ASP Scripts

Anyone new to web programming should be able to follow along because no prior background in web development is assumed although it helps if you do have a basic understanding of HTML and the web in general. The book starts at the very beginning of web development by showing you how to obtain and install Visual Web Developer. The chapters that follow gradually introduce you to new technologies, building on top of the knowledge gained in the previous chapters.

Do you have a strong preference for Visual Basic over C# or the other way around? Or do you think both languages are equally cool? Or maybe you haven't made up your mind yet and want to learn both languages? Either way, you'll like this book because all code examples are presented in both languages!

Even if you have some experience with prior versions of ASP.NET, you may gain a lot from this book. Although many concepts from previous versions are brought forward into ASP.NET 4, you'll discover there's a lot of new stuff to be found in this book, including an introduction to the ADO.NET Entity Framework, the inclusion of jQuery, ASP.NET AJAX, the many changes to the ASP.NET 4 Framework, and much more.

This book teaches you how to create a feature-rich, data-driven, and interactive web site called Planet Wrox. Although this is quite a mouthful, you'll find that with Visual Web Developer 2010, developing such a web site isn't as hard as it seems. You'll see the entire process of building a web site, from installing Visual Web Developer 2010 in Chapter 1 all the way up to putting your web application on a live server in Chapter 19. The book is divided into 19 chapters, each dealing with a specific subject.

• Chapter 1, “Getting Started with ASP.NET 4” shows you how to obtain and install Visual Web Developer 2010. You'll get instructions for downloading and installing the free edition of Visual Web Developer 2010, called the Express edition. You are also introduced to HTML, the language behind every web page. The chapter closes with an overview of the customization options that Visual Web Developer gives you.

• Chapter 2, “Building an ASP.NET Web Site” shows you how to create a new web site and how to add new elements like pages to it. Besides learning how to create a well-structured site, you also see how to use the numerous tools in Visual Web Developer to create HTML and ASP.NET pages.

• Chapter 3, “Designing Your Web Pages.” Visual Web Developer comes with a host of tools that allow you to create well-designed and attractive web pages. In this chapter, you see how to make good use of these tools. Additionally, you learn about CSS, the language that is used to format web pages.

• Chapter 4, “Working with ASP.NET Server Controls.” ASP.NET Server Controls are one of the most important concepts in ASP.NET. They allow you to create complex and feature-rich web sites with very little code. This chapter introduces you to the large number of server controls that are available, explains what they are used for, and shows you how to use them.

• Chapter 5, “Programming Your ASP.NET Web Pages.” Although the built-in CSS tools and the ASP.NET Server Controls can get you a long way in creating web pages, you are likely to use a programming language to enhance your pages. This chapter serves as an introduction to programming with a strong focus on programming web pages. Best of all: all the examples you see in this chapter (and the rest of the book) are in both Visual Basic and C#, so you can choose the language you like best.

• Chapter 6, “Creating Consistent Looking Web Sites.” ASP.NET helps you create consistent-looking pages through the use of master pages, which allow you to define the global look and feel of a page. Skins and themes help you to centralize the looks of controls and other visual elements in your site. You also see how to create a base page that helps to centralize programming code that you need on all pages in your site.

• Chapter 7, “Navigation.” To help your visitors find their way around your site, ASP.NET comes with a number of navigation controls. These controls are used to build the navigation structure of your site. They can be connected to your site's central site map that defines the pages in your web site. You also learn how to programmatically send users from one page to another.

• Chapter 8, “User Controls.” User controls are reusable page fragments that can be used in multiple web pages. As such, they are great for repeating content such as menus, banners, and so on. In this chapter, you learn how to create and use user controls and enhance them with some programmatic intelligence.

• Chapter 9, “Validating User Input.” A large part of interactivity in your site is defined by the input of your users. This chapter shows you how to accept, validate, and process user input using ASP.NET Server Controls. Additionally, you see how to send e-mail from your ASP.NET web application and how to read from text files.

• Chapter 10, “ASP.NET AJAX.” Microsoft ASP.NET AJAX allows you to create good-looking, flicker-free web pages that close the gap between traditional desktop applications and web applications. In this chapter you learn how to use the built-in Ajax features to enhance the presence of your web pages, resulting in a smoother interaction with the web site.

• Chapter 11, “jQuery.” jQuery is a popular, open source and cross-browser JavaScript library designed to make it easier to interact with web pages in the client’s browser. In this chapter you learn the basics of jQuery and see how to add rich visual effects and animations to your web pages.

• Chapter 12, “Introducing Databases.” Understanding how to use a database is critical to building web sites, as most modern web sites require the use of a database. You’ll learn the basics of SQL, the query language that allows you to access and alter data in a database. In addition, you are introduced to the database tools found in Visual Web Developer that help you create and manage your SQL Server databases.

• Chapter 13, “Displaying and Updating Data.” Building on the knowledge you gained in the previous chapter, this chapter shows you how to use the ASP.NET data-bound and data source controls to create a rich interface that enables your users to interact with the data in the database that these controls target.

• Chapter 14, “LINQ and the ADO.NET Entity Framework.” LINQ is Microsoft’s solution for accessing objects, databases, XML, and more. The ADO.NET Entity Framework (EF) is Microsoft's new technology for database access. This chapter shows you what LINQ is all about, how to use the visual EF designer built into Visual Studio, and how to write LINQ to EF queries to get data in and out of your SQL Server database.

• Chapter 15, “Working with Data—Advanced Topics.” While earlier chapters focused mostly on the technical foundations of working with data, this chapter looks at the same topic from a front-end perspective. You see how to change the visual appearance of your data through the use of control styles. You also see how to interact with the data-bound controls and how to speed up your application by keeping a local copy of frequently accessed data.

• Chapter 16, “Security in Your ASP.NET 4 Web Site.” Although presented quite late in the book, security is a first-class, important topic. This chapter shows you how to make use of the built-in ASP.NET features related to security. You learn about a number of application services that facilitate security. You also learn how to let users sign up for an account on your web site, how to distinguish between anonymous and logged-on users, and how to manage the users in your system.

• Chapter 17, “Personalizing Web Sites.” Building on the security features introduced in Chapter 16, this chapter shows you how to create personalized web pages with content targeted at individual users. You see how to configure and use ASP.NET Profile that enables you to store personalized data for known and anonymous visitors.

• Chapter 18, “Exception Handling, Debugging, and Tracing.” In order to understand, improve, and fix the code you write for your ASP.NET web pages you need good debugging tools. Visual Web Developer ships with great debugging support that enables you to diagnose the state of your application at run time, helping you find and fix problems before your users do.

• Chapter 19, “Deploying Your Web Site.” By the end of the book, you should have a web site that is ready to be shown to the world. But how exactly do you do that? What are the things you need to know and understand to put your web site out in the wild? This chapter gives the answers and provides you with a good look at configuring different production systems in order to run your final web site.

Note: CD-ROM/DVD and other supplementary materials are not included as part of eBook file.

DVD includes Visual Web Developer 2010 Express and ASP.NET 4

In just 24 sessions of one hour or less, you’ll learn how to build complete, professional-quality web solutions with ASP.NET 4 and Microsoft Visual Web Developer 2010. Using this book’s straightforward, step-by-step approach, you’ll master the entire process, from site design through data collection, user management through debugging and deployment. Scott Mitchell, editor of top ASP.NET resource site 4GuysFromRolla.com, shows how to use the newest ASP.NET 4 enhancements and make the most of free tools like ASP.NET Ajax and Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Express Edition. Each lesson builds on what you’ve already learned, giving you a strong, practical foundation for success!

Step-by-step instructions carefully walk you through the most common ASP.NET 4 development tasks.

Quizzes and Exercises at the end of each chapter help you test your knowledge.

By the Way, Did You Know?, and Watch Out! boxes point out shortcuts and solutions.

Learn how to…

• Get started fast with ASP.NET 4 and Visual Web Developer 2010
• Use Visual Web Developer 2010 to quickly build professional-quality ASP.NET websites
• Design, create, and test ASP.NET web pages
• Collect, process, and validate input from your site’s visitors
• Build a website that supports user accounts
• Create web pages that access, display, and edit database data using Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Express Edition
• Define site maps to provide efficient, easy navigation
• Use master pages to build more consistent and well-designed sites
• Create more responsive and interactive web pages with ASP.NET Ajax
• Host, upload, deploy, and update production web sites

ASP.NET 4 is the principal standard for creating dynamic web pages on the Windows platform. Pro ASP.NET 4 in C# 2010 raises the bar for high-quality, practical advice on learning and deploying Microsoft's dynamic web solution.

This edition is updated with everything you need to master up to version 4 of ASP.NET, including coverage of ASP.NET MVC, ASP.NET AJAX 4, ASP.NET Dynamic Data, and Silverlight 3.

Seasoned .NET professionals Matthew MacDonald and Mario Szpuszta explain how you can get the most from these groundbreaking technologies. They cover ASP.NET 4 as a whole, illustrating both the newer features and the functionality carried over from previous versions of ASP. This book will give you the knowledge you need to code real ASP.NET 4 applications in the best possible style.

Table of Contents

1. Introducing ASP.NET 
2. Visual Studio 
3. Web Forms 
4. Server Controls 
5. ASP.NET Applications  
6. State Management  
7. ADO.NET Fundamentals  
8. Data Components and the DataSet  
9. Data Binding  
10. Rich Data Controls 
11. Caching and Asynchronous Pages  
12. Files and Streams 
13. LINQ 
14. XML 
15. User Controls 
16. Themes and Master Pages  
17. Website Navigation 
18. Website Deployment 
19. The ASP.NET Security Model  
20. Forms Authentication  
21. Membership
22. Windows Authentication
23. Authorization and Roles  
24. Profiles 
25. Cryptography 
26. Custom Membership Providers  
27. Custom Server Controls 
28. Graphics, GDI+, and Charting 
29. JavaScript and Ajax Techniques  
30. ASP.NET AJAX 
31. Portals with Web Part Pages 
32. MVC  
33. Dynamic Data  
34. Silverlight 

Already know how to code in C# 2010? Then, master web programming with this .NET 4 edition of the ASP.NET book that's a favorite of developers. It teaches beginners how to develop web applications from scratch. And more seasoned professionals use it as a time-saving guide whenever they need the "how-to" details that take forever to find online.

Here's a quick rundown on what developers have always liked best about this book:

#1: Complete applications show you how all the pieces interact
The key to mastering ASP.NET 4 is to have plenty of real-world applications that guide you in using the new skills that you're learning...and that help you avoid the problems that you might run into as you build complex web sites. That's why this book gives you complete applications, including the web forms, the aspx code, and the C# code. Download the applications for free from the Murach website, and experiment with them on your own to see how valuable they are.

#2: It gives you a 6-chapter section on database programming that's geared to business applications
Database handling is crucial in business programming, yet it's glossed over in just a chapter or two in many books. In contrast, this 6-chapter section teaches you how to use SQL data sources and ASP.NET data controls to develop database applications with little or no C# code. Then, it teaches you how to use object data sources to create 3-layer applications that let you separate the presentation code from the data access code. And each topic is illustrated using examples like maintenance and shopping cart applications...the kind of database applications you'll deal with every day.

#3: It teaches you ASP.NET development the way it should be done, using Visual Studio 2010
The 1.x edition of this book was one of the first to teach web development using Visual Studio instead of tools like Notepad. Today, no developer should miss out on the productivity features of Visual Studio 2010. So those features are integrated throughout this book, rather than being relegated to just a chapter or two at the beginning.

#4: It teaches you ASP.NET 4 features when they're appropriate, not just convenient
In contrast to some books, the ASP.NET 4 features haven't just been tacked onto the chapters from the previous .NET 3.5 edition. Instead, authors Anne Boehm and Joel Murach have carefully analyzed how the changes affect the way you develop web applications and what you need to learn when. That means this book integrates the new material with the classic ASP.NET features that haven't changed, giving you a cohesive, fluid approach to learning web programming the way it's done today.

#5: The distinctive paired-pages format* makes learning...and reference...a breeze
A few years ago, a customer used the term "paired pages" to describe our presentation style, and the name has stuck. It means that this book presents each topic in a two-page spread. The right page gives screen shots, code, syntax, bulleted details--whatever is needed to illustrate and summarize the topic; the left page provides extra explanation and perspective as needed. That makes it easy for developers at any level to skim through material they already know and focus on what's new to them.

Ultra-fast ASP.NET provides a practical guide to building extremely fast and scalable websites using ASP.NET and SQL Server. Written by a highly-experienced consultant it provides straight-forward guidance for achieving performance increases through clearly delimited alterations to website’s design and coding. The book deals with all aspects of website performance from client computer to the website code to the supporting IIS and SQL Servers that underpin it. This gives readers all the information that they need in a single volume.

If you are brand new to ASP.NET, be sure to check out Beginning ASP.NET 4: In C# and VB by Imar Spaanjaars (Wiley Publishing, Inc., 2010) to help you understand the basics.

In addition to working with Web technologies, we also assume that you understand basic programming constructs, such as variables, For Each loops, and object-oriented programming.

You may also be wondering whether this book is for the Visual Basic developer or the C# developer. We are happy to say that it is for both! When the code differs substantially, this book provides examples in both VB and C#.

This book explores the 4 release of ASP.NET. It covers each major new feature included in ASP.NET 4 in detail. The following list tells you something about the content of each chapter.

• Chapter 1, ″Application and Page Frameworks.″ The first chapter covers the frameworks of ASP.NET applications as well as the structure and frameworks provided for single ASP.NET pages. This chapter shows you how to build ASP.NET applications using IIS or the built-in Web server that comes with Visual Studio 2010. This chapter also shows you the folders and files that are part of ASP.NET. It discusses ways to compile code and shows you how to perform cross-page posting. This chapter ends by showing you easy ways to deal with your classes from within Visual Studio 2010.

• Chapters 2, 3, and 4. These three chapters are grouped together because they all deal with server controls. This batch of chapters starts by examining the idea of the server control and its pivotal role in ASP.NET development. In addition to looking at the server control framework, these chapters delve into the plethora of server controls that are at your disposal for ASP.NET development projects. Chapter 2, ″ASP.NET Server Controls and Client-Side Scripts,″ looks at the basics of working with server controls. Chapter 3, ″ASP.NET Web Server Controls,″ covers the controls that have been part of the ASP.NET technology since its initial release and the controls that have been added in each of the ASP.NET releases. Chapter 4, ″Validation Server Controls,″ describes a special group of server controls: those for validation.

• Chapter 5, ″Working with Master Pages.″ Master pages provide a means of creating templated pages that enable you to work with the entire application, as opposed to single pages. This chapter examines the creation of these templates and how to apply them to your content pages throughout an ASP.NET application.

• Chapter 6, ″Themes and Skins.″ The Cascading Style Sheet files you are allowed to use in ASP.NET 1.0/1.1 are simply not adequate in many regards, especially in the area of server controls. This chapter looks at how to deal with the styles that your applications require and shows you how to create a centrally managed look-and-feel for all the pages of your application by using themes and the skin files that are part of a theme.

• Chapter 7, ″Data Binding.″ One of the more important tasks of ASP.NET is presenting data, and this chapter looks at the underlying capabilities that enable you to work with the data programmatically before issuing the data to a control.

• Chapter 8, ″Data Management with ADO.NET.″ This chapter presents the ADO.NET data model provided by ASP.NET, which allows you to handle the retrieval, updating, and deleting of data quickly and logically.

• Chapter 9, ″Querying with LINQ.″ The.NET Framework 4 includes a nice access model language called LINQ. LINQ is a set of extensions to the .NET Framework that encompass language-integrated query, set, and transform operations. This chapter introduces you to LINQ and how to effectively use this feature in your Web applications today.

• Chapter 10, ″Working with XML and LINQ to XML.″ The .NET Framework and ASP.NET 4 have many capabilities built into their frameworks that enable you to easily extract, create, manipulate, and store XML. This chapter takes a close look at the XML technologies built into ASP.NET and the underlying .NET Framework.

• Chapter 11, ″Introduction to the Provider Model.″ The provider model is built into ASP.NET to make the lives of developers so much easier and more productive than ever before. This chapter gives an overview of this provider model and how it is used throughout ASP.NET 4.

• Chapter 12, ″Extending the Provider Model.″ After an introduction of the provider model, this chapter looks at some of the ways to extend the provider model found in ASP.NET 4. This chapter also reviews a couple of sample extensions to the provider model.

• Chapter 13, ″Site Navigation.″ Most developers do not simply develop single pages—they build applications. One of the application capabilities provided by ASP.NET 4 is the site navigation system covered in this chapter.

• Chapter 14, ″Personalization.″ Developers are always looking for ways to store information pertinent to the end user. After it is stored, this personalization data has to be persisted for future visits or for grabbing other pages within the same application. The ASP.NET team developed a way to store this information—the ASP.NET personalization system. The great thing about this system is that you configure the entire behavior of the system from the web.config file.

• Chapter 15, ″Membership and Role Management.″ This chapter covers the membership and role management system developed to simplify adding authentication and authorization to your ASP.NET applications. This chapter focuses on using the web.config file for controlling how these systems are applied, as well as on the server controls that work with the underlying systems.

• Chapter 16, ″Portal Frameworks and Web Parts.″ This chapter explains Web Parts—a way of encapsulating pages into smaller and more manageable objects.

• Chapter 17, ″HTML and CSS Design with ASP.NET.″ Visual Studio 2010 places a lot of focus on building a CSS-based Web. This chapter takes a close look at how you can effectively work with HTML and CSS design for your ASP.NET applications.

• Chapter 18, ″ASP.NET AJAX.″ AJAX is an acronym for Asynchronous JavaScript and XML. In Web application development, it signifies the capability to build applications that make use of the XMLHttpRequest object. Visual Studio 2010 contains the ability to build AJAX-enabled ASP.NET applications from the default install of the IDE. This chapter takes a look at this way to build your applications.

• Chapter 19, ″ASP.NET AJAX Control Toolkit.″ Along with the capabilities to build ASP.NET applications that make use of the AJAX technology, a series of controls is available to make the task rather simple. This chapter takes a good look at the ASP.NET AJAX Control Toolkit and how to use this toolkit with your applications today.

• Chapter 20, ″Security.″ This chapter discusses security beyond the membership and role management features provided by ASP.NET 4. This chapter provides an in-depth look at the authentication and authorization mechanics inherent in the ASP.NET technology, as well as HTTP access types and impersonations.

• Chapter 21, ″State Management.″ Because ASP.NET is a request-response–based technology, state management and the performance of requests and responses take on significant importance. This chapter introduces these two separate but important areas of ASP.NET development.

• Chapter 22, ″Caching.″ Because of the request-response nature of ASP.NET, caching (storing previous generated results, images, and pages) on the server becomes rather important to the performance of your ASP.NET applications. This chapter looks at some of the advanced caching capabilities provided by ASP.NET, including the SQL cache invalidation feature which is part of ASP.NET 4. This chapter also takes a look at object caching and object caching extensibility.

• Chapter 23, ″Debugging and Error Handling.″ This chapter tells you how to properly structure error handling within your applications. It also shows you how to use various debugging techniques to find errors that your applications might contain.

• Chapter 24, ″File I/O and Streams.″ This chapter takes a close look at working with various file types and streams that might come into your ASP.NET applications.

• Chapter 25, ″User and Server Controls.″ Not only can you use the plethora of server controls that come with ASP.NET, but you can also use the same framework these controls use and build your own. This chapter describes building your own server controls and how to use them within your applications.

• Chapter 26, ″Modules and Handlers.″ This chapter looks at two methods of manipulating the way ASP.NET processes HTTP requests: HttpModule and HttpHandler. Each method provides a unique level of access to the underlying processing of ASP.NET, and each can be a powerful tool for creating Web applications.

• Chapter 27, "ASP.NET MVC." ASP.NET MVC is the latest major addition to ASP.NET and has generated a lot of excitement from the development community. ASP.NET MVC supplies you with the means to create ASP.NET using the Model-View-Controller models that many developers expect. ASP.NET MVC provides developers with the testability, flexibility, an...

First, you’ll get an introduction to all the tools and terminology you need to understand ASP.NET. If you’ve used earlier versions of ASP.NET and Visual Web Developer, you can probably skip that part and jump right into what’s new in 3.5. You'll make friends with LINQ and SQL, create sites in Visual Web Developer 2008 Express, and much more. Before you know it, you’ll discover how to:

• Integrate data, track shopping cart contents, and whisk away bugs
• Create user interfaces with easy navigation
• Use the ListView control for sophisticated formatting
• Write LINQ queries
• Add a table to a database
• Create an event handler
• Take advantage of the drag 'n' drop feature that lets you write less code
• Put all the features to work to develop dynamic Web applications

The softball team is going to love that Web site, and your customers might enjoy shopping on your site so much that you’ll have to expand your business to fill all the orders! We can’t promise that, of course, but we’re pretty sure that ASP.NET 3.5 For Dummies will make creating Web sites easier and a lot more fun.