Introduction

ASP.Net provides the most powerful environment for development of sophisticated, real-life business applications. It was only natural for us to get sucked into the vortex of the exciting opportunity that this language provides, to satiate our technical appetite. This book presents a realistic tableau of the vast repertoire of features of the ASP.Net language. We have scythed through the maze of technological jargon to present to you, in a simple yet comprehensive manner, all the salient features of the language.

The book commences with the assumption that you are a programming tyro, with no previous knowledge of ASP.Net or C#. It however, expects you to have a working knowledge of the Hyper Text Markup Language (HTML). The book covers the length and breadth of the ASP.Net framework. Since the C# language has been used for programming, the fundamentals of this language have also been covered.

The book begins with the basics of the ASP.Net and C#. Thereafter, it moves on to the built-in controls of ASP.Net. Next, it demonstrates how you can build your own custom controls. The text then veers on to the concepts of the built-in C# classes, and shows you how to build your own custom classes. It also covers the myriad aspects of handling databases, advanced concepts of controls, mysteries of Cookies, CGI Progamming and state management,Web Services and finally a Class Browser Application. It finally winds up with a peek into the security issues of designing an Internet application using ASP.Net. Thus, you’ll be able to appreciate, that a vast array of technical concepts of ASP.Net have been covered by this book.

This book is teeming with examples and explanations that discuss each concept threadbare. The various disparate concepts have been woven together to create a beautiful tapestry of the ASP.Net language. It has always been our modus operandi to break up large programs into smaller fragments, comprehend each fragment thoroughly and subsequently, synthesize all the fragments together to retrieve the original program. The same strategy has been employed in this book also. Each concept has been substantiated with examples so that you can see how each concept is implemented in real-life applications.

In our books, we have presented examples that emulate a concept supplied in the documentation, or some idea we found on the Internet. However, some of the concepts introduced are purely ours, and thus original. As far as we are concerned, you are free to use our accepted wisdom, as long as someone somewhere in the world benefits from it.

We are sanguine that this book will go a long way in providing ample food for thought, to sate the technological hunger of your minds. We implore you to put in sedulous effort in mastering this language, by reading all the material provided to you in this book with sincerity, and also by trying out all the examples that have been presented. We are confident that on doing so, you will be able to scale dizzying heights in the world of Internet programming.

Requirements

The software requirements to successfully run all the programs in this book are

• Operating System - Windows 2000

• Microsoft IIS ver 5.0

• SQLServer 2000 (Evaluation Edition)

• Internet Explorer 5.5

• .Net Framework SDK Beta 2 (111 MB)

Internet Explorer 5.5 can be downloaded off the Microsoft site

• http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/download/ie55sp1.htm

Net Framework SDK Beta 2 can be downloaded off the Microsoft site

• http://download.microsoft.com/download/VisualStudioNET/Trial/2.0/W982KMeXP/EN-US/setup.exe

Alternatively, you can visit the download section at Microsoft ( http://msdn.microsoft.com/downloads/default.asp ) and download the .Net framework SDK Beta 2 under the Software Development Kit option.

SQLServer 200

While installing the evaluation edition of SQLServer 2000, we have chosen the default selected settings. The only modification made is in the Authentication Dialog Box.

You see two options

• Windows Authentication mode

• Mixed mode (Windows Authentication and SQL Server Mode)

The default option selected is Windows Authentication mode. We have instead selected Mixed mode (Windows Authentication and SQL Server Mode). Once this option is selected, the password text boxes for the ‘sa’ user gets activated. As we would prefer using a blank password in our programs, we select Blank Password. On selecting this option, the text boxes get disabled again.

Acknowledgements

We wish to thank a number of people who gave us their support, new ideas and inspiration while writing this book.

First and foremost, thanks to Manish Jain, BPB Publications for publishing the book.

To my co-authors, Sonal and Neha who have put in a lot of hard work to complete the work assigned to them.

To Tanuja Sodhi, an ex-Naval Officer from the first batch of lady officers and an MBA from Jamnalal Bajaj, for editing the book. She is presently freelancing as a creative writer.

To Altaf Hemani and Kishore Rohra, for designing the cover.

Thanks to Manish Purohit for putting in all the time he had to verify the code with the explanation, testing all the applications in the book and updated them to work under the Release version of the product.

To Pradeep Mukhi and Shivanand Shetty, who have always been there, as a source of inspiration and encouragement.

My Mother, Shana Aunty and a long list of friends need a mention here for their patience and cooperation on this book while it was being written.

Vijay Mukhi