Beginning ASP.Net 1.1 in C#: From Novice to Professional

by Matt MacDonald

The most up-to-date and comprehensive introductory ASP.NET book you'll find on any shelf, "Beginning ASP.NET 1.1 in C#" guides you through Microsoft's technology for building dynamic websites. This... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1590594312
• ISBN13: 9781590594315
• Release Date: November 2004
• Publisher: Apress
• Length: 1040 Pages
• Weight: 3.13 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.9" x 7.0" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

A well-written jack-of-all-trades/master-of-none book

I didn't know much about ASP.NET and C#, although I have done some junior-level programming projects with other languages. Based on rave reviews, I originally tried Jesse Liberty's Programming ASP.NET book, but I could not digest that book due to its lack of gradual buildup, lack of connecting ideas, and obscure examples. Matthew MacDonald's book "Beginning ASP.NET 1.1 in C#: From Novice to Professional," on the other hand, is very well-suited for a beginning programmer. As with many other beginner's language books, he covers the C# language syntax and common ASP.NET controls. However, he covers advance topics such as state management and caching. He also covers ancilliary topics such as Visual Studio explanations, files that make up a VS Solution or project (i.e. what is web.config?), and setting up your computer to run ASP.NET. He writes in a way that is easy to follow, and his examples are not obscure, but straightforward. He focuses primarily on the chapter at hand, so you get the sense that he is teaching you in discrete steps. Each subsequent chapter, he adds on top of what you know from previous chapters. His code examples and explanation remain within the context of the current or previous chapters. He doesn't use code in his examples that does not pertain to the current or previous chapters, nor does he talk about things in later chapters other than an informative cross-referencing parenthetical (i.e. "For more information about this topic, see Chapter X"). I also like his diagrams on the ADO.NET model and the .NET architecture. These diagrams won't give you in-depth information, but they illustrate how the parts work at a high level. I didn't get this in other books, including the O'Reilly ones. Because of his explanations, for example, I finally understand the basic ADO.NET operational model. Set a Connection object, then Set a Command object, and then choose between a DataReader object (for read-only data) or a DataAdapter object (disconnected read-write data). The O'Reilly Programming ASP.NET book and other ASP.NET books don't explain this clearly and often used DataAdapter or DataReader interchangeably in their examples. Altogether, his writing and delivery style is very well-paced to me. I am not overwhelmed. There are few downsides to this book. After a certain point in the book, he stops giving full example code, but he tells you why he is doing this (you can download the full code from his website). He only highlights the core code needed to demonstrate the topic. I still wish he used the full code examples in later chapters, because I generally type the code to get practice. By downloading code, I don't absorb the material as easily. Of course, that would make the book longer. As for the criticisms of SQL injection by other reviewers, I agree that it is bad, but this is also a beginner's book. I'm sure he chose this format to teach the idea of database access and manipulation. However, he does ta

just a few chapters are crucial

If you want to make dynamic web pages and your machine is running .NET, then perhaps the best way is to use Active Server Pages. This actually predates .NET. But with the rise of .NET and its main language, C#, MacDonald shows how ASP.NET 1.1 has gained in power and ease of use. He takes 1000 pages to show this. Because Microsoft now offers a huge amount of functionality in ASP.NET and extensive integration into .NET. Like how Visual Studio can [should?] be used as your IDE to write C# code for your ASPs. By the way, despite what Microsoft has touted about how you have a choice of programming languages if you use .NET, it has become increasingly clear, via this book and others, that C# is the de facto choice. Chapters 7, 9, 10 and 11 are probably the key sections of the book. These actually focus on coding the ASP. And of these, chapter 10, on state management, may be the focal point, if you consider a set of ASPs as a finite state machine. So if you want to quickly learn ASPs, try concentrating on those chapters. And also follow the advice by a previous reviewer about the security flaws in the book, especially in SQL injection, using strings that have not been checked.

Best Beginner ASP.NET book in C#

This is simply the best book I've found for starting out with ASP.NET from a C# perspective, and I plan to use it to teach ASP.NET in the classroom. In my opinion, there are three things that put this book head and shoulders above the rest: 1) Clear explanations of WHY things work the way they do. For example, the detailed walkthrough of the postback architecture is essential for ASP.NET newcomers. 2) Lots of good recommendations and examples. The chapter of component development is a particularly good example. In a relatively small space, the author covers stateless design, describes the "ideal" component, and outlines common design issues that programmers face in real world situations, all without getting too complex or using more than a couple of paragraphs of code at a time. The IBuySpy walkthrough it another great example. 3) It has a little bit of everything. This book won't send the newbiew to other books in the first few pages. It covers "just enough" OOP, Visual Studio, and even a little bit of custom controls and dynamic graphics (GDI+). This book is my new ASP.NET standard.