C# 2008 Programmer's Reference

Chapter 17. Developing ASP.NET Web Applications

ASP.NET (Active Server Pages .NET) is a web development technology from Microsoft. Part of the .NET Framework, ASP.NET enables developers to build dynamic web applications and Web Services using compiled languages like VB.NET and C#. Developers can use Visual Studio 2008 to develop compelling web applications using ASP.NET, with the ease of drag-and-drop server controls. The latest version of ASP.NET is version 3.5.

This chapter explains how to:

• Display database records using a server control call GridView

• Perform data binding in an ASP.NET application using the new LinqDataSource control

• AJAX-enable your application by using the new AJAX framework in ASP.NET 3.5 and the AJAX Control Toolkit

• Deploy your web application to a web server

About ASP.NET

In the early days of the web, the contents of web pages were largely static. Pages needed to be constantly — and manually — modified. To create web sites that were dynamic and would update automatically, a number of server-side technologies sprouted up, including Microsoft's Active Server Pages (ASP). ASP executed on the server side, with its output sent to the user's web browser, thus allowing the server to generate dynamic web pages based on the actions of the user.

These server-side technologies are important contributions to the development of the web. Without them, web applications that users are accustomed to today, such as Amazon.com and eBay.com, would not be possible.

Microsoft ASP began ...