Book Review: Murach's ASP.NET 2.0 Web Programming with VB 2005
Murach’s ASP.NET 2.0 Web Programming with VB 2005 by Anne Boehm and Doug Lowe
packs 800+ pages of practical content to jumpstart readers on ASP.NET 2.0 using Visual
Basic. Let’s dig deeper into this book and see what it has to offer.
The book is divided into five sections covering a total of 26 chapters. Section 1
covers the basics in using Visual Studio 2005 to develop data-driven web applications.
Section 2 deals with the use of server and validation controls and managing state
of an application. This section also includes coverage on new ASP.NET 2.0 features
like master pages, site navigation, and themes. Section 3 covers the new ASP.NET data
access features like data source objects and new data-bound controls like the GridView,
DetailsView, and FormView. Section 4 guides the reader with the skills necessary for
building e-commerce applications. This includes securing an application, sending e-mail,
using profiles to personalize a site and web parts to build portals, using the new
MultiView and Wizard controls, and deploying a web application on a remote server.
Section 5 shows reader how to develop user controls, custom server controls, and web
services.
The source code for all the applications of the book is downloadable. The databases
for the applications are available in both Access and SQL Server 2005 Express files.
Generally, there is a theme application (called the Halloween Store) that is presented
throughout book.
As in other Murach’s range of books, this book is presented using the “paired-pages”
format. In this format, the “meat” of the content is presented on the left page of
the book whilst code samples, screen shots, and content summary are presented on the
right page. I find this approach to content presentation quite effective in nurturing
learning -- especially with the summary on each alternate page (and not at the end
of a chapter as commonly found in other books).
As far as technical coverage is concerned, the book covers all the essential ASP.NET
2.0 skills required to create data-driven web applications. The chapters are logically
organized and the explanations couldn’t be any clearer. The “VB-themed” book presents
no problem in learning ASP.NET 2.0 even for C# developers like me -- perhaps because of
the more declarative nature of ASP.NET 2.0 which accomplishes much of the functionality
with little or no code.
This book is clearly the successor to Murach’s ASP.NET Web Programming with VB.NET
(reviewed in 2004). Some of the chapter elements seem quite familiar but have now
been adapted to Visual Studio 2005 and ASP.NET 2.0. Even the Halloween Store application
has been updated to take advantage of the new ASP.NET controls. Unlike the predecessor,
Crystal Reports programming is not featured in the new book; perhaps there’s already
a lot to cover on the new ASP.NET features.
All in all, I’m thoroughly impressed with the book and I would definitely recommend
it to anyone who wants to get to a fast start to ASP.NET 2.0.
- Jason Ong
April 2006
Murach's ASP.NET 2.0 Web Programming with VB
2005
Authors: Anne Boehm and Doug Lowe
Publisher:
Mike Murach & Associates
ISBN: 1890774324
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