Using Visual Basic 2015, developers can build cutting-edge applications that run practically anywhere: on Windows desktops, new Windows 10 devices, in mobile and cloud environments, and beyond. Visual Basic 2015 Unleashed is the most comprehensive, practical reference to modern programming with VB 2015. Long-time Visual Basic MVP Alessandro Del Sole walks you through the latest version of the language, helping you thoroughly master its most valuable features, most powerful programming techniques, and most effective development patterns. Next, he shows how to use Visual Basic 2015 to build robust, effective software in a wide range of environments. Extensively updated for Visual Basic 2015’s major improvements, this guide covers both Visual Basic 2015 Professional Edition for professional developers and the free Community Edition for hobbyists, novices, and students. Del Sole has added detailed coverage of building new universal Windows apps for Windows 10 and using new Visual Studio 2015 capabilities to supercharge your productivity as a developer. If you want to leverage all of VB 2015’s power, this is the book you need. Detailed information on how to... Understand the Visual Studio 2015 IDE, .NET Framework 4.6 and the new .NET Core 5, and the anatomy of a VB 2015 application Debug VB applications and implement error handling and exceptions Keep your code clean and well-organized with VB 2015’s new refactoring tools Master modern VB object development: namespaces, modules, structures, enums, inheritance, interfaces, generics, delegates, events, collections, iterators, and more Share Visual Basic code with Portable Class Libraries and Shared Projects Access data with LINQ and ADO.NET Entity Framework Manipulate XML documents with LINQ and XML Literals Build and deploy applications to run in the Microsoft Azure cloud Develop universal Windows apps that run on any Windows 10 device Use advanced .NET 4.6 platform capabilities, including async and parallel programming, multithreading, assemblies, reflection, and coding attributes Leverage new compiler APIs to write custom domain-specific live code analysis rules Test code with unit tests and TDD  Deploy apps efficiently with InstallShield for Visual Studio and ClickOnce

Table of Contents:
Introduction     1 Code Samples and Software Requirements     2 Part I: Learning the Basics of VB Chapter 1: Introducing .NET 2015     3 .NET 2015: A New Vision for Development     3 The .NET Framework 4.6 for Desktop     5 Introducing .NET Core 5     10 Programming Languages in Visual Studio 2015     12 What’s New with Compilers     13 The Windows Software Development Kit     15 Summary     15 Chapter 2: The Visual Studio 2015 IDE for Visual Basic     17 What’s New in Visual Studio 2015     17 Status Bar and Start Page     18 Working with Projects and Solutions     20 Working with Tool Windows     35 The My Project Window     42 Compiling Projects     48 Debugging Overview     58 Browsing the Visual Basic and .NET Documentation     65 Quick Launch Tool     67 Showing the Hierarchy of Method Calls     69 Summary     70 Chapter 3: The Anatomy of a Visual Basic Project     71 Brief Overview of Types and Members     71 Visual Basic 2015 Reserved Keywords     80 Understanding Project Files     82 Understanding References     92 Summary     97 Chapter 4: Data Types and Expressions     99 Introducing the Common Type System     99 Understanding Value Types     103 Understanding Reference Types     113 Differences Between Value Types and Reference Types     116 Converting Between Value Types and Reference Types     121 Understanding Conversion Operators     129 Working with .NET Fundamental Types     135 Common Operators     172 Iterations, Loops, and Conditional Code Blocks     188 Summary     197 Chapter 5: Debugging Visual Basic 2015 Applications     199 Preparing an Example     199 Debugging Instrumentation     200 Inspecting Object Details with Debugger Visualizers     215 Debugging in Code     216 Summary      230 Chapter 6: Errors, Exceptions, and Code Refactoring     231 Introducing Exceptions     231 Handling Exceptions     233 Refactoring Your Code: Light Bulbs and Quick Actions     249 Summary     266 Part II: Object-Oriented Programming with Visual Basic 2015 Chapter 7: Class Fundamentals     267 Declaring Classes     267 Storing Information with Properties     271 Types and Members Visibility: Scope     276 Executing Actions with Methods     278 Organizing Code with Partial Classes     290 Splitting Method Definitions with Partial Methods     293 Instantiating Objects with Constructors     295 Shared Members     301 Common Language Specification     306 Summary     311 Chapter 8: Managing an Object’s Lifetime     313 Understanding Memory Allocation     313 Understanding Garbage Collection     314 Understanding the Finalize Method     315 Understanding Dispose and the IDisposable Interface     317 Advanced Garbage Collection     323 Summary     326 Chapter 9: Organizing Types Within Namespaces     327 Understanding Namespaces     327 Organizing Types Within Namespaces     328 Global Namespaces and the Global Keyword     342 Summary     345 Chapter 10: Modules     347 Modules Overview     347 Differences Between Modules and Classes     349 Summary     350 Chapter 11: Structures and Enumerations     351 Understanding Structures     351 Overloading Operators     356 Structures and Common Language Specification     360 Grouping Constants with Enumerations     361 Summary     367 Chapter 12: Inheritance     369 Applying Inheritance     370 Introducing Polymorphism     375 Overriding Members     377 Conditioning Inheritance     380 Accessing Base Classes Members     383 Constructors’ Inheritance     387 Shadowing     388 Overriding Shared Members     389 Practical Inheritance: Building Custom Exceptions     390 Summary     392 Chapter 13: Interfaces     393 Defining Interfaces     393 Implementing and Accessing Interfaces     394 Partial Interfaces     399 Interfaces and Polymorphism     399 Interfaces Inheritance     400 Defining CLS-Compliant Interfaces     402 Most Common .NET Interfaces     402 Summary     412 Chapter 14: Generics and Nullable Types     413 Introducing Generics     413 Creating and Consuming Generics     414 Introducing Nullable Types     422 Summary     425 Chapter 15: Delegates and Events     427 Understanding Delegates     427 Handling Events     431 Offering Events to the External World     433 Summary     439 Chapter 16: Working with Collections and Iterators     441 Understanding Collections Architecture     442 Working with Nongeneric Collections     442 Working with Generic Collections     451 The Null-Conditional Operator and Collections     461 Building Custom Collections     462 Concurrent Collections     463 Immutable Collections     463 Iterators     464 Summary     472 Chapter 17: Working with Objects: Visual Tools and Code Sharing     473 Visual Studio Class Designer     473 Class View Window     484 Creating Types with Generate from Usage     485 Creating Portable Classes     491 Shared Projects     503 Summary     512 Part III: Advanced Language Features Chapter 18: Manipulating Files and Streams     513 Manipulating Directories and Pathnames     513 Handling Exceptions for Directories and Pathnames     519 Manipulating Files     519 Introducing Streams     524 Summary     535 Chapter 19: The My Namespace     537 Introducing the My Namespace     537 My.Application     538 My.Computer     542 My.Settings     550 My.Resources     556 My.User     560 My.WebServices     562 Extending My     562 My in Different Applications     566 Summary     570 Chapter 20: Advanced Language Features     571 Local Type Inference     571 Array Literalsv575 Extension Methods     577 Anonymous Types     585 Relaxed Delegates     586 Lambda Expressions     587 Generic Variance     596 Summary     598 Part IV: Data Access with ADO.NET and LINQ Chapter 21: Introducing ADO.NET and DataSets     599 System Requirements     599 Introducing ADO.NET     600 Introducing DataSets     603 Summary     608 Chapter 22: Introducing LINQ     609 What Is LINQ?     .609 LINQ Examples     611 Language Support     612 Understanding Providers     613 Overview of LINQ Architecture     613 Summary     614 Chapter 23: LINQ to Objects     615 Introducing LINQ to Objects     615 Querying in Memory Objects     616 Introducing Standard Query Operators     625 Summary     644 Chapter 24: LINQ to SQL     645 Introducing LINQ to SQL     646 Querying Data with LINQ to SQL     658 Insert/Update/Delete Operations with LINQ     663 Advanced LINQ to SQL     672 Summary     677 Chapter 25: LINQ to DataSets     679 Querying DataSets with LINQ     679 LINQ to DataSets’ Extension Methods     682 Summary     685 Chapter 26: Introducing ADO.NET Entity Framework     687 Introducing Entity Framework     687 Understanding Entity Data Models     688 Insert/Update/Delete Operations for Entities     703 Querying EDMs with LINQ to Entities     710 Querying EDMs with Entity SQL     712 Mapping Stored Procedures     712 Introducing the Code First Approach     716 Summary     727 Chapter 27: Manipulating XML Documents with LINQ and XML Literals     729 Introducing LINQ to XML     730 Writing XML Markup in VB with XML Literals     735 Summary     743 Part V: Building Windows Desktop Applications Chapter 28: Creating WPF Applications     745 What Is WPF?      746 Introducing the WPF Architecture     747 Building WPF Applications with Visual Studio 2015     749 Understanding the eXtensible Application Markup Language     751 Understanding Visual Tree and Logical Tree     757 Handling Events in WPF     759 Arranging Controls with Panels     762 Managing Windows     770 Introducing the Application Object     772 Brief Overview of WPF Browser Applications     774 Live Visual Tree     777 Summary     778 Chapter 29: WPF Common Controls     779 Introducing WPF Controls Features     779 Understanding the ContentControl     780 Understanding Common Controls     781 Using Common Dialogs     809 Summary     810 Chapter 30: Brushes, Styles, Templates, and Animations in WPF     811 Introducing Brushes     812 Introducing Styles     828 Introducing Control Templates     833 Introducing Transformations     836 Introducing Animations     840 Summary     849 Chapter 31: Manipulating Media and Documents     851 Viewing Images     851 Playing Media     853 Manipulating Documents     857 Viewing XPS Documents     866 Summary     867 Chapter 32: Introducing Data-Binding     869 Introducing the Data-Binding in WPF     869 Discussing the Drag and Drop Data-Binding     876 Summary     900 Chapter 33: Localizing Applications     901 Introducing .NET Localization     902 Introducing the Multilingual App Toolkit     902 Windows Forms Localization     903 WPF Localization     906 Summary     908 Part VI: Building Web and Mobile Applications Chapter 34: Building and Publishing ASP.NET Web Applications     909 Introducing the ASP.NET Model     910 Web Forms and Master Pages     914 ASP.NET Controls     917 Handling Events     919 Understanding State Management     920 Creating a Web Application with VB 2015 with Data Access and Pages     923 Publishing ASP.NET Web Applications     940 Summary     949 Chapter 35: Building and Deploying Applications for Microsoft Azure     951 Overview of the Microsoft Azure Platform     951 Registering for Microsoft Azure     953 Downloading and Installing Tools for Visual Studio     954 Introducing the Management Portal     954 Creating a SQL Azure Database     955 Creating an ASP.NET Application for the Cloud     961 Deploying Applications to Microsoft Azure     964 A Step Further: Web Roles and Worker Roles     967 Additional Tools     970 Summary     972 Chapter 36: Building Universal Apps for Windows 10     973 Introducing Universal Windows Apps     974 Introducing the Universal Windows Platform     975 Registering with the Windows Store     976 Installing the Developer Tools     976 Creating Apps with Visual Basic     977 Customizing the Application Manifest     998 Starting and Debugging Universal Windows Apps     1002 Creating and Testing App Packages     1009 Submitting Apps to the Store     1010 Summary     1011 Part VII: Networking and Exposing Data Through Networks Chapter 37: Creating and Consuming WCF Services     1013 Introducing Windows Communication Foundation     1014 Implementing WCF Services     1015 Consuming WCF Services     1024 Handling Exceptions in WCF     1030 Hosting WCF Services in Internet Information Services and Microsoft Azure     1031 Configuring Services with the Configuration Editor     1033 Summary     1034 Chapter 38: Implementing and Consuming OData Services     1035 What Are OData Services?      1035 Creating an OData Endpoint     1036 Consuming OData Services     1060 Implementing and Consuming Functions     1068 Summary     1071 Part VIII: Advanced .NET Framework with VB 2015 Chapter 39: Serialization     1073 Objects Serialization     1074 XML Serialization     1081 Custom Serialization     1083 Serialization with XAML     1086 Serialization in Windows Communication Foundation     1088 Serialization in the ADO.NET Entity Framework     1091 Summary     1092 Chapter 40: Processes and Multithreading     1095 Managing Processes     1096 Introducing Multithreading     1098 Understanding the .NET Thread Pool     1099 Threads Synchronization     1101 Summary     1104 Chapter 41: Parallel Programming and Parallel LINQ     1105 Introducing Parallel Computing     1106 Understanding and Using Tasks     1107 Parallel Loops     1116 Debugging Tools for Parallel Tasks     1122 Concurrent Collections     1124 Introducing Parallel LINQ     1128 Summary     1137 Chapter 42: Asynchronous Programming     1139 Overview of Asynchrony     1140 The Old-Fashioned Way: Event-Based Asynchrony     1140 The Old-Fashioned Way: The Asynchronous Programming Model     1142 The Modern Way: The Async Pattern     1143 Getting Started with Async/Await     1147 Exception Handling in Async     1161 Implementing Task-Based Asynchrony     1161 Cancellation and Progress     1165 Asynchronous Lambda Expressions     1170 Asynchronous I/O File Operations in .NET 4.6     1171 Debugging Tasks     1175 Summary     1176 Chapter 43: Working with Assemblies     1177 Assembly Overview     1177 Understanding Application Domains     1179 Security Model in .NET 4.6     1182 Summary     1189 Chapter 44: Reflection     1191 Introducing Reflection     1191 Understanding Assemblies’ Metadata     1192 Getting Assembly Information     1194 Reflecting Types     1196 Invoking Code Dynamically     1204 Generating Code at Runtime with Reflection.Emit     1206 Caller Information     1212 Summary     1215 Chapter 45: Coding Attributes     1217 Applying Attributes     1217 Coding Custom Attributes     1220 Reflecting Attributes     1225 Summary     1226 Chapter 46: Platform Invokes and Interoperability with the COM Architecture     1229 Importing and Using COM Objects     1230 Catching Exceptions     1233 Releasing COM Objects     1233 Calling COM Objects from WPF     1234 P/Invokes and Unmanaged Code     1237 References to the Win32 API Calls     1244 Summary     1244 Chapter 47: Documenting Source Code with XML Comments     1245 Understanding XML Comments     1246 Implementing XML Comments     1248 Generating Compiled Help Files     1258 Summary     1259 Part IX: Applications Deployment Chapter 48: Understanding the Global Assembly Cache     1261 The Dll Hell Problem     1261 The Global Assembly Cache     1263 Summary     1267 Chapter 49: Setup and Deployment Projects with InstallShield for Visual Studio     1269 Windows Installer Overview     1270 Introducing InstallShield     1271 Creating a Setup Project     1272 Configuring the Setup Project     1283 Building and Deploying the Windows Installer Package     1285 Summary     1285 Chapter 50: Deploying Applications with ClickOnce     1287 Introducing ClickOnce     1287 Deploying Applications with ClickOnce     1289 Configuring ClickOnce     1294 Security Considerations     1299 Programmatically Accessing ClickOnce     1301 Registration-Free COM     1302 Summary     1304 Part X: Code Analysis with VB 2015 Chapter 51: Code Analysis: The .NET Compiler Platform and Tools     1305 Live Code Analysis with the .NET Compiler Platform     1306 Calculating Code Metrics     1349 Diagnostic Tools and IntelliTrace     1351 Code Clone Detection     1359 Summary     1361 Appendix A: Useful Resources and Tools for Visual Basic 2015     1363 Visual Basic Resources in MSDN     1363 Useful Developer Tools for Visual Basic     1364 Index     1367 Online-Only Chapters Chapter 52: Advanced IDE Features Chapter 53: Testing Code with Unit Tests and Test-Driven Development