Programming Microsoft ASP.NET 2.0 Core Reference [Paperback]

Dino Esposito (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0735621764 | ISBN-13: 978-0735621763 | Publication Date: November 9, 2005 | Edition: 2005 ed.

Build your expertise as you move beyond the basics—and delve into the core topics of programming with ASP.NET 2.0. Useful to both experienced developers and those developing new skills, this ultimate reference is packed with expert guidance, hands-on programming instruction, and practical examples to help you advance your mastery of developing applications for the Web.

Discover how to:

• Author rich, visually consistent pages and manage layout with themes and Master pages
• Create personalized pages that persist user preferences
• Retrieve, modify, and manage data with Microsoft ADO.NET
• Configure the HTTP pipeline to serve ASP.NET 2.0 pages
• Control program flow by tracing and handling exceptions
• Design caching layers and learn state management techniques to optimize application performance
• Manage users with membership control, registration, and authentication capabilities
• Build real-world data access layers using common design patterns
• Use custom collections with data source controls
• Learn the internals of grid controls

PLUS—Get code samples on the Web

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

Completely revised and updated for ASP.NET 2.0, this book expertly illustrates the intricacies and uses of the technology—in a single, pragmatic volume.

Key Book Benefits:

• Delves into the core, must-know topics for developers working with ASP.NET 2.0, and advances their mastery with essential skills

• Examines the new controls and infrastructure in ASP.NET 2.0 in depth, while also providing the latest information on classic ASP features such as controls

• Provides hands-on code examples to illustrate concepts and build skills mastery

About the Author

Dino Esposito is a well-known ASP.NET and AJAX expert. He speaks at industry events, including DevConnections and Microsoft TechEd, contributes to MSDN® Magazine and other publications, and has written several popular Microsoft Press books, including Microsoft ASP.NET and AJAX: Architecting Web Applications.

Product Details

• Paperback: 784 pages
• Publisher: Microsoft Press; 2005 ed. edition (November 9, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0735621764
• ISBN-13: 978-0735621763
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 7.3 x 1.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #899,608 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Dino Esposito is a well-known ASP.NET and ADO.NET expert at Solid Quality Learning, a global provider of advanced education and mentoring for Microsoft technologies. He speaks at industry events, including Win-Dev and Microsoft TechEd, contributes to MSDN Magazine and other publications, and is the author of several Microsoft Press books.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

24 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not exactly a reference, April 2, 2006

By 

James de la Bastide (New York) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Programming Microsoft ASP.NET 2.0 Core Reference (Paperback)

The book is not quite what I had expected it to be. Many here are saying that it is not a book for beginners, but I think that is not true. The book tends to lean a little more to the fact that the reader is not an experienced programmer and had not used .NET in the past. It has the typical Anatomy of an ASP.NET Page and deployment discussions.

I would not call the book a 'Core Reference' if your definition of a reference is a book to refer back to when you have a specific question on how something works. There is a lot of useful data here, but it is interrupted with trivial examples and in my mind basic knowledge. If you are an experienced .NET developer, a cursory read in the bookstore will be more than enough to get to know the new controls in ASP.NET 2.0. The MSDN will fill in the blanks. This is probably a good book to use as a study guide for the new certification exams, but not a book that I will be using a reference for the ASP.NET 2.0 controls.

Of particular interest are the SQLDataAdapter class and changes in the 2.0 viewstate. The Web Controls are glanced over, but if you know ASP.NET 1.x it doesn't matter. There is a large discusssion on the new Bindable Grid Controls, but they once again are very limited compared to what is available via 3rd party controls (Not an issue with the book, but the controls themselves).

Overall the book is decent. I don't think it is a must have for your programming library, but good to be pick up if you are generally new to .NET and want to work with the latest version.

40 of 45 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Not for beginners, March 1, 2006

By 

John Brunton (Roan Mountain, TN) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Programming Microsoft ASP.NET 2.0 Core Reference (Paperback)

I have been programming ASP.NET for 3 years and my knowledge was increased by Dino's book: Programming ASP.NET (ISBN 0-7356-1903-4). This new book, Programming Microsoft ASP.NET 2.0 has a lot of promise of learning what is going on "under the hood". While all this information is good/nice to know, it isn't what an experienced ASP.NET 1.1 developer needs to know day one toward learning what is new in ASP.NET 2.0. I would, rather, recommend Murach's ASP.NET 2.0 upgrader's guide (ISBN 1-890774-35-9) to get you up to speed very quickly to the new features in 2.0. It is like looking at the earth from 50 miles high whereas Dino's new book is at the 1 mile level. It is good, no, very good but when your making a living at laying code you don't have time to stop what you are doing and learn new versions (every year or two). That's why I recommend Murach's book for a first look into 2.0 and then Dino's book to fill-in the details.

By the way, excellent work Dino!

19 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Disappointing, November 10, 2006

By 

James F. Houghton (USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Programming Microsoft ASP.NET 2.0 Core Reference (Paperback)

Learning to program is a hands-on activity. The best teaching texts are those that provide example programs which the student can reproduce, tinker with, and observe, to learn the concepts illustrated thereby.

Unfortunately this book does not take that pedagogical approach. The textual descriptions are high-level, supplemented by abstract and simplified diagrams, as well as tables that list in exhaustive (and exhausting) detail the various classes, their methods, properties, &c. One looks in vain however for a good program to illustrate how an actual ASP.Net website might work (I gave up looking after Part I).

The author advises that this book should not be the first to be read on the subject of ASP.Net 2.0. Accordingly, I read a more basic text on the subject, which, through well-constructed sample programs, gave me a firm grasp of the basics and whetted my appetite to learn more advanced techniques I could use to build practical websites. I hoped this book would supply those techniques, but I was disappointed.

This book might be of use to a developer who already knows the essentials of ASP.Net 2.0, and needs a desk reference for use in day-to-day programming tasks. As a learning tool, it is about as useful as trying to learn a foreign language by reading a dictionary.