I'm Writing A Book On WebMatrix

Launched just a few days ago, WebMatrix is already providing a lot of fuel for Tweeters - the vast majority of it very encouraging and positive, and some of it, well... uneducated, let's say. Regular visitors to this site will notice that I have been playing with WebMatrix since its first Beta release, and just like former Microsoft ASP.NET MVC Guru, Rob Conery (who's not shy in telling Microsoft when he thinks they have goofed), I believe that Microsoft have got WebMatrix just right.

Beginning ASP.NET Web Pages with WebMatrix will be published later this year - in September to be more precise. I am being supported by my good friend Imar Spaanjaars, a fellow ASP.NET MVP and first rate author of highly successful ASP.NET books, such as Beginning ASP.NET 4: in C# and VB. The book will target those who are completely new to web development, as well as their educators, but it will also appeal to bods who have a little web development experience away from ASP.NET, or those who found ASP.NET Web Forms or MVC all a little too daunting. It should also appeal to experienced ASP.NET developers who would like some "fun" injected into their web development again.

If there is anything in particular that you would like to see the book cover, let me know by using the comments form at the bottom of this page.

In the meantime, I have a busy few months ahead of me, so if I'm not posting new articles as regularly as I usually do, now you know why.

Date Posted: 18 January 2011 19:27
Last Updated: 22 January 2011 13:55
Posted by: Mikesdotnetting
Total Views to date: 4639

Comments

18 January 2011 19:55 from Mike Ferguson

Great news Mike! I look forward to picking it up.

You've mentioned there will be a chapter(s) on databases and security. I'd really like to see how one goes about creating the simple membership provider in MySQL. Yes, I'm wrestling with it right now :)

I always enjoy your articles on WebMatrix - keep up the good work.

19 January 2011 17:49 from Max-B

Really happy for this - and for you!

You are doing a great work with this "framework" and I think the resulting book will be good

22 January 2011 14:43 from jean-claude

Put me down for a copy, please!

30 January 2011 13:16 from naveenj

wow mike... can't wait!

05 February 2011 17:21 from Sean O'Keeffe

Mike the book sounds fantastic! i think the Razor syntaxes should be as in depth as possible, if not the main "meat" of the book.

P.S its fine i like the work optimising

05 February 2011 23:07 from Mikesdotnetting

@Sean

Razor is just a wrapper around C#. I will cover the basics of C# in the book, and how to use Razor. However, I would always recommend learning C# properly for anyone wanting to do more than the very basics. There are quite a number of good C# books around.

06 March 2011 16:44 from John Hastings

I know the whole world is going to C# and only a few of us dinosaurs are still using VB, but would it be so hard to put some VB in the book? Us old coots would really appreciate it.

06 March 2011 18:11 from Mikesdotnetting

@John,

The book will be in C#. There is a limit to the size of the book (∛production costs / price ± likely potential copy sales or some similar formula) which means I can either include coverage of VB at the expense of content, or stick to C# and write in more depth. As it is, I'm struggling to keep to some of the chapter pagination budgets :o)

08 March 2011 20:41 from Robby

Outstanding! If you would like a "dummy" sounding board off of which to bounce your draft chapters, I would be happy to do so. I am very much a tyro in C#, am involved in a web project using WebMatrix, and keenly aware of the erroneous assumptions some authors make about the depth of the readers' experience.
Given that I am (at least it seems to me) pretty much squarely in the dead center of the target audience for WebMatrix and Razor, I should be able to make a contribution of some value.

17 March 2011 19:06 from mike gil

Your articles are terrific and I'm looking forward buying your book. I'm already reading Imar's book (as you suggest above) but have one basic question that might help all us "newbies" until your book does come out:

Can you use most of what is in Imar's ASP.NET book (ie: Controls, JQuery, .Net Ajax) with WebMatrix?

I get the impression that you can and that WebMatrix is just a more simplified framework than ASP.NET and is the stepping stone to MVC.

17 March 2011 20:37 from Mikesdotnetting

@mike

You can use Server Controls etc in WebMatrix, but I wouldn't recommend it. Use Visual Web Developer Express instead. WM doesn't include any design time support, for one thing, and is intended primarily for developing using ASP.NET Web Pages rather than Web Forms.

22 March 2011 17:58 from Frank Wannall

When will the book be published?

23 March 2011 06:14 from Mikesdotnetting

@Frank,

The current publication date is the end of October 2011.

10 April 2011 04:29 from Jeff Rogers

I look forward to the publish date. I think readers for eBooks and similar popular technologies would make good example projects for your readers. It would be nice to see some real world examples that could be adopted and built upon.

12 April 2011 16:11 from antony

I like all books i read but i find a little pity thing who i never love especially in MSFT press book.

they hide [not show] firebug whenever they light on IE dev tool. the feature IE dev not have why they trying to show as best.

we know MSFT make IE and IE dev tool [their is another matter i know that it's unperfect]

but why MSFTian abuse MySQL , chrome and many other things when they have minus point and have a plus point in their own product.

i have no problem why they abuse but what kind of stupidity it is they talk loud when something they have better then others.

this kind of thing teach a lesson that [beware of MVP especially from corporate like Microsoft]

because Microsoft never talk about that something they not have perfect and talk loudly if they have something better. this thing not only depend on Microsoft. all other corporate have same fundamentals.

so can you sure that you write this book naturally ?

12 April 2011 16:57 from Mikesdotnetting

@antony

I'm not writing an MS Press book. Beyond that, I don't work for Microsoft or understand the rest of your comments. Maybe you should check your facts?

What do you think my relationship with Microsoft is? They gave me an award, but they don't tell me what to do.

07 March 2013 15:05 from Don Schwirtlich

Your book is one of the few that I have purchased both a kindle and hardcopy version. It and along with the spread of asp tutorials at asp.com, are awesome. I am an experienced programmer - but a newbie at web dev. thanks much.

18 March 2013 16:58 from Matt

Hi Mike
I'm new to MW and really trying to embrace it. I've got a book at the moment which says how to add textboxes, buttons etc but you comment above says this. I'm a still very new if you could explain a bit more about how to write forms in ASP (sorry I get very easily confused with me being new to MW and trying to avoid Visual Studio if I can !!) :-

17 March 2011 20:37 from Mikesdotnetting

@mike

You can use Server Controls etc in WebMatrix, but I wouldn't recommend it. Use Visual Web Developer Express instead. WM doesn't include any design time support, for one thing, and is intended primarily for developing using ASP.NET Web Pages rather than Web Forms.

20 March 2013 21:26 from Mikesdotnetting

@Matt,

Server controls belong to the Web Forms development model. WebMatrix is designed for the Web Pages framework. They are completely different ways of developing web applications based on ASP.NET.

05 April 2013 12:19 from Satyabrata Mohapatra

Sir,
Today i got the book "Beginning ASP.NET Web Pages with WebMatrix". It is a fantastic book !! Good for both beginners and seasoned developers.

Mikesdotnetting

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