As the date of publication of my new book, Essential ASP.NET 2.0, approaches, I have been asked by several people if they should bother reading the first book (
Essential ASP.NET) or just wait until the second one comes out. My answer is always
read both! And that's not just because I have an interest in selling more books :) but because these two books are really companion books. Think of this upcoming book as
Volume 2 of Essential ASP.NET since the overlap between the two books is basically zero. More than 90% of the contents of the first book is still completely relevant to ASP.NET 2.0, and really should be read first to get a complete picture of the platform.
There a few topics from the first book, however, that are not really relevant in 2.0. So, if you are new to ASP.NET here is a reader's guide to the first book, in anticipation of reading the 2.0 book. This will also be included in the preface of the upcoming book.
ASP.NET 2.0 developer’s guide to Essential ASP.NET with Examples in C#
Chapter 1 – Architecture
The discussion of code-behind should be read only lightly, as it has changed in 2.0, although the 1.1 model of code-behind is still supported.
Chapter 2 – WebForms
The discussion of code-behind and server-side control integration can be skipped, as this has changed in 2.0. The last section on building WebForms with Visual Studio .NET can be skipped.
Chapter 3 – Configuration
All of this chapter is still completely relevant. Do note that every use of ConfigurationSettings should now be ConfigurationManager in 2.0.
Chapter 4 – HTTP Pipeline
The discussion of asynchronous handlers can be skipped in anticipation of the entire chapter dedicated to asynchrony in the 2.0 book.
Chapter 5 – Diagnostics and Error Handling
All of this chapter is still completely relevant in 2.0.
Chapter 6 – Validation
All of this chapter is still completely relevant in 2.0. Be aware that client-side validation now works cross-browser (not just in IE as it did in 1.1). Also, there is a new ValidationGroup property you can associate with validation controls and buttons that generate POST-backs to selectively fire subsets of validation controls.
Chapter 7 – Data Binding
Skip over the discussion of the DataGrid control, as it has been replaced by the GridView control in 2.0. In the template discussion, replace every occurrence of DataBinder.Eval(Container.DataItem, …) with Eval(…) which is the new expression in 2.0.
Chapter 8 – Custom Controls
All of this chapter is still completely relevant in 2.0. Whenever you see references to RegisterClientScriptBlock replace it with ClientScript.RegisterClientScriptBlock for 2.0. In the discussion of data-bound and composite controls be aware that there are two new control base classes in 2.0, DataBoundControl and CompositeControl, which should be used as base classes when creating these types of controls. There are also many new designer integration features in 2.0.
Chapter 9 – Caching
All of this chapter is still completely relevant in 2.0.
Chapter 10 – State Management
All of this chapter is still completely relevant in 2.0.
Chapter 11 – Security
All of this chapter is still completely relevant in 2.0. Be aware that many of the features discussed in the forms authentication section are much easier to build in 2.0 because of the Membership feature. Understanding the details of how it still critical to using Membership properly, however, and thus this discussion is a good precursor to the Security chapter of the 2.0 book.
Posted
Aug 03 2006, 09:04 AM
by
fritz-onion