Module 1: Overview of the Microsoft .NET Platform

Contents Overview 1 Introduction to the .NET Platform 2 Overview of the .NET Framework 5 Benefits of the .NET Framework 7 The .NET Framework Components 8 Languages in the .NET Frame

Contents

Overview 1

Introduction to the NET Platform 2

Overview of the NET Framework 5

Benefits of the NET Framework 7

The NET Framework Components 8

Languages in the NET Framework 14

Review 16

Module 1: Overview of the Microsoft NET

Platform

Information in this document, including URL and other Internet Web site references, is subject to change without notice Unless otherwise noted, the example companies, organizations, products, domain names, e-mail addresses, logos, people, places, and events depicted herein are fictitious, and no association with any real company, organization, product, domain name, e-mail address, logo, person, places or events is intended or should be inferred Complying with all applicable copyright laws is the responsibility of the user Without limiting the rights under copyright, no part of this document may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise), or for any purpose, without the express written permission of Microsoft Corporation

Microsoft may have patents, patent applications, trademarks, copyrights, or other intellectual property rights covering subject matter in this document Except as expressly provided in any written license agreement from Microsoft, the furnishing of this document does not give you any license to these patents, trademarks, copyrights, or other intellectual property

 2001− 2002 Microsoft Corporation All rights reserved

Microsoft, MS-DOS, Windows, Windows NT, ActiveX, BizTalk, IntelliSense, JScript, MSDN, PowerPoint, SQL Server, Visual Basic, Visual C++, Visual C#, Visual J#, Visual Studio, and Win32 are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the U.S.A and/or other countries

The names of actual companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners

Instructor Notes

The module starts with an overview of the Microsoft® .NET Platform, and then introduces the NET Framework and services It describes the design goals and language support of the NET Framework The module concludes by providing more information about the major components of the NET Framework

This module provides students with an overview of the Microsoft NET Platform It defines some of the terminology specific to the NET Platform and describes its key features and benefits

Do not spend too much time on this module This module is only meant to provide an overview, so do not go into too much detail While teaching the module, focus mainly on the NET Framework Components section

This module contains no labs

After completing this module, students will be able to:

Describe the NET Platform

List the main elements of the NET Platform

Describe the NET Framework and its components

Explain the language support in the NET Framework

Materials and Preparation

This section provides the materials and preparation tasks that you need to teach this module

Required Materials

To teach this module, you need the following materials:

Microsoft PowerPoint® file 2124C_01.ppt

Module 1, “Overview of the Microsoft NET Platform”

Preparation Tasks

To prepare for this module, you should:

Read all of the materials for this module

Read the instructor notes and the margin notes for the module

Presentation:

30 Minutes

Lab:

00 Minutes

Module Strategy

Use the following strategy to present this module:

Introduction to the NET Platform Discuss the core services and technologies provided by the NET Platform Briefly talk about the NET Framework It is covered later in more detail

Overview of the NET Framework Ensure that students understand the role that the common language specification plays in language development for the NET Platform Stress the fact that the existing model provides no consistency in the availability of application programming interfaces (APIs) The choice of programming model also becomes the choice of language For example, if you are a Microsoft Visual Basic® developer, you are limited by the functionality that Visual Basic provides for the platform, or if you are a C++ programmer, your existing skills do not transfer to Active Server Pages (ASP) development

Benefits of the NET Framework Review the important design goals of the NET Platform and how each of these goals helps developers create Web-based distributed applications

The NET Framework Components Briefly describe each of the NET Framework components The ADO.NET: Data and XML topic does not provide a lot of detail because these topics are not the focus of the course

Languages in the NET Framework Mention that C# is the premier language of the NET Platform, and that it is best suited to take advantage of the NET Framework Explain that both Visual Basic and Microsoft Visual C++® have been upgraded to support the NET Platform Explain that Microsoft Visual J#™ NET has been

developed for Java-language developers who want to build applications and services on the NET Framework Third parties are also developing

languages to support NET

Overview

Introduction to the NET Platform

Overview of the NET Framework

Benefits of the NET Framework

The NET Framework Components

Languages in the NET Framework

***************************** ILLEGAL FOR NON - TRAINER USE ******************************

The Microsoft® NET Platform provides all of the tools and technologies that you need to build distributed Web applications It exposes a language-independent, consistent programming model across all tiers of an application while providing seamless interoperability with, and easy migration from, existing technologies The NET Platform fully supports the Internet’s platform-neutral, standards-based technologies, including Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP), Extensible Markup Language (XML), and SOAP

C# is a new language specifically designed for building NET applications As a developer, you will find it useful to understand the rationale and features that provide the foundation for the NET Platform before you start writing C# code After completing this module, you will be able to:

Describe the NET Platform

List the main elements of the NET Platform

Describe the NET Framework and its components

Explain the language support in the NET Framework

In this module, you will be

introduced to the NET

Platform You will then learn

about the NET Framework

and the language support

that the NET Framework

provides for the platform

Introduction to the NET Platform

The NET Framework

.NET My Services

The NET Enterprise Servers

Visual Studio NET

***************************** ILLEGAL FOR NON - TRAINER USE ******************************

The NET Platform provides several core technologies, as shown on the slide These technologies are described in the following topics

The NET Framework

The NET Framework is based on a new common language runtime The common language runtime provides a common set of services for projects built

in Microsoft Visual Studio® NET, regardless of the language These services provide key building blocks for applications of any type, across all application tiers

Microsoft Visual Basic®, Microsoft Visual C++®, and other Microsoft programming languages have been enhanced to take advantage of these services Microsoft Visual J#™ NET has been developed for Java-language developers who want to build applications and services using the NET Framework Third-party languages that are written for the NET Platform also have access to the same services The NET Framework is explained in greater detail later in this module

.NET My Services

.NET My Services is a set of user-centric XML Web services With NET My Services, users receive relevant information as they need it, delivered to the devices they are using, and based on preferences they have established Using NET My Services, applications can communicate directly by using SOAP and XML from any platform that supports SOAP

Topic Objective

To discuss the core services

and features in the NET

Platform

Lead-in

The NET Platform consists

of several core services and

features, as is shown on the

slide The goal of this new

platform is to simplify Web

development This section

will provide a brief look at

the major areas of the NET

Platform

Core NET My Services include:

NET Passport authentication

The ability to send alerts and manage preferences for receiving alerts

The storage of personal information (including contacts, e-mail, calendar, profile, lists, electronic wallet, and physical location)

The ability to maintain document stores, save application settings, record favorite Web sites, and note devices owned

The NET Enterprise Servers

The NET Enterprise Servers provide scalability, reliability, management, integration within and across organizations, and many other features, as described in the following table

Server Description

Microsoft SQL Server™ Includes rich XML functionality, support for Worldwide Web Consortium (W3C)

standards, the ability to manipulate XML data by using Transact SQL (T-SQL), flexible and powerful Web-based analysis, and secure access to your data over the Web by using HTTP

Microsoft BizTalk™ Server Provides enterprise application integration (EAI), business-to-business integration,

and the advanced BizTalk Orchestration technology to build dynamic business processes that span applications, platforms, and organizations over the Internet Microsoft Host Integration

Microsoft Application Center Provides a deployment and management tool for high-availability Web

Microsoft Content Management

Server

Offers complete feature sets for content contribution and delivery, site development, and enterprise site management to enable businesses to effectively create, deploy, and manage Internet, intranet, and extranet Web sites

Visual Studio NET

Visual Studio NET provides a development environment for building applications on the NET Framework It provides important enabling technologies to simplify the creation, deployment, and ongoing evolution of secure, scalable, highly available Web applications and XML Web services

Overview of the NET Framework

Win32

Message Queuing

COM+

(Transactions, Partitions, Object Pooling)

Common Language Runtime NET Framework Class Library ADO.NET: Data and XML XML Web Services User Interface

Visual Basic C++ C#

ASP.NET Perl J# …

***************************** ILLEGAL FOR NON - TRAINER USE ******************************

The NET Framework

The NET Framework provides the necessary compile-time and run-time foundation to build and run NET-based applications

Platform Substrate

The NET Framework must run on an operating system Currently, the NET Framework is built to run on the Microsoft Win32® operating systems In the future, the NET Framework will be extended to run on other platforms, such as Microsoft Windows® CE

Application Services

When running on Windows, application services, such as Component Services, Message Queuing, Windows Internet Information Server (IIS), and Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI), are available to the developer The NET Framework exposes application services through classes in the NET

Framework class library

Common Language Runtime

The common language runtime simplifies application development, provides a robust and secure execution environment, supports multiple languages, and simplifies application deployment and management

The common language runtime environment is also referred to as a managed environment, in which common services, such as garbage collection and security, are automatically provided

runtime, the class library,

and language support

.NET Framework Class Library

The NET Framework class library exposes features of the runtime and provides other services that every developer needs The classes simplify development of NET-based applications Developers can extend them by creating their own libraries of classes

ADO.NET

ADO.NET is the next generation of Microsoft ActiveX® Data Objects (ADO) technology ADO.NET provides improved support for the disconnected programming model It also provides rich XML support

ASP.NET

Microsoft ASP.NET is a programming framework that is built on the common language runtime ASP.NET can be used on a server to build powerful Web applications ASP.NET Web Forms provide an easy and powerful way to build dynamic Web user interfaces (UI)

XML Web Services

XML Web services are programmable Web components that can be shared among applications on the Internet or the intranet The NET Framework provides tools and classes for building, testing, and distributing XML Web services

User Interfaces

The NET Framework supports three types of user interfaces:

Web Forms, which work through ASP.NET

Windows Forms, which run on Win32 client computers

Console Applications, which, for simplicity, are used for most of the labs in this course

Languages

Any language that conforms to the common language specification (CLS) can run on the common language runtime In the NET Framework, Microsoft provides Visual Basic, Visual C++, Microsoft Visual C#™, Visual J#, and Microsoft JScript® support Third parties can provide additional languages

Benefits of the NET Framework

Based on Web standards and practices

Designed using unified application models

Easy for developers to use

***************************** ILLEGAL FOR NON - TRAINER USE ******************************

In this section, you will learn about some of the benefits of the NET Framework The NET Framework was designed to meet the following goals:

Based on Web standards and practices

The NET Framework fully supports the existing Internet technologies, including Hypertext Markup Language (HTML), XML, SOAP, Extensible Stylesheet Language for Transformations (XSLT), XML Path Language (XPath), and other Web standards The NET Framework favors loosely connected, stateless XML Web services

Designed using unified application models

The functionality of a NET class is available from any NET-compatible language or programming model

Easy for developers to use

In the NET Framework, code is organized into hierarchical namespaces and classes The NET Framework provides a common type system, referred to

as the unified type system, which is used by any NET-compatible language

In the unified type system, all languages elements are objects There are no variant types, there is only one string type, and all string data is Unicode The unified type system is described in more detail in later modules

Extensible classes

The hierarchy of the NET Framework is not hidden from the developer You can access and extend NET classes (unless they are sealed) through inheritance You can also implement cross-language inheritance

Topic Objective

To explain how the

framework design goals

make it easy to build

applications

Lead-in

Before you learn about the

various NET Framework

components, it is helpful to

understand the design goals

of the NET Framework

This will help you to see

how the NET Framework

simplifies software

development

Delivery Tip

Mention that the NET

Framework classes that are

sealed cannot be extended