Professional Visual Studio® 2008

Chapter 32. ASP.NET Web Applications

When Microsoft released the first version of ASP.NET, one of the most talked-about features was the capability to create full-blown web applications much as Windows applications do. This release introduced the concept of developing feature-rich applications that can run over the Web in a wholly integrated way.

ASP.NET version 2.0, which was released in 2005, was a significant upgrade that included new features such as a provider model for everything from menu navigation to user authentication, more than 50 new server controls, a web portal framework, and built-in web site administration, to name but a few. These enhancements made it even easier to build complex web applications in less time.

The latest version of ASP.NET has continued this trend with several new components and server controls. Perhaps more significant, however, are the improvements that have been added to Visual Studio to make the development of web applications easier. These include enhancements to the HTML Designer, new CSS editing tools, and IntelliSense support for JavaScript. Visual Studio 2008 also includes out-of-the-box support for both Web Application projects and ASP.NET AJAX, which were not available when the previous version was released.

In this chapter you'll learn how to create ASP.NET web applications in Visual Studio 2008, as well as look at many of the web components that Microsoft has included to make your development life a little (and in some cases a lot) ...