Professional Web Parts and Custom Controls with ASP.Net 2.0

Good book. The author has got to lose that ridiculous hat, though. I was forced to dock him a star because the hat was so distracting. This guy is a great example of why Wrox should leave their authors pictures off the cover.

A month or so ago VS 2005 arrived. One of the new things is Web Parts. I looked, I scratched my head I played around with them a little bit, and really got no where. Some searching on the web and nothing that really helped at the usual ASP sites. I have done the quick afternoon read on the book, and now am on chapter two as I work through the text in some detail. So far the book is excellent. No long winded code examples that float off in to nether land, this stuff is right to the point and easy to understand. Peter Vogel seems to make the very correct assumption that the readers of this book already know the language they use and the development tool they use. However, just as it says on the back cover, "Some experience with creating objects is helpful, but advanced skill as an object developer is not necessary", is right on. What this really means is that anybody writing any kind of website with ASP.Net can grasp this book. And everybody who is considering getting into webparts on their websites should get this book.

Peter has done great at explaining the intricacies of ASP.Net 2 web parts. If you have not yet been exposed to ASP.Net 2 web parts...YOUR MISSING OUT! If you develop web applications, you will find that this book is your beginning to creating the next generation of webapps. Grab some coffee, pick up the book, and be prepared to be fascinated with this niche of the ASP.Net 2 platform!

Since I'm the author of this book the five star review that I've given it should probably be taken with a grain of salt (or two). I like creating reusable code (I hate doing anything twice) so custom controls are an important part of ASP.NET development for me. I also like to "empower my users" to use a touchy-feely phrase, which WebParts let me do. Putting those two items together led directly to this book. I wrote this book for the same reason, and with the same attitude, as my VB Object Development book: I wanted one stop shopping for everything that I (or other developers) would need to know to build custom controls and WebParts in ASP.NET 2.0. My goal was to be relentlessly practical: "If you code this, you'll get this; If you want this then code this." For any feature, I've shown not only how to use but why you'd want to use it and provided at least one sample of the code that you would use. I also focussed the sample code as much as much as possible. If, for instance, you're looking for code on managing ViewState from a custom control, the code samples will show how to do that--and the code won't be buried in a sample that does 10 other things. The case study in chapter 12 pulls together many of the tools in the book to build a single custom control (you should also be able to find that chapter on MSDN). GOOD ADVICE: I would love to claim that this book is totally free of errors. No such luck . However, if you check out the Wrox forum at http://p2p.wrox.com/forum.asp?FORUM_ID=222, a gentleman named Alexei has been doing an excellent job of ferretting out and reporting any errors in the book. I'm in his debt. CAVEAT: By the way, when the book first came out I noticed that people who bought this book were also buying SharePoint books--so I'd better be clear here: ASP.NET Web Parts do not yet work in SharePoint (Microsoft has promised a patch for that someday--rumour has it that it will show up around Longhorn time). There is a workaround: Son of SmartPart is a SharePoint control that can host ASP.NET 2.0 WebParts. You can read about it at http://weblogs.asp.net/jan/. Feedback to an earlier review: But I love my hat! Think of it as branding--If you see the hat, it must be me. But I get the point that the reviewer is making: I remember the first photographs on the Wrox covers. Those pictures made all the authors look like moronic serial killers; I just look goofy. You can thank Wrox for the improvement in the quality. Wrox now sends out two pages of guidelines and a requirement that authors use a professional photographer. I suspect that using photographs on the covers not only provides Wrox with a level of branding but helps keep the costs down.