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Renowned author Matthew MacDonald combines careful treatment of the API with detailed user-interface design principles. Further, this book incorporates C# and the final beta of .NET 2.0. The result: thorough coverage of Windows Forms and GDI+ namespaces for .NET programmers! You will become equipped to design state-of-the-art Windows interfaces and program graphics, and learn how to create your own controls.

As a developer, you must know more than just how to add a control to a window. You must be able to create an entire user interface framework that's scalable, flexible, and reusable. This book is not a reference manual. Instead, it contains detailed discussions about user interface elements that you’ll use on a regular basis.

Beginning Web Development, Silverlight, and ASP.NET AJAX: From Novice to Professional aims to give you the skills you need to start building web applications with Microsoft’s next–generation technology as quickly as possible. Whether you’re interested in ASP.NET AJAX, Silverlight, or the technologies that support them (WPF, WCF, WF, etc.), this book is the starting point that you need.

It adopts a “zero to hero” approach that concentrates on achieving practical results you can use in real projects rather than presenting a deep academic treatment that can’t be immediately applied.

The aim is to give you, the reader, the knowledge you need to achieve the results you want with the minimum of fuss. When you’ve read this book, you’ll have a solid understand of all the techniques that are available, when to use them, and their relative strengths and weaknesses.

What you’ll learn

• Create next–generation web applications quickly and easily!
• Manipulate data, display information, and communicate with other services using the latest ASP.NET techniques and best practices
• Discover how the .NET 3.0 extensions (WPF, WCF, and WF) can make your web applications faster, more efficient, and easier to code than ever
• Understand how ASP.NET AJAX and Silverlight can be integrated into your ASP.NET websites in order to provide a cutting–edge user interface for your applications and the implications that such interfaces can have

Who this book is for

This book is for anyone with an interest in using Microsoft’s web development technologies.

A basic familiarity with the .NET platform is useful, but anyone with an understanding of a web development language will benefit from the book, as all the key topics are presented from first principles.

An accessible and step-by-step approach to using VB.NET and XML enterprise application development

XML is a tool for interacting with, describing, and transporting data between machines across networks and across the Internet-perfectly suited for Microsoft's .NET plan to fully integrate the Internet into distributed computing. By using real-world and fully-functional examples, this book quickly brings Visual Basic programmers and developers up to speed on XML for enterprise application development. The authors include an overview of XML and how it works with VB.NET, then explain how to use it to manipulate data in distributed environments.

Companion Web site at www.vb-helper.com features the complete working code for all the examples built in the book.

Microsoft Technologies
.NET Platform: The next big overhaul to Microsoft's technologies that will bring enterprise distributed computing to the next level by fully integrating the Internet into the development platform. This will allow interaction between any machine, on any platform, and on any device.

Visual Basic.NET: The update to this popular visual programming language will offer greater Web functionality, more sophisticated object-oriented language features, links to Microsoft's new common runtime, and a new interface.

ASP.NET: A programming framework (formerly known as Active Server Pages) for building powerful Web-based enterprise applications; can be programmed using VB.NET or C#.

C#: Microsoft's new truly object-oriented programming language that builds on the strengths of C++ and the ease of Visual Basic; promises to give Sun's Java a run for its money.

The Book of Visual Studio .NET surveys each .NET server and related technologies, with a focus on Visual Studio 7 (VS7). Hands-on examples cover building forms, data retrieval, moving to COM+, and implementing web services. Other key issues and solutions include upgrading from Visual Basic, source control services, and remoting.

The Microsoft .NET initiative builds on industry standards to make interoperable software services available anywhere, on any device, over the Internet. Behind the initiative is the Microsoft .NET Framework, which combines a managed run-time environment with one of the richest class libraries ever invented to make building and deploying Web-enabled applications easier than ever. Find out how to leverage the full power of the .NET Framework with this definitive, one-stop resource, wri tten by a leading authority in his trademark easy-to-follow, conversational style. You’ll learn about the key programming models embodied in the .NET Framework, including Windows® Forms, Web Forms, and XML Web services. And you’ll benefit from a wealth of how-to examples, code samples, and complete working programs in C#.

Topics covered in this guide include:

• Hello, .NET
• Types and Exceptions
• The .NET Framework Class Library
• Windows Forms
• Web Forms
• Web Controls
• User Controls
• Custom Controls
• Web Applications
• Microsoft ASP.NET Security
• XML Web Services
• Microsoft ADO.NET
• XML
• Multithreading
• Remoting

CD-ROM FEATURES:

• A fully searchable electronic version of the book
• Source code for more than 60 complete sample programs and components written in C#
• The Microsoft .NET Framework SDK, plus Service Pack 1

A Note Regarding the CD or DVD

The print version of this book ships with a CD or DVD. For those customers purchasing one of the digital formats in which this book is available, we are pleased to offer the CD/DVD content as a free download via O'Reilly Media's Digital Distribution services. To download this content, please visit O'Reilly's web site, search for the title of this book to find its catalog page, and click on the link below the cover image (Examples, Companion Content, or Practice Files). Note that while we provide as much of the media content as we are able via free download, we are sometimes limited by licensing restrictions. Please direct any questions or concerns to booktech@oreilly.com.

After an introduction to abstract data types and their initial implementation using structures, Michael McMillan analyzes standard OOP topics, including class design, inheritance, access modifiers and scoping issues, abstract classes, design and implementation of interfaces and design patterns, and refactoring in VB.NET. More advanced OOP topics are covered as well (reflection, object persistence, and serialization.) Finally, he demonstrates OOP techniques for standard Windows applications; for database applications using ADO.NET; for Web-based applications using ASP.NET; and for Windows service applications.

This book was written to introduce you to the features and capabilities that ASP.NET 3.5 offers, as well as to give you an explanation of the foundation that ASP.NET provides. We assume you have a general understanding of Web technologies, such as previous versions of ASP.NET, Active Server Pages 2.0/3.0, or JavaServer Pages. If you understand the basics of Web programming, you should not have much trouble following along with this book's content.

If you are brand new to ASP.NET, be sure to check out Beginning ASP.NET 3.5: In C# and VB by Imar Spaanjaars (Wiley Publishing, Inc., 2008) to help you understand the basics.

In addition to working with Web technologies, we also assume that you understand basic programming constructs, such as variables, For Each loops, and object-oriented programming.

You may also be wondering whether this book is for the Visual Basic developer or the C# developer. We are happy to say that it is for both! When the code differs substantially, this book provides examples in both VB and C#.

This book spends its time reviewing the 3.5 release of ASP.NET. Each major new feature included in ASP.NET 3.5 is covered in detail. The following list tells you something about the content of each chapter.

• Chapter 1, "Application and Page Frameworks." This chapter shows you how to build ASP.NET applications using IIS or the built-in Web server that comes with Visual Studio 2008. This chapter also shows you the folders and files that are part of ASP.NET. It discusses ways to compile code and shows you how to perform cross-page posting. This chapter ends by showing you easy ways to deal with your classes from within Visual Studio 2008.

• Chapters 2, 3, and 4.These three chapters are grouped here because they all deal with server controls. This batch of chapters starts by examining the idea of the server control and its pivotal role in ASP.NET development. In addition to looking at the server control framework, these chapters delve into the plethora of server controls that are at your disposal for ASP.NET development projects.

• Chapter 5, "Working with Master Pages."Master pages are a great capability found in ASP.NET. They provide a means of creating templated pages that enable you to work with the entire application, as opposed to single pages.

• Chapter 6, "Themes and Skins.” This chapter looks at how to deal with the styles that your applications require and shows you how to create a centrally managed look-and-feel for all the pages of your application by using themes and the skin files that are part of a theme.

• Chapter 7, "Data Binding in ASP.NET 3.5.” One of the more important tasks of ASP.NET is presenting data, and this chapter shows you how to do that with ASP.NET controls.

• Chapter 8, "Data Management with ADO.NET.” This chapter presents the ADO.NET data model provided by ASP.NET, which allows you to handle the retrieval, updating, and deleting of data quickly and logically.

• Chapter 9, "Querying with LINQ." LINQ is a set of extensions to the .NET Framework that encompass language-integrated query, set, and transform operations. This chapter introduces you to LINQ and how to use this new feature in web applications today.

• Chapter 10, "Working with XML and LINQ to XML." This chapter looks at the XML technologies built into ASP.NET and the underlying .NET Framework to help you easily extract, create, manipulate, and store XML..

• Chapter 11, "IIS7." Probably the most substantial release of IIS in its history, IIS 7.0 will change the way you host and work with your ASP.NET applications.

• Chapter 12, "Introduction to the Provider Model." A number of systems are built into ASP.NET that make the lives of developers so much easier and more productive than ever before. These systems are built upon an architecture called a provider model, which is rather extensible. This chapter gives an overview of this provider model and how it is used throughout ASP.NET 3.5.

• Chapter 13, "Extending the Provider Model." This chapter looks at some of the ways to extend the provider model found in ASP.NET 3.5. This chapter also reviews a couple of sample extensions to the provider model.

• Chapter 14, "Site Navigation." Many developers do not simply develop single pages—they build applications. One of the application capabilities provided by ASP.NET 3.5 is the site navigation system covered in this chapter.

• Chapter 15, "Personalization.". The ASP.NET team developed a way to store end user information—the ASP.NET personalization system.

• Chapter 16, "Membership and Role Management." This chapter covers the membership and role management system developed to simplify adding authentication and authorization to your ASP.NET applications. This chapter focuses on using the web.config file for controlling how these systems are applied, as well as on the server controls that work with the underlying systems.

• Chapter 17, "Portal Frameworks and Web Parts." This chapter explains Web Parts—a way of encapsulating pages into smaller and more manageable objects.

• Chapter 18, "HTML and CSS Design with ASP.NET." A lot of focus on building a CSS-based Web application was placed on Visual Studio 2008. This chapter takes a close look at how you can effectively work with HTML and CSS design for your ASP.NET applications.

• Chapter 19, "ASP.NET AJAX."AJAX signifies the capability to build applications that make use of the XMLHttpRequest object. New to Visual Studio 2008 is the ability to build AJAX-enabled ASP.NET applications from the default install of the IDE.

• Chapter 20, "ASP.NET AJAX Control Toolkit." This chapter takes a good look at the ASP.NET AJAX Control Toolkit, a series of new controls that are now available to make AJAX web development rather simple.

• Chapter 21, "Security." This security chapter discusses security beyond the membership and role management features provided by ASP.NET 3.5. This chapter provides an in-depth look at the authentication and authorization mechanics inherent in the ASP.NET technology, as well as HTTP access types and impersonations.

• Chapter 22, "State Management." Because ASP.NET is a request-response–based technology, state management and the performance of requests and responses take on significant importance. This chapter introduces these two separate but important areas of ASP.NET development.

• Chapter 23 , "Caching." Because of the request-response nature of ASP.NET, caching on the server becomes important to the performance of your ASP.NET applications. This chapter looks at some of the advanced caching capabilities provided by ASP.NET, including the SQL cache invalidation feature which is part of ASP.NET 3.5.

• Chapter 24, "Debugging and Error Handling." This chapter tells you how to properly structure error handling within your applications. It also shows you how to use various debugging techniques to find errors that your applications might contain.

• Chapter 25, "File I/O and Streams." More often than not, you want your ASP.NET applications to work with items that are outside the base application. This chapter takes a close look at working with various file types and streams that might come into your ASP.NET applications.

• Chapter 26, "User and Server Controls." This chapter describes building your own server controls and how to use them within your applications.

• Chapter 27, "Modules and Handlers." This chapter looks at two methods of manipulating the way ASP.NET processes HTTP requests: HttpModule and HttpHandler. Each method provides a unique level of access to the underlying processing of ASP.NET and can be powerful tools for creating web applications.

• Chapter 28, "Using Business Objects." You are going to have components created with previous technologies that you do not want to rebuild but that you do want to integrate into new ASP.NET applications. Beyond showing you how to integrate your COM components into your applications, this chapter shows you how to build newer style .NET components instead of turning to the previous COM component architecture.

• Chapter 29, "Building and Consuming Services." This chapter reveals the ease not only of building XML Web services, but consuming them in an ASP.NET application. This chapter then ventures further by describing how to build XML Web services that utilize SOAP headers and how to consume this particular type of service.

• Chapter 30, "Localization." ASP.NET provides an outstanding way to address the internationalization of Web applications. This chapter looks at some of the important items to consider when building your Web applications for the world.

• Chapter 31, "Configuration." This chapter teaches you to modify the capabilities and behaviors of ASP.NET using the various configuration files at your disposal.

• Chapter 32, "Instrumentation." The ASP.NET framework includes performance counters, the capability to work with the Windows Event Tracing system, possibilities for application tracing , and the most exciting part of this discussion—a health monitoring system that allows you to log a number of different events over an application's lifetime.

• Chapter 33, "Administration and Management." This chapter provides an overview of the new GUI tools that come with APS.NET that enable you to manage your Web applications easily and effectively.

• Chapter 34, "Packaging and Deploying ASP.NET Applications." This chapter takes the application building process one-step further and shows you how to package your ASP.NET applications for easy deployment.

• Appendix A, "Migrating Older ASP.NET Projects." This appendix focuses on migrating ASP.NET 1.x, or 2.0 applications to the 3.5 framework.

• Appendix B, "ASP.NET Ultimate Tools." Based on Scott Hanse...

Much of the publicity around .NET has focused on using .NET to build Webbased applications. Many developers, however, are using .NET to build traditional Windows-based applications. Microsoft has provided a package called Windows Forms, or WinForms, which makes the development of these apps easier and faster than ever. Chris Sells has written the definitive book to help experienced Microsoft developers master the use of this powerful toolkit. Based on the experience he has gained developing with and teaching WinForms for the last two years, he goes beyond other books currently on the market. Chris has a critically acclaimed writing style that allows him to keep the material concise and easy to follow. He concentrates on what you won't find in the documentation, giving developers the information they really need. Reviewers are already calling this "the best WinForms book around", "the definitive book for every Windows Programmer", and "without a doubt the best and most useful C#/WinFOrms book I have ever read." We will be publishing a Visual Basic .NET version later this year.

Entity Framework 4.0 Recipes provides an exhaustive collection of ready-to-use code solutions for Entity Framework, Microsoft’s vision for the future of data access. Entity Framework is a model-centric data access platform with an ocean of new concepts and patterns for developers to learn. With this book, you will learn the core concepts of Entity Framework through a broad range of clear and concise solutions to everyday data access tasks. Armed with this experience, you will be ready to dive deep into Entity Framework, experiment with new approaches, and develop ways to solve even the most difficult data access challenges. If you are a developer who likes to learn by example, then this is the right book for you.

• Gives ready-to-use, real-world recipes to help you with everyday tasks
• Provides guideposts for learning core concepts
• Maps out key landmarks for experimenting with your own solutions

What you’ll learn

• Solve the most common data access problems using Entity Framework.
• Implement basic data access design patterns using Entity Framework.
• Seamlessly model your solutions across both code and data.
• Improve data access performance.
• Use data binding to simplify and reduce your code.
• Leverage the recipes to empower your own exploration of Entity Framework.

Who this book is for

This book is for anyone learning Microsoft’s Entity Framework—Microsoft’s primary data access platform. If you have ever struggled to learn a new technology, programming model, or way of doing something, you know how helpful simple, real-world examples can be. For the beginning developer, this book provides concrete examples for common data access tasks. For developers with experience with previous Microsoft access platforms, this book provides a task-by-task mapping between previous approaches and the patterns used in Entity Framework.

Table of Contents

1. Getting Started With Entity Framework
2. Entity Data Modeling Fundamentals
3. Querying an Entity Data Model
4. Using Entity Framework in ASP.NET
5. Loading Entities and Navigation Properties
6. Beyond the Basics with Modeling and Inheritance
7. Working with Object Services
8. Plain Old CLR Objects
9. Using the Entity Framework in N-Tier Applications
10. Stored Procedures
11. Functions
12. Customizing Entity Framework Objects
13. Improving Performance
14. Concurrency
15. Advanced Modeling

With over 60,000 copies sold since its first edition, this SitePoint best-seller has just had a fresh update to include recent advances in the web industry.

With the first two editions coming highly recommended by established, leading web designers and developers, the third edition with all its extra goodies will continue that trend. Also fully updated to include the latest operating systems, web browsers and providing fixes to issues that have cropped up since the last edition.

Readers will learn to:

• Style text and control your page layout with CSS
• Create and Optimize graphics for the Web
• Add interactivity to your sites with forms
• Include a custom search, contact us page, and a News/Events section on your site
• Track visitors with Google Analytics
• Extend your reach and connect your site with Social Media
• Use HTML5&CSS3 to add some cool, polished features to your site
• Use diagnosis/debug tools to find any problems

And lots more.