PRObooks
ASP.NET 3.5 Unleashed
I remember when the first of the Unleashed series was released (NT
Server 4 Unleashed); it was an immediate success and quickly became the book on administering NT Server.
Over the years I’ve learned that any book with “Unleashed” in the title is
worth adding to my bookshelf. ASP.NET 3.5 Unleashed continues this tradition —
and is one of the better books I’ve seen on ASP.NET.
Given the size of this tome, almost 2,000 pages, I
expected a lot of auxiliary stuff; the history of Web page tools and ASP/ASP.NET,
an introduction to C# or VB.NET, etc. Nope.
It is dense and packed with ASP.NET
information. It is so packed with information that only C# code is presented in
the book; the VB.NET code which was included
in the main text in earlier editions has been moved to the accompanying CD.
This book may move three or four books off my bookshelf and into storage.
The companion CD contains all the code used in the book in
both C# and VB.NET. It is noted in the introduction that the CD contains code
snippets that you can start to use in your Web site immediately, and as far as
I can tell there are no copyrights restricting such use, even if you are
designing commercial Web sites.
Let me give two examples of the kind of real-life information
provided in this book. Very early in the book (p. 31), the author (Stephen
Walther) shows how to use tracing to monitor how much viewstate information is
being passed between the client and server. On p. 40, Walther talks about how code-behind
pages in ASP.NET 1.x were implemented using
inheritance and in ASP.NET 2.0 and later,
they are implemented using a combination of inheritance and partial classes.
Clearly Walther knows ASP.NET (described as
a “Microsoft Legend” in his bio, he was the lead developer on several ASP.NET
best practice applications for Microsoft, including the Community Starter Kit
and the Issue Tracker Starter Kit). He also includes tips on working with
different browsers; on p. 119 he points out that scrollbars set to vertical or
horizontal will not display in browsers other than IE, so to have a cross-browser
Web site, you need to set them to either Auto or Both.
ASP.NET 3.5 Unleashed is divided into 10 parts
containing 34 chapters. Like I said, it’s 2,000 pages with no fluff. Listed as an
intermediate to advanced book, it is definitely not for beginners. If you read
the entire book, you’ll just as definitely be “advanced” by the time you are
done.
Part I provides an overview of the ASP.NET
Framework, and shows how to build a Web page using the standard, validating,
and rich controls (like displaying calendars and advisement). I like that Walther
spends a lot of time on the validating controls, as they are key to both
robustness and security. Part II expands on that and goes on to show how to
build a Web site using master pages and themes, and ends with creating custom
user controls. Part III covers using data
bound controls such as lists and grids, including DetailsView and FormView
controls, and the Repeater and DataList controls. Part IV continues with more
advanced database instruction showing how to create your own classes and function libraries (components). Walther covers using the
ObjectDataSource control to create multi-tier applications, and using the
ObjectDataSource control to page, sort, and filter data. He finishes the
section with a chapter on using the new LINQ technologies to connect to
databases. I like the way data binding and display is covered in so much
detail, because data binding and grid controls can be so difficult to get
right. On the other hand, even with two sections on data access, a separate
book on ADO.NET
and another one on LINQ would make good companion books to complement this one.
Part V covers site navigation, including site maps, the SiteMapPath
control, Menu and TreeView controls, saving the site map in a hierarchical data
source control, and even using the free Google Site Map service that collects
information on how often Google directs people to different pages on your Web
site.
Part VI covers the security-related ASP.NET
controls, the Login control, and ASP.NET
membership. This is covered in most ASP.NET
books, but Walther does a better job than most at providing quality examples.
Part VII extends Part I (Web pages) and Part II (Web sites) into Web applications.
It covers maintaining application state (using cookies and profiles, including
the ASP.NET profile classes and manager), and
page and data caching, before delving into internationalization and supporting
multiple languages. This section ends with configuring the Web site, including
the configuration APIs, the Web site configuration tool, and encrypting
configuration information.
Part VIII greatly expands on building custom controls (started
back in Part II), including custom painting of controls, more data binding, and
processing postback events and data. The section ends with a chapter on
creating templated data bound controls.
Part IX covers ASP.NET AJAX.
Walther sees AJAX as the future of
Web development, and breaks style a bit in this chapter to discuss the history
and future of AJAX, and the
development of JavaScript as a language and how it relates to .NET
languages such as C#. He then covers AJAX
on the server and client, and shows how to use the Microsoft AJAX Toolkit.
Part X shows how to put it all together as Walther demonstrates
how to build a sample Web site. The sample Web site is a repository for code
samples, with an included blog. The demonstration Web site also makes use of
LINQ and ASP.NET AJAX.
This is the longest book review I’ve ever written, but
there is so much to like about this book that my only regret is that I had to
cut my review so short. At US$59.99 for a 2,000-page hard-back book, this is a
great bargain. Intermediate and advanced Web programmers should buy ASP.NET 3.5 Unleashed because of all the things
they will learn. Beginning Web programmers should buy it because of all the
sample code they can borrow while they learn to write their own.
— Dennis Hayes
Rating: ééééé
Title: ASP.NET 3.5 Unleashed
Author: Stephen
Walther
Publisher: SAMS
ISBN: 978-0-672-330011-7
Price: US$$59.99
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