Beginning Microsoft® Visual Basic® 2008

Chapter 18. ASP.NET

As we look to the future, the Internet is sure to increase its presence in business. Developers need to gain knowledge of building robust, dynamic web sites. In this chapter, you will learn about building Web Forms applications. You will focus on the basics for web site development and move to database-driven applications. With Visual Studio 2008, you will be building data-driven sites in no time.

Visual Studio 2008 is the best tool for creating ASP.NET sites on the market today. It provides you with the best Intellisense, debugging, and control library to create web sites written in Visual Basic. You can build ASP.NET web sites (sometimes referred to as Web Forms applications), web services and even sites targeted for mobile devices in VS 2008. Also, you do not need IIS or any web server to host your site with VS 2008; ASP.NET Development Server is a built-in web server you can use to host your sites while developing them.

In this chapter, you will:

• Look at a basic overview of web applications (thin-client applications)

• See the advantages of Web Forms versus Windows Forms

• Understand the control toolbox

• Explore client and server processing

• Assess the possible locations for web sites in VS 2008 (IIS and ASP.NET Development Server)

Error handling has been omitted from all of the Try It Outs in this chapter to save space. You should always add the appropriate error handling to your code. Review Chapter 10 for error-handling techniques.

Before you get your first look at the ...