Reviews for Pro ASP.NET MVC Framework

1. Great Book

   Rated 5 out of 5 stars, December 12th, 2009

   Deserves the five stars. Can't rate it highly enough. Hope the author produces a second edition for ASP.NET 2.0 MVC.

2. Top draw

   Rated 5 out of 5 stars, November 12nd, 2009

   I am a C# MVP and have worked with most MSFT technologies but do not favour the web, instead I prefer to write WPF, but this book spiked my interest, having done Apache Struts and also ASP .NET Webforms, I have to say at that time I preferred ASP .NET Webforms.
   
   So I took a plunge and read this book cover to cover, and felt a wry smile touch my lips with each passing chapter, Mocking, IOC, TDD, its all covered (and we do the same with WPF at work as well).
   
   The book is an absolute winner, and although I prefer not to do web development, this book is clearly a gem, it is 2,000,000% clear that Steve actually earns money out of creating well designed software that is maintainable, that just comes across in his style.
   
   The book is littered with so many useful bits of code, its not funny. This book would actually be a bloody good read for someone currently doing ASP .NET webforms, that wanted to know how to get into TDD.
   
   In closing its ace, buy it now. You will not be disappointed at all.

3. Technically Understandable

   Rated 5 out of 5 stars, November 12th, 2009

   To be honest, the real reason I got this book was because it was one of the first books (if not the first) to come out in relation to ASP.NET MVC. Whilst my reasoning for buying it wasn't based on previous reviews it definitely isn't a regret.
   
   I've been devouring this book at work in an effort to develop better MVC applications. The guidance is very straightforward and understandable even for those with zero clue in MVC architectures. Fortunately I had a good grounding in MVC having worked closely with the architecture previously, so it wasn't new to me.
   
   Not only does Steve break down ASP.NET MVC chapter-by-chapter but he also gives a real world application to work through for a considerable amount of the book. This allows the reader to see how many of the features are applicable in the real-world which immediately made me want to give it five stars as I feel many authors of technical literature should do this.
   
   Some things aren't made entirely clear. For example, my DAL uses stored procedures therefore I have to extend DataContext which means I have to provide the base constructor, essentially stopping me from passing a connection string to my repository constructor. The example given for Castle Windsor passes a connection string to the repository which left me stuck in my tracks. Of course you don't have to do it this way. Of course this is only a minor detail but a beginner may become stuck, and of course if Steve covered every single one of these minor details the book would've been twice the length, which wouldn't have been pleasureable for the reader or writer alike.
   
   What is a shame is that Microsoft ferverently released ASP.NET MVC 2 which included a host of new features which would've been excellent in a book like this. Hopefully Steve may provide a top-up book either in electronic format or printed.
   
   Overall I highly recommend this book to anyone wanting to get involved in ASP.NET MVC development, even if you are a beginner.

4. Excellent ASP.NET MVC Book

   Rated 5 out of 5 stars, November 12th, 2009

   I bought this book based from the 5 previous recommendations. And their recommendations does not disappoint. Because when you are learning a new technology, you need a good book to show you the ropes, otherwise you'll just get frustrated and annoyed. I hope Steven Sanderson writes another professional technical book.
   
   In the first part of the book, Steven takes you straight in to the guts of an ASP.NET MVC application. Bulk of the first part is an e-commerce cookbook with an image catalog and shopping cart functionality which he refuses to call a demoware. There is a lot to take in, from the prerequisites of the new 3.5 .Net language features like lambdas, extension methods, projections, and anonymous types; to appreciating the importance of separation of concern by using interfaces to isolate the dependencies of objects. For example separating the implementation involved in a data store from the controller you use an interface to instantiate the controller. Since the controller only knows about the interface, it does not need to know how the concrete object is implemented. The two concerns have been separated cleanly and no implementation dependency will blight a maintainable, scalable solution. When you read this book, you get the sense of a sound educated rational in developing any type of application. This is probably due to the fact that MVC has been around for more than 30 years.
   
   The second part explains all the plumbing you have used in part 1 in great detail and more. It explains the guts of the MVC architecture itself and how you can customise it to leverage it from your own preculiar requirements. Although some people might prefer to start reading the second part I actually think that Sanderson's method reinforces what I have seen in action in the first part. I actually learn more by example rather than reading a reference guide that does not look relevant with the bigger picture.
   
   Although this is a professional book and Apress recommends to read the beginning and pro ASP.NET 3.5, anyone with a basic understanding of MVC and a bit of classic ASP should be able to sail through this book. Infact all the server controls you've learnt in ASP.NET 2.0 and 3.5 with all the stateful abstraction of Windowsform-like events are actually nearly worthless within the MVC world.
   
   In conclusion the book is extremely well written, organised and full of reusable code relevant to project problems and requirements.

5. This book rocks

   Rated 5 out of 5 stars, August 12th, 2009

   I know next to nothing about ASP.MVC Framework, I have to admit it. For a years I was web developer and my life was WebForms and now, since I redireced my focus on other subjects, I'm way behind that new fancy stuff. When I started looking for a book to learn something I imediately turned my attention to Steve's book. First of all I know Steve and, trust me, he knows what he is talking about. That itself is enough recommendation for me. As for the book, I managed to read just first chapter and, believe or not, it was enough for me to catch the subject. I know now that if I would like to read about ASP.MVC in more depth, this is the book to get.