ASP.NET &.NET Environment

Overview Part of Microsoft’s.NET environment Used for Development of  Websites  Internet applications  Web Services & XML Web Services Languages  VB.NET, C#, J# (others available) Successor of ASP pages (but very different) Event driven rather than script driven

.NET environment Common Language Runtime (CLR)  Basis for the.NET environment  Code is compiled to.dll files  A solution can contain code of multiple languages

ASP.NET Components Web pages (including data checking) Code Behind Pages For complex web solutions: Master Pages (same look/feel for all web pages) User Controls Sitemap Style Sheets AJAX control available

Advantages Faster than script-based languages since it is converted into precompiled dlls Easier error handling (caught before run-time, allows try-catch blocks) Can use existing controls and templates provided An extensive set of controls and class libraries allows the rapid building of applications. The Code-behind the interfaces can be coded in the language of preference Ability to cache the whole page or just parts of it to improve performance. Ability to separate the looks of the page and the code-behind. The CLR will take care of garbage collection, and other basic functions

Disadvantages Platform limitations - Windows High memory usage and it can be slow at execution (development NOT user access) Some backward and forward incompatibilities exist Reverse-Engineering is possible  Code can be decompiled and can be put live with the actual code

Comparing.NET to Other Approaches Much debate Many different opinions usually due to different backgrounds Very popular with Windows based customers (lots of jobs available)

Conclusion: Depends …what you want to accomplish and what is the programmers background There are many tools existent to combine the different approaches