Overview: The coverage of asp.net was good. I learned most of asp.net by searching out questions on google and then trying the solutions. VS 2005 standard and tool is excellent. I've record most of the samples on my site. A very important topic covered in the book was Templates. Templates, event handling, and reusable code are the keys core values of asp.net. In 3.5, the dropdownlist template has a selectedvalue attribute, priceless. In 2.0, you have to access the databound event, get the editindex row, find the control, and then set the selected value by accessing the findbyvalue method. The author covers a wide range of controls, techniques, and ideas. However, he missed passing parameters between pages, communicating from the Child page to the master page, ODBCconnection communication and data explorer, How to setup ASP.NET; gridview (rowupdating, rowdeleting, rowediting, findcontrol, templatefield); calendar control; databinding to the listbox, datatable - datarow - dataset; oledb; treeview; overriding datasource selectparameters, updateparameters, insertparameters, addwithvalue ; replaces for redim preserve using arraylists; performance improvements by using stringbuilder; system.threading.threadpool, sleep, and queueUserWorkItem; critical issue of SQL parameterizing order; building menus. Visit my site for information on these issues.

AJAX

1. AJAX is a set of interrelated technologies that improves data exchange by transmitting only the necessary element names and values and returning only the HTML portions of the page that need updated.
2. An AJAX enabled postback is referred to as a partial page postback.
3. User display is update more quickly because less data is between passed between the server and the browser.
4. AJAX enabled web page requires added functionality to both the web browser and the web server. The web browser must know how to make a partial postback, the web server must know how to partially render the page and return only the necessary HTML back to the browser.
5. The browser work through the use of client-side Javascript. Javascript includes functions for sending information to a web server to be used to initiate the partial page postback.
6. If you building a website using master pages where the majority of the pages are AJAX enabled it makes sense to place the scriptmanager in the master page.
7. The Updatepanel control defines a region on the page that can participate in a partial postback. Additional controls may be added within an updatepanel.
8. The Updateprogress control is useful for informing the user that a partial page postback is in progress.

Be carefull when you buy this book. You do not learn that the source code used in this book is only Visual Basic. No Visual C# is provided. You find this out after you purchase the book.

If you're looking for a book that will give you a solid foundation to asp.net 3.5 through Visual Web Developer, this is it. Many books throw advanced material at the reader in the beginning chapters to show what the software can do, thereby confusing the novice. This book proceeds logically.

Also, hats off to author Scott Mitchell! I emailed him because there was a glitch on the Sams website & the sample exercises were not available. He emailed me a link within a few hours enabling me to download the info.

very nice book, easy to follow. include most basic concept of the ASP.NET 3.5

This book is very good for those who are starting .NET from the begining. It has very good flow of topics an very easy going pattern. Covers almost all basic point those are required for starting. It has some grammatical mistakes but it happens in first edition. I hope publisher/Writer will be working on that.

I'll recommend this book to purchase.