Book Review: Murach's ASP.NET Web Programming with VB.NET

Weighing in at slightly over 700 pages, Murach's ASP.NET Web Programming with VB.NET by Doug Lowe and Anne Prince claims to get readers off to a fast start to ASP.NET. Now let's see how the book attempts to accomplish that.

The book is divided into four sections spanning 20 chapters. The first section of the book covers the basics of web programming, datasets, cookies, and testing and debugging ASP.NET applications. Section 2 covers HTML essentials, working with server controls, validation controls, managing state and developing user controls. Section 3 covers database programming skills which include a primer on relational databases and ADO.NET, working with ADO.NET data commands, using datasets with bound and unbound controls, and using the Repeater, DataList, and DataGrid controls. The final section covers securing a web application, web services, developing custom server controls, Crystal Reports, e-mail, custom error pages, and deploying ASP.NET applications. As a basis for taking readers through the tutorial chapters, the book showcases code examples in developing a complete e-commerce application, namely the "Halloween Store".

As implied by the book title, VB.NET is the programming language used throughout the code examples in the book. Despite that, the focus of the book is not on the programming language but rather ASP.NET. Those who want to advance their programming language skills at the same time may have to turn to other complementary resources.

While the book did not come with a cover CD, all source code and data for the applications presented in the book are downloadable from the publisher's web site. The book files are available in two versions, one for those using the 2002 version of Visual Studio .NET (VS.NET) and the other, the 2003 version.

The book certainly tries to differentiate itself from other beginning books on ASP.NET programming. How so? For one, the book features a non-conventional format in content presentation, better known as the "paired-pages" format. Essentially what this means is that the tutorial content is placed on the left page of the book, and the corresponding code snippet and bulleted reference notes are on the right page. This approach to visual and logical separation of content works well and I did find it easier to navigate around the material presented. I can also imagine readers using this book as a post-reading reference by just referring to the right-hand side pages.

While some beginning ASP.NET books approach the subject by only requiring users to use the much-loved (or hated) Notepad text editor, this book wants the reader to start off with "the" industry tool for developing ASP.NET applications i.e. VS.NET. Here VS.NET is given first-class treatment in that a tutorial cannot be without the mention of VS.NET elements such as the Forms Designer and Solution Explorer. For instance, on the topic of adding an ASP.NET user control to a web form, rather than teaching you to manually do the task by pure code, this book first teaches you how to accomplish the task by using a simple drag-and-drop operation within VS.NET. Later it explains what goes behind the scenes, albeit very much on the surface. I guess that illustrates the whole point of the book: To get readers up to speed fast in the most pragmatic fashion.

I was also impressed by the authors' holistic approach in teaching ASP.NET application development. The content covered not only the usual framework programming essentials, but also topics sorely missing from other beginning books on ASP.NET like: using the VS.NET debugger, creating reports using Crystal Reports, using SSL to secure connections to a web application, and creating Setup projects. The book even discusses some workarounds to a common issue in ASP.NET programming like the back-button problem. Perhaps, in staying within the intended scope of the book, the book mostly just touches the surface of these topics.

All in all, this book may not appeal to those who seek the ultimate knowledge in ASP.NET. However, for those developers who have little time to spare and want to get an effective jumpstart to professional ASP.NET web application programming, this is one book highly worth considering.

- Jason Ong
August 2004

Related Resources

• Amazon.com reviews / Buy this book
• Other ASP.NET/Visual Basic .NET books