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Professional Active Server Pages 3.0 published by Wrox Press Ltd. provides extremely valuable information on Microsoft's Active Server Page technology. Everyone from beginner to advanced engineers can benefit from the information contained within. I've broken down some of the strengths and weaknesses of the book for you. |
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| Strengths |
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| 1. |
In most cases, the code samples are well written. Inline comments as well as summary details are provided in order to make even the most complicated items easy to understand. |
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| 2. |
Basic Internet Information Server administration tasks are covered in detail. The documentation also includes screen shots that really make a somewhat complicated task easy. This section also includes a great explaination of what really occurs when an ASP page is processed on the server. |
| 3. |
Of course, the ASP intrinsic objects are discussed in detail in normal Wrox fashion. There are plenty of real world code samples and supporting documentation. I was pleasantly surprised to see a few examples concerning the Scripting Runtime Library objects such as the File System Object. I've seen countless posts to various internet forums about using the FSO. This book will tell you everything you need to know on this subject. |
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Active Data Objects or ADO receives full blown coverage as it is one of the most often used objects in Active Server Pages. ADO constants and their affect on results are discussed along with several code samples. |
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| Weaknesses |
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| 1. |
Most ASP users will utilize the Microsoft XML Parser when using XML. While XML itself is covered relatively well in context with ASP, the Microsoft XML Parser really wasn't covered in any great detail. This was a real disappointment and could have added a great deal of usefulness to the advanced engineer. |
| 2. |
ADO itself is covered very well. However, best practices for performance optimization are strung throughout the book. Many readers use the book as a quick reference in conjunction with other online matierial. Discussing best practices when the individual objects are covered could help the reader avoid serious design flaws in their implementation of ADO. Also, many of the code samples don't use the most efficient techniques. This leads developers to believe the example in the book is the correct way to perform certain tasks when often times it is not. |
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It is important to note that most of the critical performance oriented topics are covered. They are often times just harder to find than they should be. |
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Performance topics were discussed in great detail (as mentioned above). It would have been very helpful and insightful to include a few speed test result diagrams. A picture is worth a thousand words... |
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| The true test of a good technical book is how often it gets used. I personally reference this book on a regular basis even after having used ASP for quite a while. Noone ever remembers each and every aspect of ASP. We often need a quick reference with supporting detailed documentation when optimizing performance in our page processing. While the content is not always well placed, I'd recommend Professional Active Server Pages 3.0 over any other ASP book I've read to date. |