If you think you're well versed in ASP.NET, think again. This exceptional guide gives you a master class in site building with ASP.NET 3.5 and other cutting-edge Microsoft technologies. You learn how to develop rock-solid web portal applications that can withstand millions of hits every day while surviving scalability and security pressures -- not just for mass-consumer homepages, but also for dashboards that deliver powerful content aggregation for enterprises. Written by Omar AL Zabir, co-founder and CTO of Pageflakes, Building a Web 2.0 Portal with ASP.NET 3.5 demonstrates how to develop portals similar to My Yahoo!, iGoogle, and Pageflakes using ASP.NET 3.5, ASP.NET AJAX, Windows Workflow Foundation, LINQ and .NET 3.5. Through the course of the book, AL Zabir builds an open source Ajax-enabled portal prototype (available online at www.dropthings.com), and walks you though the design and architectural challenges, advanced Ajax concepts, performance optimization techniques, and server-side scalability problems involved. You learn how to:

• Implement a highly decoupled architecture following the popular n-tier, widget-based application model

• Provide drag-and-drop functionality, and use ASP.NET 3.5 to build the server-side part of the web layer

• Use LINQ to build the data access layer, and Windows Workflow Foundation to build the business layer as a collection of workflows

• Build client-side widgets using JavaScript for faster performance and better caching

• Get maximum performance out of the ASP.NET AJAX Framework for faster, more dynamic, and scalable sites

• Build a custom web service call handler to overcome shortcomings in ASP.NET AJAX 1.0 for asynchronous, transactional, cache-friendly web services

• Overcome JavaScript performance problems, and help the user interface load faster and be more responsive

• Solve scalability and security problems as your site grows from hundreds to millions of users

• Deploy and run a high-volume production site while solving software, hardware, hosting, and Internet infrastructure problems

Building a Web 2.0 Portal with ASP.NET 3.5 also presents real-world ASP.NET challenges that the author has solved in building educational and enterprise portals, plus thirteen production disasters common to web applications serving millions of users. If you're ready to build state-of-the art, high-volume web applications, this book has exactly what you need.

Amazon.com® Reader Reviews (Ranked by Helpfulness)

Average Amazon.com® Rating:  Based on 10 Ratings

Must have book for web developers - 2009-01-23
Reviewer Rating:
I have bought several technical books over the past 16 years and have rarely read any cover to cover (I did skip the last chapter as it really didn't apply to my corporate environment). This book covers all aspects of developing a portal using ASP.NET and explains in great detail all the technical aspects of development and implementation. In addition to the diagrams and code samples, the CodePlex base and [...] examples are bonus references.

I would not recommend this book for novice/beginner developers. The reader should have experience in ASP.NET web development and core Microsoft technologies.

ESSENTIAL For ASP.NET Web Developers/Admins!!! - 2008-10-30
Reviewer Rating:
Wow this is a great book.

When I first opened up 'Building a Web 2.0 Portal with ASP.NET 3.5' I expected this to be just any old ASP.NET web development/admin book but I was very pleasantly surprised.

Brevity is the champ here, with this book coming in at just under 300 pages but man the content is dense. The focus is on managing and developing your ASP.NET 2.0 portal (as the title suggests). Here's a McKinnon Overview:

01. Introducing Web Portals
02. Architecting the Web Portal
03. Building the Web Layer Using ASP.NET AJAX
04. Building the Data and Business Layers Using .NET 3.5
05. Building Client-Side Widgets
06. Optimizing ASP.NET AJAX
07. Creating Good Web Services
08. Improving Server-Side Performance
09. Improving Client-Side Performance
10. Solving Common Challenges

The focus is on portal development but I feel that all the content within is applicable to all .NET web developers. Applying Web 2.0 concepts, you will learn how to architect more efficient solutions in todays web world. You will learn the ins and outs and it will be fun at that.

Great book, pick it up today.

***** HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

Terrific book - 2008-08-19
Reviewer Rating:
This book is very well written. It provides lots of good tricks to handle real-world problems that come up when developing a website. One of the best ASP.NET books I have read. It is about developing a website all the way through, not about explaining the newer technologies. Not for beginners.

Great Book - 2008-08-19
Reviewer Rating:
With this book Author has set bar very high on how to write technical books. It dose a good job of explaining finer points of all technologies involved in AJAX asp.net programming in the context of building portal. Its a must read if u are looking for techniques to build high performance web sites.

Tremendous guideline for 3.5 website design - 2008-08-17
Reviewer Rating:
Great list of details you need to address to create a scalable, fully functional website with all the gadgets you've seen but never known how to incorporate into your web site. Must read book.

Browse Similar Topics

Top Level Categories:
Internet/Online
Programming

Sub-Categories:
Internet/Online > ASP
Internet/Online > Web Development
Internet/Online > Web Services
Programming > .NET