Book Review: Pro ASP.NET 3.5 in C# 2008: Includes Silverlight 2 by Matthew MacDonald And Mario Szpuszta

Part of: The RAM Review

ASP.NET 3.5 is the latest release of Microsoft's NET Web technology. It is the standard for creating dynamic web pages on the Windows platform. Pro ASP.NET 3.5 In C# 2008 is the third edition of the book that gives you practical advice on learning and deploying this dynamic web solution.

This latest edition has been updated to give you everything you need to integrate with the new Silverlight 2.0, SQL Server 2008, Visual Studio 2008, and the Microsoft ASP.NET 3.5 platform. The book is 1520 pages in length, divided into 33 chapters and six sections. I will break it out into the six sections.

Section 1, "Core Concepts," begins with an overall look at the ASP.NET platform, the .NET Framework, and what has changed with the introduction of ASP.NET 3.5. Then you will begin to learn about Visual Studio 2008, the interface, and how to work with it efficiently. Finally you will examine the key parts of the ASP.NET infrastructure. This includes working with Web forms, application configuration, server controls, state management, and ASP.NET application in general.

Section 2, "Data Access," now takes a look at one of the core problems for all software development – that of accessing data. Here you will look at the fundamentals of ADO.NET and how it applies to web applications. You will also learn how to design data access components. Then you will begin working with ASP.NET's data-bound controls that give you the ability to format and present data without a lot of code.

Next you move on to advanced caching strategies that ensure good performance in your site. Finally, this leads you to other techniques beyond ADO.NET such as working with files, LINQ, and XML content.

Section 3, "Building ASP.NET Websites," is all about managing groups of web pages. You begin with user controls that let you reuse segments of the user interface, and then you work with two new aspects of ASP.NET - that of themes which are for styling pages, and master pages for creating a template to be used across multiple pages.

Next you will learn about the navigation model that allows you to let visitors surf from one page to another more easily. Finally, you will examine how to deploy your site using the IIS Web server software.

Section 4, "Security," will take a look at all of the security features that are available with the ASP.NET platform. You begin with a high-level overview of the concepts, followed by exploring the different forms of authentication. Next you will examine the membership model, and then take on the Windows authentication features.

Continued on the next page Page 1 — Page 2

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Article Author: T. Michael Testi

T. Michael Testi is a writer and a photographer out of Edmond Oklahoma. You can see his photographic and art work at T Michael Imaging.

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