© 2004 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. McGraw-Hill/Irwin Programming the Web Using ASP.Net Chapter 1: ASP.Net Dave Mercer

1-2 Objectives 1.Briefly explain where Active Server Pages (ASP) originated 2.Describe how ASP works in a Web page 3.Understand how ASP and ASP.Net differ 4.Download ASP.Net executables on the Microsoft site 5.Check your server to see if ASP or ASP.Net is loaded 6.Create a simple ASP application manually 7.Run your ASP application 8.Review VS.Net features 9.Create the basis for an ASP.Net application from a VB.Net template 10.Discuss the fundamental file types for ASP.Net applications

1-3 Web Applications, ASP, and Active Server Pages.Net Active Server Pages.Net consists of: –Microsoft’s Active Server Pages technology –Microsoft’s.Net Framework technology The name ASP reflects how the technology makes Web pages “active” via programming running on the server. The.Net Framework technology is a foundation for developing applications that work well over the Internet.

1-4 What is ASP.NET? ASP.Net is a technology designed to simplify the creation of dynamic Web applications and XML Web Services. ASP.Net is Microsoft’s next generation of Active Server Pages (ASP), which relies on the.Net Framework. Neither ASP nor ASP.Net is a programming language, but developers familiar with them know that they are accessed via programming language calls.

1-5 How ASP and ASP.Net are Processed In ASP, you can write code directly between HTML or include HTML in your responses. In ASP.Net, you create the Web page part of it in one file (very similar to a standard Web page written using HTML), and in another file (called the codebehind file) you write programming code. This separation of the display from the processing is one of the great improvements of ASP.Net over ASP.

1-6 Sample ASP Code To respond to user input, you might write: My Web Page Hello " %>

1-7 Sample ASP Code with VBScript This example accepts form input and responds accordingly: <% If Request.Form("name") = "Jim" Then Response.Write "Hello" Else Response.Write "Goodbye" End If %>

1-8 Web Application Development

1-9 Application Development: Getting Started Applications, whether Windows or Web, do a few basic functions: accept input, process data, and produce output. Applications intended for use by humans have a user interface, while applications intended for use by machines have interfaces that may be difficult for people to use. The primary considerations developers face are size, speed, reliability, and security.

1-10 Application Development: The Project Plan The first step in creating an application from an idea is to build a project plan. For business applications, the project plan should outline the background of the idea, the business need, how it will integrate into existing business processes, etc. The project plan should also contain a proposed development solution. From that point the project plan is a working document that may be modified.

1-11 Sample Business Application A company that sells cruise ship packages could use a Web-based application that: –Advertises available cruises to users –Provides them an opportunity to register as a group for specific cruises –Accepts payments online –Tracks the number of registered users in their group –Notifies users when they are eligible for discounts

1-12 Application Programming Tools While code can be written with simple text editing tools, and a compiler may be required, developing applications with only these tools is no longer considered very efficient. For many years, application developers have been relying more and more on specialized application development tools. Tools include Integrated Development Environments (IDEs), specialized source code editors, debuggers, and template files.

1-13 What Does ASP.Net Do? ASP.Net isn’t a standalone application program. By itself, ASP.Net is just part of the.Net Framework. The objects in ASP.Net are available for use in ASP.Net Web Applications. ASP.Net includes a number of objects that simplify user interactions across the Web, such as the Request and Response objects. ASP.Net also includes a facility for writing code that runs at the application level.

1-14 ASP.NET Objects There are quite a few objects in ASP.Net that will be familiar to developers who’ve written Web applications with ASP: –HttpRequest –HttpResponse –HttpContext –HttpServerUtility –HttpCookie –HttpBrowserCapabilities

1-15 Developing Web Applications Web applications follow a different development and usage pathway than static Web sites: –The application developers incorporate elements of the site’s design specifications into all the pages the user sees. –The server responds to user requests by running code, connecting to databases, processing user input, and creating responses containing HTML, text, and graphics. –What one user sees may be entirely different from what another user sees.

1-16 Using ASP.Net Objects With ASP.Net objects, a working knowledge of HTML, and some Visual Basic.Net programming, we could create an application that does the following: –Check to see what browser the user is using –Deliver a home page coded in HTML –Set a cookie on the user’s browser that distinguishes them from other users –Capture values submitted by the user from an HTML form (or from a link they clicked) –Perform data processing functions.

1-17 The Relationship Between Computers, Servers, and Applications

1-18 Hosting Web Applications A Web server’s hardware and software must be very robust. Server computers often contain multiple processors and a large amount of RAM, as well as plenty of Hard Disk Drive space. Sometimes servers have a RAID (Redundant Array of Inexpensive Drives) system for redundant data storage, and sometimes the servers are grouped into “server farms,” in which multiple servers serve a single application.

1-19 Developing Web Applications Developers often use the language (or languages) they are most familiar with to write the processing logic for Web applications. Languages such as VBScript (often used with ASP), PHP and Perl, Visual Basic.Net and C#, C++, and Python are commonly used to build Web application programming logic. ASP.Net can be used in conjunction with many of these languages.

1-20 VS.Net Features VS.Net contains visual tools that approximate what your applications are going to look like in use. You can use VS.Net to drag and drop elements onto your application forms. You can also format, arrange, size, and align elements on your forms with your mouse, and change their properties in the Properties Window. VS.Net also contains code editors suited to specific types of code, such as HTML, XML, VB.Net, and C#.

1-21 Opening VS.Net

1-22 VS.Net: The Options Dialog Box

1-23 VS.Net Without the Start Page

1-24 VS.Net: The File Menu

1-25 VS.Net: The Edit Menu

1-26 VS.Net: The Find in Files Dialog Box

1-27 VS.Net: The Look In Dialog Box

1-28 VS.Net: The View Menu

1-29 VS.Net: The Server Explorer

1-30 VS.Net: The Customize Toolbox Dialog Box

1-31 VS.Net: The Add-In Manager Dialog Box

1-32 VS.Net: The Customize Dialog Box

1-33 VS.Net: The Options Dialog Box on the Environment Node

1-34 VS.Net Editors and Other Tools Because it is an Integrated Development Environment (IDE), Visual Studio.Net contains a number of editors and designers: –The Text and Code Editor –The HTML Designer –The XML Designer –Debugging Tools VS.Net also contains a number of powerful tools for assisting with the debugging process.

1-35 Creating an ASP.Net Web Application in VS.Net A new application under development is contained in a Solution. A Solution is simply a file that serves as a reference point for all the folders, files, and other resources making up the application. Inside a Solution, individual chunks of processing logic called Projects are contained. Each project should be logically self-sufficient, but what goes into a project is up to you. Projects contain files and folders related to the functionality they possess.

1-36 The ASP.Net Web Application Template When you create a new Project using the Visual Basic Projects ASP.NET Web Application template, several files and folders are created automatically: –References –AssemblyInfo.vb –Global.asax –A VSDISCO file –Styles.css –Web.config –WebForm1.aspx

1-37 The End