Professional ASP.NET 3.5

Professional ASP.NET 3.5: In C# and VB (Programmer to Programmer)

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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Product Details
Amazon Sales Rank: #947 in Books
Published on: 2008-03-04
Number of items: 1
Binding: Paperback
1673 pages

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Editorial Reviews
From the Back Cover
Professional ASP.NET 3.5 In C# and VB

ASP.NET 3.5 brings the power of Visual Studio 2008 along with the multitude of language improvements in C# 2008 and Visual Basic 2008 as well as powerful new technology called LINQ, together with the ASP.NET 2.0 Framework you already know and love. Combine all this with the release of IIS 7.0 and its new managed code request processing pipeline, and you have a truly revolutionary leap forward in web application development.

ASP.NET 3.5 also brings with it new server controls, like the ListView and theincredibly flexible GridView. It also includes new advancements in AJAX technologycombined with the new JavaScript debugging features in Visual Studio 2008. Greatly expanded from the original best-selling Professional ASP.NET 2.0, this new edition adds hundreds of pages and dozens of code samples so you'll be prepared to put these new technologies into action.

What you will learn from this book

The concepts underlying the server control and its pivotal role in ASP.NET development

How to create templated ASP.NET pages using the master page feature

How to work with data from enterprise databases including SQL Server

Ways to debug, package and deploy ASP.NET applications, monitor their health and performance, and handle errors

How to retrieve, update, and delete data quickly and logically using LINQ with side-by-side examples comparing LINQ to existing techniques

How to localize your web site in multiple languages for a world-wide audience

How to add AJAX capabilities to your ASP.NET applications

How to integrate Silverlight interactivity into existing ASP.NET applications

An understanding of how to use and extend the Provider Model for accessing data stores, processes, and more

What freeware tools you need in Scott Hanselman's ASP.NET Ultimate Developer Tools appendix.

Who this book is for
This book is for programmers and developers who are looking to make the transition to ASP.NET 3.5 with Visual Studio 2008 and either C# 3.0 (2008) or Visual Basic 9 (2008).

Wrox Professional guides are planned and written by working programmers to meet the real-world needs of programmers, developers, and IT professionals. Focused and relevant, they address the issues technology professionals face every day. They provide examples, practical solutions, and expert education in new technologies, all designed to help programmers do a better job.

About the Author
Bill Evjen is an active proponent of .NET technologies and community-based learning initiatives for .NET. He has been actively involved with .NET since the first bits were released in 2000. In the same year, Bill founded the St. Louis .NET User Group (www.stlnet.org), one of the world’s first such groups. Bill is also the founder and former executive director of the International .NET Association (www.ineta.org), which represents more than 500,000 members worldwide.
Based in St. Louis, Missouri, USA, Bill is an acclaimed author and speaker on ASP.NET and XML Web Services. He has authored or co-authored more than fifteen books including Professional C# 2008, Professional VB 2008, ASP.NET Professional Secrets, XML Web Services for ASP.NET, and Web Services Enhancements: Understanding the WSE for Enterprise Applications (all published by Wiley Publishing, Inc.). In addition to writing, Bill is a speaker at numerous conferences, including DevConnections, VSLive, and TechEd. Along with these items, Bill works closely with Microsoft as a Microsoft Regional Director and an MVP.
Bill is the Technical Architect for Lipper (www.lipperweb.com), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Reuters, the international news and financial services company. He graduated from Western Washington University in Bellingham,Washington, with a Russian language degree. When he isn’t tinkering on the computer, he can usually be found at his summer house in Toivakka, Finland. You can reach Bill at evjen@yahoo.com.

Scott Hanselman works for Microsoft as a Senior Program Manager in the Developer Division, aiming to spread the good word about developing software, most often on the Microsoft stack. Before this he worked in eFinance for 6+ years and before that he was a Principal Consultant a Microsoft Partner for nearly 7 years. He was also involved in a few things like the MVP and RD programs and will speak about computers (and other passions) whenever someone will listen to him. He blogs at http://www.hanselman.com and podcasts at http://www.hanselminutes.com and contributes to http://www.asp.net, http://www.windowsclient.net, and http://www.silverlight.net.

Devin Rader is a Product Manager on the Infragistics Web Client team, responsible for leading the creation of Infragistics ASP.NET and Silverlight products. Devin is also an active proponent and member of the .NET developer community, being a co-founder of the St. Louis .NET User Group, an active member of the New Jersey .NET User Group, a former board member of the International .NET Association (INETA), and a regular speaker at user groups. He is also a contributing author on the Wrox title Silverlight 1.0 and a technical editor for several other Wrox publications and has written columns for ASP.NET Pro magazine, as well as .NET technology articles for MSDN Online. You can find more of Devin’s musings at www.geekswithblogs.com/devin.


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Customer Reviews
Seems like a 2.0 Copy and Paste
Im never a big fan of the "Professional" series of books because I tend to learn better from step-by-step tutorials with a finished product at the end. the "Problem Design Solution" series from wrox tend to be the most useful to me. These types of books I often feel like I can get the same information, cheaper, from MSDN. I knew that when I got the book but its nice as a desk reference. My biggest issue with this book is that it seemed like it was a 2.0 copy and paste.... there is a lot of reference to 2.0 in the text and it often left me wondering what was specifically new in 3.5.

Better than the average Wrox book, but still not great
In the past, I've disliked Wrox books because of their approach of having multiple authors cover the same topics without enough editing to make it one cohesive piece. While this book is better than Wrox books I have read in the past, it still suffers many of the same pitfalls. In areas, the book is quite repetitive. Also, in a few spots the authors mention topics before they have been properly introduced, with parentheticals such as "we'll cover this in chapter x." This lack of cohesive organization and planning is annoying.

Besides having qualms with the layout of the book, I don't think this book deserves "professional" in the title. Most "professional" books I read from other publishers do suit a professional developer, while this one falls short. It covers little more than an overview of all the features, but provides very little "best practice" advice beyond the absolute basics. With this book, you may learn to write applications in ASP.NET but you won't necessarily learn to do it well.

If you are new to ASP.NET, this book may be a decent place to start, but if you've been using .NET for years, as I have, 90% of this book covers what you already know and it may try your patience to find that 10% that's new to you.

Comprehensive, interesting and inventive
I've been developing fairly basic ASP.NET sites for a few years now, but knew i had a lot to learn. This book was perfect for the task!

It's comprehensive, thorough and very easy to follow. You can pick it up at just about any place in the book and follow through without getting lost with what's already been covered that you haven't seen yet - most of the time, any previously covered topics are covered again to a limited extent, to be complete.

The author comes across as excited about the technology, which appealed to me, and I'm now confident to step up to more complex ASP.NET sites with what I've learnt from the book.

Brilliant!