ASP.NET Using Visual Basic (VS 2005)

This five-day course provides a comprehensive and practical hands-on introduction to developing Web applications using ASP.NET 2.0 and Visual Basic. It also introduces Web services. ASP.NET is introduced as a new Web programming platform that overcomes a number of limitations of ASP. Its architecture is outlined, including the role of compilation, the Page class and code-behind. Web Forms are introduced, including server controls, viewstate, life cycle, and the event model. Request/response HTTP programming using ASP.NET is covered.

Visual Studio 2005 is used to greatly simplify the development of ASP.NET Web applications, including facilitating UI design. ASP.NET Web applications are covered, including issues of application and session state and the use of cookies. Server controls represent an important innovation in ASP.NET and are covered in detail, including validation, rich controls, and user controls. There is an introduction to caching in ASP.NET, which provides an effective mechanism for optimizing the performance of your ASP.NET application. The fundamentals of configuration and security are introduced. Diagnostics and debugging are covered, including the use of tracing.

Additional server controls are introduced, including menus and master pages. Data access is covered using the powerful data access controls provided by ASP.NET 2.0. There is further discussion of security using membership and roles, and personalization features such as themes, skins and Web parts are introduced. This section of the course is tied together by a progressive case study illustrating a Web site for a publishing company.

The final section of the course introduces the architecture and programming of the HTTP pipelines, database programming using ADO.NET, and concludes with an introduction to creating and consuming Web services.

Numerous programming examples and exercises are provided, including case studies. The student will receive a comprehensive set of notes and all the programming examples.

The student should have a good working knowledge of Visual Basic and the .NET Framework.

On completion of this course, the student should be able to

• Gain a thorough understanding of the philosophy and architecture of Web applications using ASP.NET
• Acquire a working knowledge of Web application development using Web Forms and Visual Studio 2005
• Optimize an ASP.NET Web application using configuration, security, and caching
• Access databases using ASP.NET and ADO.NET
• Use new features in ASP.NET 2.0
• Implement and consume Web services using ASP.NET

This course is designed for experienced application developers and architects responsible for Web applications in a Microsoft environment.

5 Days

Instructor-led course, with practical computer-based exercises.

• 1. Introduction to ASP.NET
  • From ASP to ASP.NET
  • Web Forms
  • Web Services
  • ASP.NET Features
  • ASP.NET 2.0

• 2. Web Forms Architecture
  • Page Class
  • Web Forms Life Cycle
  • Web Forms Event Model
  • Code-Behind

• 3. ASP.NET and HTTP
  • Request/Response Programming
  • HttpRequest Class
  • HTTP Collections
  • HttpResponse Class
  • Redirection
  • HttpUtility Class

• 4. Web Applications Using Visual Studio
  • Using Visual Web Developer
  • Visual Studio Forms Designer
  • Using Components
  • Shadow Copying
  • Using the Global.asax File
  • Data Binding

• 5. State Management and Web Applications
  • Session State
  • Application State
  • Multithreading Issues
  • Cookies

• 6. Server Controls
  • HTML Server Controls
  • Web Forms Server Controls
  • Rich Controls
  • Validation Controls
  • User Controls

• 7. Caching in ASP.NET
  • What Is Caching
  • Page-Level Caching
  • Page Fragment Caching
  • Optimizing Your ASP.NET Application
  • Application Caching

• 8. ASP.NET Configuration and Security Fundamentals
  • Configuration Overview
  • Authentication and Authorization
  • Forms Authentication
  • Windows Authentication
  • Security and ASP.NET

• 9. Debugging, Diagnostics and Error Handling
  • Debugging
  • Application Tracing
  • Page Tracing
  • Error Handling

• 10. More Server Controls
  • New ASP.NET 2.0 Controls
  • Menus
  • Master Pages

• 11. Data Access in ASP.NET 2.0
  • Data Source Controls
  • Connection String Storage
  • GridView
  • DetailsView
  • FormView
  • Object Data Sources

• 12. Personalization and Security
  • Configuration Overview
  • Themes
  • Skins
  • Security in ASP.NET 2.0
  • Membership and Roles
  • Login Controls
  • User Profiles
  • Web Parts

• 13. HTTP Pipeline
  • Pipeline Architecture
  • Context
  • Applications
  • Handlers
  • Modules

• 14. Database Programming Using ADO.NET
  • ADO.NET Overview
  • .NET Data Providers
  • Using DataReaders
  • Using DataSets
  • Data Binding
  • Interacting with XML Data

• 15. Introduction to Web Services
  • Web Services and Remoting
  • XML, SOAP, WSDL
  • Web Services Architecture
  • Proxies
  • Interoperability of Web Services
  • Developing Web Services Using Visual Studio

• Appendix A. Learning Resources

• Appendix B. Configuring IIS for ASP.NET 2.0

The entire course runs using Visual Studio 2005. Alternatively, you can use both Visual Basic 2005 Express Edition and Visual Web Developer 2005 Express Edition. The recommended operating system is Windows XP with Service Pack 2. Internet Information Services and SQL Server 2005 Express Edition should be installed. See the appropriate course Setup Guide for details.

A good minimal hardware profile for this course would have a 1 GHz or better CPU, 256 MB of RAM, and at least 4 GB of free disk space for tools installation and courseware.