Customer Reviews

MCAD/MCSD Self-Paced Training Kit: Developing Web Applications with Microsoft Visual Basic .NET and Microsoft Visual C# .NET

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(14)
2 star:		(14)
1 star:		(12)

 

 

Much of this book is aimed at beginners. While this gets a bit tedious for many people seeking certification, a good grasp of the basics can help each of us become better programmers. If you have programmed web apps before, you will find the first chapter to be largely a waste of time. The next three will have some useful information, but only if you have never coded any .NET applications.

Around chapter 5, you may actually start to get some useful information, as this chapter is on ADO.NET, which is core to creating Enterprise level web applications. Much of the material here is fairly basic, however.

At this point in time, it probably sounds like I detest this book. I don't! There are a couple of real gems in this work, that are reason enough to buy it, even if you do not intend on getting certified. They are:

1. Chapter 9: Building and Deploying Web Applicatins: While the material is a bit basic, this is the only book that gets down to specifics on working with applications in web farms.

2. Chapter 10: Testing Web Applications: Some of the material in this chapter is highly useful even if you do not code for the Microsoft .NET platform.

3. Chapter 11: Creating Custom Web Controls: Once again, a bit basic, but the material is solid and gave me a great head start on developing my own custom controls.

4. Chapter 15: Globalizing Web Applications: While I do not agree with some of the Microsoft theory, like using resource files (in a web app?), learning how to set up an application for different languages is priceless in the day and age of global applications.

Now, to the important question: Do I think you can pass the test with this book alone? Possibly. But, only if you really followed through on doing all of the exercises. This book, and a good sample test, is all you are likely to need to get the job done.

My personal feeling on this book is it is well worth the price I paid, as I gleaned out a couple of really great techniques. While a few pointers may not justify the price tag for everyone, I consider what my time is worth and whether or not using a book cuts time out of searching through the help files. In the case of custom controls and globalization, the answer is a firm yes.

Another strong plus is the fact that the book contains an electronic copy on the CD-ROM. There is also a practice test, but I would not rely on it alone for gauging your competence. If you do not have a copy of Visual Studio .NET, this book also comes with a DVD with a 60 day Visual Studio .NET Professional trial.

I usually enjoy MS Press titles, but this one was miserable. Other reviewers have mentioned the plethora of shoddy, uncompilable code, so I won't bother to mention any examples. It is worth noting, I suppose, that the VB.NET examples are in somewhat better shape than the C# examples because the authors apparently wrote their examples in VB.NET, but translated to C# without ever compiling, much less testing, their translation. How such a terrible mess could have slipped out the MS-Press door is quite beyond me.

If you are technically astute and comfortable with C#, you can probably debug your way through the sample code and derive some benefit from the book. But then we get to area where this book falls down completely: the authors seem to be completely clueless with regard to sound software design. As a service to readers, let me offer some insights into where the book misses the mark so that your code will not similarly go astray:

1. The authors describe abstract classes and interfaces, but do not describe why you would use one or the other. Of course, the key differentiator that the authors miss is that an abstract class can include default implementations of methods. Here's a rule of thumb: if derived classes can piggyback on an implementation of a common base method or methods, put the common code in an abstract class. Otherwise, use an interface.

2. The authors explain that you cannot derive a web form from another web form (i.e., there is no visual inheritance). This is true enough, but many shops, including my customers when I was an MS consultant, plus the one where I now work, use a Page-derived base class from which all page classes inherit. This allows you to provide common functionality across all the pages in your site.

3. On page 157, the authors would have us iterate through a RadioButtonList, check each one to see if it is checked, then perform some operation if it is. This is just dumb. A radio button list can have only one checked member, and it can be accessed by calling RadioButtonList.SelectedItem (or SelectedIndex or SelectedValue, depending on your situation).

4. On page 200, the page class sets stores "true" in ViewState["Changed"] in the TextBox_TextChanged event handler, then checks the value of ViewState["Changed"] in the butExit_Click event handler. Again, the code works, but it's really dumb. Both event handlers will get fired in the same postback, so you ought to give the class that implements the Page a boolean member variable with a default false value. When the TextChanged event fires, set the member variable to true. Then use the member variable in the butExit_Click method. Using ViewState in this situation is kind of like sending a package to your next-door neighbor via Fedex, rather than walking over and ringing his door bell.

5. On p. 254, the authors recommend instantiating a single database connection in global.asax and making it available for each user connection by setting a session variable in the Session_Start event handler. Supposedly, this design "conserves resources and makes it easier to maintain connection and adapter settings...." In fact, what this will do is make your web site scale miserably because every single user will have to wait in line while the others take turns sharing that single connection. **I cannot emphasize enough how bad this design is.**

Windows servers have built in connection-pooling capabilities that do a great job of conserving resources while providing good scalability. Just instantiate a new connection for every database operation, and allow the Windows infrastructure to do its magic behind the scenes. And if you're smart, you'll do this in a class (or classes) in a distinctive logical tier that most designers call the data access layer. However, the three-tier (later n-tier) design revolution that swept through the Windows software world starting about 6 years ago seems to have completely escaped the notice of our authors.

6. On p. 261, the authors use a typed dataset with a type name of dsContacts. They also have a member variable with the name of dsContacts. Does anyone else see the potential for confusion here?

7. On p. 385, the authors recommend using user name as the primary key for a user table. The problems this database design will cause are severe.

* When the second "John Smith" or "Mary Jones" tries to access your system, you'll get a database error. The only workaround is to get John or Mary to use a different name. Yeah, right.

* Using a long string as a foreign key on other tables that reference the user table leads to inefficient space utilization and terrible performance when you do joins.

Anybody who knows anything about database design knows that you set up some kind of guaranteed unique key, such as an auto-increment integer, and make name an attribute of the user.

8. The authors fail to note that if session state uses the sqlserver mode, session state will survive a reset when web.config is changed, so users will not be adversely affected.

9. On p. 408, the authors ignore the security implications of causing an authentication cookie to be written to a user's hard drive. This is a recipe for disaster for users who are accessing a web app from a public location (library, kiosk, Kinko's, etc.) because subsequent users will have access to their credentials by virtue of the authentication cookie already on the hard drive. Do your users a favor and set the createPersistentCookie parameter to false when you call RedirectFromLoginPage().

I could write a much lengthier list of "really dumb coding ideas" to accompany this list of really dumb design ideas, but space does not permit. So let me conclude by stating what should by now be obvious: if you have extensive experience with object-oriented web programming in a multi-tier design paradigm, but simply lack exposure to ASP.NET syntax, you can probably find something useful in this book. Otherwise, stay away!

I used this book almost exclusively to prepare for the beta exam (along with MSDN). Overall I'd say the book does a pretty good job of preparing you. If you really want to be sure I'd get ADO.NET, ASP.NET, and XML book(s) to complement it.

I didn't have time to run through all the labs, but the ones I did do worked just fine.

The test-prep software does have good questions, but (as other posters have mentioned) it doesn't give any feedback about if you got the question right or wrong. If you are not used to MCP exams, I'd purchase some 'third party' test-prep software also.

It is a gigantic leap forward for a MS-Press book. I've never been a fan on MS-Press's 'Test Prep' books, but this one can legitimately compete 'third party' books.

I bought this book together with the self-study guide for 30-316 (Developing Windows Applications with .NET). I had already passed exam 70-316 before starting to prepare for 70-315. I liked this book better than 316 because it has more chapters and fewer lessons per chapter. Since there is one lab per chapter, I got to do labs more often and practice a smaller set of skills at a time.

The chapters on XSLT and web security were quite digestible. The lessons on custom controls however, were a bit tough especially because I could not get the correct results in the lab. I rank ADO.NET as a special skill, judging by the thorough way that it is tested in exams. You cannot expect great coverage of ADO.NET in a book that is not primarily dedicated to the topic. And even though this book does not provide that kind of coverage it does explain the ubiquitous DataGrid and DataList controls and gives a good picture of how to do data binding. I found it necessary to review the ADO.NET material in the 70-316 book as well. The quality of the remaining topics is satisfactory.

I would say that the practice test was quite adequate. I might have thought otherwise if I had not got a score of 70 and 84 percent the two times that I took it. I did not like the fact that you cannot pause the test, something that the 70-316 practice test lets you do. I found the exam quite challenging because a lot of the questions tested the key aspects of a professional website such as security, performance, scalability, migration, etc. So be sure to review forms authentification, stored procedures, caching, web farms and gardens and working with legacy ADO pages. And above all - practice on your own!

Though this book does indeed have useful information in it (which is the only reason I gave it as many as two stars), I could never get over the glaringly heavy VB bias of the text. I'm studying C#, not VB.NET and it *appears* this author has no experience outside of the bubble world of VB. It is clear that this book was written specifically for VB.NET and later, someone came along and added C# code samples to it. Virtually all of the terminology in the book is VB terminology which has no place outside of the shielded world of VB. For example, "event procedure" is used on almost every page, where "event handler" should have been used. "sub Main" is used where no such term exists outside of VB.net. "Imports" is used in the text where the C# version is "using". Very annoying. Every page has AT LEAST one or more errors and/or VB bias. Most pages have multiples. The sample test application has a less than amateur UI and asks VB.NET questions even when you tell it you're taking the C# path. Also, it does not tell you what answers you missed!... Only a final score. If you uninstall the test application, you hose your .NET settings on your IIS server!! This is documented on the errors web page for the book on Microsoft's own site... speaking of which, they only list a tiny tiny percentage of the actual errors that are in the book.

Stay away from this book. I see that the 2nd edition is about to come out. Hold off and get that one. Hopefully they'll have fixed many of these annoyances and errors in that edition.

I can tell from reading the first few chapters of this book that the author assumes you know somewhat about ASP and concept of OO programming as well as the intrinsic and functional objects ASP has to offer.

YOU MUST KNOW EITHER VB.NET OR C# TO READ THIS BOOK!

I have been developing in C# for over a year now and I can tell you that there are concepts in the book that you will not be able to understand unless you know either VB.net or C#. I also noticed how there was a discussion about server control events and an example of an Event Handler procedure/method but the author failed to discuss how you need to add a new EventHandler object to the server control's event handler property in order for the example to work.

For example, on page66 there is a code example of an event handler procedure for a button (Button1_Click) but no mention of the event handler being defined like this (for C#):

Button1.ClickEvent += new System.EventHandler(this.Button1_Click);

If you don't add this code to the example you the event will NOT be raised and the example will fail when run!

So, LEARN, LEARN, LEARN either VB.NET or C# WELL before reading this book!

Other than the assumptions the author makes about the reader's understaning of the underlying languages and ASP I thought it was a pretty good book to prep for MCAD exam for!

Good luck to all on the exam!

What's not to like? This voluminous certification guide for the web side of Microsoft's latest application development technology, .NET, is surprisingly geared toward beginners and even includes a brief primer on web programmming concepts for those who've never done web apps before. More advanced readers will skip the early sections and quickly sink their teeth into the more in-depth chapters, especially on the new features of ASP .NET.

Despite the size, which is considerable, the writing style is brisk and easy to read, and there are plenty of diagrams and references to additional material. The presentation of most concepts is in a lesson plan form that is alternatively refreshing and tedious, depending on the familiarity of the material, probably no fault of the format itself.

Readers hoping for an Exam Cram version that is stripped to bare essentials may be disappointed, Microsoft seems to want readers to fundamentally understand the concepts rather than absorb raw facts to pass a test. While this is probably good for those who really want to learn the technology, it will leave those looking for a no-frills Cliff Notes overview a little frustrated.

Kudos on the .NET DVD and exam prep CD, although I haven't used the 2nd one yet.

There seems to be adequate coverage of both VB .NET and C# but like most .NET material, there seems to be a subtle bias towards the VB language for ASP related material.

All-in-all the package is worth the fairly steep price, although you are getting a comprehensive study guide including running versions of the products. Hopefully the rest of the .NET certification series will be as thorough.

This book serves its purpose sufficiently: It is a study guide for the 70-315 test.

I was able to pass the 70-315 with the help of this book and the MSDN documentation. Most, but not all, of the test content is covered within the book. The book comes with an evaluation copy of Visual Studio .NET, a practice exam, and each chapter contains a number of practice labs to give you some real practice in using .NET

The chapters are well organized and cover the bare essentials of how to create web forms using .NET. You can plug blindly through the labs and at the end of them, you'll have a few working web pages to tinker with.

The practice exam was poorly worded, overly complicated, and some of the answers were ambiguous. In addition, the exam will not tell you the right answers or the reasons why. It just gives you a percentage score.

Don't count on keeping this book around on your reference shelf when you're through with it. I have tried to go back to this book when I needed help with programming, but it has yet to be helpful. The book does not cover concepts in great enough detail, it does not enforce solid application design concepts, and it uses simplified examples. The labs at the end rely heavily using design time controls and using the design wizards to add components to the web forms. Most of the data access uses embedded SQL and a few rather dirty tricks.

Buy this book, pass the test, and pass it on to someone else.

I think the book does the job it was written for---to prepare you for an exam. It's not meant to be a primer as you need to be familiar with C#.NET or VB.NET to fully understand what's going on. You definitely need to get some hands-on practice and read other ASP.NET/ADO.NET/etc books, but given the task of tutoring you it. deserves its five stars.

I wanted my money back. I bought this book specifically to prepare me for Exam 70-305. I bought this book because it was the official book from Microsoft so I thought surely this will prepare me for the exam.

I found the language in the book stilted and formal. It is written as though English was the second language of the authors. While grammatically, the style is not one that easily conveys ideas. I would have been ok with that though if the book covered the material on the test.

This book does not cover remoting at all. Neither does it adequately cover deployment. The only thing the book discusses regarding deployment is xcopy. The official test ask questions about web setup options using installer. I felt really angry about that and felt I had wasted my time and my money. This book will NOT adequately prepare you for the exam.
The test cd that came with the book was next to worthless. The demo questions are not representative in style or content of what they ask on the official test and the demo test is not in a format that is conducive to studying. You dont' know the details of what you missed and why your answers were wrong.

If you want a book to get up to speed on .net I highly recommend ASP.NET Unleashed by Stephen Walther. It is a practical book that will be more than adequate for most of the projects you will probably ever work on.
The microsoft test covers more arcane subject matter however so I would not rely on this book either for passing the official test.

For the same amount of money you spend on the microsoft book you can go to measureup.com and download or study on line their program for the test. Their test questions are much more representative of the real test in terms of style and content.
The test questions can be analyzed by subject matter and test goal. They reference the sections of either the .net framework documentation or the visual studio .net framework you need to pass the test. I found my study time much more productive in preparing me for the test.
Don't waste your money on the microsoft press book.

****Please***** Read Update
My negative comments were about the first edition of this book. The current edition is a fine book and worth buying. All of my issues with the first edition have been resolved in the subsequent editions. The new edition is much more representative of whats on the test.