Murach’s ASP.NET Web Programming with VB.NET is the latest in a series of books for professional .NET developers from longtime computer book publisher Mike Murach & Associates. It uses a fast-paced approach and Murach’s “paired pages” format to teach how to develop business applications for the web.

After an overview of ASP.NET in chapter 1, chapters 2 through 5 show how to use Visual Studio .NET and its time-saving tools to design, code, and test multi-page web applications that manage state, use cookies, and retrieve database data. Along the way, developers see how the use of code-behind files and business classes can speed up and simplify development. They also see the value of view state, a productivity feature unique to ASP.NET that saves a lot of coding.

The rest of the book covers a full range of professional ASP.NET skills. That includes:

• the use of all types of Web Server, validation, user, and custom server controls
• ADO.NET skills for sophisticated database handling
• the creation and use of Web Services
• report generation with Crystal Reports
• how to secure an application
• how to send email
• how to deploy finished applications

All the content is formatted in Murach’s distinctive “paired pages” style. Each two-page spread presents a single topic. The lefthand page explains the topic while the righthand page shows the critical details, using syntax, code, screen shots, and how-to notes.

To illustrate each new feature, Murach’s ASP.NET uses complete applications that implement an e-commerce site selling Halloween products. As a result, developers see how the features interact in typical business apps and learn how to handle the coding complexities they’ll face on the job.

Murach’s ASP.NET Web Programming with VB.NET is available directly from the publisher at www.murach.com and from online and brick-and-mortar bookstores.