Building ASP.NET Server Controls
by Dale Michalk, Rob Cameron
Category: Computers

* Up to date for the latest release version of .NET * Written by two Microsoft employees who have been using the technology for both internal and external use since it was in alpha stage. * Describes the ASP.NET server control architecture in Visual Studio .NET 2003 covering state management, events, rendering, cross-platform support, control lifecycle, localization and deployment. * Provides background on User Controls as compared with server controls, discussing the benefits and strengths of each. * Discusses the various methods available to create server controls including inheritance, composition, and from scratch. Discusses when to use Control as a base class as compared to WebControl highlighting the tradeoffs. * Demonstrates how to integrate client-side development technologies such as DHTML and JavaScript with server control technology to create powerful interactive controls. * Covers ASP.NET mobile server control development including an in depth discussion of browser capabilities and device adapters when targeting the various mobile devices available. * Covers how to enrich the design-time experience when building custom server controls including custom designers, custom property editors, as well as other design-time enhancements.