Sams Teach Yourself Active Server Pages in 24 Hours (Teach Yourself in 24 Hours Series)

by Christoph Wille, Christian Koller

Paperback: 477 pages
Publisher: Sams
ISBN: 0672316129; 1st edition (June 1999)

Sams Teach Yourself Active Server Pages in 24 Hours is a step-by-step tutorial that teaches you how to create dynamic, fully functioning Web applications using Active Server Pages. Detailed coverage is provided for both Microsoft Personal Web Server and Microsoft Internet Information Server. Shows how to make sure your Web server is up and running correctly as well as how to build basic ASP applications. In addition to coverage of the basics of data access, you'll learn to send data, retrieve information, manage user sessions, use components, and work with files. Advanced topics include debugging ASP applications, building components, designing effective sites, adding security, and tuning ASP applications.

About the Author: Christoph Wille is a partner in SoftWing Software. He has developed a number of Web sites with advanced features such as ASP and integrated e-commerce. Christoph has also worked as a consultant connecting private networks to the Internet and creating Internet presence for a number of companies. As an MCSE and an MCSD, he has an extensive background working with OLE, MFC, Microsoft SQL Server, the Microsoft operating systems, and other technologies which can be integrated with ASP.

Customer Reviews
Easy To Follow Examples, December 7, 1999
Reviewer: Troy the DJ from Minneapolis, Minnesota
I bought this book because of the reviews on this site. This book turned out to be more advanced than expected. If you are going to buy this book, make sure you know HTML, some JavaScript, basic SQL, and VBScript. Through the examples I was able to pick up the SQL and VBScript knowledge with a fair amount of effort. The thing I liked about this book was that it stuck to the topic at hand. Lots of other computer books stray far away from their topics. Several times in the book the authors said...that a certain topic was beyond the scope of the book and if you want more info look elsewhere. Another nice thing about this book was that you can complete 75% of the examples using free downloadable software (MS Personal Web Server). On the other hand, the IIS/NT Server topics were over my head. You will learn a lot if you type in all of the sample code and try to follow along with the examples. On the downside, this book seemed to skip from topic to topic without any real transition.

xxx, January 6, 2000
Reviewer: A reader from aaa
I bought this book because of the reviews on this site. This book turned out to be more advanced than expected. If you are going to buy this book, make sure you know HTML, some JavaScript, basic SQL, and VBScript. Through the examples I was able to pick up the SQL and VBScript knowledge with a fair amount of effort. The thing I liked about this book was that it stuck to the topic at hand. Lots of other computer books stray far away from their topics. Several times in the book the authors said...that a certain topic was beyond the scope of the book and if you want more info look elsewhere. Another nice thing about this book was that you can complete 75% of the examples using free downloadable software (MS Personal Web Server). On the other hand, the IIS/NT Server topics were over my head. You will learn a lot if you type in all of the sample code and try to follow along with the examples. On the downside, this book seemed to skip from topic to topic without any real transition.

Worth it for its price, but prepare to work, August 27, 2001
Reviewer: Dan
If you buy this book, then be prepared to work. If you're new to the whole programming field, or maybe just web programming, don't think the knowledge will be served to you on a silver platter. People's expectations about this book are too high. The introduction to VBScript (which ASP supports) is well put together. It's not excellent, but it's good. As the book progresses, it covers all the essentials of ASP: setting up PWS, IIS, setting up SQL server or Access to work correctly with ASP, databases, cookies, files, and all the essential ASP objects. The examples were also useful, e.g. sending mail through the SMTP server, creating cookies, working with files... these are all good examples that can be modified and copy-and-pasted on any of your creations. It even contains tips on how to create a shopping cart and implementing XML.

Now, this book is not intended as a bible. As with any method for learning, you're going to have to access external resources: the web, people, etc. This will make the learning experience more enjoyable. The reasons why I didn't give it five stars was because, the person who knows some programming has an EXTREME advantage over the one who doesn't. But then again, if you're not experienced, it just takes time. Another thing I didn't like was the way the examples were presented. It looked confusing and this confusion can lead to a lack of motivation.

The last thing I found strange was the transition between chapters. Sometimes it seemed that there was no transition. Overall, not a bad book. For it's price however, it's an excellent book. If you're new to programming, it will take hard work to grasp the language. If you're experienced, and also have worked with a web language such as JSP, PHP, or maybe even some Coldfusion, then this book will certainly be easy to follow.

bkiller, May 15, 2001
Reviewer: A reader from O Fallon, MO United States
I have to say that I tend to shy away from "in 24 hour" type books because they don't give enough detail to be worth while after you get past the basics. However, I have been doing ASP and related programming for about 1 year and use this as a reference as much as my WROX Professional ASP book. As promised it is very easy to read and give examples or ideas that I use on commercial apps that are missing from the Professional ASP book. I reccommend this book to anyone starting ASP. I suspect even experienced programmers will keep it on the book shelf for some time as it will be useful.

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