Microsoft ASP .NET Web Matrix Starter Kit

Mike Pope

 

PUBLISHED BY
Microsoft Press
A Division of Microsoft Corporation
One Microsoft Way
Redmond, Washington 98052-6399

Copyright 2003 by Microsoft Corporation

All rights reserved. No part of the contents of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without the written permission of the publisher.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data pending.
Printed and bound in the United States of America.

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Distributed in Canada by H.B. Fenn and Company Ltd.

A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

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Acquisitions Editor
Anne Hamilton

Project Editor
Denise Bankaitis

Technical Editor
Julie Xiao

Body Part No. X09-16607

 

Dedicated to John Muir and Irma Rombauer, two of the best writing teachers I never had.

 

Acknowledgments

It s something of a clich , but nonetheless true, that creating a book is a process that takes longer, requires more effort, and involves more people than one ever imagines. Many people put time and effort into this book. Anne Hamilton at Microsoft Press had the vision and convinced me (I m still not quite sure how) that I should take on the project. The editing team at Press did a fabulous job converting my drafts into coherent prose and showed remarkable forbearance with me throughout the process. Many thanks to the project editor, Denise Bankaitis, who shepherded the book from start to finish; crack technical editor Julie Xiao, whose acuity and eye for detail I appreciated (and relied on) greatly; and my two talented copy editors, Lisa Pawlewicz and Jennifer Harris, from whom I relearned many a writing axiom. The team also included electronic artist Joel Panchot, desktop publisher Elizabeth Hansford, and others whose superior work I feel privileged to see as part of this book.

Kudos to my intrepid readers, who saw everything in raw form but persevered anyway: Michael Broschat, Saul Candib, Vandana Datye, Dennis Lone, and Robin Reynolds-Haertle. Michael s thoughts on readers, Web pages, and databases are woven everywhere into the text. Robin made many great suggestions about the code, and if there are flaws in the programs in this book, it s because I didn t always follow her advice. I hope someday to know as much about ASP.NET as does Vandana, whose insightful comments (and encouraging words) I found invaluable. Saul and Dennis spent quality time with me working through problems they uncovered in my text and samples, oops.

At work, my manager, Megan Shult, was very encouraging about this project and was understanding about some of the late nights I spent on it. My colleague Steve Stein was always willing to tackle interesting data challenges. On the ASP.NET team, Polita Huff answered questions about the data controls with alacrity, and Nikhil Kothari chased down some elusive Web Matrix issues for me. I owe much of what I know about ASP.NET to Susan Warren, Program Manager extraordinaire, who has given a huge amount of her time and energy not just to me, but also to the ASP.NET community at large. And I m continually in awe of the smarts, drive, and imagination of the entire ASP.NET team at Microsoft, past and present what an extraordinary product they ve created.

Finally I must acknowledge how lucky I am to have my companion, Erica, whose steady presence has helped me get through many of life s challenges, including most recently a concurrent book project and house remodel. Without her patience and understanding, this book would never have been finished. Erica I m back now!

The manuscript for this book was prepared and galleyed using Microsoft Word. Pages were composed by Microsoft Press using Adobe FrameMaker+SGML for Windows, with text in Garamond and display type in Helvetica Condensed. Composed pages were delivered to the printer as electronic prepress files.

Cover Illustrator
Todd Daman Studios

Interior Graphic Designer
James D. Kramer

Principal Compositor
Elizabeth Hansford

Interior Artist
Joel Panchot

Principal Copy Editor
Lisa Pawlewicz

Indexer
Kari Kells

 

Mike Pope
Mike Pope is a programmer/writer on the Microsoft Visual Basic User Education team. He has worked with Microsoft ASP.NET since the product was on the drawing board at Microsoft and was a key member of the Microsoft Visual Studio .NET documentation team for both ASP.NET and Microsoft ADO.NET. Mike has been involved with computer technology for more than 20 years as a technical writer, trainer, support engineer, and programmer.