The Microsoft® Expression Web Developer’s Guide

to ASP.NET 3.5

Learn to create ASP.NET applications using Visual Web Developer 2008

Jim Cheshire

“This book is a great reference for web designers new to ASP.NET who are looking to jump start their development with

Visual Web Developer 2008.”

Mikhail Arkhipov

Principal Development Manager – Web Development Tools

Microsoft Corporation

Expression Web introduced ASP.NET to a new group of web developers. This book is designed to help you start using ASP.NET right away to add powerful new features to your website. Don’t worry, you won’t have to learn a lot of programming; instead, you’ll create an ASP.NET application from start to finish using Visual Web Developer 2008, while writing only a very small amount of actual programming code.

DETAILED INFORMATION ON HOW TO…

• Create and work with websites in Visual Web Developer 2008

• Use the different compilation and code models in ASP.NET

• Configure ASP.NET security and other settings

• Use ASP.NET master pages and user controls

• Take advantage of ASP.NET membership features for a password-protected website

• Use form validation in ASP.NET

• Use CSS, skins, and themes

• Access, edit, and add data to a database using ASP.NET

• Send email using ASP.NET

• Use Ajax and ASP.NET Web services

• Debug and troubleshoot ASP.NET

. . . and much more!

Jim Cheshire is the author of several books, including Special Edition Using Microsoft Expression Web. He has been working with ASP.NET since before its release. He has been heavily involved in the web design community for more than a decade and is widely considered an expert in Microsoft’s web design technologies. Jim currently works as an escalation engineer on the ASP.NET team at Microsoft.

ON THE WEB:

Download examples and source code presented in this book from www.informit.com/title/

9780789736659.

CATEGORY:

Web Development

COVERS:

ASP.NET and Visual Web Developer 2008

USER LEVEL:

Beginning to Intermediate

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C# was developed from the ground up to serve as the main language for Microsoft’s new .NET framework–and to compete with Java. C# Web Development for ASP.NET: Visual QuickStart Guide is aimed at beginning developers who may have experience with scripting languages but are not necessarily experienced with object-oriented languages. Using task-based examples and hundreds of screenshots, all code examples are presented in the context of ASP.NET development, aimed at Web developers. While C# Web Development for ASP.NET: Visual QuickStart Guide does not attempt to teach everything about the .NET Framework, it clearly explains all you need to know to get up and running with the C# language.

User Ratings and Reviews

3 Stars Is this book a bit outdated already !
It is amazing how short the shelf life for some of these software titles is. There are a couple of new freebies from Microsoft that makes learning C# & ASP.net web development a whole lot simpler.

1. Visual Web Developer 2005 Express Edition:

This is a free download from Microsoft. So your choices are no longer limited to either buying the full blown commercial version or use notepad as editor and compile on the command line (as the author describes early in his book).

2. IIS is no longer essential:

ASP.net development server is included in the express edition download. With this server, you will no longer need to install IIS. So you can do development even on XP home edition. While you will not be able to use this as a deployment solution, it nevertheless works for developing and testing web pages on a local machine (or for learning as is the case).

Note: The menu paths and some of the options mentioned in this book are not for the express edition. So if you do decide to go with the express edition, you may want to skip this book. Otherwise some sections of this book might be confusing.

5 Stars Great Book! Don’t listen to the others.
I have read this book when I was first starting out and it helped me tremendously. This is a great book with good examples by a very good author.

4 Stars ET_Review
A very good book with plenty of explanations and examples. I am now working with C# with confidence as opposed to the fearful

approach I took prior to reading it.

2 Stars Not written very well
The book is ok for code snippets. But, if you try to develop and run the project for each chapter you will become frustrated. The complete code is not in the text and even the download code is also incomplete. I agree with the other reviewers who said the author went from topic to topic without explaining anything.

2 Stars Decent book, geared towards beginners who don’t want to get too technical
The Good: I like the format of this book; lots of pictures and lots of very short sections to work through.

The Bad: The problem I noticed is that it doesn’t present a very technical look at C# like an Apress or Wrox book would do. But that’s ok, I guess, since the Visual Quickstarts are made to get a beginner up and running quickly. The other part I found interesting is taht the book covered advanced subjects, such as Delegates, Events, Inheritance and Interfaces, without first taking a deep look at the UI components. For a beginner I think things would make much more sense when learned from UI down.

The book is definitely geared towards beginners, but I would have a hard time recommending it to my beginner friends due to the short amount of coverage given to building ASP.NET UIs.

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Beginning ASP.NET 3.5 is an all new book written from scratch for ASP.NET 3.5 (part of the Visual Studio 2008 release previously known as “Orcas”) that emphasizes the topics and techniques “Beginning” level readers need to know most. It is written by 1 author – Imar Spaanjaars - who is closely in touch with the beginner ASP.NET developer. This edition includes both C# and VB code for the ASP.NET examples in print and for download so readers with experience in either (or neither) can use the same book.

Beginning ASP.NET 3.5 helps readers learn to build dynamic database driven web sites using ASP.NET 3.5. Starting from scratch, the reader will progressively learn how to design and create web sites with interactive elements. After reading this book, the reader should be able to build a database driven web site on her own, using best practices and current standards.

The book follows the well-known Wrox Beginning approach where theory and demos are intermixed with exercises. Substantial pieces of theory are followed by an exercise that makes use of the things the reader just learned. The 3.5 version of this book is written from scratch with an emphasis on the beginner developer and the order in which they need to learn and work. Steps that are required to set up the development and web server environment are done carefully in sequence to make sure the reader gets off to a good start.

Imar is technical director and software designer for Design IT, an IT company in the Netherlands specializing in Internet and intranet applications built with Microsoft technologies. In addition to extensive ASP.NET writing on his blog and co-authoring a previous Wrox ASP.NET book, he is most well-known amongst the 500,000 monthly developers at p2p.wrox.com for his more than 7000 posts in the Wrox p2p.wrox.com reader discussion forums. He is by far the most well-known Wrox author and participant in this active Wrox discussion area. His answers in the forums have earned him extensive reader praise.

Some of the topics covered in this book include:

• Getting started with ASP.NET 3.5
• Creating Your First Web Site in Visual Web Developer (VWD) 3.5
• Creating Consistent Looking Web Sites
• Programming Your ASP.NET Pages
• Working with ASP.NET Controls
• Navigation
• Using User Controls
• Ajax
• Creating Data Driven Web Forms
• Introduction to Databases, Displaying, Updating, and working with Data
• Working with Data using LINQ
• Security in Your ASP.NET 3.5 Web site
• Personalizing Web Sites
• Debugging and Tracing Pages
• Compiling and Deployment

User Ratings and Reviews

5 Stars Great Start for ASP.NET
I think this is a great start for anyone looking to get into ASP.NET. The entire book takes you through creating a professional-looking website. The book was very well thought out and I have yet to see any errors. I’ve found the author to be very responsive on the WROX website, as well.

4 Stars Nice tutorial, with good forum backup
This is a good hands-on tutorial. The author will walk you through an operation, and then explain how it works. I like that approach.

The online resources provided to accompany the book have been very helpful to me. When you start working through a new chapter, you might find it a good idea to start with the official source code provided for the previous one, instead of relying on the results of your own work, especially if you skip some of the exercises.

There is an online forum for the book, and the author and the editor do a great job of answering questions.

To fully benefit from the code-intensive examples in the book, you may want to study C# or VB in its own right as well. If you have no knowledge of programming languages at all, you might find the book a little hard to understand.

The book could benefit from some more editing, which is why I have only given it four stars. Nevertheless, I highly recommend it for anyone who wants to learn ASP.NET 3.5.

5 Stars Well-organized, comprehensive introduction to ASP.NET 3.5
I am using this text as the basis for a university-level business web application development course. It is a better introduction to ASP.NET 3.5 than any textbook I have found. The chapters unfold logically, each new skill building on the last. The prose is clear and relaxed. The code examples are correct and clearly presented. Imar has used the same organization and logic skills needed for good programming to produce an excellent book!

5 Stars Web Developer
Recieved book in excellent condition! The book is very organized and very constructive in teaching me what I need to learn in a step-by-step manner. I very much recommend this book!

5 Stars Finally, an ASP.NET book worth its cost
I’ve picked up copies of Beginning ASP.NET 2.0; Build Your Own ASP.NET 2.0 Web Site Using C# & VB; Beginning ASP.NET 2.0 E-Commerce in C# 2005 From Novice to Professional; and Microsoft ASP.NET 3.5 Step by Step (the only one I can recommend). With all of these, I struggled to read them and didn’t feel as though I learned much, or in the case of the last, failed to get much more than an overview of ASP.NET (albeit a good one).

However, with Imar Spaanjaars’ book, I finally feel comfortable with ASP.NET 3.5.

In this book Imar works through the steps of creating of an actual, fully-functional, ASP.NET 3.5 Web site, that’s actually not that bad (ignoring some questionable design).

Unlike other books, Imar covers both the Express and commercial versions of Visual Studio, in a very unobtrusive way. In addition, Imar doesn’t rely solely on the ASP.NET components, but gives a good deal of actual programming, in both C# and VB (in a very clean, comfortable, way).

While it’s true that he references a number of other Wrox books, such as Professional ASP.NET 3.5: In C# and VB (Programmer to Programmer), there is very little that needs to be examined to get a site up and running, that would suit the majority of business needs.

Overall, my faith in the ability of Web developers to write good books has been restored by this tome (and at over 700 pages, tome it is). A Web developer Imar is, and to us, as equals, is to whom he speaks. This is clearly seen in his summaries and tips, at the end of each chapter.

I give this book 5 stars of 5. If you’ve read the other books and been left sad, confused, and/or angry, this is the volume to pick up.

Note: I will be reading this book twice, once I’ve finished with Professional ASP.NET 3.5: In C# and VB (Programmer to Programmer). There is so much in this book that bears repeating, and many things that I’m sure I missed in my first read, since it’s so full of (valuable) information.

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Learning an object oriented programming language like Visual Basic can be a challenging and often frustrating task. Many Visual Basic books are intimidating for the beginning programmer because they are mostly theory, making the material difficult to apply. Visual Basic 2005 by Practice cuts through the jargon and provides a better understanding of the language by teaching concepts through step-by-step, clear, and concise examples. These examples provide an easy-to-follow and simple approach to learning the concepts and tools involved with Visual Basic 2005, including the new language features and controls needed to complete beginning and intermediate projects. The examples cover a vast array of language features, including flow charts, radio buttons, detailed message boxes, loading images dynamically, calculations, constants, variables, image lists, creating sub procedures, printing, adding forms to a project, data grids, and string functions. The book also covers important topics such as interactive programming, database features, debugging, and Web controls. The source code for all the examples in the book is provided on the companion CD-ROM, which allows you to see the programs in action and examine their features. The book is written for entry- and intermediate-level Visual basic programmers as well as those experienced with other programming languages, such as those experienced with other programming languages, such as C++, Java and BASIC, and the .NET Framework - Visual Basic’s development environment - is explained to the degree needed to learn programming. The user-friendly style, sequence of topical coverage, ample examples, and simple approach of this book make it a must-have for any beginning programmer eager to learn Visual Basic 2005.

User Ratings and Reviews

5 Stars If You Like Hands-On Learning, This Book is for You
I’m in a class that uses this book as the text. I am very impressed with the step-by-step instruction. The text doesn’t assume anything and yet, it doesn’t insult my intelligence.

Very well-written, easy to follow, and confidence inspiring.

Well done, Mr. Mostafavi!

5 Stars Good Introductory Book on Programming re .NET
This is an introductory book on programming in Visual Basic 2005. However it does presume that you have programmed before on some kind of system. It doesn’t matter which language, but the basic concept of writing commands, logic, and so on should be familiar to the reader. To be sure, he does give a bit of instruction into basic programming principles, but it is pretty basic.

Next he goes into a description of Visual Studio which is used to program in several Microsoft languages. Then on to writing programs. He leads you through the writing of a pretty basic program. While basic in nature this program covers a lot of the principles of programming. By the end of the chapter, you’ve put a small window on your screen.

Throughout the book he uses a series of extentions to the little program, and by the end of the book you should have a pretty good understanding of the language.

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When Microsoft introduced the Visual Basic .NET programming language, as part of its move to the .NET Framework two years ago, many developers willingly made the switch. Millions of others, however, continued to stick with Visual Basic 6. They weren’t ready for such a radical change, which included an object-oriented environment similar to Java. They liked the old Visual Basic just fine. In an effort to win over those diehard VB6 developers, the company has included a new version of VB.NET in its upcoming next generation release of the Visual Studio .NET development platform. Visual Basic 2005 comes with innovative language constructs, new compiler features, dramatically enhanced productivity and an improved debugging experience. The language’s new version is now available in beta release, and Microsoft is encouraging developers to give it a test drive. Visual Basic 2005: A Developer’s Notebook provides the ideal test track. With nearly 50 hands-on projects, this practical introduction to VB 2005 will bring you up to speed on all the new features of this language by allowing you to work with them directly. The book summarizes the changes that VB 2005 brings, and tells you how to acquire, install and configure the beta version of VB 2005 SDK. Each project or experiment explores a different feature, with emphasis on changes that can increase productivity, simplify programming tasks, and help you add new functionality to your applications. This one-of-a-kind book also offers suggestions for further experimentation, links to on-line documentation and other sources of information, and practical notes and warnings from the author. The new Developer’s Notebooks series from O’Reilly offers an in-depth first look at important new tools for software developers. Emphasizing example over explanation and practice over theory, they focus on learning by doing you’ll get the goods straight from the masters, in an informal and code-intensive style. For those who want to get up speed with VB 2005 right away, this is the perfect all lab, no lecture guide.

User Ratings and Reviews

5 Stars Great for 2003–>2005 Upgrade
This book nicely captures a balance between ultra-condensed “Nutshell” books and the mighty 1,000 page+ tomes. It is aimed at experienced VB developers switching from Visual Studio 2003/CRL 1.1 to Visual Studio 2005/CLR 2.0. It has nice concise examples with great explanations.

This book is not an introduction to Visual Basic. If you’re just getting into .Net I’d recommend looking for another book–at least at first. But, if you’ve been coding awhile and are looking to migrate to the latest version, I highly recommend this volume.

5 Stars Great value
The VB 2005 Developer’s Notebook is just chock-full of very useful and immediately usable information, much of which is not readily available elsewhere. For example, I recently made use of the section on adding images and controls to the datagridview. There’s also a very useful intro to using the new factory model to write database-agnostic code.

The examples are not complex, and chances are that after MacDonald gets you started in the right direction, you’ll need to find more detailed information from the SDK or other source as you build a more complex real-world app. But, the value in seeing in a concise and easily accessible example how you might tackle some problem makes this book well worth the price.

5 Stars A great start for someone moving up to VB 2005
This is an excellent book for people moving from VB 2003 to VB 2005. It just gives an overview of what has changed, pointing out the issues and limitations in 2003 and the improvements to these issues in 2005. It presumes you are already familiar with VB 2003, so this is not a primer. It’s a quick read, and had me constantly saying “Thank goodness - they’ve done something about that”. All the examples are straightforward. Writing style is very straightforward. Every topic has where to go for further help.

4 Stars Fast Way to Upgrade from VB .Net 2003 to 2005
On the back cover the book says that it is designed to help experienced .Net 2003 developers move up to 2005. From that point of view I think it is excellent. In one evening I had a good overview of what has changed and the features that I am likely to use. Because it focuses on developers familiar with previous versions, you do not have to wade through pages of things you already know in order to find a few nuggets.

5 Stars Excellent Quick Read
I found that Visual Basic 2005 “A Developer’s Notebook” was a quick and informative read. While many topics only scratched the surface, that’s exactly why the book was written, to get the VB.Net developer up to speed on changes and enhancements to both the language and environment. Good Job!

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The ASP.NET 2.0 Framework introduced web developers to dozens of new server controls and components, and a greatly expanded and easier structure for writing their own server controls and components. Professional ASP.NET 2.0 Server Control and Component Development covers the breadth of server control functionality as well as the rest of the membership, role management, SchemaImporterExtension, and so on – the functionality referred to as components. Written for the experienced ASP.NET developer, Professional ASP.NET 2.0 Server Control and Component Development will show you how to write your first sever control or custom component.

The step-by-step coverage drills down to the details of the extensible part of the ASP.NET 2.0 Framework that you need to extend to write the specified type of custom control or component. Rather than present the extensible part as a black box, it presents a detailed step-by-step approach to implement functional replica of the extensible part, discusses the replica’s code in detail, and provides an in-depth coverage of the techniques, tools, and technologies used in the code. From there you get a detailed practical recipe for developing the specified type of custom control or component and book then uses the recipe to implement one or more real-world custom controls or components of the specified type that you can use in your own Web applications.

Some of the many types of controls and components you’ll learn to build are:

• Ajax-enabled controls and components: four chapters on Ajax discuss and use Ajax patterns, ASP.NET 2.0 client callback mechanism, CSS, DOM, XML, and JavaScript to implement a number of Ajax-enabled controls and components.
• Web Parts: four chapters on Web Parts in ASP.NET 2.0 develop a number of custom WebPart, EditorPart, CatalogPart, WebPartZone, WebPartChrome, WebPartVerb, WebPartManager, and data-bound WebPart controls.
• 5 chapters on ASP.NET 2.0 security, membership, and role management components
• 5 chapters on ASP.NET 2.0 tabular and hierarchical data source controls and custom Parameter components
• 4 chapters on ASP.NET 2.0 tabular data-bound controls and data control fields
• Developing controls and components that can access any type of data store and automate all their data operations such as Delete, Update, Insert, and Sort.
• XML Web service, WSDL, Google XML Web service API, SchemaImporterExtension, ISerializable, and CodeDom
• XmlReader, XmlWriter, XPathNavigator, DOM, and XmlResolver
• Provider-Based Services including how to implement a RSS service provider that can feed RSS from any type of data store such as SQL Server, file system, Web services, and so on
• HTTP modules, HTTP handler factories, HTTP handlers, and control builders including developing an HTTP module and an HTTP handler factory that perform URL rewriting and an HTTP handler that generates RSS feeds
• User controls and composite and templated custom controls
• State management and custom type converters.
• Events, IPostBackEventHandler, IPostBackDataHandler, and Page lifecycle

This book is also available as part of the 5-book ASP.NET 2.0 Wrox Box (ISBN: 0-470-11757-5). This 5-book set includes:

• Professional ASP.NET 2.0 Special Edition (ISBN: 0-470-04178-1)
• ASP.NET 2.0 Website Programming: Problem - Design - Solution (ISBN: 0764584642 )
• Professional ASP.NET 2.0 Security, Membership, and Role Management (ISBN: 0764596985)
• Professional ASP.NET 2.0 Server Control and Component Development (ISBN: 0471793507)
• ASP.NET 2.0 MVP Hacks and Tips (ISBN: 0764597663)
• CD-ROM with more than 1000 pages of bonus chapters from 15 other .NET 2.0 and SQL Server(TM) 2005 Wrox books
• DVD with 180-day trial version of Microsoft(r) Visual Studio(r) 2005 Professional Edition

User Ratings and Reviews

2 Stars Unorganized
This book has some very useful information, but it’s poorly organized. In many cases, the most complex possible case is explained, followed by more simple solutions. In many cases, I found myself reading through large amounts of code and descriptions only to find an actual explanation of what was going on many pages later.

It’s also very difficult to use as a reference because every example relies on specfic code in the previous examples. In fact, the first several chapters are all rebuilding the exact same control. It would’ve been much better to see a series of different controls each re-enforcing the text of the chapter. I feel like I’m wasting time learning bad techniques for writing a control only to go back and rewrite them multiple times.

Some people have found this book useful, but it’s stumped all 4 of our developers here.

2 Stars Prepare to write your own book
While this book has some valuable content, prepare to do a lot of research. By the time you get through this book, you will have researched so much more than what this book purports to teach and you will be able to write your own book on the subject.

In the Introduction to the book, Wrox Press’ standard boiler-plate text states “As you work through the examples in this book, you may choose either to type in all the code manually or to use the source code files that accompany this book” (pg. xxxiv). Well, prepare to download the source code. Half the code is missing from the book. The code snippets that are shown are missing vital pieces, such as attributes that are necessary to make it work. The code that is available is often incorrect or doesn’t match up with the book anyway.

In short, you will learn things from this book, but it will take a lot more effort than just reading this book and working through the examples. It would make a good reference book for those times when you need a quick answer. Try to find this book for more than 50% off, because it’s not worth even that much.

[Added 2008-07-26]

Well, I’m only at Chapter 13, after having reworked the examples again and again from chapters 1 through 8. That’s because the code samples in the book and the source code available from Wrox’s web site are so poor.

In addition, I would like to go on record and say that the editors of this book did an absolutely horrible job. The author has a hard enough time trying to get his ideas across and often can’t see the forest for the trees. It’s the editor’s job to bring the author’s thoughts into clarity and focus and conciseness. This book has none of that. It makes for incredibly difficult reading.

The index is horrible and references the examples directly, instead of the concepts being taught as they relate to the .NET Framework and ASP.NET. How am I supposed to find something quickly with that index? Consequently, my original suggestion that this would be a good reference book is only half-true—providing you can find what you need, it’s a good reference book. As one reviewer noted, however, many examples rely upon earlier examples; and I agree with the reviewer that each concept, perhaps, should have used a different example to make that one concept more concrete.

One other important factor comes back to the code provided for download. It’s horribly written. I, for one, like to have my methods and properties and other constructs grouped together in one spot within my classes. In addition, I like to have the properties and methods and other constructs listed alphabetically. This aids in being able to quickly find code constructs within the file while scrolling around. It also just makes for neater code. Shouldn’t professional (writing) programmers be practicing what they teach about writing neat code? This code would never pass a “code review” at any professional development organization. (This is partly the author’s fault, but the code reviewer for the book had every opportunity to tell the author to clean it up or clean it up him/herself.)

Again, nothing against the author in all of this, this is the editor’s job. I would definitely reference the credits page to avoid other books with the same Editors and Proofreaders/Indexers.

Like another reviewer said, you will learn from this book, it will just take you an inordinate amount of time and lots and lots of patience!

3 Stars Just Show Me The Baby
There’s an old line my boss used to use when people were being long winded with an explanation of something. He would say, “Stop telling me about the labor and just show me the baby.” I guess this describes what I want in a technical manual. I like lots of examples and code, and a synopsis of what the pieces of code do. I don’t want to know all of the interim steps you need to go through to understand the code. I have enough experience in programming (about 17 years) that I can infer why code works, or why it doesn’t. I might be the exception, and maybe your learning style requires more explanation. If it does, you might like this book, but I didn’t really enjoy it.

The author presents several different ways to implement components in ASP.NET 2.0, but he doesn’t spend very much time telling you when one method might be more useful than another, or if he does I couldn’t separate that information from the in depth theoretical coverage of component architecture. But again, that’s just my learning style. I would personally prefer more of a reference manual, and a little less of a lecture series.

Overall, the information in the book is accurate and the coverage of various component implementations seems thorough. The examples, when you get to them, are clear and well documented. The author obviously tried very hard to cover all of the landscape of building components in ASP.NET 2.0 and that is a commendable effort. But in my opinion the curb weight of this book is about 200 pages more than it needs to be. I would have preferred more meat and less bread in this sandwich.

4 Stars Takes you from A to B to D
This is a really good book, with the only thing that holds me back from saying a great book being the author’s occasional jumps from step B to step D leaving you to infer that there is a step C and then to figure it out from the not overly-commented code.

3 Stars good coverage, terrible writing style
This book covers topics for which content is difficult to find elsewhere and for that I give it the 3 stars. However, the writing style for the book is terrible. Much of the text reads like lawyer jargon and wastes too much page real estate explaining and re-explaining irrelevant items to the topic at hand. Minus 2 stars for the annoyingly awkward writing style.

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