Professional ASP.NET MVC 2 [Paperback]

Jon Galloway (Author), Scott Hanselman (Author), Phil Haack (Author), Scott Guthrie (Author), Rob Conery (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 28, 2010 | ISBN-10: 0470643188 | ISBN-13: 978-0470643181 | Edition: 1

Top-selling MVC book from a top team at Microsoft—now fully updated!

ASP.NET MVC 2.0 is now available and shipping with Visual Studio 2010 and .NET 4. A new update to Microsoft’s Model-View-Controller technologies, MVC 2 enables developers to build dynamic, data-driven Web sites. Professional ASP.NET MVC 2 shows you step-by-step how to use MVC 2. You’ll learn both the theory behind MVC 2, as well as walk through practical tutorials, where you’ll create a real-world application. Topics include transitioning from ASP.NET development, as well as an overview of related tools and technologies, including LINQ, jQuery, and REST.

This book is for web developers who are looking to add more complete testing to their web sites, and who are perhaps ready for "something different."

In some places, we assume that you're somewhat familiar with ASP.NET WebForms, at least peripherally. There are a lot of ASP.NET WebForms developers out there who are interested in ASP.NET MVC so there are a number of places in this book where we contrast the two technologies. Even if you're not already an ASP.NET developer, you might still find these sections interesting for context, as well as for your own edification as ASP.NET MVC may not be the web technology that you're looking for.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

A comprehensive overview covering the new features of MVC 2

ASP.NET MVC 2, Microsoft's latest version of the successful web development framework, helps you create dynamic data-driven web sites; this book gives you an extra edge. Starting with Scott Guthrie's popular NerdDinner.com application, this book uses real-world examples to discuss the theory behind MVC 2: how to transition from ASP.NET Web Forms development, and how you benefit from advanced features. The author team scrutinizes MVC 2's new features and explains how MVC 2 relates to Visual Studio® and .NET versions.

Professional ASP.NET MVC 2:

• Shows you how to create the database, build the Model, and work with Controllers and Views

• Addresses authentication and authorization

• Explores MVC 2 in relation to Ruby on Rails®, Django® and Python®, MonoRail, and others

• Dissects views: what they do, what they shouldn't do, and how to specify a view

• Explains how to share data between Web Forms and MVC

• Points out the important changes between MVC 1.0 and MVC 2

• Includes 2 weeks of Rob Conery's TekPub, expert screencasts on ASP.NET MVC 2, LINQ, ASP.NET 4, Entity Framework, jQuery, and more

Wrox Professional guides are planned and written by working programmers to meet the real-world needs of programmers, developers, and IT professionals. Focused and relevant, they address the issues technology professionals face every day. They provide examples, practical solutions, and expert education in new technologies, all designed to help programmers do a better job.

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Join our Programmer to Programmer forums to ask and answer programming questions about this book, join discussions on the hottest topics in the industry, and connect with fellow programmers from around the world.

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About the Author

Jon Galloway works at Microsoft and is part of the Server and Tools online group where he focuses on the ASP.NET community including the ASP.NET web site.

Phil Haack is a senior program manager on Microsoft's ASP.NET team.

Scott Hanselman is a senior program manager on Microsoft's ASP.NET team.

Scott Guthrie is corporate vice president of Microsoft's .NET Developer Division.

Rob Conery is an expert in ASP.NET and creator of SubSonic.

Product Details

• Paperback: 552 pages
• Publisher: Wrox; 1 edition (June 28, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0470643188
• ISBN-13: 978-0470643181
• Product Dimensions: 1.1 x 7.5 x 9.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #798,877 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Chock full of errata... August 15, 2010

By Kenneth W. Powers

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

Starting with the ViewModel section of chapter 1, there is plently of errata which leaves you wondering. This is confirmed on the books official forums filled with people asking for answers.

In short, the book tries to use "TryUpdateModel" which doesn't work because you aren't using the Dinner model any more, but rather the DinnerFormViewModel. You have to use one of the overloaded TryUpdateModel methods in order for it to work. You can visit the book's forums for more details.

There are also a lot of errors in the map section of chapter 1 -- mainly in the ids you have to select using jQuery (#Dinner_Address instead of #Address, for example). You also don't get the CSS to position the map correctly -- you must make your own css to float the map to the right and position it.

EDIT: More errata: The C# code for finding the nearest dinners within 100 miles is not present in the book or the downloadable code. You get the sql code. However, like another function that they give you, you need SQL and C#. You can get the C# code at the forums.

Overall, it's a good introduction; however, the various errata in the advanced topics of Chapter 1 leave me doubting the quality of the rest of the book. Given that the problems are fixable (if you are willing to try and understand what it doesn't tell you and visit the book's forums for help), I am giving the book three stars.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful

2.0 out of 5 stars Wait for the corrected version August 23, 2010

By Kennedy

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

The sample application code is filled with errors and omissions. You are better off waiting for the corrections to be addressed before spending your time on this book.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful

2.0 out of 5 stars Errata beginning to impede progress September 23, 2010

By Samrat

Format:Paperback

I am about 90 pages into the book and the errors are already starting to impede my progress.
There is no official errata available. I would not recommend spending money on this book.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Great for explaining concepts, Horrible at showing you how to do them. September 7, 2010

By James in Indy

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

Chapters 2 and on are well worth the read to explain the concepts behind models, controllers, views, and what makes them work together. I absolutely recommend reading these, and read them first (5 stars).

Chapter 1 (which is 1/3 of the book) tries to talk you through creating the NerdDinner application, which would be great if you could do it from this book. However, there are so many errors and ommissions that trying to create the application is a long exercise in frustration; every step of the way leaves you experimenting or searching online because the code you just typed in didn't work (even once you feel you understand the concepts). It's enough to make you hate MVC, but keep in mind it's the instruction that's faulty, not the technology itself. Chapter 1, you get 1 star.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful

1.0 out of 5 stars Professional? October 11, 2010

By flyinhawaiian84

Format:Paperback

What kind of professionals are these people? As many have mentioned, there are significant errors in the first chapter. The Errata on the wrox website (as of 10/11/2010) is severely lacking. You have to go into the wrox forums to find answers from other developers.

Yes, you can find the most updated NerdDinner at [...] but it's so overhauled it doesnt match the book anymore. A seasoned developer won't have much of a problem fixing these issues. But if you're a new to the web environment, the first chapter is a major pain, especially getting the bing map to show up correctly.

Although I did learn a lot, 1 star for numerous painful errors in chapter 1.

Most of the problems are listed in one posting: [...]

The rest of the issues are listed here: [...]

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

2.0 out of 5 stars Poorly written, buggy code July 7, 2011

By Travis Lee

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

The text is disorganized and the code is full of bugs. It seems like none of the code was tested before it was published in the book.

1.0 out of 5 stars Terrible January 11, 2012

By A. S. Bertagnolli

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

The first chapter, although full of errors as everyone said, was really the best part of the book. I learn much better by example, and the 1st chapter was 160pages of it. The errors in the book, although inexcusible for something I paid money for, actually helped me learn more, because it forced me to debug the application and search for answers. I tend to learn more this way anyway, but it was pretty pathetic that these errors were published.

After chapter 1, I pretty much read the entire book in a couple of days, and learned almost nothing. Truthfully, I'm being a little biased, as I was reading Apress's Pro ASP.NET MVC 3 book at the same time. The only reason I bought this book was to see the difference between MVC 2 and MVC 3. I could've just bought Apress's MVC 2 book, but I wanted a different perspective. Unfortunately, it wasn't a very good one. Outside the first chapter, I really can't recommend this book. Look elsewhere. Apress's MVC 3 book is leaps and bounds better than this book, and goes far, far, far, into more detail than this book. However, it is twice as long. Both books fall short in that, like every other book, they only provide the simplest examples. It would be nice to see a book start like this book, right out of the gate, with a simple full web site example (btw, Apress's book spends the middle of their book and a full example as well); teach you meaning behind the example in the 2nd part, and then in a final 3rd part of the book, build a very real, detailed, hard-core, full-fledge website by example, just to nail it all down.

5.0 out of 5 stars If you want to get a hands on experience , buy this book March 22, 2011

By RJ

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

I bought this book almost 9 months back but now only got the time to read it.The book starts with a real world example and explains the theory later. I din't know anything about ASP.NET MVC .So what I did was read some of the theory behind Model ,View and Controller and started doing the Nerddinner project. Then I started realizing that as the authors say "The best way to learn a new framework is to build an application with it.". This is very true. You might see some errors in the code as a lot of other people complain.But if you ever worked with ASP.NET web forms, its all manageable.You can find the whole source code in codeplex [...].This is what I refferd to when ever i come across some error in the code.Of course , we don't expect the Gurus to make any mistakes in their book(lol)..
Also i found that they really explain very well all the concepts (Model,View and Controller).So my opinion is that if you want to get a real undestanding of what ASP.NET MVC is and don't mind searching codeplex or Wrox P2P forums for that matter, this book is all for you.

RJ
Jacksonville,FL