ASP.NET in a nutshell appeals to two audiences: beginners and advanced developers. The middle group is neglected. The samples were easily coded and worked. However, the object model describing the objects were referenced as complex schematics in the appendix. Another set of examples needed to be included that showed how to interact with the object methods and properties of the .net components. I had to go to the web and read numerous articles to discover how to manipulate the components through their object model. I've included a few samples on my site.

Configuration Settings was not clearly described. The custom error handling was difficult to understand.

The tree control view was initialized using an xml structure. The OnTreeNodePopulate event was need a sample code demonstration. I create a treenode called Industry which loads the children nodes on demand using the PopulateOnDemand callback.

The Datalist control has a number of important attributes which must be attended too: Datakeyfield (Primary Index), Datasource (the Oledb database connection-a AccessDataSource type). ASP.net carries the Visual C++ tradition of event mapping. I've chosen to use OnItemCommand event to capture the e.commandname for "Insert","Edit","Update", and "Delete". Insert requires a special routine of making visible a panel with an input form embedded and upon clicking the save button mapping to the AddNewRecord function which creates a insert into sql string and assigns it to the datasource insertcommand attribute and transacts the dml then resets the input variable and hides the panel.

ASP.NET System.Data.OleDB (connection, command object) active Server Pages. The oledb coverage is highly neglected in the ASP.NET in a nutshell book. I used the internet to discover how to open a MS access oledb connection and execute an Update DML using the oledbcommand object.

Validators were very interest. I create an input form has three types of validation routines: required validator, custom validator, and range validator.
If the validation rule is not met than an custom error message will appear to the right of the textbox. You can force validation by calling the validator method validate. The result can be returned to the calling program by invoking the IsValid method. I've used a regular expression to check for valid email, currency, and other patterns. There are a number of helpful sites for regular expression that are searchable from my site from "active server pages" query.


ASP.NET Calendar Control - Changing Display Years - Updating a Textbox with selection - Active Server Pages I coded a codeset of interaction between a textbox, dropdown combo box, and a calendar. I started by populating a drop down combo box with plus and minus 20 years from the current year and selecting the current year. An event handler is defined for the OnSelectedIndexChanged value which called "Set_Calendar" eventhandler. "Set_Calendar" event handler uses the selected value for year from the drpCalYear control to initialize the calendar using the VisibleDate property of the calendar control. The autopostback attribute of the drop down combobox must be set to true allowing a postback when index selection change has occurred.

Other topics that were of interest:
Understanding the system.array
Using .net collections
working with arraylists and hashtables
Using the application object
Using the session object
reading and writing cookies
using the query string
understanding VB classes
formating Numbers, dates, and times
Using the datareader
overriding producings
raising events and implement callbacks

I concur with other reviewers on the following points:

1) The organization is good and focuses strictly on the relevant web classes in .NET.

2) The documentation, however, is more or less a repeat of ASP.NET information from MSDN. In a lot of O'Reilly Nutshell books, the authors typically add more insight to the classes they cover that the official documentation does not. With this book, I really did not get that impression.

If you need an offline version of the MSDN documentation, this is great. Another detraction is that the book does not come with a documentation add-in CD like the other .NET in a Nutshell books.

3) The most egregious fault with this book is that the authors do NOT tell you that the book is mostly in VB.NET syntax. I'm trying to learn C# and the book's latter parts is all VB.NET. I really wish the authors were upfront about this, so I could save myself some money. *sigh*

Future ASP.NET Authors: If you're going to write about ASP.NET, please specify, somewhere on the cover or in the introduction, the language you will be using for examples.

C# programmers may be better off reading other ASP.NET books, which usually are in C# (or at least tell you upfront which language is being used).

The description of this book says it's for ASP developers transitioning to ASP.NET. I have worked with ASP for over a year, and this book was pretty much useless. The only redeeming factor was that I was able to get it from my local library, so I found out before it cost me any cash. The first part of the book delves into topics with zero explanation, and very little code, so you don't have a chance to get your feet wet with actual code, and the topics are dull and dry. The last portion of the book looks like it would be a nice reference, but honestly, why would you buy a book like this for a reference? Isn't that what the 'net is for?

Two thumbs down. I'm working through a Sam's teach yourself in 21 days book and it is significantly better for anyone transitioning from classic ASP or learning ASP.NET from scratch,

I've been reading O'Reilly since the days of the tiny fifty page staple-bound brown Nutshell books that covered shell commands and the first version of Perl. This book is that has taken that same approach to data condensation and applied it to everything you need to know about ASP.NET. And extend they have at almost a thousand pages it is far heavier than the original books, but that doesn't make it any less worthwhile.

The first section covers all of the conceptual introductions to the topics, .NET controls, web services, configuration and security and all of the basics. The second section covers each section of the class library in a concise and consistent form that make it so much easier to grab for the book before you even press F1 to bring up the MSDN. Where necessary they include code fragments to demonstrate the point along with the explanatory text but it is never overblown or unnecessary.

This isn't light bedtime reading but it is an invaluable reference to sit next to the keyboard of any ASP.NET programmer.

Just bought the 2nd edition and I was looking forward to the CD with the Visual Studio .Net doc'n plug-in, but when I received the book it didn't have the CD. I called O'Reilly and customer support told me that they had decided not to include the CD, and Amazon just has an old image of the cover (O'Reilly has the "old" cover image too then!).

I had installed the add-in for other O'Reilly nutshell books (ADO.Net and Windows Forms) and found them to be useful, and thus I was disappointed that this book is not including the CD. Perhaps O'Reilly is planning to sell a plug-in for all of the FCL, and that is why the CD was pulled...