Beginning ASP.NET Web Pages with WebMatrix®

Chapter 7

Packages

What you will learn in this chapter:

• What packages are
• How to use the Package Manager
• The ASP.NET Web Helpers Library
• The FileUpload helper in detail
• Other notable packages

The .NET Framework is extraordinarily extensive. It contains thousands of classes that provide a huge range of functionality to cover simple and common programming needs. On top of the Base Class Library (the BCL), people have created thousands of Open Source projects to cater to more complex tasks. These libraries cover a wide range of functionality, such as generating PDF files, error logging, data access, blogging frameworks, and so on. They have been designed to save you time because you don’t have to write your own code, and they are completely free. However, locating and installing such libraries can be difficult. There are a number of Open Source repositories where you might find them, or you might stumble across the source code or libraries on someone’s website in a dimly lit corner of the Internet. Once you find what you are looking for, you need to download it, unzip it, figure out how to incorporate it into your application, and then configure it to get it to work. You might also find that what you downloaded relies on other libraries to work properly. These also need to be located, downloaded, and installed — sometimes in a particular order — to ensure that the entire “package” functions correctly.

Introducing “Packages”

Other development frameworks have offered an easy way ...