This is a very complete book, intended for any programmer or Web developer with some knowledge of VB. NET or C#, and a good understanding of the .NET framework. It is suitable for those seeking to master ASP .NET, and has an emphasis on real-world development.

At just under 1,000 pages, the book is a substantial resource, mixing good coverage of application programming interfaces (APIs) with actual programming techniques and advice on using Visual Basic .NET and C#. This combination places it in the forefront of currently available titles on ASP .NET. It is very well organized, and the chapters are reasonably self-contained. The examples are excellent, and are presented assuming the use of a text editor. Wherever possible, examples are also presented using the integrated development environment of Visual Studio .NET.

The book’s chapter titles are as follows:

“(1) ASP .NET and the .NET Framework”

“(2) Visual Studio .NET”

“(3) Events”

“(4) Controls”

“(5) ASP Control Details”

“(6) Programming Web Forms”

“(7) Tracing, Debugging, and Error Handling”

“(8) Validation”

“(9) Data Binding”

“(10) List-Bound Controls, Part I”

“(11) Accessing Data with ADO .NET”

“(12) ADO Data Updates”

“(13) List-Bound Controls, Part II”

“(14) Custom and User Controls”

“(15) Web Services Overview”

“(16) Creating Web Services”

“(17) Consuming Web Services”

“(18) Caching and Performance”

“(19) Security”

“(20) Controlling, Configuring, and Deploying Applications”

Active server pages (ASP) programmers will appreciate sections that compare an older ASP sample with the new ASP .NET to highlight what is new and improved, with good explanation of the ASP .NET event model. The book starts with a look at the essentials (such as ASP Web controls and data binding) before digging into data-driven applications using the ASP .NET database APIs.

The book is written by programmers, for programmers, as is indicated by the sections devoted to the calendar, repeater, datalist, and datagrid controls, and the coverage of techniques and support for validating user input in Web pages. The chapters on ADO .NET, which include a real-world example of a bug-tracking database, and the chapter on debugging and tracing, are particularly important. Debugging is a very hard topic to teach, and it is almost impossible in the old ASP.

The tutorial on Web services is extremely Microsoft-oriented, but it is very good for illustrating the concept and motivating the reader to experience and research further. The final sections look at the deployment, configuration, and performance (caching) options needed to deploy and run ASP .NET programs successfully. The book’s coverage of security options in .NET complements the knowledge needed to develop real-world applications.

The book’s sample code is available from O’Reilly’s Web site. The code is packaged into a single zip file, containing text files that contain the code, organized by chapter and sample number.