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"Real World ASP.NET Best Practices" is a great and much-needed literary slap
upside the head for those of us who haven't been squeezing the most out of our
apps. If you already know you're stuff with ASP.NET, get your hands on this book
and get a very positive reality check.



Since having worked with ASP.NET for a few years now, I've been on the hunt for
a new book that goes beyond the introductory/intermediate description of how
ASP.NET does what it does in the aggregate. I don't need an omnibus discussion
ASP.NET in the aggregate, detailing how to populate a drop-down list or connect
to a database, and the obligatory of how to create a "Hello world" XML Web
service. I wanted a title that would focus on a niche aspect of ASP.NET Web
development, and that's precisely what this book delivers.



The book could also very fittingly be named, "The Things We Like Best About
ASP.NET - 2 Dudes and their Opinions." And this is a good thing. The authors do
a great job of providing you with helpful tips to hone, refine and enhance your
existing ASP.NET savvy to be able to write code less, smarter, and more
productively.



It provides closure for all-too-common developer inquiries like: what's faster -
a DataReader or a DataSet? Which Web server control is more top-heavy - a
DataList or a Repeater? It also demystifies the mighty, mighty DataGrid and
shows it's not the all-encompassing solution many may think. Further, it

addresses the much-misunderstood mechanism of suitably using client-side
JavaScript in your ASP.NET WebForms.



You'll find lots of accommodating code methods, syntax tidbits, and general
concepts buried deep within the .NET Framework to let you write more productive
apps.



WHAT I LIKE

• Phenomenal chapter on caching - when to use it, and when it's more of a burden
than a blessing for your apps. This is one of the best discussions on the topic
I've found in print to date.

• Great ADO.NET coding techniques are enforced throughout the book, showing how
to effectively/efficiently connect to, disconnect from, and destroying database
communication objects

• Comparing the true best way to persist data across pages and postbacks

• Tips and tricks from classes and interfaces within the .NET Framework that
have gotten little fanfare or have gone largely undocumented, such as various
sues for the IList interface C#'s 'lock' keyword help out a lot.

• I enjoyed the section on the dangers of overusing dynamically-loaded users
controls, adding severe overhead to your app

• The portion of why it's not a bright idea to use business logic within a
DataSet is really eye-opening

• I like the fact the concepts are supported by metrics in Application Test
Center, demonstrating the relative performance of a code block in the real
world. Although numbers don't lie, but they don't tell the whole truth, this is

a much-needed addition.

• The chapters are short, to the point, but still chock-full of great content,
not inundating the reader with extraneous information.

• Included is a very nice discussion of performance optimization through proper
development of an app's web.config file.



WHAT I THINK NEEDS WORK FOR THE SECOND EDITION

• The code samples are inconsistent, with half of them being in C# and the other
half being in Visual Basic .NET. Also, the VB.NET chapters tend to be so tightly
married to Visual Studio .NET coding that it makes migration out of it rather
difficult

• The writing style has a tendency to display the occasional grammatical
abnormality, (e.g., "know how to properly use DataSet")

• I was hoping to see a discussion of performance optimization within the
context of a tiered application, specifically tweaking your data access layer (DAL)
for maximum speed. This isn't a biggie, just maybe a suggestion for the next

edition.



I would rate the book 4 out of 5. Forgiving the editorial snafus and the code
inconsistencies, I really had a positive experience reading this book. It's not
the same old take on ASP.NET, and you'll be a better off and more well-rounded
developer, now conscious of the major considerations behind your app's curtain
because of it.

This books clearly explains some of the most ambiguous questions we had about ASP.NET. Jason A. Salas' review nicely summarizes the book and its value.

I found so many useful tips that as a supervisor of the web department at our company, I've made it required reading for all of my developers.

An Excellent resource for all ASP.NET developers!

Great book. Helped starting with .NET and best practices. I have read it more than once and have passed it on to associated to read!