Beginning ASP.NET 4.5.1

Foreword xxv Introduction xxvii Chapter 1: Getting Started with ASP .NET 4.5.1 1 Microsoft Visual Studio Express for Web 2 Getting Visual Studio 3 Installing Visual Studio Express for Web (VSEW) 3 Creating Your First ASP.NET 4.5.1 Website 5 An Introduction to ASP.NET 4.5.1 9 Understanding HTML 10 A First Look at ASP.NET Markup 15 A Tour of the IDE 16 The Main Development Area 16 Informational Windows 22 Customizing the IDE 23 Rearranging Windows 23 Modifying the Toolbox 24 Customizing the Document Window 26 Customizing Toolbars 27 Customizing Keyboard Shortcuts 28 Resetting Your Changes 28 The Sample Application 29 Practical Tips on Visual Studio 30 Summary 31 Chapter 2: Building an ASP .NET Website 33 Creating Websites with Visual Studio 2013 34 Different Project Types 34 Choosing the Right Website Template 35 Creating and Opening a New Website 37 Working with Files in Your Website 41 The Many File Types of an ASP.NET Website 41 Adding Existing Files 44 Organizing Your Site 45 Special File Types 46 Working with Web Forms 47 The Different Views on Web Forms 47 Choosing between Code Behind and Pages with Inline Code 49 Adding Markup to Your Page 54 Connecting Pages 59 Practical Tips on Working with Web Forms 61 Summary 61 Chapter 3: Designing Your Web Pages 63 Why Do You Need CSS? 64 Problems with Using HTML Formatting 64 How CSS Fixes Formatting Problems 65 An Introduction to CSS 65 CSS — The Language 69 The Style Sheet 70 Adding CSS to Your Pages 82 Working with CSS in Visual Studio 84 Using the CSS Editor 85 Creating Embedded and Inline Style Sheets 89 Applying Styles 93 Managing Styles 94 Practical Tips on Working with CSS 97 Summary 97 Chapter 4: Working with ASP .NET Server Controls 101 Introduction to Server Controls 102 A Closer Look at ASP.NET Server Controls 106 Defining Controls in Your Pages 106 Common Properties for All Controls 106 Types of Controls 109 Standard Controls 109 HTML Controls 122 Data Controls 123 Validation Controls 123 Navigation Controls 123 Login Controls 123 Ajax Extensions 124 WebParts 124 Dynamic Data 124 The ASP.NET State Engine 124 What Is State and Why Is It Important? 124 How the State Engine Works 125 Not All Controls Rely on View State 129 A Note about View State and Performance 130 Practical Tips on Working with Controls 131 Summary 132 Chapter 5: Programming Your ASP .NET Web Pages 135 Introduction to Programming 136 Data Types and Variables 137 Converting and Casting Data Types 140 Using Arrays and Collections 142 Statements 147 Operators 147 Making Decisions 155 Loops 162 Organizing Code 167 Methods: Functions and Subroutines 167 The App_Code Folder 169 Organizing Code with Namespaces 173 Writing Comments 176 Object Orientation Basics 178 Important OO Terminology 178 Events 190 Practical Tips on Programming 191 Summary 192 Chapter 6: Creating Consistent Looking Websites 195 Consistent Page Layout with Master Pages 196 Creating Master Pages 198 Creating Content Pages 200 Using a Centralized Base Page 206 An Introduction to the ASP.NET Page Life Cycle 207 Implementing the Base Page 208 Creating Reusable Page Templates 212 Themes 216 Different Types of Themes 217 Choosing Between Theme and StyleSheetTheme 217 Applying Themes 218 Extending Themes 222 Dynamically Switching Themes 224 Skins 232 Creating a Skin File 233 Named Skins 234 Disable Theming for Specific Controls 235 Practical Tips on Creating Consistent Pages 235 Summary 236 Chapter 7: Navigation 239 Different Ways to Move Around Your Site 240 Understanding Absolute and Relative URLs 240 Understanding Default Documents 243 Using the Navigation Controls 243 Architecture of the Navigation Controls 244 Examining the Web.sitemap File 244 Using the Menu Control 246 Using the TreeView Control 254 Using the SiteMapPath Control 258 Routing 260 Setting up Extension-less URLs 261 Considerations for Extension-less URLs 263 Programmatic Redirection 263 Programmatically Redirecting the Client to a Different Page 264 Server-Side Redirects 266 Practical Tips on Navigation 268 Summary 269 Chapter 8: User Controls 273 Introduction to User Controls 274 Creating User Controls 274 Adding User Controls to a Content Page or Master Page 277 Sitewide Registration of User Controls 280 User Control Caveats 282 Adding Logic to Your User Controls 284 Creating Your Own Data Types for Properties 284 Implementing View State Properties 289 View State Considerations 295 Practical Tips on User Controls 295 Summary 296 Chapter 9: Validating User Input 299 Gathering Data from the User 300 Validating User Input in Web Forms 301 Understanding Request Validation 320 Processing Data at the Server 321 Sending E-mail from Your Website 321 Reading from Text Files 327 Practical Tips on Validating Data 333 Summary 333 Chapter 10: ASP .NET AJAX 337 Introducing Ajax 338 Using ASP.NET AJAX in Your Projects 340 Creating Flicker-free Pages 340 Providing Feedback to Users 345 The Timer Control 350 Using Web Services in Ajax Websites 351 What Are Web Services? 351 Creating Web Services 357 Practical Ajax Tips 365 Summary 366 Chapter 11: jQuery 369 An Introduction to jQuery 370 Introducing NuGet 371 Choosing the Location for Your jQuery Reference 375 Different Ways to Include the jQuery Library 376 jQuery Syntax 380 jQuery Core 380 Selecting Items Using jQuery 381 Modifying the DOM with jQuery 388 CSS Methods 388 Handling Events 390 Miscellaneous jQuery Functionality 391 Common Mistakes When Working with jQuery 392 Effects with jQuery 393 jQuery and Validation 399 Practical Tips on jQuery 403 Summary 403 Chapter 12: Introducing Databases 407 What Is a Database? 408 Different Kinds of Relational Databases 409 Installing SQL Server 2012 Express 410 Using SQL to Work with Database Data 410 Retrieving and Manipulating Data with SQL 414 Reading Data 414 Creating Data 423 Updating Data 424 Deleting Data 424 Creating Your Own Tables 427 Data Types in SQL Server 427 Understanding Primary Keys and Identities 429 Creating Relationships between Tables 432 Practical Database Tips 436 Summary 436 Chapter 13: Displaying and Updating Data 439 Data Controls 439 Data-bound Controls 440 Data Source Controls 442 Other Data Controls 442 Data Source and Data-bound Controls Working Together 443 Displaying and Editing Data with Grid View 443 Inserting Data with Details View 449 Storing Your Connection Strings in Web.config 451 Filtering Data 453 Customizing the Appearance of the Data Controls 459 Configuring Columns or Fields of Data-bound Controls 460 Updating and Inserting Data 466 Using Details View to Insert and Update Data 466 Practical Tips for Displaying and Updating Data 480 Summary 481 Chapter 14: LIN Q and the ADO .NET Entity Framework 485 Introducing LINQ 486 LINQ to Objects 487 LINQ to XML 487 LINQ to ADO.NET 487 Introducing the ADO.NET Entity Framework 488 Mapping Your Data Model to an Object Model 489 Introducing Query Syntax 495 Standard Query Operators 495 Shaping Data with Anonymous Types 499 Using Model Binding with LINQ Queries 504 Introducing Model Binding 505 A Note about Performance 535 Practical LINQ and ADO.NET Entity Framework Tips 536 Summary 536 Chapter 15: Working with Data — Advanced Topics 539 Formatting Your Controls Using Styles 540 An Introduction to Styles 541 Combining Styles, Themes, and Skins 545 Handling Events 549 The ASP.NET Page and Control Life Cycles Revisited 549 The ASP.NET Page Life Cycle and Events in Data Controls 555 Handling Errors That Occur in the Data Source Controls 560 Hand-Coding Data Access Code 564 Caching 574 Common Pitfalls with Caching Data 575 Different Ways to Cache Data in ASP.NET Web Applications 576 Practical Data Tips 585 Summary 586 Chapter 16: Security in Your ASP .NET Website 589 Introducing Security 590 Identity: Who Are You? 590 Authentication: How Can You Prove Who You Are? 590 Authorization: What Are You Allowed to Do? 591 An Introduction to the ASP.NET Application Services 591 Introducing the Login Controls 593 The Login Controls 598 Configuring Your Web Application 609 The Role Manager 612 The Role Manager Configuration 613 Managing Users with the WSAT 613 Configuring the Web Application to Work with Roles 618 Programmatically Checking Roles 622 Practical Security Tips 625 Summary 626 Chapter 17: Personalizing Websites 629 Understanding Profile 630 Configuring the Profile 631 Using the Profile 637 Other Ways of Dealing with Profile 655 Anonymous Identification 655 Cleaning Up Old Anonymous Profiles 655 Looking at Other Users’ Profiles 657 Practical Personalization Tips 660 Summary 660 Chapter 18: Exception Handling, Debugging, and Tracing 663 Exception Handling 664 Different Types of Errors 664 Catching and Handling Exceptions 667 Global Error Handling and Custom Error Pages 675 The Basics of Debugging 683 Tools Support for Debugging 686 Moving Around in Debugged Code 686 Debugging Windows 687 Debugging Client-Side Script 693 Debugging with the Page Inspector 696 Introducing the Page Inspector 696 Using the Page Inspector 697 Cross-browser Testing with Browser Link 701 Introducing Browser Link 702 Using Browser Link 702 Tracing Your ASP.NET Web Pages 704 Using the Standard Tracing Capabilities 705 Adding Your Own Information to the Trace 708 Tracing and Performance 710 A Security Warning 710 Practical Debugging Tips 711 Summary 712 Chapter 19: Deploying Your Website 715 Preparing Your Website for Deployment 716 Avoiding Hard-Coded Settings 716 The Web.config File 717 Expression Syntax 717 The Web Configuration Manager Class 718 Introducing Bundling and Minification 723 Preparing for Deployment 727 Publishing Your Site 727 Introducing Web.config Transformations 730 Running Your Site Under IIS 734 Installing and Configuring the Web Server 735 Installing and Configuring ASP.NET 737 Understanding Security in IIS 741 NTFS Settings for Planet Wrox 742 Troubleshooting Web Server Errors 745 Moving Data to a Remote Server 747 Exporting Your Data to a File 748 Recreating the Database 750 The Deployment Checklist 751 What’s Next 753 Summary 754 Appendix A: Exercise Answers 757 Appendix B: Configuring SQL Server 2012 781 Index 795