right out of the box).

The book is a fairly good introduction but it will definitely leave you wanting to look for more detailed information. I guess it achieves its purpose but I doubt there are many developers who would be satisfied with this. I don't see this as a book that I'm going to frequently use as a reference. I would recommend reading overviews of site server on the web, to get a feel for what it can do, and then buying some more advanced books. This being said, the installation chapter could be worth the price of the book alone (if you have installed site server you know what i'm talking about).

I read some other Site Server books before this one, including some in the Professional Series. I have been lightly involved with Site Server for quite some time but never in an extended use of the product.

I wanted to get an heads up on the Version 3 and this book contains it all for administrators. The Installation is the most complete I've ever found (containing 170 pages!) and it goes into all possibilities (i.e.: with/without SQL, NT 4, Win2k, SQL 6.5, SQL 7.0, etc.). Just the TOC for this one is in 4 pages!!! The book is worth it just for this chapter.

Then, the book goes to some extent into Pipelines, Commerce, Search, Personalization, and all the Site Server's components.

Once you will be through this book and need more information, I would strongly recommand the Site Server 3.0 Personalization And Membership, and the Professional Site Server 3.0 Commerce Edition; both from Wrox Press.

In my role I have encountered numerous organisations that have developed functionality from scratch at a high cost that they could have got 'off the shelf' using Site Server. The problem is that Site Server is numerous bits and pieces and it is difficult for a newcomer to recognise the full potential that is lurking within it.

The Microsoft document provides good reference material but doesnt explain sufficiently how to get started with Site Server. This book excently fills the void and opens ones eyes fully by clearly illustrating how to exploit each of the various tools and items of functionality within the product.

If you all ready understand Site Server fundamentals, then take a look at WROX's Profesional Site Server 3.0

This title is a little short on content, especially considering approximately 170 pages is dedicated to Site Server installation under different conditions. The author's technique is basically to walk you through the various Site Server wizards, pausing to explain what is really going on behind the scenes. For these reasons, I was tempted to rate it just 3 stars. However, I reminded myself that this is a "beginning" guide with no pretense of claiming to be a comprehensive guide to the various Site Server features. Also, while the installation chapter chews up a lot of space, I found it to be very valuable. For example, during the Commerce Edition installation, a nasty "failure to register DLL" message appears. The author assures you that this is okay as it will be fixed later. I may have spent hours on MSDN researching this issue for fear of having an incomplete installation. I recommend this book for developers looking for an installation guide and/or a fast read describing what Site Server is all about.

This book is great for a novice user of Site Server who needs to understand the general aspect of all of the Site Server features, whether they are for the standard edition or the commerce edition. The installation guide are the most comprehensive written instructions for all types of operating system. If you have never use Site Server, this is the book for you!

They ask you to create a Web Site in one way, and then after a while they say, if you haven't created your site this way, you might not get this result. Page 206 will ask you to create a Web Site under the Default Web Site. But on page 546, they say "For the purposes of this example, I will be using the Interknowlogy site that we have created earlier in this book......Also, this example assumes the site is am isnatnce of the Web Server and not just a virtual directory under Default Web Site". Author spends too much time for the Installation, but the installation instructions from Microsoft site is updated. The title should for this book should be "Teach Yourself Site Server in 3 Days"

I have not seen a better book that ties together as complex a development tool as this one is! I look forward to the next effort with version 4 of Commerce Server on the way

This is a great book for beginners. I think the example in the book gives ample exposure to the various bits of Site Server 3.0 - ecommerce, personlization, analysis,etc. I would highly recommend it.

This book provides very helpful information on how to use Site Server. Its the best to start using Site Server 3.0. All topics of site server has been covered with the best sequence.