Tài liệu Beginning ASP.NET 2.0 in VB 2005 From Novice to Professional ppt

He’s a regular contributor to programming journals, and the author of more than a dozen books about .NET programming, including Pro ASP.NET 2.0 in C# 2005 Apress, Microsoft .NET Distribu

Beginning ASP.NET 2.0 in VB 2005: From Novice to Professional

Copyright © 2006 by Matthew MacDonald

All rights reserved No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the copyright owner and the publisher.

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For Faria

Contents at a Glance

About the Author xxvii

About the Technical Reviewer xxix

Acknowledgments xxxi

Introduction xxxiii

PART 1 ■ ■ ■ Introducing NET ■ CHAPTER 1 Introducing the NET Framework 3

■ CHAPTER 2 Learning the VB 2005 Language 21

■ CHAPTER 3 Types, Objects, and Namespaces 51

■ CHAPTER 4 Introducing Visual Studio 2005 85

PART 2 ■ ■ ■ Developing ASP.NET Applications ■ CHAPTER 5 Web Form Fundamentals 119

■ CHAPTER 6 Web Controls 167

■ CHAPTER 7 Tracing, Logging, and Error Handling 209

■ CHAPTER 8 Validation and Rich Controls 255

■ CHAPTER 9 State Management 303

■ CHAPTER 10 Master Pages and Themes 343

■ CHAPTER 11 Website Navigation 373

■ CHAPTER 12 Deploying ASP.NET Applications 411

PART 3 ■ ■ ■ Working with Data ■ CHAPTER 13 ADO.NET Fundamentals 451

■ CHAPTER 14 Data Binding 515

■ CHAPTER 15 The Data Controls 557

■ CHAPTER 16 Files and Streams 601

■ CHAPTER 17 XML 631

v

PART 4 ■ ■ ■ Website Security

■ CHAPTER 18 Security Fundamentals 681

■ CHAPTER 19 Membership 713

■ CHAPTER 20 Profiles 755

PART 5 ■ ■ ■ Web Services ■ CHAPTER 21 Web Services Architecture 785

■ CHAPTER 22 Creating Web Services 797

■ CHAPTER 23 Enhancing Web Services 835

PART 6 ■ ■ ■ Advanced ASP.NET ■ CHAPTER 24 Component-Based Programming 867

■ CHAPTER 25 Custom Controls 901

■ CHAPTER 26 Caching and Performance Tuning 951

■ INDEX 993

vi

About the Author xxvii

About the Technical Reviewer xxix

Acknowledgments xxxi

Introduction xxxiii

PART 1 ■ ■ ■ Introducing NET ■ CHAPTER 1 Introducing the NET Framework 3

The Evolution of Web Development 3

HTML and HTML Forms 4

Server-Side Programming 6

Client-Side Programming 7

The Problems with ASP 9

The NET Framework 10

VB 2005, C#, and the NET Languages 12

The Intermediate Language 12

Other NET Languages 14

The Common Language Runtime 14

The NET Class Library 16

Visual Studio 2005 17

.NET 2.0 18

ASP.NET 2.0 18

Visual Studio 2005 20

The Last Word 20

■ CHAPTER 2 Learning the VB 2005 Language 21

The NET Languages 21

The Evolution of Visual Basic 22

vii

Variables and Data Types 23

Assignment and Initializers 25

Arrays 26

Enumerations 28

Variable Operations 30

Advanced Math 31

Type Conversions 32

Object-Based Manipulation 34

The String Type 35

The DateTime and TimeSpan Types 36

The Array Type 39

Conditional Structures 39

The If End If Block 40

The Select Case Block 41

Loop Structures 41

The For Next Block 42

The For Each Block 43

The Do Loop Block 44

Methods 45

Parameters 46

Method Overloading 47

Delegates 48

The Last Word 50

■ CHAPTER 3 Types, Objects, and Namespaces 51

The Basics of Classes 51

Shared and Instance Members 53

A Simple Class 54

Building a Basic Class 54

Creating an Object 55

Adding Properties 56

Adding a Basic Method 59

Adding a Constructor 60

Adding a Basic Event 61

Testing the Product Class 64

Value Types and Reference Types 67

Assignment Operations 67

Equality Testing 68

Passing Parameters by Reference and by Value 68

Reviewing NET Types 70

Understanding Namespaces and Assemblies 71

Using Namespaces 73

Importing Namespaces 74

Assemblies 74

Advanced Class Programming 75

Inheritance 76

Shared Members 77

Casting Objects 78

Partial Classes 81

Generics 82

The Last Word 84

■ CHAPTER 4 Introducing Visual Studio 2005 85

The Promise of Visual Studio 85

Creating a Website 87

The Solution Explorer 90

Designing a Web Page 92

Adding Web Controls 93

The Properties Window 95

Adding Ordinary HTML 96

HTML Tables 98

Writing Code 100

Adding Event Handlers 100

IntelliSense and Outlining 102

Assembly References 107

Namespace Imports 108

Visual Studio Debugging 110

Single-Step Debugging 110

Variable Watches 114

The Last Word 115

PART 2 ■ ■ ■ Developing ASP.NET Applications ■ CHAPTER 5 Web Form Fundamentals 119

The Anatomy of an ASP.NET Application 119

ASP.NET File Types 121

ASP.NET Application Directories 122

Application Updates 123

A Simple One-Page Web Application 124

The ASP Solution—and Its Problems 126

The ASP.NET Solution: Server Controls 127

HTML Server Controls 128

View State 130

The HTML Control Classes 131

Improving the Currency Converter 139

Adding Multiple Currencies 139

Storing Information in the List 141

Adding Linked Images 142

Setting Styles 144

A Deeper Look at HTML Control Classes 145

HTML Control Events 146

Advanced Events with the HtmlInputImage Control 147

The HtmlControl Base Class 149

The HtmlContainerControl Class 150

The HtmlInputControl Class 150

The Page Class 151

The Controls Collection 152

The HttpRequest Class 153

The HttpResponse Class 154

The HttpServerUtility Class 154

ASP.NET Configuration 157

The web.config File 158

Nested Configuration 159

Storing Custom Settings in the web.config File 160

Modifying web.config Settings Programmatically 163

The Website Administration Tool (WAT) 164

The Last Word 166

■ CHAPTER 6 Web Controls 167

Stepping Up to Web Controls 167

Basic Web Control Classes 168

The Web Control Tags 169

Web Control Classes 171

The WebControl Base Class 172

Units 173

Enumerated Values 174

Colors 174

Fonts 175

Focus 177

The Default Button 178

List Controls 178

Multiple-Select List Controls 179

The BulletedList Control 182

Table Controls 184

Web Control Events and AutoPostBack 189

How Postback Events Work 193

The Page Life Cycle 194

A Simple Web Page 197

Improving the Greeting Card Applet 202

Generating the Cards Automatically 205

The Last Word 207

■ CHAPTER 7 Tracing, Logging, and Error Handling 209

Common Errors 209

Exception Handling 211

The Exception Class 212

The Exception Chain 213

Handling Exceptions 214

Catching Specific Exceptions 215

Nested Exception Handlers 216

Exception Handling in Action 218

Mastering Exceptions 220

Throwing Your Own Exceptions 220

Logging Exceptions 225

Using the EventLog Class 227

Custom Logs 230

Retrieving Log Information 231

Error Pages 234

Error Modes 236

A Custom Error Page 237

Specific Custom Error Pages 238

Page Tracing 239

Enabling Tracing 240

Tracing Information 241

Writing Trace Information 247

Application-Level Tracing 251

The Last Word 253

■ CHAPTER 8 Validation and Rich Controls 255

Validation 255

The Validation Controls 256

The Validation Process 257

Client-Side Validation 258

The Validator Classes 258

A Simple Validation Example 259

Other Display Options 262

Manual Validation 264

Understanding Regular Expressions 266

Literals and Metacharacters 266

Finding a Regular Expression 267

A Validated Customer Form 270

Validation Groups 275

Rich Controls 277

The Calendar Control 278

The AdRotator 286

Pages with Multiple Views 289

The MultiView Control 290

The Wizard Control 295

The Last Word 302

■ CHAPTER 9 State Management 303

The Problem of State 303

View State 304

A View State Example 304

Making View State Secure 306

Retaining Member Variables 307

Storing Custom Objects 309

Transferring Information 311

Cross-Page Posting 311

The Query String 316

Custom Cookies 320

A Cookie Example 322

Session State 323

Session Tracking 324

Using Session State 324

A Session State Example 326

Session State Configuration 329

Cookieless 330

Timeout 333

Mode 333

Application State 337

An Overview of State Management Choices 339

The Global.asax Application File 340

Application Events 342

The Last Word 342

■ CHAPTER 10 Master Pages and Themes 343

Master Page Basics 343

A Simple Master Page and Content Page 345

How Master Pages and Content Pages Are Connected 348

A Master Page with Multiple Content Regions 350

Default Content 353

Master Pages and Relative Paths 354

Advanced Master Pages 355

Table-Based Layouts 355

Code in a Master Page 360

Interacting with a Master Page Programmatically 360

Themes 362

How Themes Work 363

Applying a Simple Theme 365

Handling Theme Conflicts 366

Creating Multiple Skins for the Same Control 368

Skins with Templates and Images 369

The Last Word 372

■ CHAPTER 11 Website Navigation 373

Site Maps 373

Defining a Site Map 374

Seeing a Simple Site Map in Action 379

Binding an Ordinary Page to a Site Map 380

Binding a Master Page to a Site Map 381

Binding Portions of a SiteMap 383

Navigating Programmatically 389

Mapping URLs 391

The SiteMapPath Control 393

Customizing the SiteMapPath 394

Using SiteMapPath Styles and Templates 394

Adding Custom Site Map Information 396

The TreeView Control 397

TreeView Properties 398

TreeView Styles 399

The Menu Control 404

Menu Styles 406

Menu Templates 407

The Last Word 410

■ CHAPTER 12 Deploying ASP.NET Applications 411

ASP.NET Applications and the Web Server 411

How Web Servers Work 411

Web Application URLs 413

Web Farms 415

IIS (Internet Information Services) 416

Installing IIS 5 417

Installing IIS 6 418

Registering the ASP.NET File Mappings 420

Verifying That ASP.NET Is Correctly Installed 421

Managing Websites with IIS Manager 422

Creating a Virtual Directory 423

Virtual Directories and Web Applications 426

Configuring an Existing Virtual Directory 428

Adding a Virtual Directory to Your Neighborhood 434

Deploying a Simple Site 436

Web Applications and Components 437

Other Configuration Steps 437

The ASPNET Account 438

Code Compilation 441

Deploying with Visual Studio 2005 442

Creating a Virtual Directory for a New Project 443

Copying a Website 446

Publishing a Website 448

The Last Word 450

PART 3 ■ ■ ■ Working with Data ■ CHAPTER 13 ADO.NET Fundamentals 451

ADO.NET and Data Management 451

The Role of the Database 452

Database Access in the Internet World 453

Introducing ADO.NET 454

SQL Server 2005 Express Edition 456

Browsing and Modifying Databases in Visual Studio 456

SQL Basics 458

Running Queries in Visual Studio 459

The Select Statement 461

The SQL Update Statement 464

The SQL Insert Statement 465

The SQL Delete Statement 466

ADO.NET Basics 467

Data Namespaces 469

The Data Provider Objects 469

Direct Data Access 471

Importing the Namespaces 472

Creating a Connection 472

The Connection String 473

Windows Authentication 474

Connection String Tips 475

Making the Connection 476

Defining a Select Command 478

Using a Command with a DataReader 479

Putting It All Together 480

Filling the List Box 481

Updating Data 484

Enhancing the Author Page 485

Creating More Robust Commands 489

Disconnected Data Access 495

Selecting Disconnected Data 496

Selecting Multiple Tables 498

Modifying Disconnected Data 503

Adding Rows to a DataSet 504

Updating Disconnected Data 505

The CommandBuilder 505

Updating a DataTable 506

Controlling Updates 506

A Disconnected Update Example 508

Concurrency Problems 510

A Concurrency Example 511

The Last Word 514

■ CHAPTER 14 Data Binding 515

Introducing Data Binding 515

Types of ASP.NET Data Binding 516

How Data Binding Works 516

Single-Value Data Binding 517

A Simple Data Binding Example 518

Simple Data Binding with Properties 521

Problems with Single-Value Data Binding 522

Using Code Instead of Simple Data Binding 523

Repeated-Value Data Binding 524

Data Binding with Simple List Controls 524

A Simple List Binding Example 525

Generic Collections 527

Multiple Binding 527

Data Binding and View State 530

Data Binding with a Dictionary Collection 530

Using the DataValueField Property 532

Data Binding with ADO.NET 533

Creating a Record Editor 535

Data Source Controls 541

The Page Life Cycle with Data Binding 542

The SqlDataSource 543

Selecting Records 545

Parameterized Commands 547

Handling Errors 551

Updating Records 551

The Last Word 555

■ CHAPTER 15 The Data Controls 557

The GridView 557

Automatically Generating Columns 558

Defining Columns 560

Formatting the GridView 564

Formatting Fields 564

Using Styles 566

Formatting-Specific Values 569

Selecting a GridView Row 571

Adding a Select Button 572

Using Selection to Create Master-Details Pages 574

Editing with the GridView 576

Sorting and Paging the GridView 579

Sorting 579

Paging 582

Using GridView Templates 585

Using Multiple Templates 587

Editing Templates in Visual Studio 588

Handling Events in a Template 589

Editing with a Template 590

The DetailsView and FormView 595

The DetailsView 596

The FormView 599

The Last Word 600

■ CHAPTER 16 Files and Streams 601

Files and Web Applications 601

File System Information 602

The Directory and File Classes 603

The DirectoryInfo and FileInfo Classes 608

The DriveInfo Class 610

A Sample File Browser 611

Reading and Writing with Streams 615

Text Files 615

Binary Files 617

Shortcuts for Reading and Writing Files 619

A Simple Guest Book 620

Allowing File Uploads 625

The FileUpload Control 625

The HtmlInputFile Control 629

The Last Word 629

■ CHAPTER 17 XML 631

XML’s Hidden Role in NET 631

Configuration Files 631

ADO.NET Data Access 632

Web Services 632

Anywhere Miscellaneous Data Is Stored 632

XML Explained 632

Improving the List with XML 634

XML Basics 636

Attributes 637

Comments 639

The XML Classes 639

The XML TextWriter 640

The XML Text Reader 642

Working with XML Documents in Memory 648

Reading an XML Document 653

Searching an XML Document 656

XML Validation 657

XML Namespaces 657

XSD Documents 659

Validating an XML Document 660

XML Display and Transforms 663

The Xml Web Control 666

XML Data Binding 667

Nonhierarchical Binding 668

Hierarchical Binding with the TreeView 670

Binding to XML Content from Other Sources 672

XML in ADO.NET 673

Accessing a DataSet As XML 674

Accessing XML Through the DataSet 676

The Last Word 678

PART 4 ■ ■ ■ Website Security ■ CHAPTER 18 Security Fundamentals 681

Determining Security Requirements 681

Restricted File Types 682

Security Concepts 682

The ASP.NET Security Model 683

Security Strategies 686

Certificates 686

Secure Sockets Layer 688

Forms Authentication 689

Web.config Settings 691

Authorization Rules 692

The WAT 695

The Login Page 698

Windows Authentication 703

IIS Settings 703

Web.config Settings 705

A Windows Authentication Test 707

Impersonation 709

Programmatic Impersonation 710

The Last Word 711

■ CHAPTER 19 Membership 713

The Membership Data Store 714

Membership with SQL Server 2005 715

Configuring the Membership Provider 718

Manually Creating the Membership Tables 723

Creating Users with the WAT 725

The Membership and MembershipUser Classes 727

Authentication with Membership 731

Disabled Accounts 732

The Security Controls 733

The Login Control 734

The CreateUserWizard Control 739

The PasswordRecovery Control 744

Role-Based Security 746

Creating and Assigning Roles 747

Restricting Access Based on Roles 750

The LoginView Control 751

The Last Word 753

■ CHAPTER 20 Profiles 755

Understanding Profiles 756

Profile Performance 756

How Profiles Store Data 757

Using the SqlProfileProvider 759

Enabling Authentication 759

Profiles with SQL Server 2005 Express Edition 760

Configuring the Profile Provider to Use a Different Database 761

Manually Creating the Profile Tables 763

The Profile Databases 764

Defining Profile Properties 766

Using Profile Properties 767

Profile Serialization 769

Profile Groups 771

Profiles and Custom Data Types 772

The Profile API 777

Anonymous Profiles 779

The Last Word 782

■ CHAPTER 21 Web Services Architecture 785

Internet Programming Then and Now 785

Components and the COM Revolution 786

Web Services and the Programmable Web 787

When Web Services Make Sense 787

The Open-Standards Plumbing 788

Web Services Description Language 789

A Sample SOAP Message 790

Communicating with a Web Service 791

Web Service Discovery 792

■ CHAPTER 22 Creating Web Services 797

Web Service Basics 797

Configuring a Web Service Project 798

The StockQuote Web Service 800

Understanding the StockQuote Service 801

Web Services with Code-Behind 801

The ASP.NET Intrinsic Objects 803

Documenting Your Web Service 804

Descriptions 804

The XML Namespace 805

Conformance Claims 806

Testing Your Web Service 807

The Web Service Test Page 808

Service Description 809

Method Description 810

Testing a Method 811

Web Service Data Types 813

The StockQuote Service with a Data Object 814

Consuming a Web Service 818

Configuring a Web Service Client in Visual Studio 818

The Role of the Proxy Class 819

Creating a Web Reference in Visual Studio 820

Creating a Proxy with WSDL.exe 822

Dissecting the Proxy Class 824

Dynamic Web Service URLs 827

Using the Proxy Class 828

Waiting and Timeouts 829

Web Service Errors 830

Connecting Through a Proxy 831

The Last Word 831

■ CHAPTER 23 Enhancing Web Services 835

State Management 835

The StockQuote Service with State Management 836

Consuming a Stateful Web Service 838

Web Service Security 842

Windows Authentication with a Web Service 843

Ticket-Based Authentication 847

Ticket-Based Authentication with SOAP Headers 849

Using SOAP Headers in the Client 852

Web Service Transactions 853

An Example with TerraService 855

Adding the Reference 856

Testing the Client 857

Searching for More Information 859

Displaying a Tile 860

Windows Clients 862

The Last Word 864

■ CHAPTER 24 Component-Based Programming 867

Why Use Components? 867

Classes and Namespaces 874

Adding a Reference to the Component 876

Using the Component 878

Properties and State 880

A Stateful Account Class 881

A Stateless AccountUtility Class 882

Data-Access Components 883

A Simple Data-Access Component 884

Using the Data-Access Component 888

Enhancing the Component with Error Handling 891

Enhancing the Component with Aggregate Information 892

The Last Word 899

■ CHAPTER 25 Custom Controls 901

User Controls 901

Creating a Simple User Control 902

Independent User Controls 905

Integrated User Controls 907

User Control Events 910

Passing Information with Events 912

User Control Limitations 916

Custom Controls 916

Creating a Simple Derived Control 917

Creating a Custom Control Library 919

Using a Custom Control 920

Custom Controls and Default Values 923

Changing Control Rendering 925

Creating a Web Control from Scratch 929

Maintaining State Information 931

Design-Time Support 934

Creating a Composite Control 935

Custom Control Events and Postbacks 937

Dynamic Graphics 943

Basic Drawing 943

Drawing Custom Text 946

Placing Custom Images Inside Web Pages 947

The Last Word 949

■ CHAPTER 26 Caching and Performance Tuning 951

Designing for Performance 952

ASP.NET Code Compilation 952

Caching on the Client Side 962

Caching and the Query String 963

Caching with Specific Parameters 964

A Multiple Caching Example 965

Custom Caching Control 966

Fragment Caching 968

Cache Profiles 968

Output Caching in a Web Service 969

Data Caching 970

Adding Items to the Cache 970

A Simple Cache Test 971

Caching to Provide Multiple Views 973

Data Caching in a Web Service 976

Caching with the Data Source Controls 978

Caching with Dependencies 982

Cache Notifications in SQL Server 2000 or SQL Server 7 984

Cache Notifications in SQL Server 2005 988

The Last Word 992

■ INDEX 993

About the Author

■MATTHEW MACDONALD is an author, educator, and MCSD developer

He’s a regular contributor to programming journals, and the author of

more than a dozen books about NET programming, including Pro

ASP.NET 2.0 in C# 2005 (Apress), Microsoft NET Distributed Applications

(Microsoft Press), Programming NET Web Services (O’Reilly), and

ASP.NET: The Complete Reference (Osborne McGraw-Hill) In a dimly

remembered past life, he studied English literature and theoreticalphysics You can read about his books at http://www.prosetech.com

xxvii

About the Technical Reviewer

■ANDY OLSENis a freelance developer, instructor, and writer based in Swansea in Wales

Andy has been using Microsoft technologies for 20 years, back in the days when the words

“Visual Basic” were a contradiction in terms Andy would like to thank his wife Jayne for

her patience against all the odds, and Emily and Thomas for all the fun Cymru am Byth!

xxix

No author could complete a book without a small army of helpful individuals I’m deeply

indebted to the whole Apress team, including Grace Wong and Kelly Winquist, who helped

everything move swiftly and smoothly; Jennifer Whipple and Kim Wimpsett, who performed

the copy edit; Andy Olsen, who performed the most recent round of technical review; and

many other individuals who worked behind the scenes indexing pages, drawing figures,

and proofreading the final copy I owe a special thanks to Gary Cornell, who’s built a truly

unique company with Apress

I’d also like to thank those who were involved with previous editions of this book

This includes Emma Acker and Jane Brownlow at Osborne McGraw-Hill and previous

tech reviewers Ronald Landers, Gavin Smyth, Tim Verycruysse, and Julian Skinner I also

owe a hearty thanks to all the readers who caught errors and took the time to report

prob-lems and ask good questions Keep sending in the feedback—it helps make better books!

Finally, I’d never write any book without the support of my wife and these special

individuals: Nora, Razia, Paul, and Hamid Thanks, everyone!

xxxi

6e067a1cf200c3b6e021f18882237192

ASP (Active Server Pages) is a web development technology that's leapt through several

stages of evolution It was first introduced as an easy way to add dynamic content to

ordi-nary web pages Since then, it’s grown into something much more ambitious: a platform for

creating advanced web applications, including e-commerce shops, data-driven portal sites,

and just about anything else you can find on the Internet

ASP.NET 2.0 is the latest version of ASP, and it represents the most dramatic change yet

With ASP.NET, developers no longer need to paste together a jumble of HTML and script

code in order to program the Web Instead, you can create full-scale web applications using

nothing but code and a design tool such as Visual Studio 2005 The cost of all this innovation

is the learning curve Not only do you need to learn how to use an advanced design tool

(Visual Studio) and a toolkit of objects (the NET Framework), you also need to master a

pro-gramming language such as Visual Basic 2005

Beginning ASP.NET 2.0 in VB 2005 assumes you want to master ASP.NET, starting from

the basics Using this book, you’ll build your knowledge until you understand the concepts,

techniques, and best practices for writing sophisticated web applications The journey is

long, but it’s also satisfying At the end of the day, you’ll find that ASP.NET allows you to

tackle challenges that are simply out of reach on many other platforms You’ll also become

part of the fast-growing ASP.NET developer community

About This Book

This book explores ASP.NET, which is a core part of Microsoft’s NET Framework The NET

Framework is not a single application—it’s actually a collection of technologies bundled

into one marketing term The NET Framework includes languages such as C# and VB 2005,

an engine for hosting programmable web pages and web services (ASP.NET), a model for

interacting with databases (ADO.NET), and a class library stocked with tools for everything

from sending e-mail to encrypting a password To master ASP.NET, you need to learn about

each of these ingredients

This book covers all these topics from the ground up As a result, you’ll find yourselflearning many techniques that will interest any NET developer, even those who create

Windows applications For example, you’ll learn about component-based programming,

you’ll discover structured error handling, and you’ll see how to access files, XML, and

relational databases You’ll also learn the key topics you need for web programming, such

as state management, web controls, and web services By the end of this book, you’ll be ready

to create your own rich web applications and make them available over the Internet

xxxiii

■ Note This book has a single goal: to be as relentlessly practical as possible I take special care not toleave you hanging in the places where other ASP.NET books abandon their readers For example, whenencountering a new technology, you’ll not only learn how it works but also why (and when) you should use it.

I also highlight common questions and best practices with tip boxes and sidebars at every step of the way.Finally, if a topic is covered in this book, it’s covered right This means you won’t learn how to perform a taskwithout learning about potential drawbacks and the problems you might run into—and how you can safe-guard yourself with real-world code

Who Should Read This Book

This book is aimed at anyone who wants to create dynamic websites with ASP.NET Ideally,you have experience with a previous version of a programming language such as VisualBasic 6 or Java If not, you should be familiar with basic programming concepts (loops,conditional structures, arrays, and so on), whether you’ve learned them in C, Pascal,Turing, or a completely different programming language This is the only requirement forreading this book Understanding HTML helps, but it’s not required ASP.NET works at

a higher level, allowing you to deal with full-featured web controls instead of raw HTML.You also don’t need any knowledge of XML, because Chapter 17 covers it in detail.This book will also appeal to programmers who have some experience with VisualBasic and NET but haven’t worked with ASP.NET in the past However, if you’ve used

a previous version of ASP.NET, you’ll probably be more interested in a faster-paced book

such as Pro ASP.NET 2.0 in VB 2005 (Apress, 2006) instead.

■ Note This book begins with the fundamentals: VB syntax, the basics of object-oriented programming,and the philosophy of the NET Framework If you haven’t worked with VB 2005 before, you can spend a littlemore time with the syntax review in Chapter 2 to pick up everything you need to know If you aren’t familiarwith the ideas of object-oriented programming, Chapter 3 fills in the blanks with a quick, but comprehensive,review of the subject The rest of the book builds on this foundation, from ASP.NET basics to advanced exam-ples that show the techniques you’ll use in real-world web applications

What You Need to Use This Book

The main prerequisite for this book is a computer with Visual Studio 2005 You can alsouse the scaled-down Visual Studio Web Developer 2005 Express Edition, but you’ll runinto a few minor limitations Most significantly, you can’t use Visual Studio Web Devel-oper to create class libraries (separate components), a technique discussed in Chapter 24.(However, you still use the sample code directly in your web projects.)

To run ASP.NET pages, you need Windows 2000 Professional, Windows XP Professional,Windows 2000 Server, or Windows Server 2003 You also need to install IIS (Internet

Information Services), the web hosting software that’s part of the Windows operating

system, if you want to try web services or test deployment strategies

Finally, this book includes several examples that use SQL Server You can use anyversion of SQL Server to try these, including SQL Server 2005 Express Edition, which is

included with some versions of Visual Studio (and freely downloadable at http://msdn

microsoft.com/sql/express) If you use other relational database engines, the same

con-cepts will apply; you will just need to modify the example code

Code Samples

To master ASP.NET, you need to experiment with it One of the best ways to learn ASP.NET

is to try the code samples for this book, examine them, and dive in with your own

modifi-cations To obtain the sample code, surf to http://www.prosetech.comor the publisher’s

website at http://www.apress.com You’ll also find some links to additional resources and

any updates or errata that affect the book

Chapter Overview

This book is divided into six parts Unless you’ve already had experience with the NET

Framework, the most productive way to read this book is in order from start to finish

Chapters later in the book sometimes incorporate features that were introduced earlier in

order to create more well-rounded and realistic examples On the other hand, if you’re already

familiar with the NET platform, VB, and object-oriented programming, you’ll make short

work of the first part of this book

Part 1: Introducing NET

You could start coding an ASP.NET application right away by following the examples in

the second part of this book But to really master ASP.NET, you need to understand a few

fundamental concepts about the NET Framework

Chapter 1 sorts through the Microsoft jargon and explains what the NET Frameworkreally does and why you need it Chapter 2 introduces you to VB 2005 with a comprehensive

language reference, and Chapter 3 explains the basics of modern object-oriented

program-ming Chapter 4 introduces the Visual Studio design environment

Part 2: Developing ASP.NET Applications

The second part of this book delves into the heart of ASP.NET programming and introduces

its new event-based model In Chapters 5 and 6, you learn how to program a web page’s

user interface through a layer of objects called server controls.

Next, you’ll explore the fundamentals of ASP.NET programming Chapter 7 presentsdifferent techniques for handling errors, and Chapter 8 introduces some of the mostremarkable ASP.NET controls, such as the input validators Chapter 9 describes differentstrategies for state management Chapter 10 shows how you can standardize theappearance of an entire website with master pages, and Chapter 11 shows you how toadd navigation to a website Finally, Chapter 12 walks you through the steps for deploy-ing your application to a web server Taken together, these chapters contain all the coreconcepts you need to design web pages and create a basic ASP.NET website.

Part 3: Working with Data

Almost all software needs to work with data, and web applications are no exception InChapter 13, you begin exploring the world of data by considering ADO.NET—Microsoft’snew technology for interacting with relational databases Chapters 14 and 15 explain how

to use data binding and the advanced ASP.NET data controls to create web pages thatintegrate attractive, customizable data displays with automatic support for paging, sorting,and editing

Chapter 16 moves out of the database world and considers how to interact with files.Chapter 17 broadens the picture even further and describes how ASP.NET applicationscan use the XML support that’s built into the NET Framework

Part 4: Website Security

Every public website needs to deal with security—making sure that sensitive data cannot

be accessed by the wrong users In Chapter 18, you’ll start out learning how ASP.NETprovides different authentication systems for dealing with users You can write your owncustom logic to verify user names and passwords, or you can use existing Windows accountinformation on your web server In Chapter 19, you’ll learn about a new model that extendsthe basic authentication system with prebuilt security controls and objects that automatecommon tasks If you want, you can even get ASP.NET to create and manage a databasewith user information automatically Finally, Chapter 20 deals with another add-on—theprofiles model that lets you store information for each user automatically, without writingany database code

Part 5: Web Services

Web services are a new feature of ASP.NET and are one of Microsoft’s most heavily promotednew technologies Using web services, you can share pieces of functionality on your webserver with other applications on other computers Best of all, the whole process workswith open standards such as XML, ensuring that applications written in different program-ming languages and running on different operating systems can interact without a hitch

Chapter 21 presents an overview of web service technology Chapter 22 shows how tocreate a basic web service and use it in a client Chapter 23 shows you how to enhance

your web service with caching, security, and transactions

Part 6: Advanced ASP.NET

This part includes the advanced topics you can use to take your web applications that

extra step Chapters 24 and 25 cover how you can create reusable components and web

controls for ASP.NET applications Chapter 26 demonstrates how careful use of caching

can boost the performance of almost any web application

Feedback

This book has the ambitious goal of being the best tutorial and reference for ASP.NET

Toward that end, your comments and suggestions are extremely helpful You can send

complaints, adulation, and everything in between directly to apress@prosetech.com I can’t

solve your ASP.NET problems or critique your code, but I do benefit from information about

what this book did right and wrong (and what it may have done in an utterly confusing

way) You can also send comments about the website support for this book

Introducing NET

P A R T 1

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