Product Description

Site Server 3.0 is Microsofts attempt to provide a powerful solution for the needs of the business Web Site. It includes a wide range of management and administrative tools designed to make building and maintaining big web sites much easier. For example, it includes tools that map the whole site and details of the hyperlinks that link them, and allows a very fine granularity of administrative control. The main bulk of the package is geared toward providing developers with a framework for building high functionality web sites for a range of purposes. It enables the production of highly personalized content, tailored for individual members, and a fine control of the user experience. It also includes a package called Commerce Server that provides a framework for the rapid development of e-commerce solutions.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2796327 in Books
• Published on: 2000-02
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 600 pages

Amazon.com Review
Lots of people who set out to deploy Microsoft Site Server aren't really big on network and Web site administration, they just want to get a good-looking, reliable site up and running as quickly as possible. Beginning Site Server 3.0 is the perfect companion for such Web entrepreneurs. It's easy to follow, but certainly not dumbed down. The authors (consultants and programmers of various stripes) know that the purpose of Internet commerce is to please customers and make money, not fool with technology for its own sake.

A large part of this book takes the form of storyboard-style procedures, in which the authors explain (with many screen shots) the steps for installing Site Server and use its (rather powerful) site-construction wizards to build a business-to-consumer Web store. It's an effective presentation strategy, leaving little to the imagination during the critical setup stages. The authors then make up for the limited flexibility of the storyboard approach by presenting detail-rich chapters on the databases that back up Site Server, as well as Pipelines, search facilities, and various extensions. The programming information here is good, but you'll probably want to supplement this book with one dedicated to Active Server Pages (ASP) if you have lots of custom work in mind. --David Wall

Topics covered: Site Server 3, Commerce Edition, including its installation, its relationship to Microsoft SQL Server 6.5 and 7, and its design principles. Detailed coverage goes to the Commerce Site Foundation Wizard and Commerce Site Builder Wizard, the database infrastructure of Site Server sites, Pipelines, content searches, and membership databases. On the programming site, there's interesting information on calling ActiveX Data Objects (ADO) from Active Server Pages.

From the Publisher
This book uses the successful Wrox Beginners format to guide you through your first Site Server site and lays a solid groundwork for building powerful e-commerce sites. It will also show how to use Site Server to administer your site and introduces the full range of Site Server functionality.

Complete, step by step guide to installation of Site Server and all associated technologies.

About the Author
Mike Kendzierski, Director of Internet Services at USWeb/CKS Cornerstone brings extensive experience deploying and developing complex client-server and Internet e-commerce systems. Mike is a regular speaker at technical conferences such as Microsoft Explorer and ASPDevCon on topics ranging from e-commerce systems to systems design and network architecture for high performance web sites. Mike is also a published technical author with titles including Windows NT and BackOffice technologies such as Site Server and Internet Information Server. When he's not busy wandering the streets of the Upper East Side in NYC, you can find him at Barnes & Noble sipping coffee and reading magazines for free. Mike welcomes e-mail, and can be reached at mkendzierski@att.net.

Customer Reviews

"Beginning" indeed...

This is a decent but not great book . . . By far the mostuseful chapter is the 168 page (!) installation chapter, which detailshow to get site server installed under a variety of configurations.

The rest of the book is a fairly high-level introduction to some of site server's features, such as pipelines, indexing, personalization and membership and site analysis. These chapters tell you what you need to know to get a barebones example of each of these up and running.

There are 3 chapters that basically go over the wizard which generates an e-commerce site, explaining the underlying database and how to do some modifications. These are quite well done (but I'm a little dubious as to how many companies are going to run the wizard-generated site right out of the box).

The book is a fairly good introduction but it will definitely leave you wanting to look for more detailed information. I guess it achieves its purpose but I doubt there are many developers who would be satisfied with this. I don't see this as a book that I'm going to frequently use as a reference. I would recommend reading overviews of site server on the web, to get a feel for what it can do, and then buying some more advanced books. This being said, the installation chapter could be worth the price of the book alone (if you have installed site server you know what i'm talking about).

Complete, Good for Beginners - Intermediate administrators
I read some other Site Server books before this one, including some in the Professional Series. I have been lightly involved with Site Server for quite some time but never in an extended use of the product.

I wanted to get an heads up on the Version 3 and this book contains it all for administrators. The Installation is the most complete I've ever found (containing 170 pages!) and it goes into all possibilities (i.e.: with/without SQL, NT 4, Win2k, SQL 6.5, SQL 7.0, etc.). Just the TOC for this one is in 4 pages!!! The book is worth it just for this chapter.

Then, the book goes to some extent into Pipelines, Commerce, Search, Personalization, and all the Site Server's components.

Once you will be through this book and need more information, I would strongly recommand the Site Server 3.0 Personalization And Membership, and the Professional Site Server 3.0 Commerce Edition; both from Wrox Press.

Opens ones eyes
In my role I have encountered numerous organisations that have developed functionality from scratch at a high cost that they could have got 'off the shelf' using Site Server. The problem is that Site Server is numerous bits and pieces and it is difficult for a newcomer to recognise the full potential that is lurking within it.

The Microsoft document provides good reference material but doesnt explain sufficiently how to get started with Site Server. This book excently fills the void and opens ones eyes fully by clearly illustrating how to exploit each of the various tools and items of functionality within the product.

If you all ready understand Site Server fundamentals, then take a look at WROX's Profesional Site Server 3.0