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25 of 27 found the following review helpful:
 Good for all levelsOct 18, 2000
By Cleveland Rob
As a web developer, I've been using ASP for a couple years and would consider myself and intermediate ASP programmer. I've built up a collection of books on the topic, mostly referring to WROX books for their reference quality.ASP isn't my primary function at my job, so I don't get to work daily on developing and using my skills. I've recently been looking to improve my ability in this area, and inject some new ideas into the way I accomplish things in code. This book was the perfect answer! If you're new to ASP or programming, you'll appreciate the emphasis on structure and conventions. If you're experienced with ASP, you'll appreciate the ideas presented here. I especially like the work on code reusability. This is definitely one of the best ASP books I've seen in a long time.
20 of 21 found the following review helpful:
 DisappointingNov 21, 2000
By Mark
This is a mediocre book that doesn't have a very good focus. The first four chapters are fine as introductory chapters, discussing how to pick a server-side scripting language, how to handle exceptions and "regular expressions, classes and dynamic evaluation and execution" (i'm not sure how those got lumped together!) There are two main chapters, one on form reuse (that has some reasonably useful info) and one on a reusable database admin page, which may or may not be useful. The methodology is interesting but it seems to have limited usefulness. The final chapters outline COM & how to use 3rd party COM objects. The information here is at a very high level and you would best be served by getting a book devoted to that topic. My biggest concern with the book is that the title is hopelessly misleading. There is almost nothing on "designing" active server pages. We are instead led through a couple of administration apps and a high-level intro to COM & how to use 3rd party components. I expected information on how to structure your application, on performance issues, on scalability, on security, session & application variables, maybe even something on database issues. Unfortunately most of the author's advice seems could be summarized with "encapsulate your code: use classes, COM objects and include files". I found that a lot of the writing seemed wordy and repetitive, unlike most O'Reilly books. Also this book seems pitched at intermediate developers, say those that are familiar with the syntax but don't have much expertise in building multi-page ASP applications. I don't think experienced ASP developers would get much out of this book, since they probably have written their own code to accomplish some of the things discussed in this book. I wanted to give this book a good review, being a big fan of the author's web site,.... Unfortunately this book is not a keeper. If you want ASP books get "ASP in a Nutshell" (O'Reilly) for the syntax, "Developing ASP Components" (O'Reilly) if you want to get into COM and Professional Active Server Pages 2/3 (Wrox) for an excellent look at real ASP programming in an enterprise.
5 of 5 found the following review helpful:
well written advanced bookOct 15, 2000
By dan berman
theres very few ASP books written that go beyond teaching you WHAT things do. this book, meant for intermediate to advanced users, delves into the WHY and HOW to do things. It teaches you how create your applications correctly, focusing on creating modular, reusable code. highly recommended.
10 of 12 found the following review helpful:
Not a bad read, but too generic to be usefulOct 27, 2000
By nsrpgmiv
"nsrpgmiv"
I personally found chapter 4 to be most useful. With the new version of MS scripting runtime, you no longer need to write custom verfication to emulate the power of regular expression. And now you are able to use Class in VB Script to encapsulate functionality and build prototype system to be migrated over to VB COM later on. While chapter 5 demonstrates a very good way for code reuse (in the light of validating forms using ASP+), it really cannot be used in commerial ecommerce system simply because the validation schema is included in the form tag itself. Malicious users can just examine your HTML source and build one of their own to remove or tweak your RegExp checks. This is the same problem developers faced when using client side form validation scripts. Chapter 6 - Database reuse, which demonstrates how to write codes for administration interface, is just too generic to be useful. While the code itself is smart enough to get value from table for foreign keys, many times there are so many different business rules that get into the way and you cannot simply present a web-base enterprise manager to the user. Materials in chapter 7 & 8 can be found virtually in every single ASP book and internet resources out there, why include them in this "for experienced developer" book? Being a fan of 4guys, I was so eager when this book is out because the average ASP book out there only touch upon the techical aspect of the platform without going into the design issues of building a complete system. (If you are or have been working on designing enterprise ecommerce solution, you'll know what I mean if you have read & ) But it really disappointed me when I finished the book within 3 hours when I get a hold of it, and to found out only 20% of the ideas presented in the book are valuable.Anyway it's probably one of the scarce good books out there for ASP developers.
7 of 8 found the following review helpful:
Finally!Oct 05, 2000
By David Johnson
This book is an ASP developers dream. First off, if you have intermediary ASP skills, this will push you over the top. If you are quite advanced, this book is an important read to remind you of the importance of well written, reusable code. Thank you very much, rolla man! davidj.org
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