by Fritz Onion
Addison-Wesley Pub Co

There are so many books out about ASP.NET it can be a very difficult task to choose one. To me there seems to be two types of books. One is the example intensive (at times over laden) book. The other is the “how it works” type of book. The market seems to be flooded with example intensive books, but appears light in the “how it works” type. This book is a fantastic “how it works” book. It has good examples but is not drowning in them. The book’s strength is its explanations of ASP.NET core topics, and the little tips and tricks that readers will pick up along the way.

This book is well written and flows nicely. Without a doubt it is an excellent book for beginners and intermediate levels, but I would bet that even advanced users would pick up tips and tricks from the book.

Summary

Chapter 1: Architecture
This chapter explains the basic new architecture behind ASP.NET. Compilation vs. Interpretation, Code-behind, new Page architecture, Shadow Copying, Directives, and new Intrinsic Objects (HttpRequest, HttpResponse, etc) are a few of the topics covered.

Chapter 2: Web Forms
This chapter is all about Web Forms. ViewState, HtmlControls, WebControls, and Events are some of the items discussed. One section I liked the best was the “Day in the life of a page”. It explained the step by step events that occur during a page’s lifetime in a very clear and concise manner.

Chapter 3: Configuration
This is an excellent chapter that discusses the new XML based configuration in ASP.NET. Web.Config, Machine.Config, and configuration hierarchy are examined. processModel and other elements are also discussed.

Chapter 4: HTTP Pipeline
This chapter goes over the HTTP Pipeline, and all the actions that take place each time a requests comes in. It goes into great coverage of how that request is routed through the architecture. It also goes over Context, Applications, Custom Handlers, and a few other related topics. This is a great chapter.

Chapter 5: Diagnostics and Error Handling
This chapter shows us how to get out of the classic response.write method of debugging ASP apps by examining the new diagnostic and error handling capabilities of ASP.NET. Page Tracing, Application-level Tracing, Error Handling, and Unhandled Exceptions are all discussed.

Chapter 6: Validation
This is a chapter that explains form validation (client and server-side), validation control architecture, and the validation controls.

Chapter 7: Data Binding
This chapter starts by explaining the fundamentals of binding data to controls, and then goes into IDataReader Binding, DataSet Binding, and picking when to use a DataSet vs DataReader. The chapter ends by discussing templated controls (DataGrid, Repeater, and DataList).

Chapter 8: Custom Controls
This is the largest chapter of the book (69 pages). This chapter covers custom control fundamentals, state management consideration when designing custom controls, composite controls, and user controls. Designer integration with VS.Net as well as validation and data binding within custom controls is also covered. This is an excellent chapter.

Chapter 9: Caching
This chapter discusses the new caching opportunities that exist in ASP.NET. Output caching and how it works is discussed. The VaryByParam attribute is also examined, as well as page fragment caching. The chapter also covers data caching, and consideration and guidelines for using it.

Chapter 10: State Management
Application state, session state, cookie state, and view state are all covered in this chapter. I think this is a great chapter because it discusses the pros and cons of each type of state, which will help developers be able to determine which type of state management would be best for their specific situation. Good discussion, with great insights.

Chapter 11: Security
A short chapter on security ends the book. Server and client authentication start the chapter out, and then we go into ASP.NET security. The authentication and authentication elements in the web.config file are both discussed, as is role-based authentication. System identity is the last topic discussed.

I give this book a 9 out of 10. It would be a great addition to any developer’s library. It is also written with examples in C# for you semicolon worshipers. Well done!