Book Review: Enhancing Microsoft Content Management Server with ASP.NET 2.0
Enhancing Microsoft Content Management Server with ASP.NET 2.0 by Spencer Harbar, Lim Mei Ying and Stefan Goßner, features 200+ pages of tutorial content for Microsoft Content Management Server (MCMS) developers who want to leverage on the new features of ASP.NET 2.0 such as master pages, themes and skins, site navigations, and the membership provider model in their MCMS sites.
The book consists of seven chapters. Chapter 1 provides a walkthrough of the installation and configuration of MCMS 2002 SP2, together with SQL Server 2005 and Visual Studio 2005. Chapter 2 covers tips for working with the SP2 development environment, such as creating custom MCMS Visual Studio 2005 templates.
Chapter 3 introduces the master pages feature of ASP.NET 2.0 and provides a walkthrough of the implementation steps on MCMS. Chapter 4 covers the new ASP.NET 2.0 navigation provider model and controls (i.e. the Menu and TreeView control), and how to integrate the new features with an MCMS application.
Chapter 5 deals with creating a consistent look and feel on an MCMS site by using themes, skinning, and stylesheets. Chapter 6 covers the membership provider model and how to use a custom provider along with ASP.NET 2.0 login controls for the purposes of MCMS authentication and authorization.
The final chapter provides how-tos, tips and tricks for working with ASP.NET 2.0 and MCMS SP2 -- such as using cross-page postbacks and the AdRotator control. The chapter also offers migration advice to the upcoming Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007.
The book presents itself in a “manual” format, providing clear and concise step-by-step instructions and code samples on how to accomplish a task. Screenshots are generously sprinkled across the whole book. The book bases its examples on “TropicalGreen”, a fictitious gardening society site, and the source codes used in the examples are also downloadable from Packt Publishing support site.
As MCMS 2002 was not designed to integrate with ASP.NET 2.0 development from ground up, MCMS SP2 addresses that gap but there are situations where a workaround is still needed and this book aptly provides references to the related Microsoft Knowledge Base (KB) article and hotfixes to address those issues.
In summary, the well-organized topics and easy-to-follow walkthroughs make this book a "must-have" for MCMS developers who are delving into ASP.NET 2.0.
- Jason Ong
September 2006
Authors: Spencer Harbar, Lim Mei Ying and Stefan Goßner
Publisher: Packt Publishing
ISBN: 1904811523