Introduction to ASP.

NET
Some references:
Beginning ASP.NET using VB.NET; Wrox; 2002 chpt 2. Kalata, K, Introduction to ASP.NET 2002, chpt 1. Esposito, D. Programming Microsoft ASP.NET, chpt 1. Morrison, M. and Morrison, J. Database driven web sites (2nd edn). Chpt 6. VS.NET on line documentation + Quickstart tutorials

What is ASP.NET and how is different from ASP

ASP: server side technology for creating dynamic web pages using scripting languages eg vb script. ASP.NET: server side technology for creating dynamic web pages using Fully Fledged programming languages supported by .NET VB.NET: our chosen language for writing ASP.NET pages

What is .NET?

A Microsoft strategy and new technology for delivering software services to the desktop and to the web Components include:
MS Intermediate Language; all code is complied into a more abstract,

trimmed version before execution. All .NET languages are compiled to MSIL the common language of .NET The CLR- common language runtime; responsible for executing MSIL code; interfaces to Windows and IIS A rich set of libraries (Framework Class Libraries) available to all .NET languages The .NET languages such as C#, VB.NET etc that conform to CLR ASP.NET is how the Framework is exposed to the web, using IIS to manage simple pages of code so that they can be complied into full .NET programs. These generate HTML for the browser.

Built on open protocols (XML, SOAP) Future for development of MS & non-MS based systems. Also heading towards the Internet Operating System

Common Language Runtime Type System

Compilers use the runtime type system to produce type compatible components Components

C#

VB

C++

Compilers

Common Type System

Runtime Environment

Robust And Secure

Native code compilation

MSIL No interpreter Install-time or run-time IL to native compilation

Code correctness and type-safety

IL can be verified to guarantee type-safety No unsafe casts, no uninitialized variables, no out-of-bounds array indexing

Evidence-based security

Policy grants permissions based on evidence (signatures, origin)

.NET Execution Model

VB VC ... Script

Native Code

IL

Common Language Runtime

Standard JIT Compiler

Native Code

Common Language Runtime

Lightweight Just-in-time compiler:
MSIL to Native machine language; Can be ported to numerous platforms

The compiled code is transformed into an intermediate language called the Microsoft Intermediate Language (MSIL or IL) An integer in Visual Basic .NET or an int in C# are converted to the same .NET data type, which is Int32 The IL that is created is the same for all languages The assembly is the compiled .NET program The assembly contains the IL along with additional information called metadata Metadata contains information about the assembly Use the IL Disassembler (ildasm.exe) to view the IL within an assembly

Framework Overview
VB C++ C# JScript

Common Language Specification

Visual Studio.NET Web Forms (ASP.NET)

Win Forms

Data and XML

Base Class Library

Common Language Runtime

.NET Framework Architecture

System.Web Web Services Web Forms System.WinForms Controls Drawing

ASP.NET Application Services

Windows Application Services

System Base Framework ADO.NET IO XML Net SQL Security Threading ServiceProcess

Common Language Runtime Type System Metadata Execution

Namespace
The base class libraries are organized into logical groupings of code called namespaces A namespace is a hierarchical way to identify resources in .NET The System object is at the top of the namespace hierarchy, and all objects inherit from it
ASP.NET: System.Web namespace WebForms: System.Web.UI namespace HTML Server Controls: System.Web.UI.Control.HTMLControl ASP.NET Server Controls: System.Web.UI.Control.WebControl

Importing Namespaces
Visual Studio .NET adds references to your projects commonly used namespaces by default You can import the namespaces into your page using the @Import directive The following is the syntax for importing a .NET namespace
<%@ Import NamespaceName %>

Below is a sample of how you would import the ASP.NET Page class
<%@ Imports System.Web.UI.Page %>

Some ASP.NET namespaces

System System.Collections System.IO System.Web Defines fundamental data types eg system.string Definitions and classes for creating various collections File reading & writing operations

Support browser/server communication System.Web.UI Creates the Page object whenever an .aspx page is requested System.Web.UI.web Classes and definitions to create controls server controls

ASP.NET class browser

ASP.NET provides a means of exposing the .NET Framework and its functionality to the WWW Contains a number of pre-built types that take input from .NET types and represents them in a form for the web (such as HTML) Class browser (over 9000 classes; lists the namespaces): http://interdev.csse.monash.edu.au/quickstart/aspp lus/samples/classbrowser/vb/classbrowser.aspx

ASP.NET
The latest version of ASP is known as ASP.NET Visual Studio .NET is a developer application used to create ASP.NET Web applications There are two main types of Web resources created with ASP.NET applications
WebForms are ASP.NET pages within an ASP.NET application Web Services are ASP.NET Web pages that contain publicly exposed code so that other applications can interact with them Web Services are identified with the file extension .asmx

WebForms
The ASP.NET WebForm is separated into two logical areas:
The HTML template A collection of code behind the WebForm

The HTML template

Contains the design layout, content, and the controls Creates the user interface, or presentation layer Instructs the browser how to format the Web page Is created using a combination of HTML controls, HTML Server controls, Mobile Controls, and ASP.NET controls

Server Controls
HTML Server controls are similar to the HTML controls, except they are processed by the server Add runat = "server" to the HTML control to transform it into an HTML Server control HTML control: <input type="text"> HTML Server control:
<input type="text" runat="server"/> <input type=radio runat=server value=Yes/> Yes

Server-side programs can interact with the control before it is rendered as a plain HTML control and sent to the browser

ASP.NET Controls
ASP.NET form controls will create the HTML code ASP.NET Server controls are organized as:
ASP.NET Form Controls Data Validation Controls User Controls Mobile Controls

ASP.NET controls are usually identified with the prefix asp: followed by the name of the control ASP.NET button:
<asp:Button id="ShowBtn" runat="server" Text="Show the message." />

HTML Server Vs ASP.NET Server, Controls

ASP.NET form controls can interact with clientside events such as when the user clicks on a button
When the event occurs, ASP.NET can trigger a script to run on the server

ASP.NET form controls also have different properties than their HTML server control counterparts
HTML Server label control
Message1.InnerHTML = "Product 1"

ASP server label control

Message2.Text = "Product 2"

User Controls
User controls are external files that can be included within another WebForm User controls allow you to reuse code across multiple files For example, you can create a user control that displays the a navigation bar You can use this control on the home page; they are often used for creating self-contained code, headers, menus, and footers User controls replace the functionality of ASP server-side include pages They are identified with the file extension .asmx

Other ASP.NET Server Controls

Data validation controls
A series of controls that validate form data without extensive JavaScript programming

Mobile controls
A series of controls that provide form functionality within wireless and mobile devices

Literal controls
Page content that is not assigned to a specific HTML control such as a combination of HTML tags and text to the browser

Server Controls within Visual Studio .NET

In Visual Studio .NET most of the ASP.NET Server controls are located on the Web Forms tab in the toolbox

Server controls with Visual Studio.NET

The Code Behind

Server programs are written in a separate file known as the code behind the page By separating the programming logic and presentation layer, the application becomes easier to maintain Only Server controls can interact with the code behind the page
Written in any ASP.NET compatible language such as Visual Basic .NET, C#, Perl, or Java Filename is the same as the WebForm filename Add a file extension that identifies the language
Visual Basic .NET use .vb (mypage.aspx.vb) C# use .cs (mypage.aspx.cs)

Code Behind file

The location of the code behind the page is determined via a property that is set on the first line in the page using the @Page directive
<%@ Page Language="vb" Codebehind="WebForm1.vb" Inherits=MyFirstApp.WebForm1"%>

The @Page directive allows you to set the default properties for the entire page such as the default language The CodeBehind property identifies the path and filename of the code behind file The Inherits property indicates that the code behind the page inherits the page class This page class contains the compiled code for this page

Compiling the Page Class

The compiled code behind the page is the class definition for the page
A class is a named logical grouping of code The class definition contains the functions, methods, and properties that belong to that class

In Visual Studio .NET the process of compiling a class is called building

When you build the application, you compile the code into an executable file Visual Studio .NET compiles the code behind the page into an executable file and places the file in the bin directory

Page Class Events

The Page Class consists of a variety of methods, functions, and properties that can be accessed within the code behind the page The first time a page is requested by a client, a series of page events occurs The first page event is the Page_Init event which initializes the page control hierarchy The Page_Load event loads any server controls into memory and occurs every time the page is executed

Page class events

Page_init Page_load Server_Controls Page_prerender Page_Unload

Web Services
Web Services also provide a means to expose .NET functionality on the web but Web Services expose functionality via XML and SOAP (cf: function calls over the web)

 If your business partner is Course Technology and you want to query that companys product catalog from your Web site, you could:
Post a link Scrape a Web site (use a program to view a Web site and capture the source code) Provide a Web Service to their catalog application

Web Services

Web Services are used to create business-tobusiness applications

Web Services allow you to expose part or all of your programs over the Internet. The Web Service source file has the extension .asmx A public registry known as UDDI contains registered public Web Services. Third party Web Services are available at http://www.xmethods.com

How ASP.NET works

When .NET is installed, IIS is configured to look for files with the .aspx extension and to use the ASP.NET module (aspnet_isapi.dll) to handle them. ASP.NET parses the .aspx file and arranges it in a predefined class definition and generates an asp.net page object. The page object generates html that is sent back to IIS and then the browser. NOTE: only .aspx files are parsed (if it is pure html dont save it as an aspx file as it will slow down the server.

ASP.NET samples
Page directives: <%@ page language = VB debug="true" trace="true %> <script language = VB runat=server> VB.NET code declarations .. </script> Message.aspx
<html> <head> <title>Inserting ASP.NET code Example</title> </head> <body> Line1: First HTML Line<br /> Line2: Second HTML Line<br /> Line3: Third HTML Line<br /> </body> </html> Note this has no asp code so better to use .html extension

 Message2.aspx
<script language="VB" runat="server"> Sub Page_Load() Response.Write ("First ASP.NET Line<br />") Response.Write ("Second ASP.NET Line<br />") Response.Write ("Third ASP.NET Line<br />") End Sub </script> <html> <head> <title>Inserting ASP.NET code Example</TITLE> </head> <body> Line1: First HTML Line<br /> Line2: Second HTML Line<br /> Line3: Third HTML Line<br /> </body> </html>

 Message3.aspx
html> <head><title>Inserting ASP.NET code Example</title></head> <body> Line1: First HTML Line<br /> Line2: Second HTML Line<br /> Line3: Third HTML Line<br /> <script language="VB" runat="server"> Sub Page_Load() Response.Write ("First ASP.NET Line<br />") Response.Write ("Second ASP.NET Line<br />") Response.Write ("Third ASP.NET Line<br />") End Sub </script> </body> </html>

Render or inline code block interweave1.aspx <html>

<head> <title>Interweaving ASP.NET code and HTML Example</title> </head> <body> Line1: First HTML Line<br /> <% Response.Write ("First ASP.NET Line<br />") %> Line2: Second HTML Line<br /> <% Response.Write ("Second ASP.NET Line<br />") %> Line3: Third HTML Line<br /> <% Response.Write ("Third ASP.NET Line<br />") %> </body> </html> NOT RECOMMENDED.

Interweave2.aspx A Server control

script language="VB" runat="server"> Sub Page_Load() Message.Text="The ASP.NET line" End Sub </script> <html> <head> <title>Inserting ASP.NET code Example</TITLE> </head> <body> First HTML Line<br/> <asp:label id=Message runat="server"/> <br /> Second HTML Line<br/> </body> </html>

Web application project files

AssemblyInfo.vb Info about the compiled project file stored in /bin and named project.dll

Global.asax
Global.asax.resx

Global.asax.vb

Project.sln Project.suo
Project.vbproj

Event handler commands visible to all web forms in a project Define application resources such as text strings, images. Can change without recompiling project. Asp.net code for application events eg session.start Stores links to all project files VS.NET IDE configuration info for the proj.
Configuration and build settings for project files.

Web application project files cont.

Project.vbproj.webinfo Project.vsdisco URL to project web server Enables search for web services

Styles.css Web.config Webform.aspx Webform.aspx.resx

Webform.aspx.vb

Project style sheet Project and folder configuration information Web form .aspx file;Html Resources in corresponding web form
Code written for the form (code behind)

Bin\project.dll
Bin\project.pdb

Compiled project output file (assembly)

Debugging information used by developer

Viewing the Assembly

Create a simple class, compile the class into an assembly, then view the class using the IL Disassembler Open Notepad and type the code shown:
' hello.vb - displays hello world ' Created 06/01/2002 Imports System Public Module Hello Sub Main() Dim s1 As String = "1 - Hello World" Console.WriteLine(s1) End Sub End Module ' Run this at the command line ' vbc hello.vb

Using the ILDASM to View the Assembly and Classes

Using the ILDASM to view the assembly and classes

Examples
quickstart webforms
Intro4 shows VIEWSTATE Intro6 shows a click event Intro7 shows a usercontrol with a calander Intro8 shows a db connection Intro9 & 10 show asp.net templates Intro11shows validation controls Intro13 shows code behind pages

Server directives eg trace and debug

trace

The lab environment.

Each machine is set up to be an IIS server http://localhost:1900/.. You create your web projects with Visual Studio.Net. VS.NET will create a subdirectory in c:/inetpub/wwwroot for your project. You must copy this subdirectory when moving to another machine or home. URL
http://localhost:1900/MyfirstApp/homepage.aspx

Alternative to VS.Net is webmatrix Some samples on another machine

http://interdev.csse.monash.edu.au/cse2030/ Interdev is not accessible outside the Monash network.

ASP.NET Vs PHP
Feature PHP ASP.NET

HTML
CSS php Templates
ServerControls (buttons,grids etc)

Yes
Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes No No

Yes
Yes UserControls Yes Yes + Validation controls Yes Yes Yes Yes

Javascript Database Conn

Cookies & Sessions

VIEWSTATE POSTBACK