Customer Reviews

Professional Active Server Pages 2.0

5 star:		(78)
4 star:		(26)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

First a few things about myself at the time I bought this book:

I am an amature web developer - hobby for the most part. I am not a MCSE. I am not a professional programmer.

The book moves pretty quickly after the first few chapters on the history of the web and networks. Then it jumps right into the meat and potatoes of the ASP object model for the next few chapters. You really have to read these chapters about 4 times, and if you take a week or 2 off, don't expect to retain anything. I see more stuff in there every time I read it. It is just up to you to really disect it all. It is not an easy read, but I will not let that keep my score down on it.

The examples are good at showing the discussed ideas on the page, but entire applications can be spread out over 10 pages, making it hard to just look at the whole picture. Definitely keep your highlighter handy, or you'll miss something you swore was right in front of you the last time you opened the book.

The second half of the book honestly blew me away. I am not sure if I will ever use it. It covered topics like Transactions and security and scalability, which if you are not doing this work full time is really not ever going to concern you.

Although I have not read it, I think the Beginning ASP 2.0 book would probably have been the better bet, but I guess it is just like me to want to have the "best" and bought the next one up. One book that I can recommend as a compliment is the Beginning ASP Databases. Typically it is my experience that you're going to use ASP do connect to a database and Professional ASP, although gives a descent intro to it, really should have the DB book right next to it on your shelf.

Oh yeah, be sure to have some VB programming experience, or else the learning curve gets a little longer.

One more thing, this is all good for Win98 PWS and NT4.0 IIS 4.0. If you're going to be on Win2000, you need a book on ASP 3.0.

Let me put my review in perspective. I have been programming in one language or another for almost twenty years. I am an Internet Engineer for a Fortune 500 company. I perform contract work consisting of database design and implementation. In other words, I'm very familiar with many of the topics as they're presented in this book. Coming from this background, I found this book to be an invaluable resource.

I would NOT recommend this book to a beginner. I can't stress this point enough.

For an experienced programmer (and not just an experienced web surfer or HTML author!), the Wrox "Professional" series are a tremendous resource. Too many Internet-programming books start out with the history of CERN, HTML, ad nauseum. The "advanced" books are only useful as references, but you could never read them cover-to-cover. For me, the Wrox "Professional" books fall somewhere in between--exactly what I'm looking for.

"Professional Active Server Pages 2.0" did a great job of bringing web applications all together: from server side scripting, to client side scripting, to configuring IIS 4.0, to programming and installing Visual Basic components, to implementing transactions with Transaction Server. I found the segments regarding Internet security to be especially interesting. Although several of the examples assume a Windows NT Server 4.0 setup with IIS 4.0 and Microsoft SQL Server 6.5, I was able to implement many of them using Peer Web Services on Windows NT Workstation 4.0, Personal Web Server on Windows 98, and Microsoft Access 97.

The book does have some drawbacks: there are some pages that have incorrect code examples. Chapter six, which covers the Server Object model references many components which simply do not function as advertised. I had to purchase the "Internet Information Server Resource Kit" and install some of the components from the accompanying CD-ROM before I could use them. However Wrox does provide an errata bulletin board on their website, and there are a few discussion groups there as well that can help you through these types of problems. I even e-mailed Wrox for some of my questions, and was very grateful to receive answers straight from the authors.

If you are already comfortable with object-oriented programming, and have a reasonable understanding of the Internet, then you should find this book to be a great resource. I can't recommend it highly enough. However, the novice web programmer who is simply looking to spice up their pages with a little server side scripting would be well advised to look elsewhere.

I picked up this book with no background in ASP. Of course I didn't understand at all. I then read Beginning ASP and got back to this one. It is indeed one of the best book on ASP 2.0. It covers databases access, security and many web development tips with lots of examples. This book is for readers who have basic knowledge in HTML, database, JScript, Vbscript and ASP. Beginning and Professional ASP are two must have books for web developers.

i'm only half way through the book and i love it! ....it's definitely the most definitive book on ASP that i've seen thus far.....the authors assume a basic understanding of HTML, VBScript, and some JScript but also guide the reader smoothly through all of the topics covered with numerous examples of some of the hot areas of web development such as form processing, web/database access, and security....a definite must buy if you're into web development or just enjoy playing with the stuff like me

I learned to use advanced ASP features by reading this book, and now I use it as an always-trustfull reference whenever I forget how to do something.

I was new to the web technology and i think that i conquered it with this book in a month. It is an excellent book for starters and a good desktop reference. It is easy to understand and i am sure you will get what u want from this book.More examples and scenarios would have been better, but thats how it works (U don't get what u want !). Cheers--- Read ON......

If u have fundamental knowledges on programming and database, and have experienced on using vbscript and html to develop website, or u are already an intermediate web developer(those can create a simple website, not web page) and u want more, it can be one of the first step for u to learn how to be a professional web programmer. The topics on Database, Client/Server, Creating online Communities, Transactions, Implementing ASP Securities and the E-Commerce Case Study it tells u many important concepts and useful techniques to develop a professional website.

I'm a CS student and an intermediate web developer. I read this book after I read another ASP book about basic ASP. The books start by stating new generation of web solution which the world demands and what tools u can archieve them(all microsoft products). Then it tells u the basic ASP concepts. After reading these two chapters, u know about what a web required and the entry to archeive them. It goes on to explain differnt ASP object/components. If u're experinced on developing website, u'll know how these work and what for: u'll find it very useful. The book also tells u some tips on how to use them smartly.

After these studying these basic ideas, the professional things come: database, transaction, security, online communicty and an e-commerce case study. They're important to if u don't know them much or haven't implement the concepts on web.

The books explain these concepts clearly by text and codes. Useful tips are all around.

Appendix let u find out infomation about ASP method, property quickly etc.

If u feel urself an intermediate web developer but want to be professional, u must read it. ASP is just a tool to archeive it, concept is more importnat, and the book makes a good balance.

after reading this book, u should go on to read Professional ASP techniques for Webmaster

I would suggest this book for folks only who are real beginners. For those who have been programming VB or C++ before or did some MS Access programming, this becomes pretty boring after you read 10%. A lot of information is overhead, too long and useless information. BTW: For those who are useing Win95/98 or NT Workstation can use PWS only, so at least 50% of the book it useless because you would need IIS, and therefore NT Server (e.g. for SMTP).

I was new to ASP when I bought this book and have used this book almost daily. I went throught the first 8-9 chapters in order and built a solid base. From that point on, the book has served as an invaluable resource. I would highly recommend this book to anyone. By the way, I had never coded in VBScript prior to picking this book up and had no experience with JavaScript.

As a senior developer and technical director of a software company specializing in eBusiness applications, I need current, pertinent information at my fingertips. This book is always with me when developing with ASP and was the most important tool I used to learn ASP. Buy it, and it's successor, Professional ASP 3.0, now.