ASP.NET by Example [Paperback]

It's a great starting point for anyone interested in .NET, but it won't be the only .NET book you'll need to buy. You'll definitely want another good VB.NET or C# book as well (My favorite so far is "Introduction to C# Using .NET" published by Prentice Hall.)

I took the time to write this review because this was a great book FOR ME. I pre-ordered it... , and I have to say it was worth every penny. It definitely won't be the right choice for everyone, but the following bullets might help you make your decision.

* If you've had some experience with C++, VB or Java, and don't consider yourself an expert, you'll definitely want this book on your bookshelf.
* If the title on your business card reads Web Developer" and you're wondering where your future is going, save yourself some headaches and start it with this book!
* If you've already been experimenting with .NET and consider yourself a more advanced programmer, don't waste your time with this one unless you are looking for something to recommend to less experienced coders.

Simple Statistics
Steven A.Smith, Nicholas Chase, Glenn Cook, Nathen Grass, Vincent W.Mayfield, Wynn Netherland, Scott Swigart and William Wise.

Publisher: QUE Pages: 527 Chapters: 18 (Including Appendix)

Table of Contents
Chapter 1: Overview .NET
Chapter 2: An Introduction to ASP.NET
Chapter 3: Migrating from ASP to ASP.NET
Chapter 4: The New ADO--ADO.NET
Chapter 5: HTML/Web Controls
Chapter 6: Using ASP.NET List Controls
Chapter 7: Using ASP.NET Rick Controls
Chapter 8: Using ASP.NET Validation Controls
Chapter 9: Using ASP.NET User Controls
Chapter 10: ASP.NET Applications
Chapter 11: ASP.NET and Web Services
Chapter 12: Custom ASP.NET Controls
Chapter 13: Debugging ASP.NET Overview
Chapter 14: Case Study in Ecommerce with ASP.NET
Appendix A The ASP.NET Syntax
Appendix B The ADO.NET Object Model
Appendix C VB.NET Programming Reference
Appendix D C# Programming Reference

Who is this Book for?

ASP.NET by Example is intended for people with some prior knowledge of Microsoft's Active Server Pages (ASP) technology who are familiar with programming and dynamic data-driven Internet applications. However, you do not need to be an expert with VBScript, JScript or any other scripting language because they play a limited part in the future of ASP that is ASP.NET.

An insight into some of the Chapters

Migrating from ASP to ASP.NET is discussed very well in Chapter 3. This chapter gives you an over all idea about the major difference between classic ASP and ASP.NET. This mainly include the new file extensions that we have in ASP.NET, how to maintain state between ASP and ASP.NET, Language differences, how to declare the new Server controls in ASP.NET and so on. This chapter will be very helpful, if we need to convert a Classic ASP website into an ASP.NET website.

Chapter 4 gives us an overall idea about the major differences between ADO and ADO.NET. This has some good examples such as retrieving data from a table, calling stored procedures, inserting records into a table etc. This chapter also has some cool examples that deals with DataReader Object, SqlDataAdapter Object, DataSet Object, DataGrid Control, Repeater Control and DataList Control. Oh Man! You should keep this chapter always open while you are developing a web application using ASP.NET.

Another very interesting chapter in this book is the Chapter 8, "Using ASP.NET Validation Controls". Validating the user input is very simple with ASP.NET. This chapter has several examples that we use everyday. This chapter goes through all validation controls that is available in ASP.NET. RegularExpression is also discussed very well in this chapter. Now, you can use regular expressions to validate any input format that you may have in your web pages.

A vital concept in ASP.NET is the code behind concept. Chapter 9 takes you a tour about "User controls" in ASP.NET. If you wanna learn about creating user controls in ASP.NET, then you should read this chapter. The examples discusses in this chapter can be used in a real time environment. This chapter has a very good example on how to create a "Login user control". This example is a very useful one and is a must for every web site that has secure information that needs to be shared among different users.

Debugging ASP.NET applications is a must for every web developer. Chater 13 has all information regarding how to debug a ASP.NET application. This chapter has a cool example that can be used to "read the contents from event logs". Another interesting aspect of this chapter is the discussion on "Frequently encountered bugs" in ASP.NET.

If you are a ASP.NET developer, then you should have this book. I would rather like to call this book as "ASP.NET MSDN". Grab a copy of this today itself!

There are a few things I would like to point out when considering buying this book:
1.This is a beginner book. No advanced topics.
2.Good coverage of the different types of controls available in .NET.
3.Quick and easy read.
4.Only basic coverage of ADO.NET.
5.Source code available as a download.
6.Assumes that you have VS.NET although I used ASP.NET Web Matrix.

There were some typos but nothing ridiculous.
Overall I like this book. Good price for a good book.