Microsoft .NET XML Web Services Step by Step (Step By Step (Microsoft)) | 
 enlarge | Authors: Adam Freeman, Allen Jones
Publisher: Microsoft Press
Category: Book
List Price: $39.99
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Avg. Customer Rating:  15 reviews
Sales Rank: 59659
Media: Paperback
Autographed: No
Memorabilia: No
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 430
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.9
Dimensions (in): 8.8 x 7.2 x 1.3
MPN: 0-7356-1720-1
ISBN: 0735617201
Dewey Decimal Number: 005.276
UPC: 790145172013
EAN: 9780735617209
ASIN: 0735617201
Publication Date: November 30, 2002
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Product Description
Teach yourself how to write and deploy XML Web services for Microsoft .NET - one step at a time. XML Web services can vastly simplify application integration and interoperability, but developing them requires an understanding of many different programming
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| Customer Reviews: Read 10 more reviews...
 Good Overview But Becoming Dated May 16, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
This book was a fantastic overview of how XML Web Services are encapsulated by the .NET platform and the services provided by the numerous APIs. It offers step-by-step examples that lead you through the various facets of producing and consuming Web Services. It does not delve too deeply into many of the services provided by .NET for bettor or worse.
Four years ago I would have rated this book a 4 star or higher, however, the examples are based upon legacy .NET 1.1 and Visual Studio 2003. Like myself, I would presume that the majority of developers are at least working with .NET 2.0 and VS 2005 now. In addition the current release of both is at 3.5 and 2008 respectively.
The core material of the book is still very much relevant. The examples for how to configure IIS, setup and copy web projects, and manipulate code in the IDE have changed significantly between product releases though. I didn't mind that much because it forced me to have to figure out how to apply the same task in the newer environment. For me that was OK, but beginners may be frustrated by that.
A few notes on the content and examples:
1. In the code exercises, I found that it would have been much more helpful to put the steps for importing classes (C# using / VB import statements) at the beginning of the code exercises instead of at the end so the person typing in the code could better make use of Visual Studio's Intellisense feature.
2. There was a lot of rote copy / retyping the same material from chapter to chapter. The author tried to minimize with copy instructions in each chapter. I felt as though the examples could have been modularized and reused better.
3. The Microsoft UDDI site that chapter 9 discusses no longer functions as described in the text. I skipped it completely.
4. Chapter 15 about consuming Web Services asynchronously was the one that probably had the most version differences between .NET 1.1 and 2.0. The way that callbacks are handled changed dramatically. This was once again a good learning experience for me to figure out how to make it work in 2.0
5. Code examples were generally good, however, the authors coding style for variable names was not all that intuitive. Maybe a short mention of naming convention would have been nice (e.g. what the 'p_' and 'x_' prefixes meant)
Overall, it is a good book and I would recommend it highly if you are still developing on .NET 1.1 / VS 2003, but less so if not. Hopefully, the authors will publish a newer edition sometime soon.
 Good for beginners June 14, 2007
The book can be read in a day and half and at the end you'll really know something useful.
The topics covered are well thought out, though I thought the credit card example was pretty tedious; after a while I just started skipping over it to read what was on topic.
My background is C++ and I came into the C# and XML Web Services with no experience in either; by the end of the book I was comfortable authenticating users, enabling sessions, keeping things in cache and hitting the database.
The book is a fine read and does a good getting you up to speed, one of the best I've read in a while; 4 stars (instead of 5) (-1) for not refactoring the credit card example.
Great for beginners February 6, 2006
6 out of 7 found this review helpful
As the suffix title suggests, this book _does_not_rush_ things; very obviously catered for novice developers, it slowly oozes out information a step at a time. The authors exhibit their virtuous patience by going into great lengths to introduce the technology concepts that support XML web services, complete with comprehensive diagrams. These base explanations facilitate a firmer foundational understanding that no developer of XML web services should do without.
Accompanying this conceptual theory are practical-driven chapters, each demonstrating a facet of web service development in the .NET Framework and Visual Studio .NET. The instructions are so minutely explicit and clear, virtually taking the reader by the hand (so much so might annoy more seasoned developers), that building the examples listed are exceedingly easy tasks. And I do not mean that in a blind copy-and-paste manner; the baby steps are enriched with proper explanations to ensure readers have sufficient knowledge of why such a piece of code exists somewhere. Even the asynchronous and multi-threading chapter, a topic that most developers tend not to have a good grip on, is written with amazing clarity. The book's 16 chapters are incredibly easy to read and digest, possessing little (if not none) of that confusing wordy fluff that delivers nothing; this one goes straight to the point, short and sweet.
Sometimes however, short can also mean _truncated_. There are places where it simply stops and closes shop on the chapter when more demonstrations are expected. Take for example the fifth chapter, where it is supposed to show using web services with HTTP requests along (without SOAP). It explains alot about HTTP-GET and HTTP-POST, but only walks through a HTTP-GET practical. I felt omitting HTTP-POST would not fair well in the light of educating novices.
While on the flow of novice practices, it also strangely presents a mix of good and legacy (not necessarily bad) examples. The use of the StringBuilder class to append strings together is a good one, but continuing to code with "" and string.ToLower() show an affinity to past platforms. string.Empty and CaseInsensitiveComparer are respectively preferred choices in the .NET Framework practice.
Almost needless to state, even with the "Advanced" part of the book, one should not be expecting any serious deep topics or design patterns revolving web services here. But I couldn't help but feel it waste for such fantastic writing style not delivering something more that is usually arcane in other books. Who should be blamed for desiring more out of a delicious meal?
Great book to get developers started and up to speed with XML web services. But those looking to become _masters_ should read something else.
Good: Crystal clear explanations; easy following; great beginner material
Bad: Little to offer beyond the beginner; odd omissions; few legacy practices
 I give this book an A+ October 3, 2005
3 out of 9 found this review helpful
I found it to be a very good intro for beginners in XML Web Services like myself. Highly recomended.
Excellent tutorial for beginners. September 30, 2005
6 out of 6 found this review helpful
I am half way through the book and I like it. It is a good tutorial that will hold your hand and help you taking your first steps on the planet WebServices. The authors selected an interesting and practical example subject, validating credit card numbers, so you will not need a lot of coffee to keep you awake.
The examples are so simple, so if you are an experienced OO programmer, keep in mind that the goal was introducing the subject not implementing the code in the most elegant way.
On the other hand, the authors followed a naming convention from hell. I am not just talking about casing but also the logical selection of class names. For example, In chapter 6 the authors were explaining the subject of sending objects and returning objects from/to web service. So they built a class and named it "ValidationObject". I don't want to sound like an OO lawyer here but the class is not an object; Objects are instances of the class.
Anyway, I guess a name like "CreditCard" would've made much more sense, after all it is a credit card we are passing around. Variables were named like this x_object, o_card_type.
Personally, I couldn't continue without building a names map. I just recorded each name and to which object it was given on a piece of paper.
A word of advice; this is not the type of book you want to come back for a second read hoping that it will give you more understanding of the subject. So make sure you will take notes and summarize the important facts of each chapter.
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