What is this book about? ASP.NET 1.0 is the final release of Microsoft′s Active Server Pages (ASP). It is a powerful server–based technology designed to create dynamic, interactive, HTML pages for web sites and corporate intranets. ASP.NET is a core element of Microsoft′s exciting .NET vision, building on the strengths of the .NET Framework to provide many new features not seen in previous versions of ASP.
This book, entirely revised and updated for the final release, will provide you with a step–by–step introduction to ASP.NET using C#, with plenty of worked examples to help you to gain a deep understanding of what ASP.NET is all about, and how you can harness it to build powerful web applications.
What does this book cover?
In this book, you will learn how to
- Create basic ASP.NET pages with C#
- Understand the concepts of Object Oriented Programming
- Work with data and XML
- Debug and handling errors in your code
- Use ASP.NET Server Controls
- Create user controls and components
- Explore the world of Web services
- Optimize performance
- Secure your application
By the end of this book you will be able to understand, adapt, maintain and secure ASP.NET web sites with ease.
Who is this book for?
This book is aimed at relatively inexperienced web builders who are looking to enrich their sites with dynamically–generated content, and want to learn how to start building web applications using ASP.NET. Developers who have a little experience with previous versions of ASP (and are looking to move over to ASP.NET), may also find this book helpful in getting a simple grasp on what ASP.NET is, what it does, and how it can be used. Experience of basic HTML is required, but previous experience of ASP is not essential. We′ll be teaching the basics of C# in this book, so prior experience with the language is not required.
Rob Birdwell makes his home in Corvallis, Oregon along with his wife and three beautiful children. He works at HP and moonlights as a musician, composer, and songwriter. He first became interested in programming when he discovered he could make a machine play one of his musical melodies. His current interests include all facets of .NET technology and especially the C# language. His hobbies include swimming, tennis, and playing his trumpet in various ensembles.
Matt Butler is lead technical brain at Left Ear Design and specializes in .NET, Windows DNA, and Java. Matt went from being a homeless, starving jazz musician to a software architect holding numerous certifications, including MCSD, Sun Java Certified Programmer, BEA Certified Programmer (Java / Weblogic), and a few other miscellaneous certifications. He rode the wave of the .COM craze working on sizable profile–based search engines and transactional e–commerce applications using the Windows DNA architecture in return for ′stock options′ and pizza. Matt′s interests include all things computer oriented (especially .NET and security), math, science, physics, spoken word, composing, and improvising introspective music. You can reach .Matt at matt@biodigitalmusic.com.
Ollie Cornes has been working with the Internet and the Microsoft platform since the early 90′s. In 1999 he co–founded a business–to–business Internet company and until recently was its Chief Technical Officer. Prior to that his various roles involved programming, technical authoring, network management, writing, leading development projects, and consulting. He has worked with Demon Internet, Microsoft, Saab, Travelstore, and Vodafone. Ollie holds a degree in computer science and is Microsoft certified. When he′s not working he spends his time devouring books on human potential and practicing Chinese internal martial arts, meditation, and healing. He also juggles fire and knives.
Chris Goode is currently an editor in the Microsoft team at Wrox. She lives in Birmingham (that′s UK, not Alabama), and has a house full of old computers. Chris started programming at the age of 10 on her Atari 65XE, and has always enjoyed spending time with as much technology as possible. She has a degree in Mechanical Engineering, but decided that the engineering world wasn′t for her. She′s now back firmly in the world of computers, and finding that life at Wrox combines the fun stuff with the work stuff pretty well.
Gary Johnson is a transplanted hillbilly currently residing in Florida. He has programmed the Web since 1995 using a myriad of technologies (mostly VB/ASP/DNA type stuff prior to .NET). When not chained to the machine, he likes spending time with CoCo the dog or practicing the elusive art of photography. Gary would like to thank John, Nestor, Matt, and Daisey for their unwavering wonder and enthusiasm for the world.
John Kauffman His first publications, some 20 years ago, explained sail trimming and tactics to yacht racers. He then returned to the printed page to describe his discovery of a genomic sequence in plants that could be controlled by light. Today, he splits his time between Asia and North America where he teaches and writes for Wrox about Microsoft technologies for connecting databases to the Web. While teaching he keeps a list of students questions and mistakes, then uses that information as the basis for organizing future editions of his books. John also designed and wrote portions of Beginning ASP Databases and Beginning SQL Programming.
Ajoy Krishnamoorthy is a consultant with over five years of experience, working in Microsoft technologies such as ASP, VB, IIS, MTS, and most recently .NET. He writes regularly for leading online publications. He received a Bachelors degree in Electronics and Communication and a Masters degree in Systems and information. He is currently working for his Masters in Business Administration at Fisher College of Business, Ohio State University. His interests include writing, hanging out with friends, and travel. He is originally from Chennai, India and currently lives in Columbus, Ohio with his wife Vidhya. He can be reached at ajoyk@ajoys.net.
Juan T. Llibre is the Director of the Computer Sciences and Distance Education departments at Universidad Nacional Pedro Henríquez Ureña in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. He has been a consultant to the Caribbean Export Development Agency and the Dominican Republic′s Central Bank and is currently the Technical Architect for the Caribbean Virtual University, a Distance Education consortium composed of 30 Caribbean Universities, which will go online in 2002. He′s also planning what he calls a "killer app" for Caribbean Tourism. Juan has been an Active Server Pages Microsoft MCP for four years and can regularly be found in the newsgroups and mailing lists, offering advice on ASP and ASP.NET in English and Spanish. He co–authored Wrox′s Beginning ASP 2.0 and Beginning ASP 3.0, and has been a Technical Reviewer for over a dozen books on ASP and its related technologies. When he isn′t writing, reviewing, seeing students and running the school, producing Distance Education courses, or hanging out with developers, he takes off to a beach hut with a high–speed connection, because " a man must have some fun, too!"
Christopher Miller began his development in the early 1980′s with Atari Basic, migrating to GW Basic, QuickBasic, and finally to Visual Basic, where he′s lived and breathed, since 1992. He is currently a business consultant with cs|enlign inc. (formerly Crossoft Inc) of Pittsburgh, PA, specializing in Intranet architecture and design. He′s also president of the Pittsburgh .NET User Group (http://www.pghdotnet.org). His current projects include an adaptive intranet framework tool and other .NET–based Web Service applications. He holds a business degree from Pensacola Christian College of Florida, and all major Microsoft certifications (MCSE+I, MCSD, MCT, MCDBA).
Neil Raybould is working as a software developer and technical writer with cs|enlign, north of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He has given several presentations on ASP and ASP.NET related topics in the Pittsburgh area. Growing up in Emporia, Virginia, Neil used lawn mowing profits in 1981 to buy a Commodore VIC–20. His current interests have progressed to include .NET and wireless applications. But, sometimes, Neil still longs for the days of CBM Basic, tape cassette drives, PEEKs and POKEs, and 3.5 K RAM. Neil has a BS (Virginia Tech), an MBA (Duquesne University), and MCSD and MCDBA certifications.
Srinivasa Sivakumar is a software consultant, developer and author. He specializes in Web and Mobile technologies using Microsoft solutions. He currently works in Chicago for TransTech, Inc. He has co–authored Professional ASP.NET Web Services, ASP.NET Mobile Controls, .NET Compact Framework and ASP.NET Security for Wrox Press and written technical articles for ASPToday.com, CSharpToday.com, .NET Developer, and others. In his free time he likes to watch Tamil movies and list to Tamil sound tracks (Especially one′s sung by Mr. S.P Balasubramaniyam).
David Sussman spent most of his professional life as a developer before realizing that writing was far more fun. He specializes in Internet and data access technologies, and spends much of his time delving into beta technologies. He′s just moved house, so now has no money left to add more components to his ludicrously expensive hi–fi. You can reach him at davids@ipona.co.uk.
Chris Ullman is a Computer Science Graduate who worked for Wrox for six and half years before branching out on his own. Now the father of a seven month old baby, Nye, he divides his time between being a human punchbag for Nye, trying to write extra chapters with a baby on his lap, and in rare moments of spare time, either playing keyboards in psychedelic band the Bee Men (http://www.beemen.com), tutoring his cats in the art of peaceful co–existence and not violently mugging each other on the stairs. A selection of Chris′s non–computer related writings on music, art, and literature can be found at http://www.atomicwise.com.
