Programming ASP.NET 3.5, 4th Edition

Creating Your First Web Page

It wouldn’t be polite if we didn’t bid a fond farewell to our old ASP.NET development tools, so your first coding effort in VS2008 will be a web page that displays the words “Goodbye Visual Studio 2005,” which change to “Hello Visual Studio 2008” when you click a button next to the text.

To begin, start VS2008 and choose File → New Web Site from the menu bar (or press Shift-Alt-N). The New Web Site dialog opens, offering a number of options, as shown in Figure 2-2.

The unnamed drop down at the top right of the window allows you to select which version of the .NET Framework you want the website to use—a new feature in VS2008. This simple example will work with any version, so leave it set to .NET Framework 3.5.

In the Templates window, choose ASP.NET Web Site.

Tip

The examples in this book will always assume that you start with the ASP.NET Web Site template, except for Chapter 16, which uses the two web service templates. The ASP.NET Reports Web Site template is used with the Crystal Reports application, which is not covered in this book.

Below the list of templates is a set of controls for setting the location and language for your website.

The first drop down, Location, allows you to work on web apps in three different manners, from three different locations: File System, HTTP, and FTP. The choice here controls much more than just a physical location, as you can read in the upcoming “Website Locations” sidebar. Leave it as File System and then use the Browse ...