Professional ASP.NET 3.5: In C# and VB (Programmer to Programmer) | 
| Authors: Bill Evjen, Scott Hanselman, Devin Rader
Publisher: Wrox
Category: Book
List Price: $54.99
Buy New: $28.95
You Save: $26.04 (47%)
New (29) Used (13) from $28.95
Rating:  21 reviews
Sales Rank: 2026
Media: Paperback
Edition: Pap/Onl
Pages: 1704
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 4.8
Dimensions (in): 9.2 x 7.4 x 2.3
ISBN: 0470187573
Dewey Decimal Number: 005.276
EAN: 9780470187579
ASIN: 0470187573
Publication Date: March 4, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
Building on the revolutionary ASP.NET 2.0 release, ASP.NET 3.5 adds several key new developer features including AJAX, LINQ, and a new CSS designer in Visual Web Developer 2008. The dramatic reduction in code that developers realized from the more than 50 new server controls in ASP.NET 2.0 now allows developers the time to make their applications more interactive with AJAX, to work with data in their preferred language with LINQ, and to build visually attractive and consistent standards-based sites with CSS. Professional ASP.NET 3.5 helps the experienced programmer put these new technologies into action. Greatly expanded from the original best-selling Professional ASP.NET 2.0, Professional ASP.NET 3.5 covers all the key technologies retained from 2.0 in new depth alongside the hundreds of pages of coverage of the important new 3.5 features. Written by 3 of the most well-known and influential ASP.NET developers who were highly praised by ASP.NET creator Scott Guthrie for their ASP.NET 2.0 books, Professional ASP.NET 3.5 is the book you’ll learn the language from and turn to day after day as you write web applications. And as always, Professional ASP.NET 3.5 features language examples in the book and in the code download in both C# and VB! Key new coverage for ASP.NET 3.5 includes: - Thorough coverage of how to implement ASP.NET 3.5 AJAX and the ASP.NET AJAX Toolkit
- An introduction to LINQ and many LINQ examples throughout the book side-by-side with the related SQL example to show you the differences between the two
- Enhanced coverage of XML use in ASP.NET including the new XML Schema Designer Add-on, LINQ to XML, LINQ for XML examples, and XSLTC.exe, a command-line XSLT compiler
- A new chapter on CSS design for ASP.NET and the Visual Web Developer CSS design tools
- A new chapter on the ASP.NET lifecycle and architecture best-practices
- Increased coverage of ASP.NET with SQL Server 2005 and Oracle as the databases
- Coverage of enhancing your ASP.NET applications with Microsoft’s new Silverlight for stunning video and animation uses
- Coverage of Scott Hanselman’s famous productivity tool picks for developers to help make you a more productive ASP.NET developer
- Updated coverage of migrating applications for previous ASP.NET versions
Key coverage retained and improved from the ASP.NET 2.0 book: - The idea of the server control and its pivotal role in ASP.NET development
- How to create templated ASP.NET pages using the master page feature
- Techniques for debugging and handling errors
- Ways to package and deploy ASP.NET applications
- How to retrieve, update, and delete data quickly and logically
- How to implement the cultures and regions features to localize your web site into multiple languages for different visitors
- An understanding of how to use and extend the provider model for accessing data stores, processes, and more
- How to keep track of your application's performance and health with monitoring tools
Who this book is for This book is for experienced programmers and developers who are looking to make the transition to ASP.NET 3.5.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 16 more reviews...
 Uncharacteristically inadequate for a Wroth book. August 3, 2008
Steve J. Brinkman (Greeley, Colorado)
I am about a third into this and have found the book to be somewhat disappointing relatively to other Wrox books. My areas of concern include the following:
- Lots of editing errors, spelling errors, and references to figures that are not what the descriptions suggest.
- Wrox book strengths are in their good examples. Most of the examples in this book are so trivial as to not demonstrate anything except perhaps syntax.
- Some topics are not explained beyond the listing of the features and settings. Could use more explanation of many of these features and settings, and exactly what they effect. (In fairness, its a big subject, and I am only 500 pages in so some topics may be explained in more depth in subsequent chapters.)
Comprehensive ... maybe, too much so July 25, 2008
Douglas Vanderweide (Maine, USA)
I use the Wrox Peer 2 Peer books -- such as this one -- basically as documentation. And in that vein, this is a strong entry. But if you're hoping to use this book to learn how to program, you're probably better off with the For Dummies series.
My copy of this book came directly from Amazon. Unfortunately, it was misbound, with an extra 150+ pages from Chapter 3 pasted into Chapter 8. It's little more than an annoyance, but keep in mind your copy may too be misbound when you get it.
Very little of the ASP.NET 3.5 language isn't covered by this book, and its primary benefit is its extensive documentation of LINQ, Microsoft's attempt to extend SQL to all data structures.
However, like most of the Professional books in the P2P series, this book is written in a way that if you do not already have a basic understanding of the control or language being discussed, you will likely be quickly left behind; this book simply describes the control, what it can do, some of its members and an example of how to employ it.
It doesn't generally get into qualitative discussions about which control is best to use in a given circumstance, or compare and contrast similar controls, or show how to use several controls to solve a given problem (i.e., provide "cookbook" examples).
Again, viewed as a technical reference, this book is as good, if not in some ways better, than MSDN's online documentation. Because it is grouped by task (e.g., data, controls, XML, membership / customization, etc.) this book often makes it easier for you to find a control than MSDN does, especially if you are unsure of which control to use or its name.
Viewed as a way to learn a language, it's not appropriate; it isn't structured to explain the approach of ASP.NET 3.5 or how to go about solving specific problems.
 Get a phonebook instead; it's free July 18, 2008
Concerned Citizen
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
I find it hard to believe the other reviews aren't plants by the publisher, or by people accidentally reviewing a similarly titled book. The introduction is full of documentation probably dumped from MSDN about obscure directives and their obscurer attributes. It reads like a phonebook. Writing the samples in both C# and VB is just another tactic to fill up 1600+ pages; here's one of the "gems" from the first chapter:
VB
If Page.IsPostBack = True Then
'Do Processing
End If
C#
if (Page.IsPostBack == true)
{
//Do Processing
}
As if the " == true" is not enough of a WTF, the book then goes on to say "In addition to checking for a true or false value, you can also handle postbacks like this," and gives the following example code:
VB
If Not Page.IsPostBack Then
'Do Processing
End If
C#
if (!Page.IsPostBack)
{
//Do Processing
}
So the target audience of this book is interested in reading a list of the public key tokens of the assemblies referenced by default in a "web.config" file, but they don't know how to negate a boolean value without someone holding their hand?
Not the best book for ASP.NET 3.5 July 18, 2008
Mikey V (Minnesota)
This book is basically a re-branded ASP.NET 2.0 book. It covers a LINQ and IIS 7 just fine. When reading the book the authors spend too much time covering old 1.1 and 2.0 material instead of digging in deeper to the 3.5 topics.
Buy this book in you need an overview of ASP.NET 2.0 with some 3.5 topics as well but there are better books out there. Usually Wrox book are great, this one just doesn't deliver with ASP.NET 3.5
Excellent reference book for ASP.NET 3.5 (despite typos) July 12, 2008
James Skemp (Madison, WI United States)
Having read Imar Spaanjaar's Beginning ASP.NET 3.5: In C# and VB, I was expecting a number of good things from this book.
Imar's book is really great in that he shows you how to build a Web application with ASP.NET 3.5. However, with Professional ASP.NET 3.5 In C# and VB, you instead get 1500+ page reference book.
Now that's not necessarily a bad thing, but that does mean that if you want to get started with ASP.NET, pick up Imar's book first, or better still, too.
That said, this also means that if you're the type to read a book from beginning to end, you'll have a real 'joy' reading this book. That's because after a few chapters you'll notice that the author's clearly intended for people to skip around the book. This is evident because they'll discuss something in one chapter, and then reiterate it at the beginning of the next in such a way that suggests they assume you didn't just read this in the last chapter. But, that is good if you consider this as a reference book.
The other thing that will strike you is the number of typos in this book. I wasn't keeping track of all of them, such as words melding together, hard returns where there didn't need to be, incorrect figures, etcetera, but I did make note of, and submit, 29 errors in this book (25 of those from page 579 on - I wasn't keeping serious track before then). If you hear that they've done a special edition of this book, or a second edition, just spend the (extra) money and pick it up. Luckily, the code seems pretty clean.
Having said all that, I still think Professional ASP.NET 3.5 is an excellent reference book, and one that I'll be keeping on my shelf. Almost every one of the 34 chapters had at least one valuable thing in them, and in most cases, they had many. While some topics are skimmed over, they give a very indepth look to existing and new features, providing sources to further reference as needed (most of which are free Microsoft references online).
Together with Imar's Beginning ASP.NET 3.5 In C# and VB, I would definitely recommend this to anyone interested in ASP.NET 3.5. I would also recommend this reference book (last time, I promise :) ) to anyone who's worked with previous versions of .NET, and just needs to know how to advance their skills.
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