This book is for anyone who wants to learn how to build rich and interactive Microsoft ASP.NET web sites. With the knowledge you gain from this book, you create a great foundation to build any type of web site, ranging from simple hobby-related web sites to sites you may be creating for commercial purposes. Using this book’s step-by-step format you’ll learn to: Obtain, install, and customize Visual Web Developer (VWD) 2008 create a new web site and how to add new pages to it. use the numerous tools in VWD to create HTML and ASP.NET pages use the VWD tools and CSS, the language that is used to format web pages What ASP.NET server controls are, what they are used for, and how to use them program web pages Visual Basic or C# create consistent-looking pages through the use of master pages, skins, and themes build the navigation structure of your site create and use User Controls and enhance them to repeat content like menus and banners accept, validate, and process user input and send e-mail from your ASP.NET web application create good looking, flicker free web page interaction with ASP.NET Ajax the basics of SQL, the language used access and alter data in a database use the database tools found in Visual Web Developer use the ASP.NET data controls to create an interface for your users to interact with your application’s data use LINQ to SQL to access SQL Server databases without writing a lot of manual code change the visual appearance of your data through the use of control styles interact with the data-bound controls and speed up your application use the security ASP.NET features to create user accounts, distinguish between anonymous and logged on users, and manage the users in your system create personalized web pages with content targeted at individual users find and fix problems with VWD debugging tools deploy and run your final web site

Table of Contents:
Acknowledgments xi Introduction xxiii Chapter 1: Getting Started with ASP.NET 3.5 1 Microsoft Visual Web Developer 2 Getting Visual Web Developer 3 Installing Visual Web Developer Express Edition 3 Creating Your First ASP.NET 3.5 Web Site 5 An Introduction to ASP.NET 3.5 9 Understanding HTML 10 A First Look at ASP.NET Markup 14 A Tour of the IDE 15 The Main Development Area 15 Informational Windows 21 Customizing the IDE 22 Rearranging Windows 22 Modifying the Toolbox 23 Customizing the Document Window 25 Customizing Toolbars 25 Customizing Keyboard Shortcuts 26 Resetting Your Changes 27 The Sample Application 28 Practical Tips on Visual Web Developer 30 Summary 30 Exercises 31 Chapter 2: Building an ASP.NET Web Site 33 Creating Web Sites with VWD 2008 34 Different Project Types 34 Choosing the Right Web Site Template 35 Creating and Opening a New Web Site 36 Working with Files in Your Web Site 39 The Many File Types of an ASP.NET 3.5 Web Site 39 Adding Existing Files 43 Organizing Your Site 44 Special File Types 46 Working with Web Forms 47 The Different Views on Web Forms 47 Choosing between Code Behind and Pages with Inline Code 48 Adding Markup to Your Page 53 Connecting Pages 59 Practical Tips on Working with Web Forms 61 Summary 61 Exercises 62 Chapter 3: Designing Your Web Pages 63 Why Do You Need CSS? 63 Problems of HTML Formatting 64 How CSS Fixes Formatting Problems 65 An Introduction to CSS 65 CSS — The Language 69 The Style Sheet 69 Adding CSS to Your Pages 80 Working with CSS in Visual Web Developer 82 Creating New Styles in External Style Sheets 83 Creating Embedded and Inline Style Sheets 88 Applying Styles 94 Managing Styles 96 Practical Tips on Working with CSS 99 Summary 100 Exercises 100 Chapter 4: Working with ASP.NET Controls 103 Introduction to Server Controls 103 A Closer Look at ASP.NET Server Controls 107 Defining Controls in Your Pages 108 Common Properties for All Controls 108 Types of Controls 110 Standard Controls 111 HTML Controls 124 Data Controls 124 Validation Controls 125 Navigation Controls 125 Login Controls 125 Ajax Extensions 125 WebParts 125 The ASP.NET State Engine 126 What Is State and Why Is It Important? 126 How the State Engine Works 127 Not All Controls Rely on ViewState 131 A Note About ViewState and Performance 131 Practical Tips on Working with Controls 132 Summary 132 Exercises 133 Chapter 5: Programming Your ASP.NET Web Pages 135 Introduction to Programming 136 Data Types and Variables 136 Converting Data Types 140 Using Arrays and Collections 142 Statements 146 Operators 147 Making Decisions 154 Loops 161 Organizing Code 164 Methods: Functions and Subroutines 165 The App_Code Folder 167 Organizing Code with Namespaces 171 Writing Comments 173 Object Orientation Basics 176 Important OO Terminology 176 Events 188 Practical Tips on Programming 189 Summary 190 Exercises 191 Chapter 6: Creating Consistent Looking Web Sites 193 Consistent Page Layout with Master Pages 194 Creating Master Pages 196 Creating Content Pages 198 Using a Centralized Base Page 203 An Introduction to the ASP.NET Page Life Cycle 204 Implementing the Base Page 206 Creating Reusable Page Templates 210 Themes 214 Different Types of Themes 215 Choosing Between Theme and StyleSheetTheme 215 Applying Themes 215 Extending Themes 219 Dynamically Switching Themes 222 Skins 228 Creating a Skin File 229 Named Skins 231 A Final Note on Skins 232 Practical Tips on Creating Consistent Pages 232 Summary 233 Exercises 234 Chapter 7: Navigation 235 Different Ways to Move around Your Site 236 Understanding Absolute and Relative URLs 236 Understanding Default Documents 240 Using the Navigation Controls 241 Architecture of the Navigation Controls 242 Examining the Web.sitemap File 242 Using the Menu Control 244 Using the TreeView Control 253 Using the SiteMapPath Control 257 Programmatic Redirection 259 Programmatically Redirecting the Client to a Different Page 259 Server-Side Redirects 261 Practical Tips on Navigation 264 Summary 264 Exercises 265 Chapter 8: User Controls 267 Introduction to User Controls 267 Creating User Controls 268 Adding User Controls to a Content Page or Master Page 271 Site-Wide Registration of User Controls 274 User Control Caveats 275 Adding Logic to Your User Controls 277 Creating Your Own Data Types for Properties 277 Implementing ViewState Properties 283 ViewState Considerations 288 Practical Tips on User Controls 289 Summary 289 Exercises 290 Chapter 9: Validating User Input 291 Gathering Data from the User 292 Validating User Input in Web Forms 293 Processing Data at the Server 307 Sending E-mail from Your Web Site 307 Reading from Text Files 313 Practical Tips on Validating Data 318 Summary 318 Exercises 319 Chapter 10: ASP.NET AJAX 321 Introducing Ajax 322 Using ASP.NET AJAX in Your Projects 323 Creating Flicker-Free Pages 323 Providing Feedback to Users 328 Using the Timer Control 332 Using Web Services in Ajax Web Sites 337 What Are Web Services? 337 Creating Web Services 338 Using Web Services in Your Ajax Web Site 342 This Is Just the Beginning 349 Practical Ajax Tips 349 Summary 350 Exercises 351 Chapter 11: Introduction to Databases 353 What Is a Database? 354 Different Kinds of Relational Databases 355 Using SQL to Work with Database Data 355 Retrieving and Manipulating Data 358 Creating Your Own Tables 371 Data Types in SQL Server 371 Understanding Primary Keys and Identities 373 Creating Relationships Between Tables 377 Practical Database Tips 380 Summary 381 Exercises 381 Chapter 12: Displaying and Updating Data 383 Data Controls 383 Data-Bound Controls 384 Data Source Controls 386 Data Source and Data-Bound Controls Working Together 386 Displaying and Editing Data with GridView 386 Inserting Data with DetailsView 392 Storing Your Connection Strings in web.config 395 Filtering Data 397 Customizing the Appearance of the Data Controls 403 Configuring Columns or Fields of Data-Bound Controls 403 Updating and Inserting Data 409 Using DetailsView to Insert and Update Data 409 Practical Tips for Displaying and Updating Data 422 Summary 423 Exercises 423 Chapter 13: LINQ 425 Introducing LINQ 426 Different Types of LINQ 427 Introducing LINQ to SQL 427 Mapping Your Data Model to an Object Model 428 Introducing Query Syntax 433 Standard Query Operators 433 Shaping Data with Anonymous Types 437 Using Server Controls with LINQ Queries 443 New Controls Introduced in ASP.NET 3.5 443 A Few Notes about Performance 471 Practical LINQ Tips 472 Summary 472 Exercises 473 Chapter 14: Presenting Data — Advanced Topics 475 Formatting Your Controls Using Styles 476 An Introduction to Styles 477 Combining Styles, Themes, and Skins 481 Handling Events 485 The ASP.NET Page and Controls Life Cycles Revisited 485 Handling Errors that Occur in the Data Source Controls 498 Caching 502 Common Pitfalls with Caching Data 503 Different Ways to Cache Data in ASP.NET Web Applications 505 Practical Data Tips 513 Summary 514 Exercises 515 Chapter 15: Security in Your ASP.NET 3.5 Web Site 517 Introducing Security 518 Identity: Who Are You? 518 Authentication: How Can You Prove Who You Are? 518 Authorization: What Are You Allowed to Do? 518 An Introduction to the ASP.NET Application Services 519 Introducing the Login Controls 520 The Login Controls 525 Configuring Your Web Application 537 The Role Manager 541 Configuring the Role Manager 541 Managing Users with the WSAT 542 Configuring the Web Application to Work with Roles 546 Programmatically Checking Roles 551 Practical Security Tips 554 Summary 555 Exercises 555 Chapter 16: Personalizing Web Sites 557 Understanding Profile 558 Configuring the Profile 558 Using the Profile 565 Other Ways of Dealing with Profile 583 Anonymous Identification 583 Cleaning Up Old Anonymous Profiles 584 Looking at Other Users’ Profiles 585 Practical Personalization Tips 589 Summary 589 Exercises 590 Chapter 17: Exception Handling, Debugging, and Tracing 591 Exception Handling 592 Different Types of Errors 592 Catching and Handling Exceptions 594 Global Error Handling and Custom Error Pages 601 The Basics of Debugging 607 Tools Support for Debugging 611 Moving around in Debugged Code 611 Debugging Windows 612 Debugging Client-Side Script 618 Tracing Your ASP.NET Web Pages 621 Using the Standard Tracing Capabilities 622 Adding Your Own Information to the Trace 626 Tracing and Performance 628 A Security Warning 628 Practical Debugging Tips 628 Summary 629 Exercises 630 Chapter 18: Deploying Your Web Site 631 Preparing Your Web Site for Deployment 632 Avoiding Hardcoded Settings 632 Copying Your Web Site 639 Creating a Simple Copy of Your Web Site 639 Publishing Your Web Site 642 Running Your Site under IIS 643 Installing and Configuring the Web Server 643 Understanding Security in IIS 651 NTFS Settings for Planet Wrox 652 Troubleshooting Web Server Errors 656 Moving Data to a Remote Server 657 Using the Database Publishing Wizard 658 Recreating the Database 660 The Deployment Checklist 661 What’s Next 662 Summary 663 Exercises 664 Appendix A: Exercise Answers 665 Appendix B: Configuring SQL Server 2005 687 Configuring SQL Server 2005 687 Terminology and Concepts 688 Using SQL Server Management Studio 689 Enabling Remote Connections in SQL Server 690 Connecting Your Application to SQL Server 2005 693 Configuring Application Services 701 Configuring Your Database for the Application Services 702 Overriding the LocalSqlServer Connection String 703 Overriding the Settings of the Application Services 704 Index 707