Product Details
Programming Microsoft ASP.NET 3.5

Programming Microsoft ASP.NET 3.5
By Dino Esposito

List Price: $59.99
Price: $37.79 & eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. Details

Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com

57 new or used available from $15.90

Average customer review:

Product Description

Get the practical, popular reference written by ASP.NET authority Dino Esposito—now updated for ASP.NET 3.5. An in-depth guide to the core features of Web development with ASP.NET, this book goes beyond the fundamentals. It expertly illustrates the intricacies and uses of ASP.NET 3.5—in a single volume. Part of Microsoft Visual Studio® 2008, ASP.NET 3.5 includes AJAX functionality, the Microsoft Silverlight™ cross-platform development tool, new controls, and new integration features. This pragmatic guide covers these new features, and also includes coverage of Windows® Communication Foundation, LINQ, and other key Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0, 3.0, and 3.5 capabilities. Complete with extensive code samples and code snippets in Microsoft Visual C# 2008, this is the ideal reference for developers who want to learn what’s new in ASP.NET 3.5, or for those building professional-level Web development skills.

Product Details

  • Amazon Sales Rank: #89075 in Books
  • Published on: 2008-02-23
  • Original language: English
  • Number of items: 1
  • Binding: Paperback
  • 1128 pages

Customer Reviews

A hasty retread3
From the opening and throughout this book, it seems obvious that this is a hasty retread of a previous ASP.NET 2.0 edition. Most tellingly, there are numerous explanations of the way that ASP.NET 2.0 improved on such-and-such a feature of ASP.NET 1.0 or 1.1, which seem of little relevance to those looking to upgrade themselves to the latest ASP.NET. Other material and examples also seem written for an earlier time.

The meat for upgrading programmers is not only somewhat obscured in the clutter of old stuff, but is very thinly sliced when found. For example, one of my principle objectives in buying the book was to understand LINQ better, but the chapter on LINQ offers little more than a summary of the LINQ notes freely available on Microsoft's web site.

On the plus side, as owner of other books by Dino Esposito I notice that his writing gets better with every book, and he is now among the most adept of authors at clearly explaining many topics. For someone new to ASP.NET, this book can be considered seriously, but a better book exists (see my reviews).

Shine with insight4
Sometimes just recover the earlier ground may not be a bad idea at all, if previous coverage was good and thorough. Dino's new treatment of ASP.NET falls into this category. His earlier books on ASP.NET 1.x and ASP.NET 2 did such good job that for ASP.NET 3.5 iteration, what he needs to do is to repeat those good coverage with new material for new stuff. And I think he achieved this task hands-down.
But for a book buyer, that can pose a delima. I already had Dino's Programming ASP.NET and to this date I am still referencing it again and again, and should I just pay $40 for just the LINQ and Ajax stuff? It is a hard call.
If you are not an owner of Dino's ASP.NET programming books before, buy it and enlighten yourself with Dino's insight. If you are an owner of Dino's previous ASP.NET book, pay close attention to Chapter 19, 20 and 21. Dino's insight on what direction ASP.NET as a web programming platform move forward worths the admission. Ajax is not just a repackaged JavaScript library, it requires rethinking how web programming model should evolve, and Dino seems to understand Microsoft's long term goal.

Comprehensive source of information about ASP.NET5
This book is an excellent source of information about ASP.NET 2.0 to 3.5, for developers new to ASP.NET and experienced ASP.NET 2.0 developers. I picked the book to prepare for the 70-562 exam. Even though the book does not contain verbatim texts and exercises to prepare you for the exam, it contains all the required material and teaches you how to use ASP.NET 3.5.

I found very useful the chapters about HTTP handlers and HTTP modules as well as the chapter on the ASP.NET page life cycle. The author uses accessible language to describe complex topics.

The AJAX programming part of this book is rather weak. It covers mostly UpdatePanel. This is good enough to get you going from ASP.NET 2.0 and to get you through the certification, but is not sufficient to write good AJAX applications in ASP.NET 3.5. For a deep dive in AJAX I recommend "Developing Service-Oriented AJAX Applications on the Microsoft Platform" by Daniel Larson.