There's a glut of ASP.NET books on the market these days. I know, as I've written a few of them. One of the challenges is writing a book not only with clarity of language and purpose but also a book that considers real-world situations. This is why I like what Daniele, Stefano, and Marco have done with ASP.NET 4.0 in Practice.

You likely already have a few ASP.NET books on your bookshelves—as you should. Some cover language issues, some performance, some configuration and extensibility. ASP.NET 4.0 in Practice will round out your collection with information and insight that you can apply today to your applications. Starting with the basics and moving quickly to advanced and extreme examples, the authors work with you to build a collection of knowledge that's based on their real-world experiences.

I particularly appreciate that they write about the ASP.NET Pipeline before they even get you building your first WebForm application. This is very similar to how I present ASP.NET to developers. If you don't understand how plumbing works, how can you build a sink or faucet?

ASP.NET is greater than WebForms or MVC. While ASP.NET 4.0 in Practice digs deep into the more prevalent WebForms technology, there is always a clear underlying understanding by the authors that it's the core of ASP.NET that gets the work done. WebForms and MVC are interesting ways to generate angle brackets, but it's the core services of ASP.NET that you, as the reader, will need to understand clearly when you apply your knowledge.

Data Access has changed considerably in .NET 4 and the authors don't shirk their responsibility in this area either, spending two full chapters exploring the importance of a clear and clean data model and how the Entity Framework 4 should integrate with ASP.NET.

Daniele has been a Microsoft MVP for almost 10 years and has deep experience working with Microsoft technologies on the web. His knowledge is joined by Stefano's understanding of the Entity Framework developed since the earliest betas, as well as Marco's experience as an architect creating large applications for the enterprise.

I hope you enjoy your experience reading ASP.NET 4.0 in Practice with these three experienced people at the helm as much as I did.

Scott Hanselman
Principal Project Manager, Microsoft
www.hanselman.com

^{Note: The Foreword did not make it into the book before press time. It is included in the ebook version, posted on the publisher's website, and will be added to future printings of the book.}