Customer Reviews

The Microsoft Expression Web Developer's Guide to ASP.NET 3.5: Learn to create ASP.NET applications using Visual Web Developer 2008

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

 

 

I must have purchased 10 books on how to develope a website from the ground up. Within the first 5 chapters, without fail, something integral to the entire website that they take for granted working, wouldn't work for me, and after a week or two of trying to fix the issue, I would normally give up. I repeated this process for about the past 6 months.

Some background on me, I'm 28, I have a BS in computer science, but generally learned nothing in college, of business value anyway. I am lightly familiar with coding/designing, if given enough time I could read the code and tell you about what most things do in C++ or VB, (And their .net equivalents), but ask me to program something, and I wouldn't even know where to start. This is why I am heavily dependant on any programing examples in a book working...

This book is definitely more a designers guide to building a website, but by that, I mean it shows you how to create a website from the ground up, and every short cut possible where you can have Visual Web Developer (VWD) button, or option do the work of coding. This is like a god send for people like me, that want to learn coding, but not as badly as we want to learn how to create .NET websites. I didn't get stuck for more than a few minutes anywhere.

There are no "stories from the trenches" that many books put in just to fill in space and bore you inbetween what you actually want to know. This book is VERY concisely written telling you what you need to know. This book does not go into great depth in any great part, it briefly touches on just about everything you could need to run your own website though and makes recommendations for either websites or books to purchase to get additional information.

In conclusion, this book is great for beginners, and I would, and have recommended it to everyone I know who, similar to me, wants to create a professional looking website, that doesn't have the programing skills to make it happen. I'd imagine though, if you are above beginner level, this book would not be for you.

The title of this book is a little misleading. It deals with Visual Web Developer Express Edition 2008 and does an excellent job of addressing the new features in the 2008 release as well as a valid tool for someone just starting with Visual Web Developer. It takes you through the development of a sample ASP.NET website using Access databases along with user security. It is an excellent reference as well as a tutorial approach for a begginner to intermediate web site creation.

This book does a superb job furthering one of Microsoft's intentions of the Expression suite: to bridge the gap between designers and developers.

Even though it is targeted toward designers new to ASP.NET, it is actually quite comprehensive in terms of development. I appreciate how a strong foundation was laid right from the start discussing ASP.NET architecture (including the often misunderstood topics of page lifecycle and state management) in plain, concise terms.

What really excites me about this book is that it does not shy away from the administrative side of ASP.NET--configuring membership, validation, security, etc. Far too many designers and developers alike give blank stares when asked how their site is configured.

I will definitely recommend this book to designers on our team, as it will help our upcoming ASP.NET 3.5 projects go much more smoothly.

Now...if I could just find a book of this caliber that works conversely, helping developers get into the mindset of a designer...

I am a newbie to web programming (had a few years of Windows app development experience) and face the situation where I have to produce web apps in a short time. This book gave me a solid start. I had tried several bigger books but they always give me too much "theory" to digest and not enough demo on what steps to take to accomplish a task! Also, this book is definitely not limited to Expression web developers so don't skip it just because you are not a Expression web developer. Comparing to Murach's ASP.NET 2.0 web programming with VB 2005 (800 pages) which I also like, this book gives you more completed coverage on the subject with less than 500 pages. And they both take similar approach to teach the subject. Sure it doesn't tell me how to do all the "tricks" I needed to do with my app. but no book does! I wish I had found this book first so I didn't waste so much time feeling so lost and frustrated. So if you are pressed for time, need step by step instructions and need to deliver an app. quick. Start with this book.

I have never built a web form. Using this book, I built a simple site that includes a contact form and a registration form. I happened to find
JimCo books and tutorials on this website [...]. The tutorials in conjuntion with the book, solved my problem. I am not a web developer, but I am cheap and these tools were the best I could find anywhere on the web.

This book guide's you though of building a website from start to finish, starting with setting up IIS (5,6, and 7) on you local computer, adding your web files, SQL Server, using database data in your web pages, and much more.

I found it a very easy read.

A good Reference book for a web designer.

Maybe it's because this book is three years old but I expected more from it anyway. I bought Expression Web 4 in order to learn it and I thought this book would help me learn how to incorporate ASP.NET into web pages. It turns out that, despite the title, there is very little in this book about Expression Web. All of the entries in the index for Expression Web span the pages 132-139 out of a 450-page book. I would return it but I highlighted the web address to register the book before I took a hard look at what was in it.

For someone with my expertise, which lies between medium to advanced this publication by Jim Cheshire is another of his masterful works delivering knowledge and referencing where it matters, to help in utilising the excellent functionality of ASP.NET applications using Visual Web Developer 2008 and Expression Studio 3.

The buzz and "feel-good" factor resulting from successfully authoring some otherwise non-surmountable applications with such simplicity borders on magic.

The ease and cost effectiveness with which the online purchase of the book on Amazon.com was made and the rapid delivery is to be commended.

Thank you Jim and QUE for such an excellent publication!

Arthur O Hara
Wed, 3 Mar 2010 12:45:04 GMT Standard Time Wk: 09.

I have been doing ASP.NET for a few years now and still find introductory books helpful...this book was the exception. I found the chapters that are suppose to cover a facet of ASP.NET lacked much meat at all. Many of the chapters were under 10 pages and I found that instead of offering anything concrete the author went overboard with the external links to articles, help pages, or other books!

In the books defense it will give you a limited working knowledge in topics like the ASP.NET provider model introduced in ASP.NET 2.0, as well as data enabling your web app. However this still isn't enough for me to rate it any higher. The book may be sufficent for someone with a very limited knowledge in ASP.NET however you'll find there is no depth in this book and after you are done you probably will need to continue searching for more. Leave this book alone.

my-2-cents

I did learn some valuable things from this book, however it was quite painful. This is not a 4 or 5 star book. The light gray on gray screen shots are unreadable unless you have a magnifying glass handy. At least half of the steps in the step-by-step examples are available but not in the way the book states they should be done. Menu descriptions are only partially accurate. Errors occur frequently following the book's instructions and you have to use good intuition to eliminate the errors and warnings. Good, comprehensive, clear, writing is obviously not this author's forte. If you are using the Visual Web Developer 2008 Express Edition then this book leaves a lot to be desired especially if you are trying to tie your application to a database. All the Add, Select, Delete, Where, Order By and Insert screen shots are useless since this functionality is not available in the Express Edition. Many of the items in the toolbox are not even covered in this book. And items such as ListView which you use to make a decent looking form are claimed to be covered but are not. Many of the downloadable examples were actually created in ASP.Net 2.0 not 3.5. You will learn from this book, however it will really try your patience.