ASP.NET 2.0 Beta Preview (Paperback)

~ (Author) "ASP.NET 2.0 has its roots in an older Web technology from Microsoft, which was called Active Server Pages - or ASP for short..." (more)
Key Phrases: personalization properties, end user hovers, new data source controls, Visual Studio, End Sub, Web Parts (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

What is this book about?

ASP.NET 2 Beta Preview is timed to coincide with the first widespread beta release of ASP.NET "Whidbey" -- the new version of Microsoft’s popular technology for creating dynamic Web sites that pull unique information for each visitor rather that showing everyone the same static HTML pages. The book gets developers up to speed with the new features and capabilities that ASP.NET 2.0 provides. Developers will learn how to build ASP.NET 2.0 applications for themselves from the examples that the book provides.

This book is for ASP.NET developers making the transition to this new version of the technology. The changes are many, and in some cases, they're quite dramatic. The book spends a good deal of time alerting you to all that has changed and explaining what you need to know to make the transition to ASP.NET 2.0.

Finally, the book focuses on both the Visual Basic .NET and C# developer. Examples throughout the book do not favor one developer over another. Instead, every example is provided in both languages.

From the Back Cover

The changes in ASP.NET 2.0 are numerous, far-reaching, and exciting.

If you’ve been working with previous versions of ASP.NET, this book will give you a head start in understanding and applying ASP.NET 2.0. You’ll find code for the examples in both VB.NET and C#, so you are prepared to use either language.

ASP.NET 2.0 enables you to build powerful, secure, dynamic applications with up to seventy percent less code, according to Microsoft®. Step by step, this book will show you how ASP.NET 2.0 differs from its predecessor, what you need to do to make the transition, and how to use these extensive changes to enhance your development.

What you will learn from this book

• How to use Visual Studio 2005, the new IDE
• Fundamental changes to the ASP.NET page framework, including the code-behind model, new compilation features, cross-page posting, and RESX files for creating international applications
• New procedures for handling and controlling data
• How to use master pages to perform visual inheritance within ASP.NET applications
• Options made available by the portal frameworks that are part of ASP.NET 2.0

Who this book is for

This book is for developers who have already been exposed to previous ASP.NET versions. It guides you through the available ASP.NET 2.0 public beta using examples in both VB.NET and C#.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 470 pages
• Publisher: Wrox; illustrated edition edition (August 6, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0764572865
• ISBN-13: 978-0764572869
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 7.2 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,720,328 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Outstanding overview of V2 for experienced ASP.NET devs, August 6, 2004

By	Jason A. Salas (Dededo, Guam Guam) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Bill Evjen, one of the most prolific writers on all things ASP.NET, presents his latest technical literary offering with his overview of the Beta 1 release of ASP.NET 2.0. I've been playing with ASP.NET 2.0 since the early alpha bits, and I got a lot of out of this title.

Admittedly not a primer for the .NET neophyte, Bill dives right into the major changes in the architectural, infrastructure and syntactical concerns facing next-gen web developers. The book is a quick read, containing 16 succinct but not light chapters on the major areas of building and administering ASP.NET web applications. Although the book takes a slight slant towards Visual Basic .NET, nearly all the code samples are presented in both VB .NET and C#.

The book's high points, in my humble opinion, are evident in the "Membership and Role Management", "Personalization", "Additional New Controls" and "Changes to 1.0 Controls" chapters, being an outstanding breakdown of V2's improvements and new features for those respective topics.

Also to be appreciated is a great compendium featuring the new languages shipping with both VB .NET 8.0 and C# 2.0, including new enhancements to both languages like generics, partial classes and anonymous methods. He also breaks down new language-specific improvements, such as VB .NET's new keywords and C# iterators.

In criticism, I would have liked to see a discussion of authoring the revamped custom control development model, which the book didn't cover. But in Bill's defense, that respective programming convention isn't quite finished yet. The only other thing lacking would be more descriptive ASP.NET 2.0 APIs, which is usually a hallmark of Wrox-produced texts (the only area to get such treatment in this title is the WebParts/Portal Framework APIs). But then again, moving towards more declarative programming is one of V2's goals, so this may be intentional.

With the exception of Bill looking a bit harried on the cover, it's a masterful work: well-rooted in the ASP.NET fundamentals while accommodating advanced topics, accompanied by relevant, code-heavy examples, all written in Bill's very appreciated friendly voice, with the right timely intermingling of humor.

Bravo and cheers, Bill! Great work!

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars For VB users & beginners only, January 26, 2005

By	D. Riggins (Atlanta, GA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I was unimpressed by this book. MSDN documentation was 10x better, they failed to include any reference to Remote Scripting or Callback methods, they didn't add in any reference of how to use client side script handlers or a number of features you would expect that are included in 2.0. If you want an update to all the past controls that you already know then this is great, if you want to delve deeply into the advanced new features of ASP.NET 2.0 then I don't recommend this. The author also is obviously a VB developer but pads the book by using a generic converter for most of his code, quite a poor display in my opinion.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Nice book, May 7, 2005

By	ZubairDotNet - See all my reviews

The book has 15 chapters and they are wisely categorized, starting from an introduction to ASP.NET 2.0 and why was it needed with some of its new features at a glance, it also discusses Visual Studio 2005 IDE enhancements and the new server controls like Grid View and Details View controls for effective display of information. It also has a chapter dedicated to Personalization and Membership and Role Management which is an awesome new feature.

It also discusses Web Parts and Portal Framework and some of the language enhancements in VB 8.0 and C# 2.0. The book also features SQL cache invalidation and its benefits, lastly it gives us an insight into the additional new controls shipped with ASP.NET 2.0 like Mutliview & View Server controls and Wizard Server control.

I strongly recommend this book to anyone seriously thinking to know more about ASP.NET 2.0 but note that this book was written for Beta 1 of ASP.NET, therefore there are some changes in the Beta 2 for example <a href="http://msdn.microsoft.com/asp.net/whidbey/beta2update.aspx#ASP.NET_2.0_Directory_Naming_Changes_" target="_blank"><strong>Directory Naming Changes</strong></a> and <a href="http://msdn.microsoft.com/asp.net/whidbey/beta2update.aspx#ASP.NET_2.0_Compilation_Model_Changes" target="_blank"><strong>Compilation Model Changes</strong></a>, visit <a href="http://msdn.microsoft.com/asp.net/whidbey/beta2update.aspx" target="_blank"><strong>Updated Changes for Beta 2</strong></a> and <strong><a href="http://msdn.microsoft.com/asp.net/beta2/beta2changes.aspx" target="_blank">Features postponed for ASP.NET 2.0 Beta 2</a></strong> for more information.

Happy reading!