ASP.NET

.NET Tools

ASP.NET Web Matrix

Learn ASP.NET today with the ASP.NET Web Matrix!

ASP.NET Web Matrix is a free, easy-to-use WYSIWYG application development tool for building Web applications with ASP.NET. Once you have the .NET Framework installed , Web Matrix can be installed via a quick 1.2 MB download (about 5 minutes using a 56Kb modem).

ASP.NET Web Matrix Features:

• ASP.NET Page Designer.  Rapidly create ASP.NET pages using the rich WYSIWYG designer. Drag and drop ASP.NET Server controls from the Toolbox onto your page. Select individual server controls to get in-place designer editing support as well as full property grid customization. Simply double-click a server control to get automatic event wireup of server event handlers.
• SQL and MSDE Database Management.  Integrated support to create and edit SQL and MSDE databases. Create new databases, add/edit/delete tables and stored procedures, and edit data content all directly within the Web Matrix tool. Auto-generate ADO.NET code to execute SQL statements and stored procedures using built-in code builders.
• Easy Data Bound UI Generation.  Web Matrix makes it easy to create data bound pages without writing code. Drop SQL tables on your page to create data-bound grids, or start with Data Page templates for reports or Master/Detail pages. Code builders help you generate code to select, insert, update and delete SQL data.
• XML Web Services Support.  Easily add XML Web Service support to your applications. Web Matrix provides support for developers to easily expose a SOAP-based XML Web Service, as well as call and consume a XML Web Service hosted on another server.
• Build Mobile Applications.  Write mobile-web-enabled applications for a wide variety of mobile devices such as cell phones, pagers and PDAs. Web Matrix provides drag-and-drop design support for authoring mobile pages using ASP.NET and the Mobile Internet Toolkit.
• Projectless File and FTP Workspaces.  Web Matrix supports both FTP-based and file-based workspaces that allow developers to easily organize and edit their ASP.NET applications. Simply double-click a file within the workspace tree to open it for editing. No FrontPage server extensions or project system required.
• Development Web Server.  Develop and test your ASP.NET applications, without requiring IIS. Web Matrix includes a lightweight personal web server that serves most web content, including ASP.NET pages and XML Web Services, for local requests.
• Community Integration.  Web Matrix provides a built-in gateway to the ASP.NET community right within the IDE -- allowing you to browse community web sites and search the ASP.NET Forums and Newsgroups for help.

Books

ASP.NET and Visual Basic .NET Web Programming

The Microsoft .NET Framework and Active Server Pages.NET (ASP.NET) allow developers to create world-class Web applications and Web services quickly and easily. Web applications built within the .NET Framework can integrate with any operating system running on any device. Web services are reusable component applications that enable distributed computing on the Internet, using standard protocols like HTTP and XML. Developers conversant in .NET can now deliver more dynamic applications to market more quickly.

ASP.NET and Visual Basic .NET Web Programming provides developers with the practical information and step-by-step guidance they need to become productive with .NET. This tutorial offers a comprehensive yet approachable introduction to the .NET Framework, ASP.NET programming, and XML Web Services development. Each chapter begins with an overview and then walks readers through one or more lab exercises that are well illustrated with screenshots and punctuated with tips and warnings. All examples are in Visual Basic.NET.

Key topics covered include:

• The .NET Framework and the Web
• Web Services
• Common Language Runtime (CLR)
• The .NET Framework class library
• ASP.NET
• Visual Basic .NET
• Internet Information Server (IIS)
• Managed components
• Web Forms
• ADO.NET
• Securing ASP.NET applications

ASP.NET Developer's JumpStart

The purpose of ASP.NET JumpStart is to show readers the practical applications of .NET and ASP.NET by illustrating how to build Web-based applications using Web Forms and Web Services. Emphasis will be on good programming standards and practices. The reader will be taken from an introduction of the Visual Basic .NET language to intermediate topics through a step-by-step approach, which gives the reader the opportunity to try out the practices presented in each chapter.

ASP.NET: Your visual blueprint for creating Web Applications on the .NET framework

Welcome to the only guidebook series that takes a visual approach to professional-level computer topics. Open the book and you'll discover step-by-step screen shots that demonstrate over 130 key ASP.NET tasks, including:

• Creating a simple ASP page
• Declaring and initializing variables
• Manipulating text with the ASP:Label Control
• Inserting data into a SQL database
• Testing a Web service
• Creating a three-tier Web form
• Using application directives in the Global.asax
• Configuring multiple sites
• Setting up encodes
• Migrating JavaScript to Javascript.NET syntax

Development tools on CD-ROM!

• Complete source code for all applications in the book
• Trial version of Vmware Workstation
• Evaluation version of XML spy IDE
• Antechinus C# Editor and TextPad shareware
• Plus an e-version of the book

Extra — Apply It

• "Apply It" and "Extra" sidebars highlight useful tips
• Succinct explanations walk you through step-by-step
• High-resolution screen shots demonstrate each task
• Two-page lessons break big topics into bite-sized modules

Building Secure Microsoft ASP.NET Applications

Your guide to authentication, authorization, and secure communication.

Building secure distributed Web applications can be challenging. It usually involves integrating several different technologies and products—yet your complete application will only be as secure as its weakest link. This guide presents a practical, scenario-driven approach to designing and building security-enhanced ASP.NET applications for Microsoft Windows 2000 and version 1.1 of the Microsoft .NET Framework. It focuses on the key elements of authentication, authorization, and secure communication within and across the tiers of distributed .NET Web applications.

This guide focuses on:

• Authentication—to identify the clients of your application
• Authorization—to provide access controls for those clients
• Secure communication—to help ensure that messages remain private and are not altered by unauthorized parties

Who should read this guide:

Middleware developers and architects who build or plan to build .NET Web applications using ASP.NET, XML Web Services, Enterprise Services (COM+), .NET Remoting, or Microsoft ADO.NET

About “Patterns and Practices”

Patterns & Practices contain specific recommendations illustrating how to design, build, deploy, and operate architecturally sound solutions to challenging business and technical scenarios. The technical guidance is reviewed and approved by Microsoft engineering teams, consultants, and Product Support Services, and by partners and customers.

Building Web Solutions with ASP.NET and ADO.NET

Discover how to use ADO.NET and ASP.NET essentials to take your Web programming skills to the next level.

Most Web applications follow a simple “3F” pattern: fetch, format, and forward to the browser. With this in-depth guide, you’ll take your ASP.NET and ADO.NET skills to the next level and learn key techniques to develop more complex Web applications. Discover how to build applications for ad-hoc and effective Web reporting, applications that work disconnected from the data source and use XML to communicate with non-.NET systems, and general-purpose applications that take advantage of the data abstraction of ADO.NET. Along the way, you’ll learn how to take advantage of code reusability, user controls, code-behind, custom Web controls, and other time-saving techniques employed by ASP.NET experts. Topics covered include:

• Data-bound .NET controls
• Templated and editable data grids
• Code reusability in .NET
• Advanced reporting
• Disconnected applications
• Interoperable applications
• XML Web services
• .NET Managed Providers

CD-ROM FEATURES:

• A fully searchable electronic copy of the book
• Sample code written in Microsoft Visual C# .NET and Visual Basic .NET

Developing Microsoft ASP.NET Server Controls and Components

The complete guide to developing professional, reusable ASP.NET server controls and components—direct from the insiders who developed the technology

Web Forms—the Page and Control Framework at the heart of ASP.NET—makes it easier to develop dynamic Web applications. But you can go beyond the controls that ship with ASP.NET—and power up your Web sites and applications—by creating your own server controls. You can also develop and distribute your own controls for commercial use. This comprehensive guide, direct from key insiders who really know the technology, combines conceptual and architectural details with practical, how-to information and real-world code samples to show exactly how to create custom, reusable, professional-quality server controls with rich design-time functionality. It also provides essential information about configuration and the HTTP runtime, packaging, deployment, debugging, and developing controls that incorporate XML Web services, plus other vital topics. And it introduces the ASP.NET Web Matrix tool for creating Web applications and for using server controls. Topics covered include:

OVERVIEW

• ASP.NET page programming
• Component programming

SERVER CONTROLS

• User controls
• Implementing properties
• View state management
• Rendering
• Control life cycle
• Events and Postback
• Styles
• Composite, validator, and data-bound controls
• Client-side behavior
• Design-time functionality
• Localization, licensing, and deployment

SERVER COMPONENTS

• XML Web services
• HTTP handlers

SERVER CONTROL CASE STUDIES

• Templated data-bound controls
• DHTML-based server controls

“[This book] is a must-have for all serious ASP.NET component developers.”

–Scott Guthrie, Product Unit Manager, Microsoft ASP.NET Product Team

Essential ASP.NET with Examples in C#

Essential ASP.NET with Examples in C# is the C# programmer's definitive reference for ASP.NET through version 1.1. It provides experienced programmers with the information needed to fully understand the technology, and is a clear guide to using ASP.NET to build robust and well-architected Web applications. This book begins with a discussion of the rationale behind the design of ASP.NET and an introduction to how it builds on top of the .NET framework. Subsequent chapters explore the host of new features in ASP.NET, including the server-side compilation model, code-behind classes, server-side controls, form validation, the data binding model, and custom control development. Throughout the book, working examples illustrate best practices for building Web-based applications in C#.

Essential ASP.NET with Examples in Visual Basic .NET

Essential ASP.NET with Examples in Visual Basic .NET is the Visual Basic programmer's definitive reference for ASP.NET through version 1.1. It provides experienced programmers with the information needed to fully understand the technology, and is a clear guide to using ASP.NET to build robust and well-architected Web applications. This book begins with a discussion of the rationale behind the design of ASP.NET and an introduction to how it builds on top of the .NET framework. Subsequent chapters explore the host of new features in ASP.NET, including the server-side compilation model, code-behind classes, server-side controls, form validation, the data binding model, and custom control development. Throughout the book, working examples illustrate best practices for building Web-based applications in Visual Basic .NET.

Microsoft ASP.NET Setup and Configuration Pocket Reference

The practical, portable guide to ASP.NET setup and configuration

Here’s the utterly practical, pocket-sized reference for developers creating dynamic, high-performance Web applications with ASP.NET. This unique book provides essential details for working with the ASP.NET configuration infrastructure, including editing and using web.config files, the architecture of asp.net.config files, configuration sections, settings and values for all System.Web sections, mobile controls configuration settings, and adding custom sections and settings. Featuring quick-reference tables and lists, step-by-step instructions, and walk-through examples, this handy, one-stop guide provides fast, accurate answers on the spot.

Microsoft ASP.NET Web Matrix Starter Kit

Unlock the power of programmed, data-driven Web pages!

Have you ever gone to a great Web site and said to yourself, “I sure wish I could do that!” This hands-on book shows you exactly how. It’s a task-oriented, no-frills introduction, specifically for programming novices, to the cool world of programming the Web by using the power of Microsoft ASP.NET Web Matrix—an easy-to-use WYSIWYG development tool for ASP.NET. You’ll go from merely posting text and graphics on a site to creating dynamic slideshows, reading and writing cookies, building interactive guestbooks and calendars, and developing other exciting Web features, all with intuitive yet powerful tools. Along the way, you’ll discover how to create programmed, data-driven Web pages for your home, hobby, or business in practically no time at all.

Topics covered include:

• Getting started: Introduction to server-based Web programming, Microsoft ASP.NET, Microsoft Visual Basic .NET, and ASP.NET Web Matrix; and configuring ASP.NET, ASP.NET Web Matrix, and Microsoft SQL Server Desktop Engine (MSDE 2000)
• Basic techniques: Your first Web Forms page, creating a simple slideshow, getting and applying user preferences, creating a random quotes page, and displaying a hit counter
• More advanced techniques: Introduction to programming Web pages with data using ASP.NET Web Matrix, creating a guestbook and displaying formatted guestbook listings, creating a database-driven slideshow, updating master-detail tables, creating a calendar application, and sending e-mail notices automatically from a Web page
• Appendixes: Security vulnerabilities, good security practices, and your Web application; and deploying your application to a server

Performance Tuning and Optimizing ASP.NET Applications

Performance Tuning and Optimizing ASP.NET Applications provides a detailed review of how to tune and optimize ASP.NET applications for maximum performance. Currently, the market is being flooded with a slew of books on how to write .NET applications, but so far there has not been a title that is devoted to the more advanced topic of tuning and optimizing ASP.NET applications. There will be an increasing demand for this information as developers get comfortable with the technology and begin completing first versions of their ASP.NET applications. They will be looking for a book that dispenses with basic language tutorials, and instead tackles the real-world issues of performance.

Intermediate to experienced developers, who are either working on an ASP.NET development project or are about to start one, will find Performance Tuning and Optimizing ASP.NET Applications helpful for its concise information on how to design and write ASP.NET applications for optimal performance. The book focuses on performance tuning from a development perspective, rather than an infrastructure perspective. However, the book does address specific development issues that arise in common server architectures, such as Web farms.

Hasan and Tu will also cover the tools that are available for monitoring ASP.NET application performance, and will give the reader clear guidance on how to apply these tools to their project. These tools include Performance Monitor (with its new counters for .NET), and Microsoft Application Center Test (that ships with Visual Studio Enterprise Edition). Overall, this book aims to provide the intermediate to advanced developer with clear guidance on how to raise the performance of their ASP.NET applications to the next level.

Full-Length Courses

Web Matrix Curriculum

This course includes:

• Powerpoint slides
• Student Activities
• Student Tests
• Case Study
• Student Code

Course Outline

• Lesson 1 Introduction to .NET technology
• Lesson 2 Introduction to ASP.NET and Web Matrix
• Lesson 3 Getting Started with Web Matrix
• Lesson 4 Learning Web Matrix Commands
• Lesson 5 Reviewing Web Matrix Menus
• Lesson 6 Manipulating with properties
• Lesson 7 Managing Data Creating a database with Web Matrix
• Lesson 8 Working with your database
• Lesson 9 Adding Records
• Lesson 10 Searching your database
• Lesson 11 Adding More Records With a Form
• Lesson 12 Adding Validation to your database
• Lesson 13 Calendar Controls
• Lesson 14 Mobile Services
• Lesson 15 Web Services

Case Study Student Portal Site

This case study reviews skills learned with Web Matrix. It has a login page for Teachers to login for security. It also has a calendar event link, a fun Pig Latin Math Service, A student literary section and finally a slide show of art or photos.

Presentations

ASP.NET

Introduces ASP.NET as a compiled environment for producing dynamic Web pages using the .NET Framework.

ASP.NET for Programmers

ASP.NET is one of the major advancements in the .NET Framework as it allows you to program Web sites in the familiar event-driven style instead of using finite state machine-like techniques. In the talk we give a bottom-up explanation of ASP.NET, showing how the high-level programming model is built on top of the low-level IHTTPRequest handler using page compilation.

Introduction to ASP .NET

Presented at SIGCSE 2003.

Sample Applications

ASP .NET Commerce Starter Kit

The Commerce Starter Kit demonstrates an ecommerce storefront application complete with shopping cart, product catalog, and a web service to submit orders.

Features

• Product Catalog
  • Product descriptions, photos and reviews
  • Search by product name / category
  • "Also bought" and "Popular items" features
• Instant Order Web Service
  • Submit orders from any application
• Other features
  • User accounts
  • Shopping cart
• Technologies and Design Approaches Demonstrated:
  • Cross-browser support for Netscape and Internet Explorer
  • Clean code/html content separation using server controls
  • High performance catalog pages that use output caching
  • 3-tier ADO.NET data access using SQL stored procedures
  • Forms authentication using a database for usernames/passwords
  • SOAP XML web services for B2B order entry and status

ASP .NET Community Starter Kit

The Community Starter Kit enables an individual or an ISP to quickly create a community Web site such as a user group site, a developer resource site, or a news site.

Features

• Easy Customization with Themes
  • Skin your site with the click of a button
  • Includes eight themes
  • Can be customized with your own themes
• Includes Six Standard Content Modules
  • Articles
  • Links
  • Downloads
  • Photo Gallery
  • Events
  • Books
• Create Multiple Communities with a Single Installation
  • Set community quotas
• Additional Features
  • Send Newsletters
  • Create voting polls
  • Supports RSS news feeds and XML Web services

ASP .NET Portal Starter Kit

The ASP.NET Portal Starter Kit demonstrates how you can use ASP.NET and the .NET Framework to build a dynamic portal application. The ASP.NET Portal Starter Kit offers all the functionality of typical portal applications.

Features

• Dynamic Portal Infrastructure
  • 10 basic portal modules for common types of content
  • A "pluggable" framework that is simple to extend with custom portal modules
  • Online administration of portal layout, content and security
  • XML based definition of portal layout
  • Roles-based security for viewing content, editing content, and administering the portal
  • Full mobile support using the ASP.NET Mobile Controls
• Technologies and Design Approaches Demonstrated:
  • ASP.NET Mobile Controls
  • Three-tier architecture with ASP.NET
  • Role Based Security

ASP .NET Reports Starter Kit

The Reports Starter Kit demonstrates a simple data reporting solution for displaying multiple views on data, creating charts, and rendering any type of data in a Web application.

Features

• Generate multiple report types
  • Master - details tables
  • Graphing / chart creation.
  • Column sorting.
  • Updatable report data.
  • Page break control when printing.
  • Running totals
• Technologies and Design Approaches Demonstrated:
  • Creating graphics with the System.Drawing classes
  • Using GDI+
  • User controls

ASP .NET Time Tracker Starter Kit

The Time Tracker Starter Kit demonstrates how to build a line-of-business ASP.NET application to track time worked on projects.

Features

• Create Projects
  • Define project name and description
  • Create Tasks categories
• Create and Track Tasks
  • Log work completed
  • Track time spent each day
• Create Reports
  • Track overall progress
  • Track time spent in each area
• Technologies and Design Approaches Demonstrated:
  • Dynamic chart creation using the System.Drawing classes
  • Three-tier architecture with ASP.NET
  • User controls

ASP.NET address book

Demonstrates validators, type-safe data sets and automatic data binding to ADO.NET.

Custom authentication and authorization with ASP.NET

By default, .NET role-based security policy uses Windows user groups for roles, and Windows accounts for security identities. There are several drawbacks for this default policy: the security policy is only as granular as the user groups in the hosting domain. Moreover, using Windows accounts for security identity means role-based security can only work if the users have accounts on the hosting domain. This is obviously of little use for Internet applications. This utility is a fully implemented alternative security principal mechanism.

Transactional ASP.NET pages

ASP.NET is tightly integrated with Enterprise Services. Web forms can be the root of a new transaction, and the page can receive events letting it know the outcome of the transaction. The app demonstrates a transactional web page.

Tutorials & Workshops

ASP .NET Tutorial

This tutorial provides a practical introduction to building ASP.NET applications. You'll learn how to quickly generate Web forms using HTML and ASP.NET server controls, and how to work with more advanced controls such as validation controls that generate client-side script, and data-bound controls that enable you to connect to data sources using features of ADO.NET. In addition, this tutorial teaches how ASP.NET implements core Web development features for page processing, session management, and state management. You'll also learn how to generate reusable Web components by generating user controls and custom ASP.NET server controls.

The ASP.NET QuickStart Tutorial

ASP.NET is a rich programming framework for building web-based applications. It offers outstanding support for both developers and administrators, providing improved ease-of-use, tool support, reliability, scalability, administration and security.

The ASP.NET QuickStart is a series of ASP.NET samples and supporting commentary designed to quickly acquaint developers with the syntax, architecture, and power of the ASP.NET Web programming framework. The QuickStart samples are designed to be short, easy-to-understand illustrations of ASP.NET features. By the time you have completed the QuickStart tutorial, you will be familiar with:

• ASP.NET Syntax. While some of the ASP.NET syntax elements will be familiar to veteran ASP developers, several are unique to the new framework. The QuickStart samples cover each element in detail.
• ASP.NET Architecture and Features. The QuickStart introduces the features of ASP.NET that enable developers to build interactive, world-class applications with much less time and effort than ever before.
• Best Practices. The QuickStart samples demonstrate the best ways to exercise the power of ASP.NET while avoiding potential pitfalls along the way.

What Level of Expertise Is Assumed in the QuickStart?

If you have never developed Web pages before, the QuickStart is not for you. You should be fluent in HTML and general Web development terminology. You do not need previous ASP experience, but you should be familiar with the concepts behind interactive Web pages, including forms, scripts, and data access.

Working with the QuickStart Samples

The QuickStart samples are best experienced in the order in which they are presented. Each sample builds on concepts discussed in the preceding sample. The sequence begins with a simple form submittal and builds up to integrated application scenarios.