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Summary: THE book for server controls
Review: If you are tasked with developing ASP.NET server controls, I cannot imagine a good reason for you not to run and get this book first. The examples are good, and the explanations are even better.
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Summary: terrific! best on the subject
Review: If you need to write custom controls that are not just demonstrations or toys, this is the best book on the subject on the market. The authors tackle all the advanced topics in language that is clear and easy to understand, and they provide lots of example code to go with it.This book is highly recommended.
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Summary: Finally! Answers.
Review: If your trying to get started creating controls programmatically then this book is a must. It explains when to take advantage of user controls vs. server controls, what methods to override depending on which objects you choose to inherit (Control, WebControl, etc.) It's not just a technical documentation dump, like I had feared. The authors explain with clear and concise examples.
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Summary: One of the worst technical books I've encountered
Review: It may be a nice reference but in no way it is a good explanation of how to get things done! The authors wrote the book without thinking of what readers might want to see.
This is technical writing not a tutorial. I've read great tech books (like .NET Framework by Jeff Richter) where one doesn't have to read a paragraph twice. This book is not one of those.
It is also very difficult to trace how things are related to each other and where they come from.
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Summary: Bravo Nikhil and Vandana!
Review: Nikhil and Vandana do an amazing job of distilling a fairly complex subject - building ASP.NET Server Controls. They start out by discussing the internals of ASP.NET and server control architecture, move into the nuts and bolts of server controls (rendering, event model, client-side script, processing postbacks, custom state management, etc). There are tons of examples throughout the book. In addition to the tons of examples, there are two full case studies (a data bound templated control and a DHTML based control) at the end of the book. The sample are almost all in C# but I would still advise VB.NETers to buy this book because the principles and insight cannot be found anywhere else. ...
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Summary: Finally, a logical progression...
Review: Server controls are extremely complicated beasts. Because of the stateless nature of web programming, we are called upon to consider much more "plumbing and housekeeping" than when developing Forms controls or components. That said, MS has done a great job of providing this plumbing, but we still have to know how to put the pipes together! This book progresses logically from the conceptual (control execution lifecycle) to the practical (how HTTP handlers can simplify our lives). On the way, it actually builds on what you have learned before. For example, I have read a book on server controls (not naming names) that showed in one chapter how to use ViewState to persist properties, then abandoned it in subsequent chapters! So I was left thinking "huh, do I need to use this ViewState thing for simple properties, or not?". Not so in this book. They teach one thing, then continue to implement it in subsequent chapters, so that if you really feel comfortable with certain topics, you can jump into this book at any point and get something useful out of it. Amazing. A very good read, and achieves all this without talking "down" to you.
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Summary: Most practical development book I've read in years
Review: This book is an absolute must for anyone that wants answers to questions regarding server control development for ASP.Net. I don't know of any where else that fully describes the details and requirements of coding solid controls. The book is fairly complicated but only because control development happens to be complicated. If you are expecting a book that will simplify custom control development this isn't it. If you find a book that simplifies control development and it serves your purposes that is great but you will certainly be missing out on a great deal of the power available. If you are serious about non-trivial control development and are looking for a book that explains custom controls then this book is very nearly perfect. I have this book open on my desk everyday as it answers questions I have been unable to find answers to anywhere else. If you are developing controls and you don't enjoy being frustrated or hacking endlessly away trying to get your controls to work properly, buy this book.
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Summary: An Excellent Explanation on Controls
Review: This book is an invaluable tool for the novice or experienced developer. I especially found the "Nuts and Bolts" section to be very complete. Their explanations of what really happens behind the scenes really helped me understand this technology. Nikhil and Vandana have outdone themselves.
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Summary: An Excellent Explanation on Controls
Review: This book is an invaluable tool for the novice or experienced developer. I especially found the "Nuts and Bolts" section to be very complete. Their explanations of what really happens behind the scenes really helped me understand this technology. Nikhil and Vandana have outdone themselves.
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Summary: The best one on the market for custom control programming
Review: This book is well written and complete (almost) in content. I have read the server control book by Wrox press and thought it was nice and to-the-point on a lot of issues. In contrast, this book is less of a reference and more of a cover-to-cover read. I don't care much for the format of the book (it's rather hard to use as a reference), but if you're willing to take the time to read it though, you'll find a wealth of information on the subject, written by two authors who know their subject inside out.
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