Introduction to Web Apps with C#3.0 and Visual studio 2008

Having being programming for many years, I have had my fair share of learning from other people. I though that I could give back some of the stuff that I have learned. My programming experience did not start with Microsoft. But as times have changed, so have I. In so doing I learned a new language, namely csharp or C#. I thought we could get familiar with C#, Webdev and web programming in general. In so doing I would learn much myself. So what we are going to do is get ourselves familiar with developing web apps with visual webdev, (visual studio 2008) using .net 3.5, Linq and other cool tools such as ajax and Silverlight that Microsoft have brought out. You will soon see, that although web development requires a bit of a mind shift from forms, you can do a lot of thing through the web.

SQLexpress 2005. If you a have full version of Studio 2008, then obviously no need to down load this.

AJAX Control Tool Kit. You don’t have to do this now. But we will show you some really cool things on how to extend web controls. Ajax is built into .NET 3.5.

I’m not going to go through on how to install theses products. I am assuming that most are familiar with how to download and install the various products. I also assume that you have some knowledge of databases. So installing and connecting to the Northwind database should be a breeze. But if you are struggling, then pop a note in the news group and we can take it from there.

There are also tons of sites on the net that offer tutorials in the form of videos and text which are always a great source of learning materials. Primarily Microsoft. They are big into getting people familiar with their products. Hence the express editions.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/tour/vs2005_guided_tour/WebDev/WebDev/webdev1.htm (Although it is a for VWD 2005 it is still great).

These are just to get you started. But there are tons more.

I am not going to bore you with the history of the web, what is html, or even what is asp, and where asp/aspx came from. This research you can do for yourself. Suffice it to say that MS has a wide range of tools to create (author) web sites and web applications depending on your skill level needs and various other factors. These are:

When Bill Gates realized that Microsoft was lagging on the Internet front, it was decided to integrate Web support into every product. Now, you can save Excel spreadsheets, Word documents, and PowerPoint slides as Web pages

Expression Web

Expression Web took over from Microsoft Frontpage as the content editor for professional designers.

Expression Blend is mainly for the ponytail set (artistic types who prefer Macs) to create vector-based, animated, and three-dimensional graphics — much the way they do in Photoshop.

Visual Web Developer (VWD) is the premier tool for programming Web sites on the Microsoft platform. Just as Word is part of the Office suite, VWD is part of the bigger Visual Studio 2008 suite.

Visual Web Developer Express (VWDE), is a somewhat stripped-down, freebie version intended for beginners and hobbyists. VWDE doesn’t support add-ons, source control, extensibility, or macros — features that professional developers expect in a tool.

The technologies that support Web applications come from different organizations and from different teams within Microsoft. These technologies plug into, on top of, work together, depend or assist each other. They include:

The .NET Framework is the base of what many call the stack. You hear many refer to classes or class libraries that make up the .NET Framework. They use dot-filled names like System.Web, System.Data, and System.Xml.Linq. Microsoft provides tons of reference documentation on everything that’s in the .NET Framework. If you still don’t find what you need, you can peek into its source code to see how Microsoft makes it all work.

ASP.NET 3.5 is a technology to deliver interactive, data-driven Web applications over the Internet and intranets. ASP.NET includes a large number of pre-built controls, such as text boxes, buttons, images, and data grids.

Unlike static HTML pages that are stored on disk in a fully complete state, ASP.NET pages usually exist in a skeleton-like state on disk. It’s only when a user requests a page that ASP.NET analyses the mark-up, fills in all the content (often from a database), and sends HTML that the browser can render.

The 'ASP.NET Futures' releases consist of controls and technologies that the ASP.NET team is tinkering with or would like to demonstrate. It’s a way of getting feedback, testing scenarios, and pushing the envelope without making a commitment to release the product. The Futures items have no official support, even though some work quite well. Some components, such as the dynamic data controls, get their start in ASP.NET’s Futures development team and end up as professionals in an ASP.NET release or extensions update.

The ASP.NET team continues adding controls between official releases. These are packaged as extensions that you can download and install. The ASP.NET 3.5 Extensions include the Silverlight and Media Player controls for presenting rich media on ASP.NET pages. Other recent extensions and templates include Dynamic Data controls for displaying database content and an advanced architectural framework called Model View Controller (MVC).

Web services let you deliver data and calculations to remote computers without restricting your client base to those running Windows. The most popular exchange format is the Simple Object  Access Protocol (SOAP), which lets different platforms talk to each other by using XML.

JavaScript and client-side code

Modern browsers understand an internal programming language called JavaScript. You’d be surprised to learn that MS supports and uses Javascript.

Asynchronous JavaScript and XML (AJAX) is a technology that reduces unnecessary and wasteful full page refreshes by limiting the transfer of data to and from the Web server. Microsoft’s flavour of AJAX is an integral part of ASP.NET 3.5 rather than an add-on as in previous releases.

While not exclusively a Microsoft technology, Dynamic HTML (DHTML) plays an important role in making Web pages responsive, interactive, and more like a regular Windows program.

Extensible Markup Language (XML)

Although Microsoft had a hand in the specifications for Extensible Mark-up Language (XML), the standards come from the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). Microsoft uses XML extensively in its Web technologies as a way of passing data around.

Silverlight is Microsoft’s cross-browser, cross-platform multimedia plug-in. It works on Windows, Macs, and even the rival Linux platform. I’m sure you’ve heard of  Flash movies on a Web page. Silverlight is like Flash, only faster, more technologically advanced, and easier to program, especially in .NET languages. This so-called Flash killer uses a form of XML mark-up called XAML (sounds like zamel and rhymes with camel) to generate its graphics and behaviours.

Language Integrated Queries (LINQ)

Language Integrated Query (LINQ) is a set of additions to the C# and VB.NET programming languages that make it easier to deal with data. Any data that is. LINQ comes in several dialects, including LINQ to SQL, LINQ to XML, and LINQ to objects. After you master LINQ’s statements and syntax, you can apply the knowledge to all sorts of data. In fact, LINQ lets you combine data from multiple sources, such as a database, Web service, XML file, objects etc.

ADO.NET is Microsoft’s technology for working with data and databases of all types. When a Web application talks to a database such as Microsoft SQL Server, it’s probably using ADO.NET. The introduction of LINQ has hidden much of ADO.NET from view in Visual Web Developer.

SQL Server 2005 and 2008 are key products in Microsoft’s Web technology strategy.

Internet Information Services

Internet Information Services (IIS) is Microsoft’s premier Web server product that comes free with the latest versions of Windows.