ASP.NET and VB.NET Web Programming - Softcover

Crouch, Matt J.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0201734400 ISBN 13: 9780201734409

Publisher: Addison-Wesley Professional, 2002

Synopsis

Provides developers with the practical information and step by step guidance they need to become productive with .NET. Tutorial offers a comprehensive yet approachable introduction to the .NET framework, ASP.NET programming, and XML Web Services development. Softcover.

About this title

About the Author

Matt J. Crouch is senior technologist at RealMed Corporation (http://www.realmed.com). Previously, Matt was senior Internet developer at Centillion Digital Systems,& Inc. He has been developing Web applications, including e-commerce applications, with both ASP and COM since their release from Microsoft. Contact him at matt_crouch@hotmail.com.

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From the Back Cover

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 VB.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 (VB.NET).

Key topics covered include:

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

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Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

It was bound to happen sooner or later.

We've come to take for granted the Internet and all it has to offer. We can research, shop, entertain ourselves, and communicate with others worldwide without leaving our computers. The average Web surfer doesn't think about the magic behind the scenes of these Web sites that enable us to carry out these activities, but you are a Web application developer who provides these experiences for the Web-surfing masses. For many businesses, Web sites are not just attractive marketing tools but mission-critical pieces of their revenue streams. Your job is to ensure the best possible user experiences for Web surfers but, unfortunately, the time-to-market for these important Web applications shrinks with each passing day.

So how are you, the software developer, planning to cope with this trend? Fortunately, Web application development has taken turns for the better in recent years. Many new tools make life easier when programming interactive Web applications.

One of these tools is a Microsoft platform called .NET (pronounced dot-net). In short, the .NET platform is a new framework, based on industry standards, for creating Internet applications that deliver on Microsoft's promise to make information available "any time, any place and on any device." To take Internet functionality to the next level, it must be decoupled from desktop and laptop computers. Devices like cell phones and PDAs now provide Internet connectivity, giving mobile users the freedom to recreate the rich user experience of desktop computers. The .NET platform makes developing applications for these mobile devices easier. It also eliminates the problems of connecting and sharing data across devices that would normally be incompatible due to differences in operating systems, network protocols, or programming languages. But most important, .NET applications make computers easier to use and users more productive. As the Internet becomes more and more a part of our daily lives, the more approachable, productive, and responsive it needs to be. The .NET application platform can make that happen.

Active Server Pages.NET (ASP.NET), an integral part of the .NET Framework, is the key focus of this book. ASP.NET enables developers to create dynamic Web applications much in the same way desktop applications are created. Web applications can now share the same flow and feel as desktop applications; thus, users can do more with the computer skills they already have. For software developers, ASP.NET provides many advantages over other Web application development models, in particular the speed at which Web application and services can be developed.

This book also covers Web Services, the faceless applications that run on Internet servers everywhere. You can write .NET applications that aggregate Web Services. These Web Services, located in various locations in the Internet cloud (as well as your local area network), all work together to deliver on the promise of a rich and productive Internet experience for users.

Who This Book Is For

By now, you may have noticed that I have referred to you, the reader, as a software developer. This book is geared for those software developers who need to deliver first-rate Web applications and Web Services as quickly as possible. I take a unique approach with this book: I don't expect you to be an expert in Web application development. In fact, I assume that you have little or no knowledge of how Web applications or Web Services work. I'll discuss these topics in a tutorial format, so you can follow and learn while being productive.

This book is also intended for students and hobbyists who want to learn about programming Web applications and Web Services using the .NET platform. I've arranged the text of this book in a discussion/laboratory format, so students and teachers can effectively pick and choose topics and sections that are most relevant to their curriculum.

This book is geared toward beginner and intermediate developers alike. Even though I'm assuming minimal knowledge of Web programming methodologies, I am forced to set a few prerequisites. Since we are focusing on Web pages for a majority of this book, a working knowledge of basic HTML is very helpful--you should understand the common HTML tags as well as HTML forms. You should also be familiar with URLs. It's a good idea to be comfortable with the Windows operating system fundamentals, such as file operations (moving, copying, and so on) and navigation.

We will be programming Web Services using Visual Basic.NET (VB.NET). While I don't specifically require that you have used any previous version of Visual Basic, such experience will certainly be helpful. Ideally, you should have some programming experience with a high-level language, be it Visual Basic, C++, COBOL, Pascal, or some other language. You should also be familiar with language concepts such as procedures, loops, conditionals, variables, and so on. All the samples in this book are coded in VB.NET.

In addition, exposure to the fundamentals of relational database management systems will be beneficial when reading the material dealing with the "database-enabling" of your Web application. If you are comfortable working with tables, records, and key constraints and have basic database administration skills, you should be ready for the database sections in the book.

Focus and Goals of This Book

Why does this book focus on ASP.NET and the .NET platform? To put it simply, I believe the .NET platform will carry Internet applications to the next level. The .NET platform has set a new standard for programming ease for both browser-based applications and Web Services. My goal is to make you productive in the least amount of time using these technologies.

This book is a follow-up of sorts to Web Programming with ASP and COM, my first book. I was surprised by the radical differences between the ASP and ASP.NET technologies. Also, COM+ and .NET now overshadow traditional COM. For readers of my first book, you will need a paradigm shift in thinking to understand the programming model of .NET. If you are a first-time reader, you're in luck. We approach the material as if you've never been exposed to Web application programming--ASP and COM for that matter.

Above all, my ultimate goal is to provide you with a flying start toward developing world-class Web applications easily and quickly. ASP.NET and the .NET Framework provide the best environment for this. With easy-to-understand development languages (like Visual Basic) and the code modules in the .NET Framework, developing Web applications becomes very easy.

Software and Hardware Tools Used in This Book

At the time of this writing, the Microsoft .NET platform requires Windows NT/2000/XP (Professional and Server versions will work) for server-based applications. The final release of the .NET platform will support legacy versions of Windows (98/NT) for client applications, making the .NET platform more interoperable with older operating systems. When choosing hardware, make sure you have a computer that meets or exceeds the minimum hardware requirements for Windows 2000/XP. This should suffice for your development activities. When in doubt about your particular system configuration, just remember: It will not hurt to add more RAM or hard-drive space to your computer!

As a bare minimum, you can program for the .NET Framework using Windows 98, but with some restrictions. For example, you cannot host any Web-based server applications (ASP.NET and Web Services) using Windows 98 (or Windows ME). Such hosting requires Windows NT, Windows 2000, or Windows XP. However, any other "client" .NET application can be developed and run on Windows 98 and higher systems. This includes console applications, consumers/clients for Web Services, and Windows Forms applications. (Windows Forms applications are not covered in this book.)

Development with the .NET platform on Windows requires the .NET Framework. We'll also make use of the great tools that the Visual Studio.NET (VS.NET) environment provides. In this book, we will be developing with the VB.NET portion of the product. The examples in the book are oriented around using VS.NET as our primary development tool. If obtaining a copy of VS.NET is not feasible, you may still download the .NET Framework SDK for free from Microsoft's Web site. The .NET Framework SDK contains all the development tools you'll need to work with the examples in this book but is limited as far as graphical-based development tools, and it doesn't have VS.NET's ease of use. In support for those readers using the .NET Framework SDK by itself, I provide instructions on how to compile and run many of the samples in this book using the command-line tools that ship with the .NET Framework.

Other Essential Software

There is some essential software that you'll need to have while you develop .NET and ASP.NET applications. The examples in the book use SQL Server 7.0/2000, a powerful, scalable, and robust database management system. Chapter 7 deals with examples that interact with SQL Server, so access to SQL Server is a requirement. Microsoft offers a trial download of SQL Server 2000 at http://www.microsoft.com/sql.

Electronic Source Code Files

When a code sample in the text is available in electronic form online, the file is named csn-nn.ext, where n-nn is the code sample number and .ext is one of the following: .vb, .aspx, .asmx, or .ascx. Code examples for the lab exercises are similarly labeled as Lcsn-nn.vb. For example, cs2-02.vb refers to the second code sample in Chapter 2, and Lcs5-02.vb refers to the second lab code sample in Chapter 5. These source code samples are available online at http://www.awprofessional.com/titles/0201734400. Not all source code sections are numbered. Those that do not have numbers (or captions) are not available in electronic format, due to either their short length or their lack of complexity.

Some code samples are followed by a line that shows how to build (compile) the program using the VB.NET command-line utility, vbc.exe. This information is provided for those readers who do not have access to VS.NET and are using the .NET Framework SDK by itself. Note that code samples for ASP.NET and Web Services do not have build instructions since these files are automatically compiled by the .NET Framework.

Talk to Me, Baby!

I mean it! I've received quite a bit of feedback from readers of my first book, Web Programming with ASP and COM, and your continued feedback is very important. I do my best to answer each e-mail personally. While I can't help you with general programming questions, I can certainly respond to any queries you have about material that relates directly to this book. Please send me your comments, suggestions, rants, raves, and ramblings. My e-mail address is matt_crouch@hotmail.com.

I've written the code in this book using the release candidate of VS.NET. Since the generally available release of VS.NET won't be ready until sometime after this writing (Microsoft is aiming for February 2002), I've prepared this text with the most current version of VS.NET I could find. This ensures that you have the most accurate code at your disposal. However, expect a few changes as Microsoft hammers out the final details of the .NET Framework.

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Edition details

• Publisher: Addison-Wesley Professional
• Publication date: 2002
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0201734400
• ISBN 13: 9780201734409
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 764