Beginning Active Server Pages 3.0 [ILLUSTRATED] (Paperback)

~ David Buser (Author), Chris Ullman (Author), Jon Duckett (Author), John Kauffman (Author), Juan T. Llibre (Author), David Sussman (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Filling an important spot in the Wrox Programmer to Programmer series, Beginning Active Server Pages 3.0 is an excellent introduction to the new version of ASP released for the Windows 2000 platform. This guide expects no previous ASP knowledge or even previous Web development experience.

Its friendly style makes this book welcome reading at all skill levels. The material is carefully presented to avoid losing readers who are totally new to ASP programming, yet it still provides impressive technical coverage, beginning with the very basic concepts behind ASP programming and moving forward to advanced coding techniques.

As each topic is presented, relevant screen shots and useful code snippets under the heading "How It Works" complement the text. The chapters also include step-by-step exercises to familiarize you with new techniques and tools. An extensive case study application takes you through the entire development process as well. If you're interested in Web coding Microsoft-style, this is the right place to start. --Stephen W. Plain

Topics covered: ASP language fundamentals, server- and client-side scripting, ASP object model, cookies, error handling, scripting objects, recordsets, transactions and COM+, XML introduction, ADO object model, and VBScript reference.

Product Description

Active Server Pages 3.0 is a scripting tool which offers an easy and user friendly way of programming dynamic web sites. ASP 3.0 is an easy way to control content - with the flexibility to handle complex professional commercial sites, utilizing components, objects and Databases.

ASP 3.0 is now being given away in Windows 2000, opening up a potentially huge new market of users.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 1232 pages
• Publisher: Wrox Press; 3rd edition (January 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1861003382
• ISBN-13: 978-1861003386
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7.3 x 2.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (103 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #768,446 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

118 of 120 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent book to learn ASP & VBScript, June 20, 2000

By	Music Fan from St. Louis (St. Louis, MO USA) - See all my reviews

An excellent book for beginners, Beginning Active Server Pages 3.0 starts simply and builds on what you've learned until you code a fairly fully-featured application. By the time you've gone through the book, you'll be able to create web pages that can return and capture information stored in databases, tailor pages based on information captured from input by users -- in short, create web pages that are in fact active.

Although there are some grammatical errors in the text itself, I think another reviewer perhaps overstated their existence. More importantly though, the examples and exercises take you through using the materials covered in a clear, concise manner. Not a lot of fluff or worthless repetition.

Although geared towards Windows 2000, the book can be used if you have a Windows 95/98 platform, at least as far as learning ASP basic coding techniques. An appendix covers use of Personal Web Server (required to let your 95/98 based PC act as a server and thus run the ASP code).

Numerous other appendices provide worthwhile reference materials concerning errors, VBScript reference, runtime libraries. etc.

If you are looking to teach yourself ASP, this is an excellent book to use to achieve that end. Don't let its size (1100+ pages) turn you away.

22 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Must For ASP Beginners !, February 21, 2000

By	Chris Trevino (Washington State) - See all my reviews

In two days...in two days I was writing my own ASP pages ! This book covers the basics in a format that is comprehensive and easy to follow. You think you are just learning asp...but what you don't realize is you are aslo learning VBScript! The book is written in such a way that you are literally "forced" to remember what you just read. Packed with explanations and examples and explanations of those examples, this book takes you by the hand and builds on what you learn page by page. Forget the other guys...this book teaches you what you need to know. Definitely one of the best "investments" made into my future !

35 of 38 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good but wordy, October 27, 2000

By A Customer

Like most Wrox books I've read, this book contains lots of easily understandable information, but it is not as concise as it could be. Still, I learned to use ASP from this book and I recommend it.

I have done a little Visual Basic and HTML coding, and to me this book seemed too basic in parts. The first part of the book is about how the server deals with HTML and about VBscript. The book doesn't really get into ASP until about page 170.

The examples are usually short, which is good. Too bad the examples are not more self-contained. The authors too often illustrate a new point by saying "use the code in the previous example, but with the following changes..." That's just lazy. A complete new code listing for each new topic would have been more helpful.

If you are a beginner and you don't mind wading through a lot of words (1000+ pages worth) and a somewhat boring book design, get this book. It will teach you a lot.

If you are a very experienced developer, this book will be too basic - look elsewhere (the Wrox book Professional Active Server Pages 3.0 seems popular with reviewers on Amazon).