Customer Reviews

XML Programming with VB and ASP

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(8)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

This is a short introduction and overview to using XML with ASP and VB. It should take your understanding of XML from beginner to intermediate. Plenty of code samples are provided to illustrate the concepts. This is very much a practical book.

The book does contain several typos, and some of the sample code does not work correctly. However these are minor points.

Many XML books are quite esoteric and concentrate on the detail. This book takes an alternative approach of giving the reader details of the most relevant XML objects, properties and methods. In essence the reader gets a kick-start into the practical world of XML.

You may need to read the book twice (or at least the code-related chapters 4 and 6) to get the most from it.

The book contains several important snippets of information sources (e.g. Schema tools, generating a DTD from XML data), which could be quite rewarding.

The book tries to be comprehensive and detailed (e.g. by giving a n-tier application) but it probably fails in this since it also brief. Additionally only very brief details of schemas and BizTalk are given.

Overall an enjoyable read.

I had high expectations for this book after reading the reviews, and it seemed to be just what I was looking for. Practical examples of how to use it with ASP. Well, I must admit, the style of writing is far less dry than other XML books. But...the typos, and missing details are driving me nuts!

In trying to type in the example code I'm getting *very* frustrated. In working through chapter 4, I just can't get the example of standalone data islands to work. The section labeled 'full source code' can't possibly be. I need the source code for the data island AND the html file. There isn't enough detail to make it work.

So, figuring I'd skip that and move on, well now just a short bit latter 4.4.11, I've typed the code in exactly, and checked it mulitple times, but my button bar keeps ending up in the wrong place. NEXT to the table rather than under it! I try putting in the standard HTML tags to fix it (p, br, etc) and none of it works. Why?

I consider myself to be pretty good with HTML, and intermediate in ASP (2 years or so) yet just can't get these things working. The book web site has nothing under the errata section either!

I'm going to keep plugging at it, but this book is loosing stars by the minute.

I am quite disappointed with this book after having read the first several chapters. A sloppy writing style(not to mention a lot of typos) and contents organization makes unclear of the basic concepts and applications. It is difficult to get the points. I got confused, even though I have knowledge of XML and programming experience in VB and ASP. I think it is just a waste of time to continue to read this book, I would like to get more info about XML programming with VB and ASP directly from Microsoft's website.

Sloppy. The information that Mark and Tracy Wilson are trying to share with reader may be solid. However, the code examples they use to illustrate this information are far from it. It makes it very difficult to regard anything in the book as reliable when the examples don't work. This is not the first (or last) time this kind of sloppiness has been allowed to be published, but anyone considering this book needs to know that they will need to visit the web site listed in the book to download the source code before any thing will click. The next time Mark puts out a book he needs to employ the services of not only a proof reader but also a proof tester. Hopefully he wouldn't deliver a software product in such sloppy condition...

I agree with a number of other reviewers, skip this book. It is more frustrating than it's worth. Shame too, cause it starts out strong and then just fades away.

Code Examples are REDUNDANT.
Code Examples are INCOMPLETE in the book. (Even the "Complete" examples. Had to download the source code and go line by line to figure out what was "missing". VERY FRUSTRATING.

Book skips arround quite a bit and is confusing at times. The Summary Case (3 tier architecture) which I was looking forward to was pretty much......um USELESS.

Oh well, I didn't listen to the others, maybe you will listen to me. Take a pen, paper and write down the 3 useful pages in this book and save your money.

I've finished the first read of the book and I thoroughly enjoyed the experience. I did find two glaring omissions I will comment on at this time.

1.) I enjoyed chapter 7 and the remarks concerning the DOM. The object model is vast and here it is reduced to the 100 or so pages of stuff I'll actually use with examples. All the other books I've read uses the standard filler docs re-worked only for format and not content (what better way to add an additional 300+ pages?).

2.) Also missing is the section where the author dryly discusses the virtues of one Java based parser over that of another. This of course would be accompanied by TERRIBLY abstract IXMLDOM example code where the author demonstrates his mastery of the inane. I enjoyed the authors' treatment on this in chapter 4 with the real world examples I can relate to.

In the past, I have spent hundreds of dollars on books and training material that has left me more confused than when I first started. This book presented the material in a clear and straight forward manner and I consider it to be the best 30 bucks I've spent this year. I will buy a 6-pack of this book and distribute them to my people. If they then can't understand the XML, I'll just get new people.

Though I wish the examples in the book were more complete, this books get 5 stars for being both practical and concise in discussing a subject matter that many other authors have chosen to cover in an academic manner. I have 2 other XML books that go into great detail about the difference between SGML and XML, the history of the XML specification, and how the XML standards commitee works... Exciting stuff! This book skips all that fluff and gives you what most programmers want - a nice intro to how to use XML covering basic usage. I got this book after going through the XML documentation at MSDN online. If you are new to XML, look over the MSDN online articles and examples and then pick up this book and you will be on your way.

I downloaded all the files from the website, and like a frustrated person before me, am stuck in chapter4 trying to figure out what pieces I am missing. I need more instruction on how I should have done the install/setup. File names and directories must match with the sample code. The pace of the book is good and tries to show very useful examples. I am sure I will need them, but would like to see how all the code fits together. Am I really supposed to believe there is a path called "http://mark/xmlcode/demo.asp" on my machine? Snipets are not enough. Show the whole code.

This is sort of great book to read. It provided a very comfortable air to learn a lot of stuff - in just a few pages ( only 283). However, I think the book also have very poor linkage between the book content and example source code. The book explains and traces the source code well. On the other hand, most likely, you won't know which source file to look into, how to compile, or how to run ( of course, in few cases, the authors will tell you). If the reader want to learn from book text and code example simultaneously( which I think is the best way to learn ), this book will definitely give you a lot of hard time. You can download the zip files and extract them but you can not easily map source code to book's chapters and sections. Definitely not a good book for people who don't know ASP or VB in advance.

This book had some interesting examples of XML data islands and use of the MSXMLDOM object, such as for adding nodes and iterating through nodes. However, the book is relplete with annoying typos and its exmaples are hard to read. In addition, the examples are incomplete in some cases. There were not enough examples of ASP-XML as its title implies. If you're looking for alot of ASP-XML exmaples, don't buy this book.