Beginning Dynamic Websites with ASP.NET Web Matrix [ILLUSTRATED] (Paperback)

by David Sussman (Author), Colt Kwong (Author), John West (Author) "Programming web applications is a great way to start your programming career..." (more)
Key Phrases: web matrix, matrix web server, tour diary entries, End Sub, Visual Basic, Data Explorer (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
With this book and Web Matrix, you'll be developing your own powerful ASP.NET websites in no time.

We'll start at the beginning, learning how to create graphical web pages in Web Matrix. Then we'll use Visual Basic .NET and databases to add the dynamic features usually seen in expensive commercial websites. We'll finish by looking at some of the expert ASP.NET features - writing our own controls and web services.

Even if you've never programmed before, this book will take you right into the world of professional web development. You'll be amazed at how easy it is, and how much you can do.

From the Publisher
Complete Starter kit. Everything you need to get you started:

Complete ASP.NET Web Matrix Software included on the CD
Friendly tutorial full of working examples and packed with screenshots

With this book you will be able to...

Go further than just static HTML websites, by using a programming language. We will get you building real dynamic websites right from the beginning.
Change the content of your pages quickly and easily by using databases. With this book, you’ll learn how databases work, and how to make the most of them.
Add interactivity to your website by creating your very own Guest Book, and allow people to leave messages with emoticons.
Create content you can distribute to other websites, and learn how to automatically update it all over the Web in one go!

Who is this book for?

Users of any edition of Microsoft Windows XP or 2000
Ideal for beginners - no HTML knowledge is required

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Product Details

• Paperback: 500 pages
• Publisher: Wrox Press; Bk&CD-Rom edition (January 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1861007922
• ISBN-13: 978-1861007926
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 7.2 x 1.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,712,765 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Book for Beginners in the .NET world, February 28, 2003

By A Customer

As an experienced programmer in the IBM mainframe world I found David's book just the right blend of theory, humor, and practical examples. The code examples are clean and easy to follow and work! The extra attention to the setup of IIS, MSDE and WebMatrix was especially helpful. This is a great book to get started with ASP.NET technologies using a great tool "WEBMATRIX" . This book is for beginners so experienced ASP programmers will not find it advanced enough. And it is not a web HTML/CSS book....

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Absolutely great book for beginners (static to dynamic web), July 25, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Beginning Dynamic Websites: with ASP.NET Web Matrix (Programmer to Programmer) (Paperback)

I am a college student having some programming knowledge but totally new in dynamic/ data-driven web creation. I found this book really helpful to get started from static to exciting data-driven stuff with ASP and MSDE. Although WebMatrix has a limitation(which was developed by a team of people from Microsoft at their spare time), it's a real great tool for beginner to get to know how to install database engine, create a data table, link to your web form with drag-n-drop and some hands-on coding (provided in the book). If you need to go on to industrial level, this book or WebMartix won't help.
Chap 1 starts with step by step instructions on how to install .NET framwork, MSDE (you need this if you don't have SQL running), then WebMartix (which has its own web server, you don't need IIS to run samples from the book). One of the great styles of this book is easy-to-follow-and-understand examples which has "Try It Out" & "How it Works" section which explains the code line by line in detail. I found Chap16 and 17 really helpful for general knowledge on "Web Services" and "Beyond WebMatrix," but make sure you finish this book first, then go on to more exciting Visual Studio .NET (which is a "bigbrother" of WebMatrix)
Oh..2 case studies at the back of the book, which explains step by step how to make a guestbook, reconizing customer and "log-on" stuff..and the CD includes some software WebMatrix, MSDE, etc..
Thanks to David Sussman and Wrox P2P

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Not bad, good examples, July 13, 2004

By	Anvar Amangoulov (British Columbia, Canada) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Beginning Dynamic Websites: with ASP.NET Web Matrix (Programmer to Programmer) (Paperback)

This book is a not bad introduction to ASP.NET. The reason I purchased it is I really needed to master Web Matrix ASAP and Mr. Sussman's book was quite helpful in accomplishing that goal. Of course, it is better to begin with Visual Studio since Web Matrix is somewhat limited resemblance of Visual Studuo but Web Matrix has something nobody could resist - it is free.
Make sure you learn as profoundly as possible chapters about datagrids and reusable content; these two are absolutely irreplaceble components of practically any online database application. Also pay attention to inclusion of namespaces at the very top of your code, it is forgetable. The only thing which was not working for me is Web Services. Other code samples work fine.
I would recommend to start with this book to anybody who needs to master ASP.NET.