Chunky and detailed, Programming ASP.NET is a hands-on guide to Microsoft's Web development technology. It is a huge subject, and at over 900 pages, this is longer than most O'Reilly titles. With support for Web services as well as dynamic Web sites, ASP.NET is the most impressive part of Microsoft's .NET Framework, but developers familiar with the old Active Server Pages have much to learn. This title begins at the beginning with "Hello World," but goes well beyond the basics by providing in-depth examples and explanations. There is some coverage of Visual Studio .NET, but most of the content is equally applicable to those who prefer to use straight code editors. There are extensive code examples, almost too many, with most given in both Visual Basic and C#. Some of the code is repetitive, and at some points shorter, more specific examples would help the book's flow and reduce its bulk.

The early chapters introduce the ASP .NET architecture and cover the event model, the different control types, debugging and the essentials of Web Forms. The chapters that follow tackle database development, including validation, data binding, programming ADO .NET and managing transactional data updates. This accounts for two-thirds of the book. The last third tackles Web services both as client and server, caching and performance optimisation, security, and application deployment. A bug database is used throughout as an example application.

Overall the authors do a great job of covering ASP .NET essentials, somewhat slanted towards database applications. The book has a real-world feel to it and does not skim over problem areas. It is nicely written, and working through the examples is a good way both to learn ASP .NET, and to get a feel for what it can do. --Tim Anderson