Microsoft ASP.NET Step by Step (Step by Step (Microsoft)) [Paperback]

G. Andrew Duthie (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0735612870 | ISBN-13: 978-0735612877 | Publication Date: January 23, 2002

There is no book that we are aware of, either current, or in the pipeline, which matches this book. There are books already available that touch on ASP.NET performance topics, such as Microsoft ASP.NET Step-by-Step Guide. However, the difference with our book is that (1) it is focused exclusively on ASP.NET performance and optimization and (2) it will go much further in depth than any book currently on the market. The current ASP.NET books all focus on how-to, with performance issues tossed in for good measure. Performance Tuning and Optimization for ASP.NET Applications tackles performance issues head on, and makes them the central topic.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Aimed at all developers of all levels who want to program Web applications on Windows, Microsoft ASP.NET Step by Step provides a perfectly pitched introduction to the world of ASP.NET ideal for those with a little experience with the older ASP standard, but also suitable for the raw beginner.

This text sets a high standard for clarity and approachability, as well as excellent production value, with color printing (using blue) to highlight important points. The author assumes little programming knowledge on the part of the reader and the focus is on using ASP.NET with Visual Basic .NET (with a nod to C#) to create real Web applications, rather than getting bogged down in the richness of the new .NET platform. Essential material on the structure of ASP.NET pages (with a new emphasis on event handling), Web form control processing, and database basics (with ADO.NET) make for a worthwhile tour of the fundamentals you need to get productive with ASP.NET in a hurry. Sections on programming language basics will also bring the novice along. Throughout this text, the author provides highlighted sections of what's new and different in ASP.NET, which will bring readers who have used the older ASP version onboard with the new platform.

Later chapters show off more advanced techniques, like creating custom server-side controls and a good introduction to the much-touted Web services used with ASP.NET. While these sections add depth to a capable tutorial, it's the rock-solid tour of the basics that makes this book a winning choice for busy Web developers. Final sections on the new caching abilities in ASP.NET are a must for running your applications effectively, as is the discussion on the nuts and bolts of deploying Web applications.

A final section highlighting the changes between ASP and ASP.NET will help introduce you to the .NET version quickly, as will the bulleted lists of task-based tips at the end of the chapter. With its Step By Step series, Microsoft Press has apparently added a winning format to its catalog, and ASP.NET Step by Step shows off its advantages with a new emphasis on approachability, excellent use of color (all too rare in programming books), and an excellent set of examples and material on the most important aspects of the new ASP.NET. This title is quite simply one of the best available getting-started guides to Web development on .NET. --Richard Dragan

About the Author

G. Andrew Duthie is an experienced ASP.NET developer. He is a frequent speaker at ASP.NET conferences, and is the author of a number of books on ASP.NET and Visual Interdev.

Product Details

• Paperback: 519 pages
• Publisher: Microsoft Press (January 23, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0735612870
• ISBN-13: 978-0735612877
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7.4 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 2.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (36 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,028,402 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Not a good book for developers, February 27, 2002

By 

Ian Smith (London, UK) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Microsoft ASP.NET Step by Step (Step by Step (Microsoft)) (Paperback)

Most of Microsoft's Step by Step books suffer from the same basic problem - they explain the really easy stuff in tedious depth, while skipping over and assuming you already understand the difficult stuff. This book is one of the worst examples of this. Tedious chapters on very basic "security" or "configuration" is given but nothing is really explained when it counts. The configuration chapter has endless tables of parameters and possible values, but all too often says things like "a valid encoding string" without explaining what that is. While really dumb basics like "how to create a virtual directory" are covered (twice, with the same step by step graphics) terms like "you must use free-threaded objects" are thrown into the text very early on with no explanation for the poor novice as to what the heck this means. Screenshots are from beta 2 rather than release candidate so basic screenshots or references to "select Web Class" are incorrect (it's now called "ASP.NET web class"). Easy to figure out, but is this series aimed at novices or not?

Worse than all of this is the fact that apart from a very brief introduction to VS.Net in an early chapter (the quick overview of the different panels all books give) you get half way through the book without ever having opened VS.Net or typed in/written any code. Isn't this series supposed to be aimed at developers? Shouldn't we be getting into "doing" something instead of endless guff about "Notepad.Net" (it wasn't funny the first time) or how passwords should be a certain length if you want to be secure or... well you get my drift.

The other book in this series that I've seen (the OOP Step-by-Step) book is not great (lots of complex material presented in a "type this in" fashion without any real explanation of what's being typed in and why) but at least gets the developer doing something and has some pretty solid code and concepts behind it. This volume just comes across as tedious, repetitive and unsatisfactory for both new developers and experienced ones who want to get up to speed.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Well written, great overview, April 8, 2002

By 

Darren Neimke "_digory" (Adel. South Australia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Microsoft ASP.NET Step by Step (Step by Step (Microsoft)) (Paperback)

In a nutshell, I thoroughly enjoyed reading ASPNETSbS. This was not the first .NET book that I've read, but it was the first book that left me feeling as though I had a strong grasp of the ASP.NET technology as a whole, and how I could apply many aspects of it to delivering commercial-grade applications.

As the title suggests, this book is designed to appeal to readers with varying levels ( steps ) of understanding regarding the .NET technologies; this does not mean, however, that the book is either too light or too heavy. I would rather suggest that it offers an extremely balanced overview of the various pieces that, together, form ASP.NET.

At a personal level, I especially enjoyed the exhaustive journey toward understanding the relationships that exist between the Machine.config, the Web.config and the actual web application itself; from my point-of-view, this was the first book to deliver a *full* overview of those parts of an ASP.NET application.

Of course, all of the regular ASP.NET goodies make an appearance, including: authentication, validation, web controls and ADO.NET.

The section on creating custom controls and using inheritance to extend existing controls was very clear and concise. Good attention was given to explaining the structure of the major classes such as the Control and Page classes. The book more than adequately explains the event model of the Page class, along with its properties, methods and the objects that it contains.

The book mostly uses VB.NET for code samples although C# is shown where there are significant differences between the two. Having said that, this is not a book that is language heavy, because there is a much greater emphasis on the actual Framework components themselves.

There are two fairly light sections on WebServices and debugging, which, while not providing a thoroughly detailed examination of the two, certainly explained enough to make it clear where to head for further inspection.

All-in-all, if - like me - you make your living delivering web applications, I think that you should take a read of this book, if for no other reason than to confirm that you *DO* have an thorough grasp of all the topics that it has to offer.

I feel confident in saying that, if you do choose to read this book, then you won't regret the excercise!

Feature points
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o covered many aspects
o organised in logical steps
o spoke about surrounding tools such as VS.NET
o book has its own newsgroup...

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars good book for beginners.., February 18, 2002

By 

kerim ozbakirci - See all my reviews

This review is from: Microsoft ASP.NET Step by Step (Step by Step (Microsoft)) (Paperback)

ASP.NET is released and lots of book out there, promising to teach you this new technology. I personally chose MSDN series for .net framework. As they are the closest to this technology.
ASP.net step by step is a really good book for beginners. Unlike some books out there it doesnt jump into bunch of code from the first couple of pages. The book is focused on teaching the fundamentals of ASP.net, there are quite good hints in the book that I found very useful. There are some downsides though.

If you have worked with ASP.net before (in beta days) and developed some small to medium applications with that, you will find the book very easy and I dont believe that it will be very useful for your needs. The other thing is the content and the chapters are very similiar to ASP.net quickstart tutorials that comes with .net framework.
If you havent used asp.net before and you dont like to read tutorials from the computer screen, I say go for it, it s very good resource. Otherwise get a more advanced book that is covering more in depth.