Simple beginner's question

[Jack]

Hi there,

I'm a very experienced C++ developer but a relative newcomer to web
development and a raw neophyte in the ASP.NET arena. I have a very simple
scenario that hopefully someone can help me with. I have a 3rd-party HTML
form with a single (submit) button and a number of (static) hidden fields
(all values hardcoded). The form is pure HTML (no ASP or ASP.NET whatsoever)
and it simply posts its data to a 3rd-party site when the button is clicked
(i.e., the form's "action" attribute is set to the appropriate URL
accordingly). This site then reads its data from the hidden fields on the
form. I now want to re-write this form using ASP.NET but I'll add a single
dropdown list. The form should then get posted back to my own server instead
where I can now set (or dynamically create) these hidden fields based on the
users' selected dropdown value. I then want to post the form back to the
original 3rd-party site just like the original form handled it (but the
hidden fields were now filled in by my server - they're no longer
hardcoded). I can wire up the submit button's event handler in ASP.NET and
check the dropdown list but I'm not sure what code I should be calling to
dynamically create these hidden fields and then post the form to its
original 3rd-party site. Can anyone show me the basic code to get me
started. Thanks very much.

 

[Nathan Sokalski]

It sounds to me like you should find a basic book on ASP.NET before you
attempt to actually write any sites or pages. I am not attempting to insult
you by any means (before I took my first course on ASP.NET, I couldn't do
anything, but I can do most things now), but if what you are trying to do is
as simple as what it sounds like, you need to know how to do the basic
things such this before ASP.NET will be any use to you. Here is my personal
favorite for ASP.NET books, it is example-based and teaches you everything
from the pure basics to almost all features that exist in ASP.NET:

ASP.NET 2.0 Unleashed by Stephen Walther

Almost everything I know either came from this book or experience, and it
gives the code in VB.NET and C# (the C# code is only on the cd). Many people
have recommended this book to me, and it is probably the best book I ever
bought.

 

[Jack]

It sounds to me like you should find a basic book on ASP.NET before you

attempt to actually write any sites or pages. I am not attempting to
insult you by any means (before I took my first course on ASP.NET, I
couldn't do anything, but I can do most things now), but if what you are
trying to do is as simple as what it sounds like, you need to know how to
do the basic things such this before ASP.NET will be any use to you. Here
is my personal favorite for ASP.NET books, it is example-based and teaches
you everything from the pure basics to almost all features that exist in
ASP.NET:

ASP.NET 2.0 Unleashed by Stephen Walther

Almost everything I know either came from this book or experience, and it
gives the code in VB.NET and C# (the C# code is only on the cd). Many
people have recommended this book to me, and it is probably the best book
I ever bought.

Thanks for the recommendation. However, I need to fast-track my
understanding so I don't have the time (unfortunately) to wade through a
lengthy book right now. In spite of appearances, my conceptual and
mechanical understanding is already strong-enough to unravel most examples.
A few lines of code is worth a thousand words (and in fact, my site is
already well underway).