ASP.NET is Microsoft’s flagship technology for building highly interactive, highly scalable websites. Some of the largest websites hosted on the Internet were built with the ASP.NET Framework, including Dell (www.Dell.com), MySpace (www.MySpace.com), and Microsoft (www.Microsoft.com). If you need to build a highly interactive website that can scale to handle thousands of simultaneous users, then ASP.NET is the technology to use.
ASP.NET 3.5 Unleashed is intended for professional programmers who need to create a website. This book is a comprehensive reference for building a website with ASP.NET 3.5. The CD that accompanies this book contains hundreds of code samples that you can start using immediately while building your website.
If you are new to building websites with ASP.NET, you can use this book to teach yourself everything you need to know to build a website with the ASP.NET Framework. If you are an experienced ASP.NET developer, you can use this book to learn about the new features of ASP.NET 3.5.
The final part of this book contains a complete sample application written with ASP.NET 3.5: a code sample site. All the code for this application is included on the CD that accompanies this book. (The source is in both C# and VB.NET.)
This book assumes that you know either the C# or Visual Basic .NET programming language. If you are completely new to the .NET Framework, then I recommend you read an introductory book on either C# or Visual Basic .NET before reading this book.
In the body of the book, all the code samples are presented in C#. However, this was not intended as any kind of insult to VB.NET programmers. The CD that accompanies this book includes every code sample translated into the VB.NET programming language.
To get the most from the database chapters, you should have some experience working with a database, such as Microsoft SQL Server, Oracle, or Microsoft Access.
This edition of the book reflects three important transitions in the ASP.NET Framework.
First (and most obviously), unlike the previous editions of this book, all the code samples in the body of this edition of the book are written in the C# programming language. There are now more professional C# developers than Visual Basic .NET developers. The book has been updated to reflect this important transition. If your preference is Visual Basic, Visual Basic .NET versions of all code samples are included on the CD that accompanies this book.
Second, this edition of the book includes a new chapter that covers Microsoft LINQ to SQL in detail. LINQ to SQL is a new query language that enables you to access a database without writing any SQL. The chapter examines LINQ to SQL from an ASP.NET perspective (see Chapter 18, “Data Access with LINQ to SQL”).
This edition of the book also includes a new chapter on the two new data access controls introduced with the ASP.NET 3.5 Framework: the ListView and DataPager controls. The ListView control is a more flexible version of the GridView control (see Chapter 14, “Using the ListView and DataPager Controls”).
The third important transition in the ASP.NET 3.5 Framework concerns AJAX. The Microsoft AJAX Extensions for ASP.NET are integrated into the ASP.NET 3.5 Framework. AJAX represents a transition from using server-side technologies to using client-side technologies when building web applications.
Ajax represents a fundamental shift in the way that developers build websites. Users are no longer satisfied with slow, noninteractive web applications built with server-side technologies. They want highly responsive and interactive web applications that behave more like desktop applications.
This book includes three chapters devoted to the very important topic of Ajax. You learn how to take advantage of Microsoft’s server-side Ajax framework to retrofit existing ASP.NET applications with Ajax functionality. You also learn how to take advantage of Microsoft’s client-side Ajax framework to build the web applications of the future: pure client-side Ajax applications (see Part IX of this book, “ASP.NET AJAX”).
The final chapter of this book contains a completely new sample application written with LINQ to SQL and server-side Ajax. The sample application demonstrates how you can take advantage of these new technologies when building real-world web applications (see Chapter 34, “Building a Code Sample Website”).
Although I encourage you to read this book from start to finish, reading chapter by chapter, I realize that not everyone has time to do so. If necessary, you can use this book solely as a reference and jump to a chapter only when the need arises. It may be helpful, therefore, to have an idea of the overall organization of this book.
Part I: Building ASP.NET Pages— The chapters in this part provide you with an overview of the basic controls included in the ASP.NET Framework. You learn how to build interactive Web Forms with the form controls. You also learn how to validate form data with the validation controls. Finally, you learn how to upload files and display interactive calendars and wizards with the rich controls.
Part II: Designing ASP.NET Websites— The chapters in this part discuss how you can create a common layout and style for the pages in your website. You learn how to use Master Pages to share content across multiple pages. You also learn how to use Themes to create a consistent page style.
Part III: Performing Data Access— The chapters in this part focus on data access. You learn how to use the
ListViewandGridViewcontrols to display, page, sort, and edit a set of database records. You learn how to use theDetailsViewandFormViewcontrols to display and edit a single database record at a time.Part IV: Building Components— The chapters in this part focus on building custom components. You learn how to design and create multitiered applications. You also learn how to build data access components by taking advantage of both LINQ to SQL and ADO.NET.
Part V: Site Navigation— The chapters in this part discuss the various navigation controls included in the ASP.NET Framework, such as the
TreeViewandMenucontrols. You learn how to use these controls with a Site Map in order to allow users to easily navigate a website. You also learn how to use theVirtualPathProviderclass to abstract a website from the file system. For example, you learn how to store the pages in a website in a Microsoft SQL Server database.Part VI: Security— The chapters in this part focus on the Login controls and Membership API. You learn how to create a user registration and authentication system. You learn how to store Membership information in either a SQL Server database or Active Directory.
Part VII: Building ASP.NET Applications— These chapters discuss a variety of topics related to building ASP.NET applications. For example, you learn how to improve the performance of your ASP.NET applications by taking advantage of caching. You also learn how to localize your ASP.NET applications so that they can be easily translated and presented in multiple human languages.
Part VIII: Custom Control Building— The chapters in this part concentrate on extending the ASP.NET Framework with custom controls. For example, you learn how to create custom data access controls that work like the
ListViewandGridViewcontrols.Part IX: ASP.NET AJAX— These chapters focus on using Ajax in an ASP.NET application. The first two chapters discuss the Microsoft server-side Ajax controls. You learn how to use the
UpdatePanelcontrol and the ASP.NET AJAX Control Toolkit. In the last chapter, you learn how to build pure client-side Ajax applications with the Microsoft AJAX Library.Part X: Sample Application— The last part of this book contains a single chapter that describes a sample application. You learn how to build a code sample website with the ASP.NET Framework that takes advantage of new ASP.NET 3.5 features, such as LINQ to SQL and the AJAX Extensions to ASP.NET.