ASP.NET Weekend Crash Course (With CD-ROM) (Paperback)

~ Robert Standefer III (Author) "A very wise software engineer once said, "The software development business is fraught with innovation..." (more)
Key Phrases: Visual Basic, End Sub, Session Checklist (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

Open the book on Friday evening and by Sunday afternoon ñ- after completing 30 fast, focused lessons - you will have mastered the skills necessary to begin creating robust, dynamic, data-driven web applications with ASP.NET. In just one weekend, expert developer Robert Standefer leads you into the new world ofMicrosoft.NET, and enables you to create robust, dynamic, data-drive web applications. Starting with ASP.NETbasics, Robert teaches you what you need to know to begin creating ASP.NET applications quickly, and easily. This book is a must have for any developer building web applications on Microsoft's new .NET Framework.

From the Back Cover

Get Up to Speed on ASP.NET — in a Weekend! The big day is Monday — the day you get to show off what you know about ASP.NET. The problem is, you're not really up to speed. Maybe it's been a while since you worked with Active Server Pages. Or maybe you're new to Microsoft.NET. In any event, we've got a solution for you — ASP.NET Weekend Crash Course. Open the book Friday evening and on Sunday afternoon, after completing 30 fast, focused sessions, you'll be able to jump right in and start creating dynamic Web content. It's as simple as that. The Curriculum Friday Evening: 4 Sessions, 2 Hours

• Introducing .NET
• The Evolution of Server-Side Scripting
• Programming Basics
• Setting Up ASP.NET

Saturday Morning: 6 Sessions, 3 Hours

• Working with the .NET Framework
• Choosing a .NET Language
• Understanding XML
• Programming with Visual Basic .NET
• Building the Guts of a Program
• Working with Objects
• ASP.NET versus ASP
• Introducing ASP.NET
• Using Namespaces and Classes
• Building ASP.NET Applications
• Managing Session State
• Building Your First ASP.NET Page

Evening: 4 Sessions, 2 Hours

• Introducing Web Forms
• Working with Controls
• Validating User Input
• Building a Web Form

Sunday Morning: 6 Sessions, 3 Hours

• Understanding Databases
• Setting Up Your Database
• Using the Data Controls
• Understanding ADO.NET
• Working with Data
• Building a Data Aware ASP.NET Page

Afternoon: 4 Sessions, 2 Hours

• Configuring ASP.NET Applications
• Finding and Fixing Errors
• Some Advanced Topics
• Putting It All Together

CD-ROM Includes:

• All sample code from the book
• Assessment software

System Requirements: PC running Windows 98 or later, Windows NT 4 or later. See "What's on the CD" appendix for details and complete system requirements.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 360 pages
• Publisher: Wiley (October 15, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0764548360
• ISBN-13: 978-0764548369
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7.4 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 1.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,735,487 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Painful., January 5, 2003

By	L. Fuller (Buffalo, NY USA) - See all my reviews

I really didn't have many complaints about the book during the first few chapters. In fact, I appreciated reviewing some of the history of the past technologies, even though I had used those technologies. I also didn't mind that the book doesn't discuss "Visual Studio .Net" since I already know how to use it. I forgave some of the small typos along the way. However, at about Session 20, everything really broke down.

Code was missing or just plain wrong from that point on. The listings on the CD were also incorrect or missing (Session 20 did not have a complete listing, instead referring the student to the CD-ROM. This was the first time I used the CD-ROM during the course ... and Session 20 was missing!). And where are the Web-based errata? If you go to [url] you are told to visit [url]. If there are errata there, they are well-hidden. Using online resources and those included with Visual Studio, I was able to come up with my own solutions to the problems presented. However, by the time I had finished the course, it was no longer a "Weekend Crash Course". To add insult to injury, the included testing software also has typos and grades the questions incorrectly.

In conclusion: There are a lot of good books out there now that are based upon the released version of ASP.NET. Use those. This book is already miserably, and painfully, out of date.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Crash and Burn!, March 15, 2002

By	Clark Cooper (Layton, UT USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This book is truly a rare find. Technical books are often daunting to the beginner; occasionally frightful to the Intermediate. But this book takes instructional incompetence to a whole new level

I've read enough technical and programming books to know that a few errors are inevitable. I guess I have to cut Rob (the author) some slack. He wrote the book while ASP.NET was in Beta. ASP.NET is now in its first release and most of his more meaty examples, if they ever did work, do not work now.

As of this review date, the author has posted no *important* errata on his book's Web site. I have no doubt he knows how to program well, but writing may not be his bag. Stick to the day job, Rob.

Hungry Minds (the publisher) could have saved a few trees by making Mr. Standefer condense his re-caps to the important parts of code. Instead he will spend anywhere from 2-4 pages showing you the entire code listing from the previous chapter(s) (a quick way to get through a chapter). On the other hand, one nice feature about this book is that if you can't get the example to work in one chapter, you have the same example-with different errors-in the next chapter. It's nice that the errors differ from chapter to chapter, so you can find which lines are different and take your best stab at correcting them.

I have a bookshelf at home that holds all of the tech books I've completed. I feel I've wasted money if I buy a book and don't read it cover to cover. Before "ASP.NET Weekend Crash Course" there was only one book I EVER started that I just couldn't finish-now there are two. ...If you are a beginner, take a guide with you. If you are intermediate or advanced, you *may* be able to muddle through the errors, but why?

Aside from any errors not working, this book serves as a sort of technical specification. Far too much real estate is given to "How it was done in ASP", which leaves too little room for indoctrinating one on "How it is done in ASP.NET"

Granted, part of the complexity for a beginner will also lay in the fact that multiple languages, concepts and technologies are being presented at once. This is not the author's fault. That is the nature of .NET (and specifically ASP.NET).

The author never gives full attention (or enough working examples) to the technologies new to ASP.NET (such as Web Forms, Classes, Data Binding, XML, etc).

I have to agree, yet disagree with the customer below. While the book seems to be a re-write of the documentation (with additional fluff), I'd have to say that the documentation is a lot easier to follow (that may not be saying much for this book...

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Don't buy this book!, July 4, 2002

By	hero1234 "hero1234" (Louisiana) - See all my reviews

I bought this book with the aspirations of getting a somewhat steady foundation in ASP.Net. As a "classic ASP" developer I wanted to get a jumpstart on ASP.NET with a quick overview. Unfortunately, my hopes were trashed by this book. There are so many typographical errors in this book that it makes me wonder if anyone cared to proof this book. Some of the code samples (including one that involves File Uploading) do not work. On one .HTML file he forgets a double quote which causes the page not to function correctly. If that is not enough, once you debug the author's own work, the file still doesn't work! If you mistakenly bought this book, email me and I'll send you the correct code. If the author is reading this....get a real job.

P.S. I'm sorry that Amazon makes you select at least a 1 for the book, because it's lower than that.