Introduction

Simply put, ASP.NET 2.0 is an amazing release! When ASP.NET 1.0 was introduced in 2000, many considered it a revolutionary leap forward in the area of Web application development. We believe ASP.NET 2.0 is just as exciting and revolutionary. Although the foundation of ASP.NET was laid with the release of

ASP.NET 1.0, ASP.NET 2.0 builds on this foundation by focusing on the area of developer productivity. ASP.NET 2.0 brings with it a staggering number of new technologies built into the ASP.NET framework. After reading this book, you will see just how busy the ASP.NET team has been in the past few years. The number of classes inside ASP.NET has more than doubled, and this release contains more than 50 new server controls!

This book covers these new built-in technologies. It not only introduces new topics, it also shows you examples of these new technologies in action. So sit back, pull up that keyboard, and let’s have some fun

What You Need for ASP.NET 2.0

You might find it best to install Visual Studio 2005 to work through the examples in this book; you can, however, just use Microsoft’s Notepad and the command-line compilers that come with the .NET Framework 2.0. To work through every example in this book, you need the following:
+ Windows Server 2003, Windows 2000, or Windows XP
+ Visual Studio 2005
+ SQL Server 2000 or 2005
+ Microsoft Access or SQL Server Express Edition

The nice thing is that you are not required to have Microsoft Internet Information Services (IIS) to work with ASP.NET 2.0 because this release of ASP.NET includes a built-in Web server based on the previously released Microsoft Cassini technology. And if you don’t have SQL Server, don’t be alarmed. Many examples that use this database can be altered to work with Microsoft Access.

Who Should Read This Book?

+ This book was written to introduce you to the new features and capabilities that ASP.NET 2.0 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 shouldn’t 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 2.0 by Chris Hart, John Kauffman, Dave Sussman, and Chris Ullman (published by Wrox; with VB code: ISBN: 0-7645-8850-8; or with C# code: 0-470-04258-3) 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’re happy to say that it’s for both! When the code differs substantially, this book provides examples in both VB and C#.

What inlcuded in the download file.
1. CHM file.
2. Sources.
3. Errata