This book was written to introduce you to the features and capabilities that ASP.NET 3.5 offers, as well as to give you an explanation of the foundation that ASP.NET provides. We assume you have a general understanding of Web technologies, such as previous versions of ASP.NET, Active Server Pages 2.0/3.0, or JavaServer Pages. If you understand the basics of Web programming, you should not have much trouble following along with this book's content. If you are brand new to ASP.NET, be sure to check out "Beginning ASP.NET 3.5: In C# and VB" by Imar Spaanjaars (Wiley Publishing, Inc., 2008) 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 spends its time reviewing the 3.5 release of ASP.NET. Each major new feature included in ASP.NET 3.5 is covered in detail. The following list tells you something about the content of each chapter. "Chapter 1, "Application and Page Frameworks." "This chapter shows you how to build ASP.NET applications using IIS or the built-in Web server that comes with Visual Studio 2008. 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 2008. "Chapters 2, 3, and 4."These three chapters are grouped here 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 5, "Working with Master Pages.""Master pages are a great capability found in ASP.NET. They provide a means of creating templated pages that enable you to work with the entire application, as opposed to single pages. "Chapter 6, "Themes and Skins." "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 in ASP.NET 3.5." "One of the more important tasks of ASP.NET is presenting data, and this chapter shows you how to do that with ASP.NET controls. "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." "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 use this new feature in web applications today. "Chapter 10, "Working with XML and LINQ to XML." "This chapter looks at the XML technologies built into ASP.NET and the underlying .NET Framework to help you easily extract, create, manipulate, and store XML.. "Chapter 11, "IIS7."" Probably the most substantial release of IIS in its history, IIS 7.0 will change the way you host and work with your ASP.NET applications. "Chapter 12, "Introduction to the Provider Model." "A number of systems are built into ASP.NET that make the lives of developers so much easier and more productive than ever before. These systems are built upon an architecture called a "provider model," which is rather extensible. This chapter gives an overview of this provider model and how it is used throughout ASP.NET 3.5. "Chapter 13, "Extending the Provider Model." "This chapter looks at some of the ways to extend the provider model found in ASP.NET 3.5. This chapter also reviews a couple of sample extensions to the provider model. "Chapter 14, "Site Navigation." " Many developers do not simply develop single pages--they build applications. One of the application capabilities provided by ASP.NET 3.5 is the site navigation system covered in this chapter. "Chapter 15, "Personalization."." The ASP.NET team developed a way to store end user information--the ASP.NET personalization system. "Chapter 16, "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 17, "Portal Frameworks and Web Parts." "This chapter explains Web Parts--a way of encapsulating pages into smaller and more manageable objects. "Chapter 18, "HTML and CSS Design with ASP.NET." "A lot of focus on building a CSS-based Web application was placed on Visual Studio 2008. This chapter takes a close look at how you can effectively work with HTML and CSS design for your ASP.NET applications. "Chapter 19, "ASP.NET AJAX.""AJAX signifies the capability to build applications that make use of the XMLHttpRequest object. New to Visual Studio 2008 is the ability to build AJAX-enabled ASP.NET applications from the default install of the IDE. "Chapter 20, "ASP.NET AJAX Control Toolkit." "This chapter takes a good look at the ASP.NET AJAX Control Toolkit, a series of new controls that are now available to make AJAX web development rather simple. "Chapter 21, "Security." "This security chapter discusses security beyond the membership and role management features provided by ASP.NET 3.5. This chapter prov

Professional ASP.NET 3.5 In C# and VB ASP.NET 3.5 brings the power of Visual Studio 2008 along with the multitude of language improvements in C# 2008 and Visual Basic 2008 as well as powerful new technology called LINQ, together with the ASP.NET 2.0 Framework you already know and love. Combine all this with the release of IIS 7.0 and its new managed code request processing pipeline, and you have a truly revolutionary leap forward in web application development. ASP.NET 3.5 also brings with it new server controls, like the ListView and theincredibly flexible GridView. It also includes new advancements in AJAX technologycombined with the new JavaScript debugging features in Visual Studio 2008. Greatly expanded from the original best-selling "Professional ASP.NET 2.0," this new edition adds hundreds of pages and dozens of code samples so you'll be prepared to put these new technologies into action. What you will learn from this book The concepts underlying the server control and its pivotal role in ASP.NET development How to create templated ASP.NET pages using the master page feature How to work with data from enterprise databases including SQL Server Ways to debug, package and deploy ASP.NET applications, monitor their health and performance, and handle errors How to retrieve, update, and delete data quickly and logically using LINQ with side-by-side examples comparing LINQ to existing techniques How to localize your web site in multiple languages for a world-wide audience How to add AJAX capabilities to your ASP.NET applications How to integrate Silverlight interactivity into existing ASP.NET applications An understanding of how to use and extend the Provider Model for accessing data stores, processes, and more What freeware tools you need in Scott Hanselman's ASP.NET Ultimate Developer Tools appendix. Who this book is for This book is for programmers and developers who are looking to make the transition to ASP.NET 3.5 with Visual Studio 2008 and either C# 3.0 (2008) or Visual Basic 9 (2008). Wrox Professional guides are planned and written by working programmers to meet the real-world needs of programmers, developers, and IT professionals. Focused and relevant, they address the issues technology professionals face every day. They provide examples, practical solutions, and expert education in new technologies, all designed to help programmers do a better job.