A First Look at ASP.Net V. 2.0

I ordered this book a few weeks after ordering my tech preview copy of Visual Studio.NET "Whidbey" and got them both in the mail on the same day. I've read the book and am just starting to work with the amazing new tools, technologies and techniques it describes, and I can't remember the last time I was this excited about an upcoming developer tools release. ASP.NET 2.0 resolves 99% of the issues I have with ASP.NET 1.x and introduces lots of new mind-boggling features that I never knew I needed, but now I wonder how I ever lived without.If you're an ASP.NET developer and are planning to upgrade your skills to the new platform, you owe it to yourself to get a copy of this book. I read it in about two weeks of bedtime reading and could have finished it in a few days if I'd invested any real time, so it's not a big investment of effort to get through. The authors do a great job of sticking to just the new features and assuming that their readers all know ASP.NET 1.x pretty thoroughly, so there was little wasted space. All code samples were in VB.NET, which was a little weird, but it was very refreshing not to see the same code repeated in VB anc C#, which so many books do to pad their page count.If I have one complaint about the book, it's that there is no reference in it to the sample code and applications available online. The authors have a web site with working versions of all of the example applications used in the book, along with downloadable code so those of us with the tech preview of Whidbey can have a good starting point. Here's the URL:http://www.ipona.com/samples/

I started working with ASP .Net when the first beta went out in 2001. It was so much better than anything out there at the time that I bought an MSDN subscription and jumped in head first, despite not having a job at the time.Weird how history repeats itself. I am working this time, because of my initial pursuit of the .Net platform. During that time, I spent a great deal of time working with it to make slick content management apps and portal sites. As much as I'd like to pat myself on the back for all of that, Microsoft clearly understood I shouldn't have had to do that.The names on the cover of this book should be familiar. Homer has been writing MS-centric books for years. Howard has always been active on www.asp.net, a refreshing thing to see given his position at Microsoft. His team's participation in online communities has largely gone away, but this book shows what they've been up to. It's hard to review the book without reviewing what v2.0 is brining to the table. It changes everything, again.The book is not for new developers to the platform, though much of the declarative programming info should be easily digested by anyone. If you've been living and breathing this platform for a couple of years, you need to see what's in this book. It'll have you buying an MSDN subscription again when v2 goes beta in the spring.

Unfortunately I don't have the ASP.NET 2.0 Alpha, but I do have this book, which is certainly the next best thing. I have to admit, I wasn't sure how much I would get out of a book like this without having access to the software being discussed, but the chapters actually manage to be interesting on their own merit.If you're an early adopter or subscribe to the "knowledge is power" model, then this book makes an excellent read. Going through this book should give you an edge over developers that wait for the final release of ASP.NET 2.0.The only downside to this book is the fact that I now can't wait for the next VS.NET to arrive. "Whidbey" looks to be a MAJOR upgrade for VB/C# web developers (unlike the 2003 upgrade).

Just get this book. While ASP.NET 2.0 release is some time in the future, there are things you can do today that will make the transition easier. For instance, if you are already creating pages using some sort of Master Page implementation, look at Chapter 5 on Master Pages to see if there is anything you can do now to make the transition to the version 2.0 Master Pages easier. Even if you can't move to ASP.NET 2.0 as soon as it comes out, some of the ideas that are baked into 2.0 (for instance, the Provider Design Pattern) can be used today to produce a more flexible ASP.NET 1.1 application (for instance, the Provider model is already in use today in a version of the .Text blogging engine, using .NET 1.1).So, if you are moving to 2.0 as soon as you can, get this book, and if you are not, it is also a good read for the ideas that you can implement today!

I attended PDC this year, where Microsoft was able to show off their latest and greatest. I mostly attended the ASP.NET 2.0 tracks. It was great to see all the new features of ASP.NET 2.0, but my problem was being able to remember everything. The slide decks area available, but without specific step-by-step examples, even those are hard to follow along.Those of us lucky enough to attend PDC or with an MSDN universal subscription, have access to the ASP.NET 2.0 alpha. For the rest of the world with an interest in "Whidbey", the next best thing to the actual bits is this book.Even without being able to reproduce the examples live, simply reading the book gives you an insight to how things are going to be in the VERY near future. All of the examples are very easy to read and understand. Every page I turn, I learn something new, about how ASP.NET 2.0 is going to save me hours of programming time developing our core product, www.myKB.com.Every serious ASP.NET developer should have a copy of this book.Scott Catewww.ScottCate.com