Personalization: Many key technologies are used to make the CMS solution truly user-friendly. Real-World ASP.NET: Building a Content Management System is the complete hands-on guide to mastering the art of CMSs and website development using the .NET Framework.
Aimed at aspiring .NET developers who want to work with content management (CM) applications, Real-World ASP.NET: Building a Content Management System provides a fine overview of what's involved in managing Web site content and also delivers working code for a free, proprietary CMS using the latest in .NET technology and C#.With commercial CM systems costing proverbial big bucks, this book shows you that for a small to midsize site, you can beat licensing fees with a proprietary system built using the powerful .NET framework and ASP.NET. One of this text's most valuable features is its thorough tutorial on what goes into today's commercial CMS applications, from basic content types, version control, and workflow. These early chapters will be indispensable for anyone working with CM, whether as Webmaster, content creator, or developer. (The author provides everything you wanted to know about CM but were afraid to ask. You might well read this book to bone up for a job interview having anything to do with CM in any capacity.)
After describing what goes into an effective CM application, this title turns to .NET and the recommended three-tiered architecture for .NET applications, the basics of .NET, ADO.NET (for database programming with dynamic content), and a quick overview of XML support in .NET. The rest of the book delves into the author's own CMS .NET application, which is used to discuss issues in administering (and programming) a site.
After first setting up and getting the site up and running, the author looks at basic operations like viewing, posting, and updating stories, along with sample ASPX Web pages and the code-behind forms written in C# that bring these pages to life. Besides basic CM, the author shows how to provide simple role-based personalization and security (including protecting pages from certain users).
While CMS .NET may not be a complete substitute for an expensive CM solution, it can no doubt be adapted to meet the needs of a small to medium-sized Web site. As both a way to get a handle on CM and a practical tutorial to getting started with .NET development, Real-World ASP.NET will serve as a useful resource for a good range of readers. --Richard Dragan
Topics covered: Introduction to content management systems (CMS); elements of a CMS system explained: the Content Management Application (CMA), the Metacontent Management Application (MMA), and the Content Display Application (CDA); types of content; benefits of CMS; commercial vs. proprietary systems; simple and complex version control; rollback support; CMS and workflow (including the Workflow Definition Application, WDA, and workflow engines); personalization basics (including types of personalization, from using cookies to push content to rule-based personalization, the law of diminishing returns, and privacy issues); building customer relationships; Web architecture explained: the presentation, application, and database layers; Web scripting languages compared; introduction to ASP.NET and the .NET Framework; using Visual Studio .NET to build a CMS (using basic control types); tutorial to ADO.NET for database programming (basic objects and database basics including stored procedures for SQL Server); using the DataGrid control; introduction to XML and .NET classes for XML (manipulating XML nodes); overview of CMS .NET (the author's case study for a content management system built with .NET); installing and configuration of the sample code; tour of CMS .NET features; an XML-driven navigation bar (NavBar); administering content (adding, editing, updating, and removing stories); security issues in .NET (including role-based authentication in CMS. NET); displaying dynamic content (including precanned zones for home pages, headlines, and stories); workflow support in CMS .NET (including authoring, editing, approval, and deployment phases); and protecting content (privacy issues and gathering user information for profiles).
Featured Customer Reviews
great book!,
September 24, 2004
At least, the author does a better job than some "TOP SECRET agents" with their "classified documents".Excellent book !!,
July 02, 2004 I'm amazed by the book, really. it's so user friendly and easy to grasp that it's beyond the good, hence excellent. i didn't find one useless sentence. all of it is just cash. the first chapters explain what the content managment is and afterwords it's just real code examples of content mangagment system and you really need these first chapters to understand:' hey what are we really talking about here?'.
I must say again, i'm amazed, but that's probably because i'm the target gruop and i fit in Stephens way of geting things explained. so i was so exited about this author that i checked others books of his, and belive it or not i found one which i think is the one of the best computer book i have ever red, i think it's not one of the best,it is the best..but that's another subject.
Really in this content managment system book you get only cash and you have so much fun. and you find yourself thinking 'why is this so perfect, can this complicated subject get a little complicated so you don't get all things served on the plate?'
With this book,It's extremely easy to comprehand this complicated subject(CMS).
The conclusion is that you get CMS for price of a book, it means you get all the code which you kan download from Internet.
again, amazing..
my background: 4 years in programming world, java,c++, asp.netsincerely
anonymous
Book Review: Real-World ASP.NET: Building a Content Manageme,
April 15, 2004The book is divided in fifteen chapters which consist of the following major subjects:
Definition of a Content Management System -- explains the elements of a Content Management System;
Basics of Web Architecture -- explains the basics of Web Architecture, the presentation, application and database layers;
ASP.NET, C#, and Visual Basic .NET -- introduction to the .NET framework and it's Web scripting languages;
ADO.NET -- explains the database basics and objects;
Authentication -- authorization, and encryption of content and the system;
Personalization -- defines Personalization and how to use it;
The book also has a website, at www.contentmgr.com, were you can see the Content Management System you will build live-in-action. Also you can download the companion source code of the Content Management System that will be built through out the book at the publisher's web-site: www.apress.com, go to Downloads and choose "Real-World ASP.NET: Building a Content Management System" to download it.
Analysis
The first five chapters of the book start with explaining the elements of a Content Management System, so it's told that a Content Management System consists of a minimum of three elements: the content manager application (CMA), the metacontent management application (MCMA), and the content delivery application (CDA). After the writer explains the basis of a Content Management System and its terminology, the writer continues with explaining the aspects of version control and workflows.
The next chapter is about the basics of Web Architecture, it will explain the reader about the classic n-tier client/server architectures which consist of the following layers: Presentation Layer, Application Layer, and Database Layer. As mentioned in the book the only difference with the classic n-tier client/server and the Web architecture is the presentation layer which will be via a web browser instead of an operation system specific executable.
The next three chapters make space for an introduction to the .NET Framework , ASP.NET and the language C# but also Visual Studio .NET. In a tutorial kind of way you will build a Dynamic Content Viewer. Once you are done with this viewer you will step in the world of database development, in the chapter "Database Development and ADO.NET". In this chapter you will learn how to use the database functionality available in Visual Studio .NET and ADO.NET. You will also build some examples were you read data from a database and showing it in a Data Grid, and last you will be altering the Content Viewer you made in the previous chapter to work with ADO.NET.
After all this information has been thrown at you it's time to really start building the Content Management System ("CMS"). The first thirty pages of the second half of the book are spent explaining how to install the included source code. The next chapters in the book will guide you how to make the several parts of the CMS. From implementing Authentication or a control panel where you can add or remove your stories. Of course there is information how to display dynamic content and how to implement support for Workflows in your CMS.
Verdict
When you have finished reading Real-World ASP.NET: Building a Content Management System, you have all the information you need to build your own CMS successfully. If you build a CMS for the first time this is the book you want. Very well explained it implements the theory you learned in the first chapters into a nice ASP.NET based CMS that you can use a kick-start for your own CMS. The book is really meant for the Web developer. After the first five chapters the content of the book will get too technical for your editor or designer. In short it's a great book, together with a book like Content Management Bible which you in my opinion you already should have on your desk, you have perfect combination to start building your own CMS.
Not too sure about "real world"...,
October 27, 2003That said, I think this book could be used as a classic example of how not to write extensible, maintainable code. Rather than demonstrate the power and ease of ASP.Net using datagrids and user controls, the content lists are constructed using loops and tables, and the form to edit content is repeated no fewer than 3 times. In order to filter the content before displaying it to the user we run a test on every row to determine if it meets the criteria rather than using a DataView and a filter. I am currently converting the code to a cleaner implementation and I find I am deleting an average of 2 pages of code per page, with no loss of functionality.
When talking about content management I would have expected some sort of elegant promotion system, instead we are offered a custom page complete with custom code for each promotion, in spite of the fact that the only thing that changes between pages is who is allowed to perform the promotion and which state it is being promoted from/to.
This book will not teach you to create flexible software that can be easily adapted to changing requirements. It will teach you to create brittle software that requires an inordinate amount of effort to make the simplest changes (replacing the editor textbox with a WYSIWYG control shouldn't require modifying 3 separate pages -- and I have the code to prove it).
Lazy Critics, Fine Book,
September 22, 2003 I have to laugh at the lazy critics of this book who wanted a full blown CMS application in C# done for them. This book makes it clear that it's the "start" of a CMS application explained in an educational style. It has a great foundation for expansion, so role up your sleeves and do it. You can join some of us who are doing exactly that at http://sourceforge.net/projects/cmsnet
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