"ASP.net Why?

[Dennis D.]

Hello:

So far I am into XML, XHTML, JavaScript, VB.net, and the .Net Framework. I
have the ability to use SQL server, MS Access, or XML as databases, and 1.1
and 2.0 are installed on the server.

Before I go off attempting to learn how to build e-commerce websites, please
tell me why I should learn ASP.net 2.0. How is ASP.net going to fit into
this picture? Will it replace XHTML pages, for example? I was thinking that
the Framework and VB.net already include web form and data classes.

I am right on the verge of adding this language simply because it seems
popular to do so. Would someone recommend a set of books that will get me
through the first few websites?

Thank you,

Dennis D.,
http://www.dennisys.com/

 

[Eliyahu Goldin]

Dennis,

Asp.net is not a language. It is a part of the dotnet framework dealing with
web server applications. You are right, the framework and vb.net already
include web form and a lot of supporting infrastructure. It is the asp.net.

 

[Aemca]

I am right on the verge of adding this language simply because it seems

popular to do so. Would someone recommend a set of books that will get me
through the first few websites?

Book: Asp.net Unleashed.

See asp.net as something which transforms dynamic code into xhtml pages.
Like: XSLT for the web.

But with the power of the framework.

 

[Aemca]

I am right on the verge of adding this language simply because it seems

popular to do so. Would someone recommend a set of books that will get me
through the first few websites?

Book: Asp.net Unleashed.

See asp.net as something which transforms dynamic code into xhtml pages.
Like: XSLT for the web.

But with the power of the framework.

 

[Mark Fitzpatrick]

Dennis,
ASP.Net and Web forms go hand in hand. ASP.Net itself just
represents a portion of .Net Framework technologies that provide dynamic
content to a web server. XHTML and HTML are simply ways of formatting
information in a standardazed way to be read by a compatible browser so they
aren't necessarily a language. ASP.Net controls provide some level of
dynamic content, which in turn is rendered as HTML or XHTML (or whatever you
really need to do. So, ASP.Net will not replace XHTML as they are basically
apples and oranges. ASP.Net will emit XHTML. ASP.Net will be what you use to
generate any sort of web page that does some sort of activity, from generate
text, create a list of items from a database, create a dynamic graph on the
fly, etc..

In addition to ASP.Net unleashed, I like Pro ASP.Net by APress
(though this is a better later on book) and many of the Wrox press books on
the subject.

Hope this helps,
Mark Fitzpatrick
Microsoft MVP - FrontPage

 

[Dennis D.]

Thank you Eliyahu Goldin,

Asp.net is not a language. It is a part of the dotnet framework dealing
with web server applications. You are right, the framework and vb.net
already include web form and a lot of supporting infrastructure. It is the
asp.net.

Ok. So when I build a web app with VS it is using ASP.net, sort of like
ADO.net is the database part of the framework. I had not tried to build a
web app yet.

Is this correct: I will use the Expression Web Developer to build the site,
and use VS to build applications hosted on the web server that will be used
in the website?

If that is true, then I learn ASP.net to be able to integrate the
application into the website? I'm fuzzy on this. I would like to understand
what I am doing before I begin studying it.

Thank you,

Dennis D.
http://www.dennisys.com/

--
Eliyahu Goldin,
Software Developer & Consultant
Microsoft MVP [ASP.NET]

Hello:

So far I am into XML, XHTML, JavaScript, VB.net, and the .Net Framework.
I have the ability to use SQL server, MS Access, or XML as databases, and
1.1 and 2.0 are installed on the server.

Before I go off attempting to learn how to build e-commerce websites,
please tell me why I should learn ASP.net 2.0. How is ASP.net going to
fit into this picture? Will it replace XHTML pages, for example? I was
thinking that the Framework and VB.net already include web form and data
classes.

I am right on the verge of adding this language simply because it seems
popular to do so. Would someone recommend a set of books that will get me
through the first few websites?

Thank you,

Dennis D.,
http://www.dennisys.com/

 

[Dennis D.]

Thank you Aemca,

I chose Sams and Wrox for learning XML, and I'm in the middle of those two,
so I'll take a look at the ASP.net versions as well.

Book: Asp.net Unleashed.

See asp.net as something which transforms dynamic code into xhtml pages.
Like: XSLT for the web.

But with the power of the framework.

Dennis D.,
http://www.dennisys.com/

 

[Dennis D.]

Thank you Mark Fitzpatrick:

for the recommendation. I'm going to paste from my previous response to
Eliyahu:

Ok. So when I build a web app with VS it is using ASP.net, sort of like
ADO.net is the database part of the framework.

Is this correct: I will use the Expression Web Developer to build the site,
and use VS to build applications hosted on the web server that will be used
in the website?

If that is true, then I learn ASP.net to be able to integrate the
application into the website?

Thank you,

Dennis D.,
http://www.dennisys.com/

 

[Richard Carpenter]

My understanding was that ASP.Net would be used to build the site,
while Microsoft Expressions will be used to aid in the overall design
and adherance to industry standards - when it is released, that is.

Rich

 

[Mark Fitzpatrick]

Hi Dennis,
You are pretty much correct. All the ASP.Net books include things
such as ADO.Net in them, but primarily ASP.Net is the grouping of
technologies in the .Net framework that relates directly to web development
and/or web services. This would be Web Forms primarily, but people often
lump in the parts of the framework that you would typically need along with
the web forms to get things done.

You can use EWD and VS.Net together very nicely. What I am doing
right now is building the apps in VS.Net and then tweaking the pages in EWD
for design purposes. Before the EWD CTP was released, I was designing the
initial MasterPage template in Dreamweaver and/or FrontPage then bringing
generating the MasterPage templates from it. After that, it's designing the
app in VS.Net. At least with the EWD CTP it's a lot easier to do stuff with
VS.Net since they both support MasterPages and EWD also has a good bit of
ASP.Net support (as far as embedding Controls and such).

If you learn the ASP.Net stuff, you'll be able good to go. A lot of
it will also be transferable to desktop applications since many of the Web
Forms components mirror their Windows Forms counterparts.

Hope this helps,
Mark Fitzpatrick
Microsoft MVP- FrontPage

 

[JT]

I hope I don't confuse things. Everyone seems to be replying in vague
terms. I'm also not a terribly experienced ASP.NET developer, but to
clarify, ASP.NET alllows you to separate the presentation portion of
the pages from the code that does the "heavy lifting". The "code
behind" all the pages can be written in C#, VB.NET, or J#; maybe
others. This allows you to accomplish much more complicated things
than you can do in plain HTML. It is similar to straight ASP, but gets
compiled and therefore does much more error checking for you and
encourages you to conform to certain practices. Plus, the Intellisense
makes it so much nicer to code in the VS IDE. You could accomplish
most things in ASP, but this environment is much more friendly.

There are also classes that allow you to generate the HTML code right
in the "code behind" languages if you don't like VS imposing its will
on you so much. It can generate a lot of extra code in the form of
inline style settings. On the pages I've created, I've done very
little HTML design work and have put as much as possible into my C#
code (maybe too much). The claimed advantage to ASP.NET is that it
generates code that is compatible with all browsers. I don't know if
that's true, but I'm sure it comes close.

 

[Jesse Liberty]

Forgive me, but I think you are doing this the hard way.

I personally like to keep things very simple.

I'd start out by just opening a new ASP.NET web application in Visual Studio
in C# (or VB 2005) and dragging a couple ASP controls onto the form and
running the application. I'd then add a control that "does something" (e.g.,
a button" and then "wire it up" by double clicking on it and setting its
event handler in the code behind pages.

All of this would be even easier if you use a tutorial such as my
Programming ASP.NET
(http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/05...2101?n=283155&tagActionCode=libertyassocia00A)
or the APress book Pro ASP.NET 2.0.
(http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/15...=pd_bbs_1/102-1388724-8052101?ie=UTF8&s=books
)

Once you have the simple page working, add some more complex controls. Then
add validation controls. Then add a second page with links between them.
Once all that is working, get some data from a data base. Start simple, use
a single table from NorthWind and simple data source controls. Later you can
add data sets and complex data manipulation.

If you want to get fancy, add forms security, personalization, roles-based
security, master pages, and so forth.

Do all of this without a web server, using the built in test server in
Visual Studio. When it is working, use xcopy deployment to deploy it to a
directory, and create a virtual directory using IIS to deploy it.

When that is all working, then you might want to start fussing with
Expression Web Developer, but by then you'll have a much better idea of what
ASP.NET and the framework and the language are all doing for you.

My approach is start simple, get it working, keep it working and add
complexity as you go.

Hope that helps.

-j

 

[Dennis D.]

Thank you Jesse Liberty:

Hope that helps.

That is an under-statement if I ever heard one!

Sounds like an excellent way to get familiar with the mechanics, while doing
the reading.

I will follow your advise to the letter.

Excellent post.

Thanks again,

Dennis D.