If you are looking for a book on ASP.NET MVC that walks you through the source code of a working ASP.NET MVC Sample Application, then ASP.NET MVC 1.0 Website Programming: Problem - Design - Solution might be the book for you.
ASP.NET MVC 1.0 Website Programming walks you through the source code of an open source CMS and E-Commerce Open Source Application, called The BeerHouse. The BeerHouse has various features, like:
- Membership system with registration, login, profile setup and complete administration.
- Content management system for publishing and syndicating articles and photos, with support for categories, comments, rating and profile-based personalization.
- Opinion polls with support for multiple active polls and archived polls.
- Mailing lists with support for HTML and plain-text newsletters, background transmission and asynchronous processing.
- Forums with support for multiple categories, custom pagination, avatars, signatures, moderation, and complete administration.
- E-commerce store with support for real-time credit card processing, with support for multiple categories, percentage discounts, zoomable pictures, availability display and more.
- Localization.
The difference between the ASP.NET MVC 1.0 Website Programming Book and other books that I have reviewed is that this book does not teach you the ASP.NET MVC Framework, but instead walks you through the source code of an application that uses ASP.NET MVC 1.0. There is a short, very short, intro to ASP.NET MVC at the beginning of the book, but it is far from complete. 90% of the book is filled with source code of view, controllers, and javascript explaining how each is used to solve a problem in the BeerHouse application. Therefore if you are not familiar with ASP.NET MVC, this wouldn't be the first book you purchase as it assumes a knowledge of ASP.NET MVC. However, if you are up to speed on the ASP.NET MVC Framework and are looking for a book that walks you through the code of a working ASP.NET MVC Web Application, you may appreciate the book.
When I reviewed the code, I personally didn't agree with some of the architectural and coding decisions, things like:
- The book completely ignored the REST syntax.
- The controller's were a bit fat with business logic, data access, validation, and other concerns sneaking into them.
- Databinding could have been simplified a great deal
- A lot of poorly defined try-catch blocks catching general exceptions
- No regard to Unit Testing which is a real plus with ASP.NET MVC
- etc...
I recommend saving your money and downloading the BeerHouse Sample Code from CodePlex here. If you are already familiar with ASP.NET and ASP.NET MVC, like the book pretty much assumes, you can probably figure out how it works on your own without a book. If you like what you see as far as code and feel like you want a better overview of how it works, then you can buy the book with confidence.
Personally, I think the money would be better spent on Steven Sanderson's Pro ASP.NET MVC Framework Book, which not only teaches you the framework, but walks you through a sample application that teaches more best practices. Just my humble opinion :)
You can check out the customer reviews on Amazon.
David Hayden
ASP.NET MVC Book Reviews