ASP.NET Unleashed, Second Edition

Dedicated to the principle that more is more, and weighing in at over 1,400 pages, this title covers all the bases in the new ASP.NET. Though it's comprehensive, the author takes care to present the basics of programming first. Early sections cover the basics of building Web pages with built-in ASP.NET Web controls. Only later on does the text range farther afield. Standout sections on mobile devices will let you work with today's wireless devices using both WAP and specialized HTML on the Pocket PC platform. Coverage on the extensive support for databases in ADO.NET and bound controls marks this book's practical focus on the basics. Material on tapping the powers of Microsoft SQL Server and the Indexing Service for providing full-text searches in Web sites is a notable standout here.

Later chapters look at basics of the much-advertised Web services, but also discuss ways to extend security and data sharing. Advanced bells and whistles are illustrated with a Web service to export pattern matching across Web sites--a worthwhile example. More advanced topics round out this book, including a tutorial on .NET APIs for common functions like the file system, strings, and regular expressions. A later section on combining ASP.NET with Microsoft Message Queue Server to provide asynchronous messaging will extend the range of your applications.

Final sections illustrate key concepts using a job site and an online store. And the last few pages in this 1,400-page tome are devoted to a handy reference for ASP.NET server-side controls, which is sure to be a useful feature.

Few titles combine so many useful examples, and the choice and ordering of material here makes this a book that will benefit two distinct audiences: those brand-new to ASP.NET and those who want to extend the basics with new capabilities using Web services and other high-end whistles and bells. There's a pleasing amount of white space in the text, which is dominated by dozens and dozens of clear examples rather than long-winded explanations, making this title ideal for those who like to learn new programming techniques through examples. --Richard Dragan