I have some experience in ASP.Net and can work my way around it without much trouble, however there are a lot of gaps in my knowledge of asp.net and .net in general.
I know the basics of c# and asp.net so I can accomplish most things. But I don’t know anything at all about LINQ, Entity Framework, ADO.NET, delegates, ASP.NET Ajax, ASP.NET MVC, Providers, the different api’s provided with asp.net (such as membership), the default controls that come with asp.net as well as the normal patterns used to create rich, stable and high performance asp.net sites. The list goes on and on….
I have really been wanting to upgrade my skills now and become a well rounded .net developer before I get left too far behind in the curve. I also have been meaning to look into ASP.NET MVC partially because I`d like to extend an open source project.
The problem is every time I get down to learning I get too overwhelmed. I dont know where to start, whats relevant, whats not. I basically need to figure out in what order should I be approaching all these different things and tackling them?
Should I get down with one of those monstrous asp.net 3.5 books (such as asp.net unleashed…1500pages) and read it from start to finish? And then pick up some book on ASP.NET MVC? Do I need to actually read such books from start to finish or are there topics I can safely skip?
Sorry if the question is badly worded but I think my problem should be evident. I feel .net is evolving very fast and I am getting left behind more and more. Aside from that I really want to be a good asp.net developer because web development is somewhat of a passion of mine.
Books I currently have in my possession…
To echo what others have said, you have to write code. However, don’t stop moving forward when you hit a wall. If you’re stuck on “the best way to do X” (best practices) either look it up if it’s simple enough, or pull it off to the best of your knowledge THEN look it up and either go back and refactor it, or the next time you come across it implement it with the new techniques you’ve picked up.
As for what to learn and the order to do so, I suggest focusing on what you feel you really want to pick up OR what you think is going to be the most relevant and applicable to your job. Granted, you might not work somewhere that is constantly using the latest technology, in which case you’ll need to learn things on the side through some mini-projects. There’s a lot out there, so narrow it down.
Another suggestion would be to start a simple project and decide to implement parts of it using a particular technology. So, for example, you might pick LINQ to SQL or the Entity Framework for your data access side. Then pick AJAX or jQuery to verify a form using simple validation. Store some data in XML and read it using LINQ to XML. LINQ to Objects opportunities are many with in memory collections, string parsing, etc. In other words think small and implement some items with a particular technology and you’ll touch upon many things. From there you can begin to expand your scope and may decide to explore a particular technology further and do more with it.
I agree with David Basarab’s recommendation for the free ASP.NET MVC ebook. In addition, be sure to check out the http://www.asp.net/mvc/learn/ site. There are many videos and the StoreFront series is a well known example to follow along with.