Review: ASP.NET 3.5 Unleashed
At first blush, it may seem strange for me to review a "competing" ASP.NET 3.5 book. However, Stephen Walther's ASP.NET 3.5 Unleashed doesn't target the same audience as ASP.NET 3.5 For Dummies. Mine is unabashedly a beginner's book. ASP.NET Unleashed is a comprehensive title for intermediate to advanced programmers and definitely hits its mark.
At over 1800 pages, this is definitely not "light" reading. It is, however, packed with most everything a professional ASP.NET developer needs to know to work in ASP.NET 3.5.
I was struck early on with Walther's assertion at the opening of Chapter 31 (Using Server-Side ASP.NET AJAX) that the future is AJAX:
"Microsoft ASP.NET is a dying technology. It received its death blow on February 18, 2005 when Jess James Garrett published his article 'Ajax: A New Approach to Web Applications.' All that is left is the long, slow goodbye."
The author encourages readers to "leave the safety of the server side and enter the wilds of the client side." To that end, Walther does an excellent job of explaining the use of the UpdatePanel, Timer, and UpdateProgress controls that are built into ASP.NET 3.5.
The subsequent chapter, Using the ASP.NET AJAX Control Toolkit, gives a solid overview of the toolkit's suite. It then shows how to use the AutoComplete, DragPanel, FilteredTextBox, MaskedEdit, Animation, and UpdatePanelAnimation controls. As always, there are many code listings (in C# in this edition). Chapter 33 digs even deeper into AJAX to program client-side applications against the Microsoft AJAX Library. If you're ramping up to build on the client, the book's AJAX content is very valuable.
The book is also solid on LINQ, the popular addition to ASP.NET 3.5. Chapter 18 goes through the concepts of LINQ to SQL entities, automatic properties, initializers, type inference, anonymous types, and lambda expressions. You learn how to perform standard database commands using LINQ to SQL and debug your queries.
This is a programmer's book, for sure. Where my book caters to beginners by using the IDE's graphical tools, Walther writes and explains lots of code. Don't look for numbered steps telling you where to click in Visual Studio 2008. The book focuses more on ASP.NET code than how to get the IDE to write it. This makes sense for the intermediate and advanced audience. Interesting to note, however that ASP.NET 3.5 Unleashed uses the single .aspx page model very effectively that I recommend for beginners. The book includes a CD with tons of valuable samples in C# and VB.
I have only two minor issues with this book: Firstly, the screenshots take up an excessive amount of space on the pages for very little value. For example, at page 448, Figure 10.6 takes up half a page to display a list control, a label, and a button scrunched into the top left corner of a browser page. I wish Sams would revise its template standard to do away with full page screenshots and focus on what's important. Secondly, the book is too heavy to rest comfortably on my stomach for bedtime reading. Buy a tray for increased comfort! <grin>
In summary, if you're an ASP.NET beginner, start with my book and graduate to ASP.NET Unleashed as you expand your confidence and capabilities. If you're already working comfortably in .NET, you only need this book and the MSDN reference documentation. Buy it.