6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent WIF resource, September 20, 2010
This review is from: Programming Windows Identity Foundation (Dev - Pro) (Paperback)
This is a must have for any anyone tasked with writing claims aware applicatons. Do NOT let the size of this book fool you either - it is jammed full of critical details. This is the only publication available that goes into the detail that Vittorio goes into. Whether you're new to claims-based development and just want to know enough to get started writing Relying Party's (that's about the first 50 pages), or need the in-depth knowledge of how protocols work, intricate details of WSFAM and SAM, and such, this book has you covered. I also like how Vittorio draws attention to solutions to some common problems, such as home-realm discovery, pass through claims, impersonation, proof-of-possession, custom STS's, and more. You will also find references to some very useful tools to aid in your development.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent resource to get started with WIF, October 6, 2010
This review is from: Programming Windows Identity Foundation (Dev - Pro) (Paperback)
Having followed Vittorio's work (blog, webcasts, code samples)related to claims-based identity over the last two-three years, I ordered this book as soon as it arrived. And this book did not disappoint. I read the book cover-to-cover within a week of its arrival and found it to be very useful in helping me better understand the concepts behind WIF.
Here are some additional details that I hope will be helpful to anyone considering this book:
1) Claims based identity is an important enabling technology that .NET developers and designer need to understand well. And this is not just case, if you are an ASP.NET or WCF developer. Claims-based identity is important even if you are SharePoint, BI or Azure developer.
2) This book is broken up into two parts. The first part explains the basics of claims based identity. Second part is more advanced and gets into the nuts and bolts of WIF.
3) Don't skip over the ASP.NET chapters (2, 3 & 4 ) just because you are not going to use WIF inside ASP.NET. These aforementioned chapters cover a number of important concepts ( such as single-sign-on, claims transformation, federation) that you will need to understand when using WIF outside of ASP.NET (say with WCF).
4) Being involved with the WIF team for a long time, Vittorio is able to provide important context around how some of the features have evolved, design decisions etc.
5) Last but not the least, it is hard to write a book on security. Fortunately, Vittorio has managed to write it in a conversational, unassuming style that makes it easy to read. Wherever needed, he provides a just in time, overview of protocols ( WS-Trust, WS-Federation and so on) without getting mired in the details associated with these, rather arcane, specifications.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
So-So by Itself, but Must Have..., October 10, 2011
This review is from: Programming Windows Identity Foundation (Dev - Pro) (Paperback)
Because there really aren't any good alternatives out there.
As far as technical books go, this one is only so-so. The chapters are somewhat oddly organized -- or one could say disorganized -- and make it difficult to mentally compartmentalize the lessons.
Some of the examples use odd choices of scenarios and it could use more code samples and discussions of the internals and less of the high level concepts (perhaps it's the organization that's throwing me off).
In the end, it's a middling book that becomes a near must-have because of the current lack of in-depth coverage on the topic. I would recommend it, but it's not the most practical of books when it comes to gaining a deep technical understanding of the topic at hand.
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