Customer Reviews

Pro ASP.NET 3.5 in C# 2008 (Windows.Net)

5 star:		(23)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Pro ASP.net 3.5: This book is a must to have book for anyone who is starting/ switching their careers to developing web applications using asp.net technologies. The authors Matthew MacDonald and Mario Szpuszta, has done a very good job of covering all sections that are useful for beginners as well as middle level developers.

For example, if you are seeing Visual Studio for the first time in your life, they dedicated a whole chapter on how to use visual studio. The reason I brought up this point is they kept the beginners in mind and they didn't leave any assumptions that the reader already know how to use Visual Studio.

At the same time for those middle level developers who wants to dive into newly released hot technologies like Ajax, LINQ and Silverlight you won't be disappointed. They have dedicated individual chapters for each of those topics. As I have been developing asp.net application from last several years, I opened this book to see what I can read about Linq and Silverlight. I enjoyed those chapters as they give you an introduction and a good kick start. I am surprised that the authors also dedicated a whole chapter for website deployment (Chapter 18) where the architectures of IIS 5.0, 6.0 and then 7.0 is explained. That is awesome that they have discussed installation of IIS 7.0 and explained the architecture as well as the new Configuration model of IIS 7.0. Everything is explained with the help of screen shots.

Of course I took for granted for all those core concepts of asp.net like developing Http Handlers, Http Modules, Customer Server controls, Custom Membership and profile providers, Security. They are all covered and are very well explained in individual chapters.

Given the broadness of the subject, the authors done a great job of covering all areas in depth methodically that way you won't be lost.

I enjoyed this book so much that I would definitely recommend this book to any .Net Web Developer and this book is going to take some space on my desk.

This book is an excellent resource for learning ASP.NET 3.5. It also serves as a great reference.

It is a comprehensive book that covers all of .NET 3.5, not just the new features in .NET 3.5, but all the features that have been there over the last several releases.

Mathew includes chapters on Linq, ASP.NET AJAX, and Silverlight. If you only want to learn about the new features in .NET 3.5, buy separate books on ASP.NET AJAX and Silverlight. Mathew does a great job of putting Linq into it proper place within a common ASP.NET 3.5 Architecture. So far he has done this best job of this I have seen in a book.

One reviewer on Amazon pointed out that the book has a lot of material from previous versions. That is to be expected since all the previous versions are included in the technology. Like I said above, this book covers everything.

Mathew does a great job relating everything to real world scenarios. He also provides very usable code samples.

If you are developing in ASP.NET 3.5, this is a must have book.

Truly not the best book for me only two chapters are from asp.net 3.0, the rest are copied over from asp.net 2.0 by the same author. I was disappointed because I have read these chapters before . If you're new to c# this may be the best book for you but for a professional c# developer not the best.

Check out the beginner ASP.NET 3.5 in C#2008 by Matthew MacDonald
before reading this book if you are new to .NET.
Both books by Matthew MacDonald are awesome.
If only the Java industry has books like Matthew MacDonald's standard.

This is one of the premier books on ASP.NET. The authors' writing style is eminently readable, which is important for a topic that requires 1400+ pages. They have a talent for bridging the ASP.NET learning material with select core C#.NET Framework concepts, tips, gotchas, and all-around useful recommendations.

The book is well-structured; the layout leverages the success of the previous ASP.NET 2.0/C# 2005 book.

This was a breath of fresh air, and restored my hopes that some authors do care about training, really teaching, really conveying meaning -not just padding pages. This book gives excellent overviews of web development, of web-development with ASP.NET, and of Visual Studio. All topics thereafter are properly introduced, the big picture conveyed, before details explored. Code dumps are sparse and pertinent, not filler fluff. Writing style is of the highest quality: rich, correct, to the point, but interesting. The author makes the topic very exciting, and seems to know you, seems to know your level, what you need explained.

This book is the best so far that I've read on ASP.NET. I will list the good points.

1. Explains the internal workings of ASP.NET and what goes on behind the scenes unlike other books who just teach you the syntax.

2. Explains the pros and cons of using different but related controls/classes so that we can make an intelligent choice.

3. Explains the properties of classes concisely and with simple examples.

4. Explains the history of Internet server, visual studio IDE, asp.net.

This is really an excellent, nearly comprehensive book touching on nearly all aspect of asp.net. However, it doesn't teach you C#, the programming language which is found on another book.

'Pro ASP.NET 3.5 in C# 2008' by Matthew McDonald is an update to the earlier versions that covered ASP.NET in the .NET 2.0 flavor and earlier. With this updated revision you get 200+ pages of new material covering such new concepts as the incredibly hyped LINQ, ASP.NET AJAX and Silverlight. The content here is VAST, with 33 chapters and 1500+ pages. The content is broken up in logical fashion from the basics of ASP.NET to data types and conditional loops to database access and everything you would need to know. I like this book perfectly fine and think it's a good resource but I can't imagine that most people are going to sit down for the weekend and start reading this cover to cover. With the previous version I felt that some content needed to be trimmed and I feel the same with this edition as well. Good writing, nice examples but the editor needed to take out the red marker and make this a manageable size. The core audience is someone that is new to ASP.NET and wants to learn. This encyclopedia is tough to learn from and intimidating in general.

Is it a usable ASP.NET book?? Very much so, just a bit too long and this might turn some people off in the long run.

**** RECOMMENDED

I bought this book to learn ASP.NET 3.5 and i believe it covers all topics. It is really nice book, explained all topics with example. Highly recommended for learning APS.NET 3.5.

I will agree with some other reviewers and say that this book might be a little too long... but I can't take any stars away for that, it is truly comprehensive.

What I enjoyed most were some of the beginning chapters concerning the Global.asax, web.config, HttpHandlers and HttpModules, and how to configure and use these tools. I do wish there was a little more info on HttpHandlers and HttpModules, as there is a definite lack of info anywhere (can't find books or particularly useful online info).

Otherwise, there are plenty of applicable examples, it is extremely well written (like almost all 'Apress' books i read), and definitely took me from playing around with web-forms to truly beginning to leverage the power of .NET. This will not collect dust any time soon.

Highly recommend.