Sometimes I find myself giving a book a good review simply because it provided specific information that I was ready to use at the time. In this respect, XML and ASP.NET provided the answers I was looking for upon my first reading, and for that it gets high marks. But I recently went back and re-read the book in its entirety and found just how much useable information is packed within these 800 pages. Now this book is near the top of my list of recommended reading in my ever growing library of .NET titles.
As a .NET developer, I was already somewhat familiar with XML and its related topics. I was not interested in an XML-only reference; but, rather a means of understanding how XML is used within the .NET Framework and how best to exploit XML solutions in developing my .NET applications. In this respect, the authors were right on the mark.
XML and ASP.NET
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Table of Contents
Part One - XML on the Client
- XML and ASP.NET: The Basics
- XML Schemas in .NET
- XML Presentation
- XML Tool Support in Visual Studio .NET
Part Two - XML on the Server
- MSXML Parser
- Exploring the System.Xml Namespace
- ASP.NET Extensibility with XML
- Database Access with ADO.NET and XML
- SQL Server 2000 and XML
- XML Serialization
- Creating and Using ASP.NET Web Services
- Sample Application:Developing an XML-Based Dynamic Web Page Builder Tool
- Sample Application: Mobile Device Programming with WAP, WML, and XHTML Basic
Appendixes
- ASP.NET Objects Reference
- Side-by-Side MSXML Reference
- XSLT Reference
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Highlights
The first section of the book does a great job of introducing the basic concepts of XML and related topics, and the Visual Studio XML tools--without being tedious. Moving into the second part of the book, XML on the Server, there is a thorough presentation of the details of different implementation techniques. I particularly liked the explanation of the MSXML parser and the various other .NET alternatives. I found myself less interested in the sample applications, although detail problems and their explanations can be found within these samples.
Summary
I feel this book is well organized and very well written. And, especially for me, it presented XML within the .NET Framework, and the Visual Studio tool, in a way that I could use the information to create more robust, and maintainable applications.
Thanks, Kirk Allen Evans, Ashwin Kamanna and Joel Mueller. XML and ASP.NET gets a very high recommendation.
Steve Sharrock - www.AspAlliance.com/shark / www.SharkCode.com
