Professional ASP.NET Server Controls: Building Custom Controls with C# [Illustrated] [Paperback]

MAtt Butler (Author), Thiru Thangarathinam (Author), Matt Milner (Author), Michael Clark (Author), Ryan O'Keefe (Author), Angelo Kastroulis (Author), Jan Narkiewicz (Author), Daniel Cazzulino (Author)

Book Description

Series: Programmer to Programmer | Publication Date: February 2002

Server Controls are a core part of the ASP.NET architecture. They are components that produce a user interface element that can be reused with ease. The standard controls that come with ASP.NET include the textbox, the button, the data and list controls, and some rich controls (for example, the calendar control). This book is designed to show you how to create your own controls, either from scratch, or based on existing controls.

This book is designed to be a complete reference on how to create Custom Server Controls using C#. In essence, it's a definitive guide to what they're used for, how they are created, and the benefits that they can provide.

The first part of the book will be concentrating on the code itself, and is designed to be editor-neutral, concentrating on the raw code involved in creating controls and making use of these controls. The second part of the book will have more coverage of visual designers like Visual Studio .NET, talking about why using IDEs is so helpful, and examining the powerful features of Visual Studio .NET that are useful when creating custom controls.

This book is a comprehensive guide to all of the processes involved in creating fully-functional server controls, including handling events, managing state, templating, creating data binding controls, and distributing controls.

The book will finish with a case study that will bring together all of the concepts discussed in the earlier chapters.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

It is assumed that the readers will be familiar with the built-in controls available in ASP.NET. The book is aimed at experienced developers who are ready to extend the functionality of ASP.NET beyond its basic foundations, and create their own customized reusable controls.

The natural starting point for this book is anyone who has read Professional ASP. NET or a similar level of book, or anyone who has a good understanding of how ASP.NET works and wants to look into creating their own controls. This book is not suitable for the newcomer to ASP.NET.

About the Author

Matt Butler is an independent contractor who specializes in Windows DNA, .NET, and Java. .MAtt went from being a homeless, starving jazz musician to a programmer holding numerous certifications, including MCSD, Sun Java Certified Programmer, BEA Certified Programmer (Java/Weblogic), and a few other miscellaneous certifications. Rode the wave of the .COM craze working on sizable profile-based search engines and transactional e-commerce applications using the Windows DNA architecture in return for 'stock options' and pizza.

Daniel Cazzulino is a senior developer who discovered C# and the .NET Framework early its beta process. He has had many years experience developing distributed solutions based on Windows DNA, COM/COM+, and VB, but has now left this behind him to dedicate himself full time to the new platform. He's been tempted to work with Delphi and Java, but finally found his home in MS's new developer tools, and has done work related to XML, XSLT/XPath/XQuery, WebServices, .NET Security, ASP.NET, and others.

Mike is currently working solely on Research and Development around Web Services and ASP.NET technologies. He is solely responsible for the World's first web services brokerage.

Angelo focuses his expertise on the design and development of software applications using Microsoft Windows DNA and .NET technologies. He has particular proven field experience in software architecture, database design, and development. Having served in the capacity of Lead Developer, Project Manager, Director of Software Development, and CTO, he is intimately familiar with technology, logistics, and business.

Matt Milner works as a Technical Architect for BORN in Minneapolis where he designs and builds Microsoft solutions for clients in a variety of industries. Matt's primary focus has been using Windows DNA architecture and he is excited about the move to .NET and all the powerful new features.

Jan D. Narkiewicz is Chief Technical Officer at Software Pronto, Inc. Over the years Jan has managed to work on an e-mail system that resided on seventeen million desktops, helped automate factories that make the blue jeans you have in your closet, transmitted television programming to millions of homes all over the world, and kept the skies over the Emirate of Abu Dhabi safe from enemy aircraft. All this was achieved using technology such as COM/DCOM, COM+, C#, VB, C++, SQL Server, Oracle, DB2, ASP.NET, ADO.NET, Java, Linux, and XML.

Ryan manages eBusiness for a medium-sized distribution company in the Dallas/Fort Worth area within the great state of Texas. Since starting on Unix platforms writing PERL CGI scripts, his work now concentrates on B2B and B2C e-commerce applications using C#, ASP and ASP.NET, Cold Fusion, and XML. Ryan is also a licensed private pilot with time logged in Cessna, Piper, and Grumman single engine aircraft.

Thiru works as a Consultant at Spherion Technology Architects, an international technology consulting company, in Phoenix, Arizona. He is an MCSD, and during the last two years, he has been developing distributed n-tier architecture solutions for various companies using the latest technologies such as VB, ASP, XML, XSL, COM+, and SQL Server.

Product Details

• Paperback: 450 pages
• Publisher: Wrox Press; 1st edition (February 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1861005644
• ISBN-13: 978-1861005649
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 7.2 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,505,189 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Writing Server Controls? - Look Elsewhere., January 17, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Professional ASP.NET Server Controls: Building Custom Controls with C# (Paperback)

This is the worst, most overpriced, Wrox book I have ever purchased. If only the entire book had been of the quality of the added chapter "JavaScript and Server Controls" (available from Wrox.com). Now that was an excellent read. I can't believe it was the same group of authors.

This book attempts to reduce a complex topic to a few lame examples and no real explanation of the concepts. I was very disappointed. I got no more information than I already had in a single chapter of "Professional ASP.NET".

See the MSPress book "ASP.NET Server Controls and Components" for an example of how it should have been done. The MSPress book (~700 pages, as opposed to 439 for the Wrox book) provides a thorough treatment of the topic with excellent, sometimes challenging, but always well documented examples. The authors consistently make a point of explaining WHY something was done. I found that quite refreshing. Reasons are important to good understanding!

Each chapter of the MSPress book builds on earlier chapters, but sequential reading is not absolutely necessary. The MSPress book appears to benefit from a wealth of inside information; things you may never decipher from reading the .NET documentation. It includes everything you need to know about writing .NET Server Controls!

15 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Look elsewhere first, June 28, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Professional ASP.NET Server Controls: Building Custom Controls with C# (Paperback)

This book is the first on the market and it shows. If you count the number of authors it is about the same as the number of chapters. This explains why it doesn't flow, chapters repeat, and the style jumps around more than a grasshopper. There is a chapter on writing controls with Visual Studio .NET that appears to be nothing more than a brief tour of VS.NET and therefore a complete waste of a chapter. This book is about server controls and the majority of that chapter has nothing to do with server controls at all. There is also no chapter, not even an index entry, for client-side scripting or JavaScript integration which is completely inexcusable. One of the greatest benefits of server controls is the ability to encapsulate HTML and script in one neatly packaged reusable component and that fact is largely missed by this book. The chapter on licensing and deployment is way too small and the coverage so confusing it leaves me wondering if the author understood the subject at all. This is a theme through many of the chapters, that the authors seem to have little experience of server controls beyond playing with the MSDN samples. Have they actually built controls that have been distributed commercially or reused across a corporation? I see very little evidence indeed that they have and therefore their credentials are in serious doubt. Many of the samples are the kind of impractical theoretical examples that are of little value in real life and cause more confusion than anything else. It's also innacurate - for example it states that the Render() method is not present on the Control class. There are other books on the market on server controls and I would highly recommend that you look elsewhere. In summary: it's average, hard to read, confused, innaccurate, inconsistent, too small, incomplete and fails to communicate high levels of skill in the subject.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Terrible book - Please stay clear, July 8, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Professional ASP.NET Server Controls: Building Custom Controls with C# (Paperback)

This is probably the most disappointing technical book I have ever seen.

I started developing custom server controls in the earlier days of ASP.NET 1.0, when this was the only book available on the topic.

This book was of literally zero help despite being written particularly for the topic. In fact, if anything, it was confusing and hindered my efforts repeatedly.

The book is a loosely related collection of materials written or assembled by the multitude of authors. Some of the portions of the book seem almost directly taken from Microsoft's freely available documentation. Not surprisingly, the weak points in the documentation typically coincide with the weakest points of the book. In other words, the book is useless. Wrox's own general ASP.NET book "Professional ASP.NET" and the various free online resources were of much more help in early 2002, and there are many more alternatives now.

By the time I was done with my first full-featured custom server control I realized that it was extremely unlikely that any of the authors had gone through the same experience prior to writing the book. This made me approach the publisher with the request for a full refund, a decision on which was delayed until I finally gave up and regretfully threw the book in the garbage.

It is my understanding that the newer editions of the book have added some of the most glaring omissions (like a full chapter on generating client-side script, where the original edition offered nothing). However, there is no fixing a house this crooked. There are much better books available now, like "Server Controls" by Kothari and Datye.