very nice book, easy to follow. include most basic concept of the ASP.NET 2.0

I'm only about 1/3 of the way through this book (I just finished hour 8) and am already frustrated with it. It seems to be a book all about how to use Visual Web Developer, not about how to program for ASP.NET. It relies completely on the tool to generate all your code, and rarely shows you the resulting VB.NET code, only the HTML that gets generated once you execute it. If you want to learn how to program in the ASP.NET world, you're better off with a book on VB.NET or C#.NET, as this book doesn't cover it well.

UPDATE 7/23/08 - I'm now finished with the book, and my opinion hasn't changed. This book tells you what ASP.NET is capable of doing (and it's capable of a lot of nice things), but if you don't plan on using MS Visual Web Developer, this book will do you no good. It does not show the code that it generates, only the resulting HTML. Also, I tried using several of the programs the MSVWD created, and they were incompatible with our web server configuration. This code appears to be highly configuration dependent, so if you can't control the configuration of your web server (and I can't for the class I'm taking), this book will help you even less.

I'm only about 1/3 of the way through this book (I just finished hour 8) and am already frustrated with it. It seems to be a book all about how to use Visual Web Developer, not about how to program for ASP.NET. It relies completely on the tool to generate all your code, and rarely shows you the resulting VB.NET code, only the HTML that gets generated once you execute it. If you want to learn how to program in the ASP.NET world, you're better off with a book on VB.NET or C#.NET, as this book doesn't cover it well.

This is as close as I ever hope to come to a perfect how to do it book.
If you know anything about programming with almost any GUI IDE, this book (alone)will teach you how to build complete, functional, real-life, non-trivial, database, web sites and applications.

It requires no extra purchase. It does have examples for Access mdb files, Microsoft SQL databases and MySQL. Except for Access, the other databases are no-cost free downloads.

It uses and includes the Microsoft Visual Web 2005 Developer IDE.

If you are not familiar with SQL it will get you off to a useful start but you will soon need some additional help there. I recommend Beginning ASP.NET 2.0 Databases by Damien Foggon.

It will not teach a non-programmer anything useful.
It is NOT a "You can" book that tells you what can be done but not how to do it.
It is NOT copied from the help files.
It will not teach you HTML, XML, or any other *ML. It will show them and explain what they are.

Unfortunately ( Its only failing in my opinion. ) it does not show you how to publish the web sites you create. The author would argue that that is a topic for another book and I can't really argue with that opinion.

It does start at the beginning with how to use the IDE. It provides examples of every step required to create complete web based sites/applications with database support. including how to use and customize all the commonly used windows controls. It also includes user access control.

It is especially good for a VB programmer who wants to move from client side applications to web based browser/dot.net applications.

Way to go, Scott!

I don't often review books but I felt I had to on this one. Coming from a classic ASP background I think this book really helped me get my feet wet in ASP.Net 2.0. It had easy to understand examples on using the IDE to accomplish a lot of the common things you would normally do while developing.

Granted, the book does not get deep into best development practices or higher level concepts such as Data Access Layers and different types of databases and methods for accessing them. What it does do, is give you a very good starting point if you've never done any .Net development.

After you absorb this book and understand what you can do, you can move onto a more full featured ASP.Net book that covers a lot more.

I actually emailed the author and asked what book he would recommend next and he pointed me in the right direction. Overall a good book to start with.

shipped and arrived really fast and the other 2 books i had ordered, it turned out i didn't need them and amazon took them back without any problems and i got my refund. this book is great!! thanks amazon!

Scott Mitchell is a very good author and has a great deal of ASP knowledge. This book took me from knowing absolutely nothing and a few days later I was creating a Web application for my company (and it actually works). The data explanations are very good.

The book does not detail ALL the web server controls, but a good majority of them. The details that it does lack you can easily pick up from the author's web site.

I also have the ASP for dummies book, but it does not compare to this one.

Scott Mitchell is a very good author and has a great deal of ASP knowledge. This book took me from knowing absolutely nothing and a few days later I was creating a Web application for my company (and it actually works). The data explanations are very good.

The book does not detail ALL the web server controls, but a good majority of them. The details that it does lack you can easily pick up from the author's web site.

I also have the ASP for dummies book, but it does not compare to this one.

The more I read this book, the more I realized that I was wasting my time and the money I paid for this book. I've always been a fan of the 24 Hours book I buy these line of books to learn new technologies. This one, however, leaves a lot to be desired. For instance, it doesn't break examples into visual enumerated instructions; instead, it mixes the instructions with the text, personal comments, etc. Also, it talks and talks, but does very little, making the information very diluted. I can't say anything positive about this book.

An excellent book if you know HTML and have had some experience with databases and web programming. I am a static web programmer needing to learn dynamic creation of websites. This is all I need! Great Book!

An excellent resource for beginners. If you are a complete beginner to ASP.NET, and also want to brush up on Visual Basic, start with Hatfield's ASP.NET 2.0 for Dummies. After that, come to this book by Mitchell.

His writing style is particularly good for people who like to work through concepts step by step, with their right hand on their keyboard and their left on the book. He is careful with his examples, doesn't move too quickly, doesn't make many assumptions. I very rarely get lost when working through one of Mitchell's chapters. Definately can't say that about many other resources.

This is not as good a starting point for complete beginners than is Hatfield's Dummies book. But if you are getting more comfortable with your skills, this is the next place to go. Lastly: this book is ESPECIALLY helpful with data-related subjects. Working with the DataSource control, the GridView control. A review of basic SQL behavior (all that most of us will ever need). This book walks you gently right through these areas.

This was one of the early ASP.NET 2.0 books to be published, and I was worried about it being rushed, about it relying on the CTP version instead of the release version (a constant problem with early-release tech books). I needn't have worried.

I read and did all of the exercises of this book from beginning to end. I did not skip a single page. I know that the cons comment is longer, but I think you would appreciate it better.

Pros: It is a good book for beginners. It provided easy steps-by-step examples. This book did meet my expectations but did nothing to "WOW" me to give it a good score. Over all, this is a good book and I recommended it with conditions mentioned below.

Cons: There are some mistakes in the book that could lead you in the wrong direction. I wonder why the publisher DID NOT provide an errata for this book. But, with a little programming knowledge you can fix the errors and move on. The last example when you create the photo website has major problems. The author converted the photo website from another project causing major errors. It has mistakes that are so apparent I am suprise that the proof-readers did not catch them. If you have no programming background, you will be at a lost with the database section of the photo website because they talked about tables that were not even create. Such as a Products table for a photo website that contains no products. Actually, there should be no Products table AT ALL !!! I know that the previous sentences were confusing, but that is the way the book was written.

I hope this helps you choose a book for your own preference.

ASP.NET is the heart of Microsoft's web-development platform. ASP.NET includes a large set of web-page controls and database access controls that are executed by a server-side engine. Just drag and drop these controls on a web page from the Visual Studio IDE (or its free, stripped-down version, Visual Web Developer), add a small amount of code (VB, C#, or other) to handle a few events, and you have a web application that handles almost any task, including heavy duty database access. Publish the ASP.Net pages on any web server with .NET support. When a user with any browser requests an ASP.NET page, the web server passes the request to the ASP.NET engine, which fills data requests and performs other processing chores, and then returns information to the user via the web server as standard HTML. ASP.NET is one of the top technologies used for major web sites. Any site showing pages with a ".aspx" extension is an ASP.NET site. As decribed below, it is hard to learn much at all about ASP.NET without exposure to a full set of Microsoft web development technologies.

If you want to quickly learn the basics of the complete suite of Microsoft tools (briefly described above) for programming web applications, this book by an experienced author and expert ASP.NET developer will serve you well. The included CD has all the Microsoft tools that you need - (1) Visual Web Developer Express, an integratged development environment for page design, code editing, testing, and project administration with most the of the important features of the professional Visual Studio environment, (2) an integrated web server that mimics Microsoft's IIS (a production-grade server) but will run even on XP Home Edition while IIS will not, (3) Visual Basic 2005 Express version, which is today the most common language for writing Microsoft code, (4) SQL Server 2005 Express Version, a starter version containing the basic funcitonality of the full SQL Sever 2005, which is one of the top three relational databases used for major websites.

So just add a computer with any version of XP or Windows 2000 or 2003. You will not need another reference to learn the basics of ASP.NET, VB, or SQL Server since this book is written for those with no prior experience with these Microsoft products. I would say that if you have never written any code, then perhaps a Teach Yourself VB book or other first programming book would be a better starting point.

I have many years of system administration and programming experience and used the book as a refresher before updating some simple but important applications that I wrote five years ago using older versions of the Microsoft web development servers and tools. I completed the first application update without other references except for a brief look at security issues in a SQL Server book.

For years I have made entry-level software engineers in my small technology company use an earlier version (by a different author) of Teach Yourself ASP.NET. This book is even better, although I would have preferred a book that taught the basics of publishing a site with IIS as well. As pointed out earlier, the author chose to use the web sever built in to Visual Web Developer since Microsoft no longer supports IIS on its entry-level OS version.

There were only a few typos. The twenty-four hours grew to about thirty-five as I slavishly completed all of the examples in the text.

ASP.NET is the heart of Microsoft's web-development platform. ASP.NET includes a large set of web-page controls and database access controls that are executed by a server-side engine. Just drag and drop these controls on a web page from the Visual Studio IDE (or its free, stripped-down version, Visual Web Developer), add a small amount of code (VB, C#, or other) to handle a few events, and you have a web application that handles almost any task, including heavy duty database access. Publish the ASP.Net pages on any web server with .NET support. When a user with any browser requests an ASP.NET page, the web server passes the request to the ASP.NET engine, which fills data requests and performs other processing chores, and then returns information to the user via the web server as standard HTML. ASP.NET is one of the top technologies used for major web sites. Any site showing pages with a ".aspx" extension is an ASP.NET site. As decribed below, it is hard to learn much at all about ASP.NET without exposure to a full set of Microsoft web development technologies.

If you want to quickly learn the basics of the complete suite of Microsoft tools (briefly described above) for programming web applications, this book by an experienced author and expert ASP.NET developer will serve you well. The included CD has all the Microsoft tools that you need - (1) Visual Web Developer Express, an integratged development environment for page design, code editing, testing, and project administration with most the of the important features of the professional Visual Studio environment, (2) an integrated web server that mimics Microsoft's IIS (a production-grade server) but will run even on XP Home Edition while IIS will not, (3) Visual Basic 2005 Express version, which is today the most common language for writing Microsoft code, (4) SQL Server 2005 Express Version, a starter version containing the basic funcitonality of the full SQL Sever 2005, which is one of the top three relational databases used for major websites.

So just add a computer with any version of XP or Windows 2000 or 2003. You will not need another reference to learn the basics of ASP.NET, VB, or SQL Server since this book is written for those with no prior experience with these Microsoft products. I would say that if you have never written any code, then perhaps a Teach Yourself VB book or other first programming book would be a better starting point.

I have many years of system administration and programming experience and used the book as a refresher before updating some simple but important applications that I wrote five years ago using older versions of the Microsoft web development servers and tools. I completed the first application update without other references except for a brief look at security issues in a SQL Server book.

For years I have made entry-level software engineers in my small technology company use an earlier version (by a different author) of Teach Yourself ASP.NET. This book is even better, although I would have preferred a book that taught the basics of publishing a site with IIS as well. As pointed out earlier, the author chose to use the web sever built in to Visual Web Developer since Microsoft no longer supports IIS on its entry-level OS version.

There were only a few typos. The twenty-four hours grew to about thirty-five as I slavishly completed all of the examples in the text.

I have tried many asp.net 2.0 books and this is the first one that "sticked" with my beginner skills. There are many examples and exercises with great explanations of why things work the way they work. I liked the introductions and the summaries at the end of each chapter. The writing is clear and the examples are fun.

I am getting quite confident with Visual Web Developer 2005 Express Edition because of all the example exercises in the book. I can usually debug my errors and the author's errors, which is a testament to Scott Mitchell's explanations.

This book uses Visual Basic, not C#. I am new to both and can't decide where to invest my learning time. I have not yet found a book to use with both Visual Web Developer 2005 Express Edition and asp.net programming classes.

I have found just a few errors in the book, which is why I did not give it 5 stars. I am currently going through the last example exercise, a photo album, which ties together all the things in previous chapters in a wonderful way. There are a few little errors that are sometimes frustrating to try to figure out (I am stuck on one right now; my code is exactly the same as the the code listing in the book, but I am getting an error). I would like to see a web site with the actual code that works to compare exactly.

I could never get through this book in 24 hours (the gimmick of the title), but it is the best of the many books, DVDs and web videos I have tried.

This is an excellent book if you have at least a little programming experience and you want to learn how to create dynamic web sites using Visual Basic. If you are new to programming, this may not be the best place to start because it skims over important fundamental programming concepts pretty quickly. But if you have some programming experience and you're ready to dive into creating dynamic web sites, this is a great place to start. You will definitely want to purchase another book after ripping through this one ([...]), but I recommend this book as a good starting point. The book is easy to read, contains few errors, and does a good job holding your hand through new concepts with simple and clear examples. Be aware that all programming examples in the book are written in Visual Basic, so if you're interested in the C# language, you may want to consider another book. Overall though an excellent big-picture overview of how dynamic web sites work using Visual Basic.

The book is good and very "hands on" because it has you start creating a basic website already in Chapter 2. I am on Chapter 4 and each chapter has taken me more then 1 hour. One chapter took me at least 3 hours. I may be a slow learner at technical computer information; but be aware that it could take longer then 1 hour per chapter. I did have a problem and emailed the author. I was able to figure it out and emailed the author that I got it figured out. Because it was over the holidays, it took him about three days to get back to me, but he did reply. This is a good book and I have enjoyed learning about web design. The enclosed CD of Microsoft Visual Web Developer is a good tool and fun to use, but of course it takes a while to learn all of what it can do. Hang in there and you also can do it!

If you are a beginner at ASP.NET this book is a great introduction. You will get to understand the big picture easily and in a surprisingly short period of time. Every thing is covered here, and the author delves into many parts with lots of detaile, including a great section on working with databases.

Chapters (hours) 1 through 21 were easy to follow and complete. Chapters 22 through 24 are a different story, however. Followed directions closely to create a photo sharing web site, but after checking many times, the code I typed in only worked about 90% correctly. I may have followed the instructions incorrectly, but that is my one issue with the book. The first 21 chapters were easy to follow and the last 3 chapters were 10 times harder. I still think it was worth it - I just wish the difficulty could have ramped up linearly instead of exponentially.

Chapters (hours) 1 through 21 were easy to follow and complete. Chapters 22 through 24 are a different story, however. Followed directions closely to create a photo sharing web site, but after checking many times, the code I typed in only worked about 90% correctly. I may have followed the instructions incorrectly, but that is my one issue with the book. The first 21 chapters were easy to follow and the last 3 chapters were 10 times harder. I still think it was worth it - I just wish the difficulty could have ramped up linearly instead of exponentially.

I have been developing in MS ACCESS, VB, and SQL SERVER for several years; but I had no prior experience in web development. This book was great at laying a foundation for web-development. Each hour is a new piece of the web development puzzle. The author assumes you know nothing; while this may be frustrating for experienced developers, it does a lot of hand-holding for the novice web developer.

It is critical to note that is the reader's responsibility to take all the information and put it together and apply the information to your project. The Photo Album application the author has you build in the final section of the book will help facilitate some of that for you.

Overall I think it a great start for beginners. I'm now migrating to more intensive books. Good job Scott!

I purchased this book to get started in ASP. I am a avid VB/Net and C# programmer so the languages were not a problem. I liked this book because it only touched on the languages slightly 2 chapters. I wanted to learn the basics of ASP 2.0 which this book does teach.

The down side is tha many Host providors do not seem to support the membership classes so you have to do password logging and support via your own databases and forms. This book does not touch on that.

The book does not touch on other databases such as Real SQL Server connections or access. The host providers that I use dont support SQL Express connections so database connections could not be done on my actual web site. I had to result to the web to learn how to use Access. I have yet to do a real SQL Server database.

All in all the book is a good starting point but you will have to read others. If your goal is to build a shopping cart system then here are a few things you must know.

1. ASP
2. VB.Net or C# (Fluently)
3. Database issues (Real SQL or Access. My SQL also)
4. Security issues (Lots of things to learn hear)
5. Access to system like Postal Rates or Credit card systems.
6. HTML (Some XML)

I have several Shopping cart systems but none in ASP. This will be my first. Expect to read 3 or 4 more good books before you have the knowledge to do this on your own.

Active Server Pages is Microsoft's preferred method for you to write dynamic web pages under their web server and operating system. So what can you do in ASP? Mitchell gives an answer suitable for a beginner who should already know something about HTML and Visual Basic. These are fairly undemanding constraints. To a programmer, HTML as a layout language is easy to write. Visual Basic is a little harder, but still simpler than C# or C++.

The style of coding ASP is a little different from most languages, where you might start off with pure computational programs, with little in the way of user interfaces. The book shows that from the very start of writing in ASP, you need a browser running, in which the results of your program appear. Also, the issue of input validation is important. Where the ASP source code, or input data, needs to be checked, and where error messages need to be carefully handled. Helpfully, ASP comes with easy aids. For you as a newbie, the debugger might be the most important of these.

Connecting your code to a SQL database seems to be the most intricate part of the book. It's certainly a vital ability of ASP to do this cleanly. But I wonder how many beginners to ASP really use this.

As with other books in this Sams series, most chapters have a simple quiz and exercises. The exercises given here are not difficult at all. That aspect might actually be a problem to some readers, who want harder puzzles.

I purchased this book thinking it would touch on more .Net 2.0 topics. has 2 sections that touches on simple implementation of User Roles and very lightly covers Master Pages. From my viewpoint this really won't help a Professional .Net coder get up to speed with 2.0.

For the beginner, this is a great introduction.

As a person new to ASP.NET I found Scott's book to be exceptionally low on the frustration scale while being an excellent introduction. Many computer books are rife with typos and oversights on the part of the author that cause newbies to tear their hair out when their project doesn't perform as the author intended. Scott has been extremely careful and I believe I only found two typos in the entire book that caused me to scratch my head for a few minutes trying to figure out what went wrong.

Do take your time going through the first 21 chapters as Scott moves pretty fast in chapters 22 to 24. You'll be lost if you don't take the time to pick up the basic skills. It will also be a little difficult for those who have no past experience with Visual Basic, although this is not a flaw with the book (Scott gives you all the code you need) just an observation.

Overall I was very impressed with this book. Returning to the world of web development after a hiatus of five years (I used to do brochure development with Dreamweaver and Flash) and having no previous experience with dynamic web pages other than a little php, I feel that I'm well on my way to acquiring the skill sets needed to develop fully functional e-commerce sites. I don't think there could be a better starting point than Scott's book. Well done!

Finally, Scott's support of his book is second to none. Twice I found myself stuck and couldn't figure out what I'd done wrong. I sent Scott an email and in both cases he responded within hours!

Scott has done a great job of explaining the new ASP.NET 2.0 controls and showing someone with at least minimal web skills how to use the new controls to create useful, powerful, data driven web pages. While keeping the content focused and the scope limited to the new controls Scott lists several links to additional resources for more information at appropriate places in the content; I found many of these to be very helpful. The Q&A sections at the end of each chapter have some very good real world suggestions and advice.

Most of the chapters use simple one or two page projects to explain a control, how to configure and use it. The final three chapters put it all together by building a multi-page, data driven site using all the controls new to ASP.NET 2.0 including site navigation, user access, master pages, and of course the grid view and detail view. Of the other 'entry' level books I've read on ASP.NET 2.0 this is the best of the bunch.

But wait, there's more. Included with the book is a CD of the Microsoft Visual Web Developer 2005 Express Edition. The examples and screen shots from the book are from this tool. Unlike some of the other 'entry' level books that don't include screen shots of the development environment and tell you you can build ASP.NET web pages with notepad; yes it can be done that way, you can also walk coast to coast but I'd rather fly, which is what having the right tool and the right book will help you accomplish.

Steve S.

Very good for beginners.

Helpful and practical tutorial at the end.

Covers a lot of ground.

Only looks at developing with the MS GUI, not much coding.

For those of us that are not experienced ASP developers, this is a great way to learn the basics. Scott's style is conducive to learning. He breaks down complex tasks in easy steps and frequently repeats key points to make sure you have a solid understanding before moving on. I'm only half way through it and have already found it invaluable.
Great job Scott!