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22 of 24 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great ASP.NET book, even if you don't write controls, 2 Jun 2003
This review is from: Developing Microsoft® ASP.NET Server Controls and Components (Pro-Developer) (Paperback)
This book contains all the detail you'll need on how to create server controls for ASP.NET. It's dense and factual, with plenty of sample code which explains how-to, and supporting narrative which explains why each step in the code is important. One of the authors is a developer on the ASP.NET team who has designed and developed the Web Forms control framework, so the information is coming from a good source. The book also explains the different types of server controls (user, composite and custom) and what factors would make you prefer one over another. Particularly useful (even if you're not writing a control) are chapters 2 and 9, which are the best outline of the ASP.NET framework and page life cycle that I've read yet. If you've trawled all over the MS documentation and the web, trying to understand what's going on and why, look no further. The best aspect of the book is that it isn't just a collection of recipes. Everything is explained so you know not only what you have to do, but why you have to do it. The only negative is that the writing style is a little dry and sometimes heavy going. But don't let that put you off! I can't say this is the best book on server controls, because it's the only one I've read. But I can't see myself needing to read any others.
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3.0 out of 5 stars
Well overdue for an update, 15 Mar 2011
This review is from: Developing Microsoft® ASP.NET Server Controls and Components (Pro-Developer) (Paperback)
Having started to create my own custom controls and quickly running into problems, I needed a thorough learning resource. So, a book written by the very people who helped created the .NET framework itself seemed the best option. I agree with the points in the previous review relating to a superb overview of the page life cycle, however, this book is now showing its age.
Firstly, the book relates to the .NET Framework 1.1 and Visual Studio .NET. Both of these technologies have been revamped numerous times, and so I read this book knowing that a lot of it is now simply out of date. For example, the book gives an example of a Composite Control class which you should copy, however, .NET 2.0+ all have this class, plus a lot more. Plus, the underlying languages (C#, VB.NET etc) themselves have been revamped.
At times the book is very hard to follow as it throws the develop well into the deep-end, even when trying to explain the background topics. For example, I had to look elsewhere for clarification on what a Delegate is, even though I actually have used them many times before unknowingly. Also, there are lots of command line examples for compiling, which again is no longer necessary. Lastly, the amount of time spent programming styles which work with IE4 made this a little boring toward the end.
Overall, this is a good read and offers lots of pointers for looking for further help (especially when creating databound controls), but it did not address my particular problem (child controls databound content disappearing on postback). Recently I stumbled upon two method calls in the framework that fixed my problem, RecreateChildControls() and DataBindChildren() but these aren't documented anywhere beyond their basic definitions. The book doesn't mention them either, so again, is this simply a versioning issue...?
Let's have a revised version then... please?!?! :-)
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45 of 47 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
What technical writing should be, 23 Feb 2003
By Jesse Liberty - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Developing Microsoft® ASP.NET Server Controls and Components (Pro-Developer) (Paperback)
I almost never comment on the work of other authors, but this book is so good, so well written, so well organized and so useful that I simply have to praise it. This is truly what technical writing should be: clear, concise, well-organized, well presented, with useful exercises. If you need to learn how to write ASP.NET custom controls, in detail and in depth, this is clearly the book to buy. I recommend it highly. -Jesse Liberty
22 of 22 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Most practical development book I've read in years, 1 Dec 2002
By Graham F - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Developing Microsoft® ASP.NET Server Controls and Components (Pro-Developer) (Paperback)
This book is an absolute must for anyone that wants answers to questions regarding server control development for ASP.Net. I don't know of any where else that fully describes the details and requirements of coding solid controls. The book is fairly complicated but only because control development happens to be complicated. If you are expecting a book that will simplify custom control development this isn't it. If you find a book that simplifies control development and it serves your purposes that is great but you will certainly be missing out on a great deal of the power available. If you are serious about non-trivial control development and are looking for a book that explains custom controls then this book is very nearly perfect. I have this book open on my desk everyday as it answers questions I have been unable to find answers to anywhere else. If you are developing controls and you don't enjoy being frustrated or hacking endlessly away trying to get your controls to work properly, buy this book.
24 of 25 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Bravo Nikhil and Vandana!, 26 Sep 2002
By A. Lowe - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Developing Microsoft® ASP.NET Server Controls and Components (Pro-Developer) (Paperback)
Nikhil and Vandana do an amazing job of distilling a fairly complex subject - building ASP.NET Server Controls. They start out by discussing the internals of ASP.NET and server control architecture, move into the nuts and bolts of server controls (rendering, event model, client-side script, processing postbacks, custom state management, etc). There are tons of examples throughout the book. In addition to the tons of examples, there are two full case studies (a data bound templated control and a DHTML based control) at the end of the book. The sample are almost all in C# but I would still advise VB.NETers to buy this book because the principles and insight cannot be found anywhere else. ...
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