Sams Teach Yourself Active Server Pages 3.0 in 21 Days (Sams Teach Yourself...in 21 Days (Paperback))

Pros : Excellent book, and well worth the money. Buy it secondhand (so much cheaper), if you're not bothered by the odd few curled-up pages.Cons : My only nag is that because it was published so long ago, the link for the downloadable code sample samples no longer works. I've contacted the authors, but have received no reply (after several weeks).

ASP might seem an outdated language to those who approch the world of computer programming for the fist time. But I chose to study ASP, the "good old ASP" because it offers a sturdy, consolidated set of tools for creating web pages in the microsoft environment. I was lent a copy of this book in its italian translation and immediately fell for it. But the book is no longer available in the italian version, so I turned to the original edition. More than just a school text, this book is a real friend in the daily progress of my programming skills. I strongly recommend it to every beginner who wants to learn difficul things in the most colloquial and friendly manner possible.

ASP is now classed by many as a dead technology and with the power of ASP.NET you can understand why. However, even with the huge capabilities of .NET I still develop daily using ASP(VB Script). When I first started out learning ASP I began from scratch using this book. I now develop everything from ecommerce shops and user admin systems to content management systems and more all thanks to this book.The book breaks the learning structure down very well and guides you through all the features of ASP with easy to understand content and code examples. Each chapter ends with a small test section which I found invaluable. These small tests helped build my confidence that I knew what the author had been talking about in the chapter. There is also an invaluable appendix that holds information on all the functions, data types etc that acted as a life saving reference when I began professional development.If you want to learn ASP(VB Script) don't bother looking anywhere else, get this book and within a month (if you are willing to devote 21 hardcore learning days) you'll have a great understanding/grasp of this classic, but still powerful scripting language.

At long last, an ASP book that teaches ASP and using databases without prior knowledge of VBScript, ADO (ActiveX Data Objects) or SQL that is written in plain English. Well worth consideration if you know HTML and are looking move up to building ASP websites. The daily Summary and Q&A sections help to reinforce what you have learnt in that chapter.Couple of minor gripes are that although Oracle is mentioned, the examples focus on MS SQL7 and MS Access 2000 databases. Another couple of pages on SQL and client-side scripting would have helped. However, the authors do provide references to other Sams Teach Yourself Books that cover those topics in detail and an appendix listing useful websites to top-up your knowledge.Highly recommended.

A useful beginning to ASP, but hardly scratches the surface or provides much programming information. I required it for providing a web front-end to a SQL Server database. Returning results in tabular format wasn't covered sufficeiently, neither was populating text boxes, drop down boxes et al from the database (like you would see on websites where you need to change your personal details). More real world examples, rather than small snippets, would prove beneficial. I'm sure there are better ASP books out there.

This book helped me to write a complete on-line Restaurant booking system, it didn't give me an actual example but I was able to work out exactly how to write the code I needed from the lessons and examples given. It also gives a lot of information on how to connect to a database which actually filled in bits of the puzzle with regards to how intranets work. I found it to be excellent and have read it from front to back.

This book lives up to the reviews on this page. Mitchell and Atkinson, the authors do a great job. I have been reading this book for 2 weeks now and I feel like I have been an asp expert for years! Its that good, and its clear and easy to pick up from beginner to intermediate levelsIf you want to use ASP, this is the book to buy, just read the reviews - they ain't wrong..

Can't praise this book enough, I'm a student who was having great problems with ASP, after reading the appropriate sections in this book I feel confident and actually enjoy ASP!Amazing. Recommended Greatly!