Customer Reviews

Programming the Web with Visual Basic .NET

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book is aimed at teaching someone who is ALREADY exposed to VB.NET how to create database driven Websites using VB.NET, ASP.NET, and ADO.NET. It takes a database neutral approach and you could use almost any database in using this book. If you are new to VB.NET but have a good understanding of another programming language, you will still be able to follow this book.

The book does not skip any steps in explaining how to use these three technologies on a Web project. It is very detailed in its explanations and has a lot of sample code that works! You have to download this sample code from their website (which is a good thing as you will have code that has been thoroughly debugged). Any problems I had using the code in this book had to do with Visual Studio.NET 2003 related problems. But once I fixed those issues, I had no trouble using the sample code. A lot of examples can be used immediately in almost any Web project you may be currently working on.

In the initial stages of learning these technologies, I was lucky enough to find this book and spent a lot of time reading THIS book only and to date, I have covered more than 70% of the book. I couldn't skip any sections as they are so well written and well connected (the various topics). This type of thorough treatment of a subject in the IT world is rare and it got me thinking if it is to do with the authors or the publisher. I have already decided to check out more books by the publisher first.

The thing I like the most about this book is the excellent explanations they give on how ASP.NET, VB.NET, and ADO.NET really work. They are very detailed and the explanations make sense! That combined with the practical nature of this book (tons of code) make it a very valuable find. By the time you are done with this book, you should have no trouble creating a database driven website. You still need 'ASP.NET Developer's Cookbook' by The ASP Alliance to create a complex website. But this book will give you the confidence you need to consider yourself a decent web developer in using .NET technologies. You can then go to the next level.

If you are frustrated trying to find a good book on using VB.NET to design websites, you won't be disappointed with this book. I found only a few books on .NET that I really like and this book made the Top 3 of that list. Enjoy using this book to master ASP.NET, VB.NET, and ADO.NET for the Web!

I can't believe the recent two less-than-stellar reviews of this book, because I found this book to be absolutely top-notch.

I moved from VB6 to VB.NET (Windows programming) not too long ago, but I had never done any Web programming. Someone had recommended ASP.NET Unleashed. It has lots of little code examples, but they're chock full of response.write's (yuck!). It also assumes you'll be using notepad as your code editor (double-yuck!).

In contrast, Programming the Web with Visual Basic .NET is a complete tutorial that explains how to develop Web applications and services the right way. It uses Code Behind exclusively, gives great tips for designing usable Web pages, and takes you through the Visual Studio way of developing ASP.NET applications.

The sample code is useful and interesting. I especially appreciated the chapter that shows how to use the .NET trace features to understand exactly how the Web page processing sequence and control tree works. I also loved the examples on using resource files to localize pages for international users and on developing a "breadcrumb" custom control (and why you need breadcrumb links).

The database chapter on ADO.NET was exactly what I needed to understand the Visual Studio tools for handling the disconnected datasets used in scalable Web applications. The examples tied together well and were fun too. What with Lizzy the milk cow running off with the bull next door, Daisy and MooMoo joining them, Bossy getting depressed... Along with learning to do database deletes and updates, I was treated to a regular dairy farm soap opera. :-)

Each chapter added greatly to my knowledge, and the final chapter cemented it with a surprisingly thorough start-to-finish Web site development project. I say "surprisingly" because most books' single-chapter, "start to finish" projects don't cover nearly as much ground as this one did.

Although this book seems to be written mainly for experienced VB programmers, I would also highly recommend it for experienced ASP programmers who want to learn ASP.NET (as long as they learn some VB.NET first -- this book doesn't try to teach that too -- it expects that you'll start with a basic understanding of VB.NET). The reason I recommend it for ASP programmers is that this book will teach them the Code Behind way of coding, rather than perpetrating the response.write way they had to code in previous versions of ASP.

Our developers are always hungry for ways to exploit web technology and keep our technical momentum on full afterburner.
I was very happy to see a book like this that helps us focus the power of multiple technologies and integrate them right away.

We were able to use this book's references immediately to gain traction with a potential customer. The special effects were eye-popping. The examples are practical and give enough peripheral references to help readers dive deeper on their own.

Developers using VB will find this a valuable resource to extend their technical scope into internet-based technologies. It's well-written and organized, and most any subject area you care to focus on is easy to find and dive into. This is the first book of its kind - melding VB and the Web - that can be used by the widest number of technologists.

The most difficult part about assimilating .NET into the mainstream has been a lack of documentation and clear examples of where things intersect and how they best interact. This book clarifies much of that - so rather than slog through the rough spots, get a copy of this one and keep it handy.

This exceptionally well-written and well-organized book contained exactly the information I needed to come up to speed on ASP.NET. In a nutshell, this book clearly explained how I could use VB.NET to build and install a successful and attractive Web site.

I like that the authors don't confine themselves to describing the capabilities of ASP.NET, ADO.NET, and so on, although they do describe those capabilities very thoroughly indeed. Commercial Web developers themselves, the authors frequently reveal glimpses of their passion for creating excellent, successful Web sites. Throughout the book, they explain the whats and the whys of good Web development practices right along with the hows. The code examples they give reinforce their approach by showing how to use VB.NET to improve the experience of a Web site visitor. Some of the examples are stunningly attractive.

Although I've been programming with VB for several years now, my company previously farmed out its Web development work to outside vendors, so I didn't come to VB.NET with a lot of ASP experience under my belt. That may be one reason that this book struck such a responsive chord with me. It assumes that you know how to program, but it doesn't assume that you're already a Web developer.

If you're upgrading your skills from VB6, though, don't make this your first book on VB.NET. The authors devote no space whatever to the differences between VB6 and VB.NET.

When my company migrated our development language from VB6 to VB.NET, I found a couple of other Apress books on VB.NET to be very helpful (once I got over the shock of how different VB had become). But after a programmer gets comfortable with VB.NET, this book is--for my money--the best of the lot.

I originally bought several of the best-selling books on ASP.NET, but got bogged down pretty fast. For someone like me, who did not start out as an ASP guru, the mass of somewhat disconnected details did not tell me what I needed to know to create a good Web site. This book got me over that hurdle.

Like most programmers, I pride myself on being able to find some fault with anything. With this book, it was hard to find a flaw, but here's my best shot. In chapter 4, I ran some example code before reading the instructions and got a browser screen with an error message. (I was writing an image created on the fly to a directory before setting the necessary permissions.) In my opinion, the authors should have provided a custom error screen telling me exactly what I needed to do to fix the problem. Then they could have used this as an example in chapter 14 where they do, in fact, show how to display a custom error screen.

Other than that, I can't recall any problems at all with the code. Clearly the authors of this book care deeply about the quality of their written work as well as the Web sites they develop.

I have written a few SQL based websites using ASP, and wanted to try out the new .NET technology that had gained such laurels from people whom I respected, so I purchased Visual Studio.Net. I followed the provided walk-throughs, and was impressed by the flexibility and speed of all that I saw. Dot Net is definitely the direction of the future. Now I had to try and master the technologies that I would use. I went to a large bookstore and spent hours looking through DotNet books. I came home with a few. They were helpful, but not what I was looking for, I then came here to Amazon.com, and saw this book, Programming the Web with Visual Basic .NET by Lynn Torkelson, et al, so I (got someone to get it for me :) ). What a pleasant surprise! It was exactly what I needed. The book covers all that I needed for Microsoft Framework driven websites, to a good foundation on OOP, to real world examples, to an excellent treatment of XML (which will be the foundation of the next generation of OSes and SQL technology).
This book is a worth-while investment in both money and time.

As an ASP developer trying to make the leap to .NET, I have purchased several books on the subject. This is the first one I've found that approaches the subject with clarity, precision, and lucidity rarely found in books of this type.

The code examples are excellent. They are simple enough to be easily accessible to those who are new to .NET, yet all are grounded in the real world, and have relevance to the types of applications one might often write.

The chapters are laid out in a way that the reader can progress logically through the typical web application development process. The chapter on XML Web Services was as good an explanation of the topic as I've seen anywhere.

Kudos to the authors (obviously no-nonsense, real-world developers) for a job well done.

I have found this book to be an excellent resource for filling in many of the gaps I had in programming ASP.NET pages using VB.NET. I also found new ways of handling various code modules than what I had originally had been doing in my programs.

I am the kind of person that needs to hold an item before I purchase it, so I would spend hours thumbing through many of the books in my local bookstore only to find that many of them did not cover what I needed, said exactly what the Microsoft help told me, or just touched on a subject I needed but did not elaborate on it enough to make any use of the information. I found this book not to do that.

I would highly recommend this book to anyone who has a knowledge of programming ASP.NET pages using VB.NET as the code-behind and is looking to expand upon their knowledge.

I'm a long-time VB developer with experience in COM and GUI applications. I recently got a project using VB.NET to construct a Web application. Having no experience or idea how to even start, I flipped through a copy of this book at the local book store. After just a few minutes, there was no doubt I needed to bring this one home.

This book does an excellent job of bringing one "up to speed" quickly on the fundamentals. It also touches on several more advanced subjects, allowing your Web applications to have that professional look and feel.

If you need a solid and thorough reference on VB.NET Web development, look no further. Kudos to Zac, Constance, Lynn, and the folks at apress!

It's pretty good for Internet Applications. I recommend this product for Web developers. And also a great price through Amazon.com

Over a year ago I posted in an ASP.NET forum complaining about the lack of good books utilizing the VS.NET IDE as a teaching tool.

Well, there are several titles out there now. But few good ones. From my post it was evident that I wasn't rerally willing to learn a language but try to wing the point and click way.

So one of the authors of this book just plain told me to go and learn a language like VB and then get her book.

Thast was both a harsh comment and a hard sell!

Apparently that is what I needed. I did realize that in no way my pretty lofty programming goals could be met with peripheral knowledge of .Net. I have a doctoral degree but programming really gave me a hard time getting started.

I would get to about page 200 of your average 6-700 page computer tome and stall in a sea of poor definitions and convoluted moronic explanations we are all familiar with and dread.

Which 2 year old wants a description of a cat as a feline quadripede domesticated mammal (that is a 3 letter word with that raises 4 hums?) Unfortunately, geek literature is plastered with that.

So I would go on to the next title. Finally I broke down and bought this book too and it hit home.

I now own more than 3 dozen programming books. I don't even program VB.Net any more but I still go back to the Torkelson/Patterson title the most because of the excellent examples, clear explanations and solid practices.

Some people just have the knack to teach properly! It is a talent, like all human endeavors not equally distributed, so getting your start from an effective communicator is key.

If VB.NET is your lingo this book will parley it to you the best!

Cudos!