ASP.NET 2.0 MVP Hacks and Tips, Wrox
Microsoft .NET Framework, ASP.NET, Visual C# (CSharp, C Sharp, C-Sharp) Developer Training, Visual Studio
|
Contents |
C# Online.NET Book Review
I have a couple of gripes to get out of the way before I begin the review proper. Firstly, I do not like the non-standard usage of the word "hack"—"little-known solutions, undocumented features, and tips and tricks". Hack meanings, generally, connote something substandard or worse. I see no reason in giving it a nth meaning with a positive connotation. The real problem is, of course, that books with the word "hack" in the title are selling. (What does that little factoid say about us?)
Secondly, some so-called "hacks" are, in fact, merely descriptions of ASP.NET concepts or features and are not, strictly speaking, hacks or tips at all. However, most other tips and tricks books do likewise.
Thirdly, authors are not like Mozart's notes; and, seven is—in principle—too many. However, when you are compiling tips and tricks, perhaps a hundred is not too many. But, the book's organization suffers from having so many authors.
ASP.NET 2.0 is loaded with new features—features which can be manipulated directly or indirectly. Normally, we learn to use and tweak them the hard way—by experience. Now, this book offers some 400 pages of ASP.NET 2.0 tips and tricks created by seven Microsoft Most Valuable Professionals (MVPs). The book details numerous undocumented techniques, some of which are sure to be of use to you in your work and most of which will contribute to raising the level of your game.
As you might expect, this book is not for beginners: it is designed for experienced .NET developers with backgrounds in ASP.NET and the C# language. Beginners will not be able to appreciate and take full advantage of the information and examples. And, this book is all meat and no bone. It is not an ASP.NET primer: The reader's own experience must provide the context.
Perhaps a future edition would provide hacks about e-mail, new controls—e.g., DetailsView, FormsView—, and Web services.
Most of the source code examples are in the C# or ASP.NET languages. However, there is the odd Visual Basic .NET example.
Bottom line
ASP.NET 2.0 MVP Hacks and Tips is a useful compilation of undocumented information and practices collected by seven MVPs.
Publisher's description
- This unique book offers readers invaluable information from the cream of the crop-Microsoft MVPs-who are now sharing undocumented hacks for the first time
- Packed with superlative advice on ASP, Microsoft's popular technology for Web sites, this book will help readers become more productive developers, find solutions to problems they thought unsolvable, and develop better applications
- During their many years of working with ASP.NET, Microsoft MVPs have answered thousands of questions, putting them in the distinctive position of knowing exactly what readers need to know
- Many of the hacks will apply to multiple versions of ASP.NET, not just 2.0 but 1.0 and 1.1 as well
About the author(s)
David Yack is the president of Colorado Technology Consultants, a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner based in Colorado. He is a Microsoft Regional Director and a Microsoft MVP for ASP.NET. As a senior hands-on technology and business consultant with over 18 years of industry experience, David enjoys developing applications for both the Windows and Unix platforms, specializing in large system architecture and design. David embraced .NET during the final beta days of version 1.0 and has been helping clients migrate and build new applications on the technology, as well as helping to mentor and train their staffs. David is a frequent speaker at user group and industry events and is on the author teams of two NET 2.0–related books. He lives in Colorado Springs with his wife and two children.
Joe Mayo runs his own company, Mayo Software, and is an author, consultant, and instructor specializing in .NET technologies. He operates the C# Station website and is a Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP). Joe’s previous books include C# Unleashed (Sams) and C# Builder Kick Start (Sams).
Scott Hanselman is currently the chief architect at the Corillian Corporation (NASDAQ: CORI), an eFinance enabler. He has over 13 years experience developing software in C, C++, VB, COM, and certainly in VB.NET and C#. Scott is proud to be both a Microsoft RD as well as an MVP for both ASP.NET and Solutions Architecture. Scott has spoken at dozens of conferences worldwide, including three TechEds and the North African DevCon. This is the fourth book Scott has worked on for Wrox.
Fredrik Normén is a consultant who works for Callista Knowledgebase AB. He works mostly as a mentor, solution developer, architect, and instructor. He has worked with the .NET framework since the first bit of .NET 1.0 was released in 2000. He has over 10 years of experience building web applications, started with Perl and moving on to ASP and ASP.NET.
Dan Wahlin (Microsoft MVP for ASP.NET and XMLWeb Services) is the president of Wahlin Consulting LLC, which provides enterprise consulting and training services as well as ASP.NET server controls. He also founded the XML for ASP.NET Developers website, which focuses on using XML, ADO.NET and Web Services in Microsoft’s .NET platform. Dan is a regular speaker at different .NET conferences and is a member of the INETASpeaker’s Bureau, which enables him to interact with .NET user groups around the United States. He has also authored/co-authored five books on various .NET technologies and writes for several technical magazines.
J. Ambrose Little is an ASP Insider and Microsoft MVP who works as a senior software engineer for a Tampa-based commercial software company and as the content director for ASPAlliance.com. He’s an author of numerous articles and co-author of Professional ADO.NET 2.
Jonathan D. Goodyear is the president of ASPSOFT, Inc, a software consulting company based out of Orlando, Florida. He is a contributing editor for both Visual Studio Magazine and asp.netPRO Magazine, and frequently speaks at major technology conferences such as VSLive and ASP.NET Connections. Jonathan was a featured speaker at the Visual Studio 2005 Launch Event in Orlando, Florida, and speaks at numerous .NET user groups through the International .NET Association (INETA). He wrote one of the first books about .NET development, Debugging ASP.NET (New Riders Publishing), and appeared in a video, Visual Studio .NET: An Introduction, by WatchIT.com. He is the founder and editor of the online magazine angryCoder.com, and is a Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP) for ASP.NET, an ASP Insider, and the Microsoft regional director (RD) for Florida.
Table of Contents (abbreviated)
- Introduction.
- Chapter 1: Hacks Revisited.
- Chapter 2: Getting Started.
- Chapter 3: The Power of Providers.
- Chapter 4: The Smarter Web Client.
- Chapter 5: Debugging What You Created.
- Chapter 6: Control Hacks.
- Chapter 7: GridView Hacks.
- Chapter 8: Extreme Data Binding.
- Chapter 9: ViewState.
- Chapter 10: Cache Hacks.
- Chapter 11: Moving to ASP.NET 2.0 from 1.x.
- Chapter 12: Deployment Hacks.
- Chapter 13: Leveraging Visual Studio.
- Chapter 14: Security Hacks.
- Chapter 15: Building Your Own Hacks.
- Chapter 16: Master Pages.
- Chapter 17: Handlers and Modules.
