I am very upset for this book. As a beginner, I just followed him to create a simple custom control. I found out that things were not gonna happen as what he told me, and the sample code didn't work also. I won't trust and won't follow him anymore, he just mass me up.

If the title was AMATEUR Web Parts, maybe it would be worth something - to an amateur of course :-) First a professional wouldn't publish a search and replace "translation" from a VB code which was never ever even compiled, and amateur might. Then a professional wouldn't write a code for publication in VB in the first place, since he would know that potential reader of his book, being a professional programmer, has zero time to wade through VB-anything and needs working C# code on the spot - and amateur might.



Since Wrox was avoided publishing even a table of contents on Amazon, let alone a chapter etc. let me quote a little example of a completely amateurish thinking/writing : "think of full-fledged Web Parts as custom controls with superpowers" :-) What can a professional do with such "explanation"? Return the book and click on MSDN pages ...

If the title was AMATEUR Web Parts, maybe it would be worth something - to an amateur of course :-) First a professional wouldn't publish a search and replace "translation" from a VB code which was never ever even compiled, and amateur might. Then a professional wouldn't write a code for publication in VB in the first place, since he would know that potential reader of his book, being a professional programmer, has zero time to wade through VB-anything and needs working C# code on the spot - and amateur might.

Since Wrox was avoided publishing even a table of contents on Amazon, let alone a chapter etc. let me quote a little example of a completely amateurish thinking/writing : "think of full-fledged Web Parts as custom controls with superpowers" :-) What can a professional do with such "explanation"? Return the book and click on MSDN pages ...

If the title was AMATEUR Web Parts, maybe it would be worth something - to an amateur of course :-) First a professional wouldn't publish a search and replace "translation" from a VB code which was never ever even compiled, and amateur might. Then a professional wouldn't write a code for publication in VB in the first place, since he would know that potential reader of his book, being a professional programmer, has zero time to wade through VB-anything and needs working C# code on the spot - and amateur might.

Since Wrox was avoided publishing even a table of contents on Amazon, let alone a chapter etc. let me quote a little example of a completely amateurish thinking/writing : "think of full-fledged Web Parts as custom controls with superpowers" :-) What can a professional do with such "explanation"? Return the book and click on MSDN pages ...

Poorly done, examples are not clear and not completed. Do not buy this book.

Poorly done, examples are not clear and not completed. Do not buy this book.

The book does not flow from creating a project to finishing a project. It is haphazard. The examples from the website suck! None of the examples are complete, especially chapter 12 which is the one I wanted the most.

The book does not flow from creating a project to finishing a project. It is haphazard. The examples from the website suck! None of the examples are complete, especially chapter 12 which is the one I wanted the most.

The writing is poor and doesn't make the points clearly. This subject is pretty easy so the examples can make up for the poor writing.

I'm giving one star to balance unfair author's 5 stars. Poorly written, examples have nothing to do with the content of the book. They are full of bugs and some do not work. The author is not an expert in the subject, he just barely figured out how this things work. It is not programmer to programmer, it's a businessman to programmer. I'm taking the books back to bookstore.

I'm giving one star to balance unfair author's 5 stars. Poorly written, examples have nothing to do with the content of the book. They are full of bugs and some do not work. The author is not an expert in the subject, he just barely figured out how this things work. It is not programmer to programmer, it's a businessman to programmer. I'm taking the books back to bookstore.

Out of all the books I have this the most poorly written one. Terms are miss used and mixed up in the later chapters (which I realized after further research of my own). No one example that progress through out the book. It's like he just figured out how this works, did a quick off-the-wall example and through it in the book. In some cases information you used from a previous chapter will not work with a future chapter without making changes, if you would have used one example through out the book you would have realized this. I am also giving him one star b/c he felt that he needed to give himself 5, this will bring it down to more accurate rating.

Out of all the books I have this the most poorly written one. Terms are miss used and mixed up in the later chapters (which I realized after further research of my own). No one example that progress through out the book. It's like he just figured out how this works, did a quick off-the-wall example and through it in the book. In some cases information you used from a previous chapter will not work with a future chapter without making changes, if you would have used one example through out the book you would have realized this. I am also giving him one star b/c he felt that he needed to give himself 5, this will bring it down to more accurate rating.

Peter seems to know what he's talking about. Unfortunately the book is FULL of mistakes. Peter codes in VB, and the C# translations that he provides were obviously not tested. They were copied and psted from the VB code and only half translated. They don't even come close to compiling. I would have hoped downloading the code from the wrox website would have provided the fixes, but unfortuntatly they rushed this one out, and didn't look back.

Peter seems to know what he's talking about. Unfortunately the book is FULL of mistakes. Peter codes in VB, and the C# translations that he provides were obviously not tested. They don't even come close to compiling. I would have hoped downloading the code from the wrox website would have provided the fixes, but unfortuntatly they rushed this one out, and didn't look back.

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.

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:
And I love my hat! (I've been wearing various hats for 30 years). Think of it as branding. But I know the point the reviewer is making: I remember the first photographs on the Wrox covers which made all the authors look like moronic serial killers. Wrox now sends out two pages of guidelines (and a requirement that authors use a professional photographer).

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/.

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).

CAVEAT:
By the way, I noticed that people who bought this book are 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/. I haven't tried it yet but I'm hoping to get to it soon.

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 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.

If you believe in good user interface design and the power of reusability then the ability to create custom controls/WebParts in ASP.NET is an essential part of creating great ASP.NET web sites. And if you believe that serving your users is the highest goal of great applications then working with WebParts is critical to meeting that goal. Put all that together and you end up with this book.

My goal was to be relentlessly practical: If I discussed a topic it's because there is some situation/scenario/reason that you'd need to know this stuff. The reverse is also true: If I couldn't come up with a scenario where a professional developer needed to use some feature I spent very little time on it (or ignored it altogether).

I also included all the code that I could and focussed it on whatever topic is being discussed. So if you're looking for code on managing ViewState from a custom control, the code samples show how to do that--and not how to do five 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).

CAVEAT:
By the way, I noticed that people who bought this book are 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/. I haven't tried it yet but I'm hoping to get to it soon.