Build Your Own ASP.NET 2.0 Web Site Using C# & VB, Second Edition

Introducing ASP.NET and the

.NET Platform

1

ASP.NET is one of the most exciting web development technologies on offer

today. When Microsoft released the first version a few years ago, many web de-

velopers thought all their dreams had come true. Here was a powerful platform

with lots of built-in functionality, astonishing performance levels, and one of the

best IDEs (Integrated Development Environments) around: Visual Studio. What

more could anyone want? Indeed, ASP.NET showed the way for the faster, easier,

and more disciplined development of dynamic web sites, and the results were

impressive.

Time has passed, and ASP.NET has grown. ASP.NET 2.0 comes with extraordin-

ary new features as well as an expanded and more powerful underlying framework.

Not only that, but the basic versions of all development tools, including Visual

Web Developer 2005 Express Edition and SQL Server 2005 Express Edition, are

free!

This book shows you how to use all these technologies together in order to produce

fantastic results. We’ll take you step by step through each task, showing you how

to get the most out of each technology and tool. Developers who have already

worked with earlier versions of ASP.NET will find that the latest version has

changed so much that entire chapters of this book are devoted to ASP.NET 2.0-

specific features.

Let’s begin!