PRObooks
Microsoft Visual Web Developer 2005 Express Edition: Build a Web Site Now
Are you bored by reading traditional black and white books? Then pick up a copy of Microsoft Visual Web Developer 2005 Express Edition: Build a Web Site Now! This book is very compact; in less than 200 pages, Jim Buyens covers the essential aspects involved with working with ASP.NET using Visual Web Developer 2005. But unlike many other books, the pages are enhanced with colored screenshots, tips, and bulleted step-by-step instructions.
Chapter 1 introduces you to the world of Visual Web Developer 2005 Express Edition. Buyens provides the objectives behind the book and also the installation instructions. Chapters 2, 3, 4, and 5 demonstrate the ASP.NET 2.0 programming model, and creation and management of Web sites. While Chapter 6 examines the creation of Web pages, including brief coverage about the management of the controls included with the Toolbox, Chapter 7 demonstrates how to work with the source code using the Text Editor included with the product.
Chapter 8 examines the creation and usage of Web user controls. The next two chapters illustrate the usage of Master Pages and Cascading Style Sheets (CSS). Chapters 11 and 12 demonstrate the usage of Themes, Sitemaps, and the creation of dropdown, flyout, and TreeView menus. It also includes brief coverage about the usage of BreadCrumbs in ASP.NET 2.0. The remaining chapter deals with the development of data-oriented applications, with adequate coverage about GridView and DetailsView control. In the final chapter, Buyens shows the different ways by which you can execute your database, including publishing a database in a shared Web hosting server.
Buyens writing style is very lucid, which will help readers more easily grasp the content. Each chapter ends with a section titled In Summary . Buyens, however, missed an opportunity by not providing any coverage about Web Parts, Validation controls, file uploading, e-mail, FormView, membership, or Web services. The author should also provide coverage about inserting records into a database. I hope he will include these topics in the next edition of the book. In addition, it would be great if Buyens provides an appendix covering the naming conventions to be followed while working with the different Toolbox controls.
The book includes a CD-ROM, which contains the express versions of Visual Web Developer 2005 and SQL Server 2005. This will surely help readers work with the book straight away, without the need to download any software from the Web. The book will be of great help for a beginner who doesn t have any previous knowledge of ASP.NET, as they ll be able to master the concepts in a short amount of time. Unfortunately, the source code for the sample projects is not included on the CD. Intermediate and advanced developers likely will not find anything useful in the book, except the software on the CD. However, if you re new to the game and want to learn only the fundamentals of ASP.NET at a low cost, this book will be useful for you.
Anand Narayanaswamy
Rating:
Title: Microsoft Visual Web Developer 2005 Express Edition: Build a Web Site Now!
Author: Jim Buyens
Publisher: Microsoft Press
ISBN: 0-7356-2212-4
Web Site: http://www.microsoft.com/MSPress/books/8737.asp
Price: US$16.99
Page Count: 208
