Are You Getting the Most Out of Your An Introduction To ASP.NET?
By: Minati Biswal
Tags: Dot Net Framework, Microsoft, Dot Net Training, Aspnetcore, Aspnet

ASP.NET is used to build web applications, and it’s the preferred choice when using Microsoft technologies. It was built by Microsoft in the early 2000s as part of the .NET Framework initiative, which offered a unified environment in which to build and run applications for Windows developers. If you think of .NET Framework as a house, then ASP.NET is the rooms.

As ASP.NET approaches its fifth version, the community of developers around ASP.NET is much more mature than it was ten years ago. In the beginning, ASP.NET developers came from backgrounds in Active Server Pages (ASP) or Visual Basic (VB) 6, so topics like design, architecture, and patterns were often ignored.

But this isn’t the case today. We’ve found ways to build better web applications and how to overcome challenges we face daily when we’re working in ASP.NET. This book will explore how to solve common problems in ASP.NET, but before we get to the prize, everyone needs to be on the same footing.

You picked up this book because you want to get to know ASP.NET, specifically ASP.NET 4.0. Well, ASP.NET 4.0 isn’t a revolutionary release, but an evolutionary one. In this book, we’ll focus on the new features you’ll find in version 4.0, but we’ll also cover material from the previous releases that are still used in the 4.0 version. At the beginning of this book, you’ll see content that’s valuable in ASP.NET 3.5 or 2.0, but as we move further along, version 4.0 will be the main focus.

In this chapter, we’ll introduce you to what ASP.NET is, how it works, and how to get started. We’ll look at the typical architecture of an ASP.NET application and then move into the new features you’ll find in the 4.0 release. When that’s all said and done, we’ll introduce a problem-solution-discussion scenario that should make the technology your friend rather than just an acquaintance.

MEET ASP.NET

You use ASP.NET to build web applications. Because it’s part of .NET Framework, you’ll use the same tools and similar code as when you write Windows desktop applications or service-oriented ones. Isn’t that great? So what’s new about ASP.NET 4.0 that you can’t get in previous versions? Before we get into the specifics, let’s install ASP.NET and then take a quick look at ASP.NET fundamentals. for more at dot net course

Installing ASP.NET

ASP.NET 4.0 can run on top of Internet Information Services (IIS) 6.0, IIS 7.0, or IIS 7.5. ASP.NET uses Visual Studio as the integrated development environment (IDE) that it uses to create applications. To start building applications based on ASP.NET, you first need to install its runtime and a developer tool:

1. If you have Visual Studio 2010, install it on your machine. If you need the free version of Visual Studio, you can download Visual Web Developer Express

2. If you want to test your applications on a server, download and install the software development kit (SDK) from.

3. Optionally, download and install SQL Server 2008 Express. SQL Server is useful if you want to use a database engine for development purposes.

How ASP.NET works

ASP.NET is part of the .NET Framework, so it takes full advantage of the object-oriented programming (OOP) capabilities offered by the framework itself. OOP lets you think in terms of objects and program their interactions. Because we as humans think in terms of objects in real life, OOP is one of the easiest programming paradigms to understand.

When you create a web page using ASP.NET, you’re creating an object with behaviors (the page’s events), commands (methods), and state.

The original and most common approach used to develop with ASP.NET uses WebForms, which is similar to what VB gave Windows developers years ago. Every single object on a page is programmable and has events.

Let’s imagine a common item that occurs on a page: a button that can handle the user’s click and provide feedback. Using the ASP.NET Web Form model, all you need to do is add a Button object and intercept the Click event. This approach is about as clear as it gets. You place objects on a design surface and program them, using a method that’s similar to classic desktop application development. Read more about dot net at Visual studio training

Unfortunately, things tend to be a little bit complicated in real-world applications, so some specific scenarios might force you to take more control of the output. In such cases, using this approach to define the page might result in low flexibility. That’s why, starting with version 4.0, you can choose a new alternative to define your pages, using ASP.NET MVC.