TRAINING & REFERENCE

murach’s
ASP.NET 2.0
web programming with
VB 2005
(Chapter 1)
Thanks for downloading this chapter from Murach’s ASP.NET 2.0 Web Programming
with VB 2005. We hope it will show you how easy it is to learn from any Murach book,
with its paired-pages presentation, its “how-to” headings, its practical coding examples,
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Copyright © 2006 Mike Murach & Associates. All rights reserved.
 Chapter 6 How to define, move, and initialize fields 1

Section 1

The essence of ASP.NET web

programming
This section presents the essential skills for designing, coding, and testing
ASP.NET web applications. After chapter 1 introduces you to the concepts and
terms that you need to know for web programming, chapters 2 and 3 teach you
the essential skills for designing web forms and writing the Visual Basic code
that makes them work. Then, chapter 4 shows you how to use the many
features for testing and debugging ASP.NET applications.
When you finish all four chapters, you’ll be able to develop real-world
applications of your own. You’ll have a solid understanding of how ASP.NET
works. And you’ll be ready to learn all of the other ASP.NET features and
techniques that are presented in the rest of this book.
 Chapter 1 An introduction to ASP.NET web programming 3

1
An introduction to ASP.NET
web programming
This chapter introduces you to the basic concepts of web programming and
ASP.NET. Here, you’ll learn how web applications work and what software
you need for developing ASP.NET web applications. You’ll also see how the
HTML code for a web form is coordinated with the Visual Basic code that
makes the web form work the way you want it to. When you finish this chapter,
you’ll have the background you need for developing web applications of your
own.

An introduction to web applications .................................... 4

Two pages of a Shopping Cart application ..................................................... 4
The hardware and software components for web applications ...................... 6
How static web pages work ............................................................................ 8
How dynamic web pages work ..................................................................... 10
How state is handled in ASP.NET applications ............................................ 12
An introduction to ASP.NET application development ..... 14
The software you need .................................................................................. 14
The components of the .NET Framework .................................................... 16
Three environments for developing ASP.NET applications ......................... 18
A quick preview of how an ASP.NET application works ... 20
The files used by the Shopping Cart application .......................................... 20
The aspx code for the Order form ................................................................ 22
The Visual Basic code for the Order form .................................................... 24
How an ASP.NET application is compiled and run ...................................... 26
Perspective ............................................................................ 28
4 Section 1 The essence of ASP.NET web programming

An introduction to web applications

A web application consists of a set of web pages that are generated in
response to user requests. The Internet has many different types of web applica-
tions, such as search engines, online stores, auctions, news sites, discussion
groups, games, and so on.

Two pages of a Shopping Cart application

Figure 1-1 shows two pages of a simple web application. In this case, the
application is for an online store that lets users purchase a variety of Halloween
products, including costumes, masks, and decorations. You’ll see parts of this
application throughout the book, so it’s worth taking the time to become famil-
iar with it in this chapter.
The first web page in this figure is used to display information about the
various products that are available from the Halloween store. To select a prod-
uct, you use the drop-down list that’s below the banner at the top of the page.
Then, the page displays information about the product including a picture, short
and long descriptions, and the product’s price.
If you enter a quantity in the text box near the bottom of the page and click
the Add to Cart button, the second page in this figure is displayed. This page
lists the contents of your shopping cart and provides several buttons that let you
remove items from the cart, clear the cart entirely, return to the previous page to
continue shopping, or proceed to a checkout page.
Of course, the complete Halloween Superstore application also contains
other pages. For example, if you click the Checkout button in the second page,
you’re taken to a page that lets you enter the information necessary to complete
a purchase. You’ll see how some of these pages are developed as you progress
through this book.
An important point to notice about these pages is that they both contain
controls that let the user interact with the page, like the drop-down list and
buttons on the Order page. A page that contains controls like these is called a
web form, and an ASP.NET application consists of one web form for each page
in the application.
 Chapter 1 An introduction to ASP.NET web programming 5

The Order page of a Shopping Cart application

The Cart page of a Shopping Cart application

Figure 1-1 Two pages of a Shopping Cart application

6 Section 1 The essence of ASP.NET web programming

The hardware and software components for web

applications
Figure 1-2 shows the basic hardware and software components that are
required for a web application. To start, a web application is a type of client/
server application, which means that the functions of the application are split
between a client computer and a server computer. The client and server comput-
ers are connected to one another via the Internet, and they communicate with
each other using HTTP, or Hypertext Transfer Protocol.
To access a web application, you use a web browser that runs on a client
computer. By far the most popular web browser is Microsoft’s Internet Explorer,
but two popular alternatives are Netscape’s Navigator (or just Netscape) and
Mozilla Firefox.
The web application itself is stored on the server computer. This computer
runs web server software that enables it to send web pages to web browsers.
Although many web servers are available, the two most popular are Microsoft’s
Internet Information Services (or IIS) and The Apache Software Foundation’s
Apache HTTP Server, which is usually just called Apache. For ASP.NET
applications, though, the server must run IIS.
Because most web applications work with data that’s stored in a database,
most server computers also run a database management system (or DBMS). Two
popular database management systems for ASP.NET development are Microsoft
SQL Server and Oracle. Note, however, that the database server software
doesn’t have to run on the same server computer as the web server software. In
fact, a separate database server is often used to improve an application’s overall
performance.
Although this figure shows the client and server computers connected via
the Internet, this isn’t the only way a client can connect to a server in a web
application. If the client and the server are on the same local area network (or
LAN), they can connect via an intranet. Since an intranet uses the same proto-
cols as the Internet, a web application works the same on an intranet as it does
on the Internet.
 Chapter 1 An introduction to ASP.NET web programming 7

Components of a web application

Client computer Server computer

Internet

Web browser Web server

Database management system

Description
• Web applications are a type of client/server application. In that type of application, a
user at a client computer accesses an application at a server computer. In a web applica-
tion, the client and server computers are connected via the Internet or via an intranet (a
local area network).
• In a web application, the user works with a web browser at the client computer. The web
browser provides the user interface for the application. The most popular web browser is
Microsoft’s Internet Explorer, but other web browsers like Netscape Navigator or
Mozilla Firefox may also be used.
• The application runs on the server computer under the control of web server software.
For ASP.NET web applications, the server must run Microsoft’s web server, called
Internet Information Services, or IIS.
• For most web applications, the server computer also runs a database management
system, or DBMS, such as Microsoft’s SQL Server. The DBMS provides access to
information stored in a database. To improve performance on larger applications, the
DBMS can be run on a separate server computer.
• The user interface for a web application is implemented as a series of web pages that are
displayed in the web browser. Each web page is defined by a web form using HTML, or
Hypertext Markup Language, which is a standardized set of markup tags.
• The web browser and web server exchange information using HTTP, or Hypertext
Transfer Protocol.

Figure 1-2 The hardware and software components for web applications
8 Section 1 The essence of ASP.NET web programming

How static web pages work

Many of the web pages on the Internet are static web pages that don’t
change in response to user input. These pages are HTML documents that are
defined by HTML, or Hypertext Markup Language.
Figure 1-3 shows how a web server handles static web pages. The process
begins when a user at a web browser requests a web page. This can occur when
the user enters a web address, called a URL (Uniform Resource Locator), into
the browser’s address box or when the user clicks a link that leads to another
page.
In either case, the web browser uses HTTP to send an HTTP request to the
web server. The HTTP request includes information such as the name and
address of the web page being requested, the address of the browser making the
request, and the address of the web server that will process the request.
When the web server receives an HTTP request from a browser, the server
retrieves the requested HTML file from disk and sends the file back to the
browser in the form of an HTTP response. The HTTP response includes the
HTML document that the user requested along with the address of the browser
and the web server.
When the browser receives the HTTP response, it formats and displays the
HTML document. Then, the user can view the content. If the user requests
another page, either by clicking a link or typing another web address in the
browser’s address box, the process begins again.
Figure 1-3 also shows the components of a URL. The first component is the
protocol, in this case, HTTP. In most cases, you can omit the protocol and
HTTP is assumed.
The second component is the domain name, which identifies your web site.
The URL in this figure, for example, includes the domain name for our web
site, www.murach.com. The browser uses the domain name to identify the
server that’s hosting the web site.
After the domain name, you specify the path where the file resides on the
server. Notice that front slashes are used to separate the components of a path in
a URL. After the path, you specify the name of the file you want to display in
the browser. In this case, the file is a static web page named index.htm.
 Chapter 1 An introduction to ASP.NET web programming 9

How a web server processes static web pages

Client Server

HTTP request

Browser Web server HTML file

HTTP response

The components of an HTTP URL

http://www.murach.com/books/ugcs/index.htm

protocol domain name path file name

Description
• A static web page is an HTML document that is the same each time it’s viewed. In other
words, a static web page doesn’t change in response to user input. Everyone who views a
static web page sees exactly the same content.
• Static web pages are usually simple HTML files that are stored on the web server. When
a browser requests a static web page, the web server retrieves the file from disk and
sends it back to the browser. Static web pages usually have a file extension of .htm or
.html.
• A web browser requests a page from a web server by sending the server an HTTP
message known as an HTTP request. The HTTP request includes, among other things,
the name of the HTML file being requested and the Internet address of both the browser
and the web server.
• A user working with a browser can initiate an HTTP request in several ways. One way is
to type the address of a web page, called a URL, or Uniform Resource Locator, into the
browser’s address area and then press the Enter key. Another way is to click a link that
refers to a web page.
• A web server replies to an HTTP request by sending a message known as an HTTP
response back to the browser. The HTTP response contains the addresses of the browser
and the server as well as the HTML document that’s being returned.

Figure 1-3 How static web pages work

10 Section 1 The essence of ASP.NET web programming

How dynamic web pages work

A web application consists of one or more web pages that are not static, but
that can change in some way each time the page is displayed. Instead of being
stored on disk in the form of HTML files, these pages are generated dynami-
cally by the application. As a result, the generated pages are often referred to as
dynamic web pages.
One of the key differences between static web pages and dynamic web
pages is that dynamic web pages are web forms that contain one or more server
controls, such as labels, text boxes, and buttons. Users work with these controls
to interact with the application.
Figure 1-4 shows the basic processing for a dynamic web page. To start, the
browser sends an HTTP request to the web server (IIS) that contains the address
of the web page being requested, along with the information that the user
entered into the form. When IIS receives this request, it determines that it’s a
request for a web form rather than for a static web page. As a result, the web
server passes the request on to the application server (ASP.NET) for processing.
ASP.NET, in turn, manages the execution of the web form that’s requested.
To determine if the request is for a static page or a dynamic page, the web
server looks up the extension of the requested page in a list of application
mappings. These mappings indicate what program a file extension is associated
with. For example, a static web page typically has an extension of htm or html,
while a dynamic ASP.NET page has an extension of aspx. As a result, when the
web server receives an HTTP request for an aspx file, it passes this request to
ASP.NET, which processes the web form for that page.
When the web form is executed, it processes the information the user
entered and generates an HTML document. If, for example, the web form
displays data from a database, it queries the database to get the requested
information. Then, it generates a page with that information, which is returned
by ASP.NET to the web server. The web server, in turn, sends the page back to
the browser in the form of an HTTP response, and the browser displays the
page. This entire process that begins with the browser requesting a web page
and ends with the page being sent back to the client is called a round trip.
When a user clicks on a control to start an HTTP request, it is called “post-
ing back to the server,” which is referred to as a postback. In the Order form in
figure 1-1, for example, the user starts a postback by selecting an item in the
drop-down list or by clicking on the Add to Cart button. Then, the web form for
the Order page is processed using the new values that the user has entered into
the page.
Incidentally, the application server for ASP.NET 2.0 can handle requests for
web forms that were developed by ASP.NET 1.0 or 1.1 as well as requests for
forms that were developed by ASP.NET 2.0. That means that your old 1.x web
forms can run right along with your new 2.0 forms, which means that you don’t
have to convert your old applications to ASP.NET 2.0 (although you do have to
configure them to run under ASP.NET 2.0). Then, you can maintain your old
web forms with ASP.NET 1.x and develop your new web forms with 2.0.
 Chapter 1 An introduction to ASP.NET web programming 11

How a web server processes dynamic pages

Client Server

HTTP request
Application
Web server
Browser server
(IIS)
(ASP.NET)
HTTP response

Web
application
forms
(.aspx)

The URL for an ASP.NET web page

http://msdn.microsoft.com/vs2005/default.aspx

Description
• A dynamic web page is an HTML document that’s generated by a web form. Often, the
web page changes according to information that’s sent to the web form by the browser.
• When a web server receives a request for a dynamic web page, it looks up the extension
of the requested file in a list of application mappings to find out which application server
should process the request. If the file extension is aspx, the request is passed on to
ASP.NET for processing.
• When the application server receives a request, it runs the specified web form. Then, the
web form generates an HTML document and returns it to the application server, which
passes it back to the web server and from there to the browser.
• The browser doesn’t know or care whether the HTML was retrieved from a static HTML
file or generated dynamically by a web form. Either way, the browser simply displays
the HTML that was returned as a result of the request.
• After the page is displayed, the user can interact with it using its controls. Some of those
controls let the user post the page back to the server, which is called a postback. Then,
the page is processed again using the data the user entered.
• The process that begins with the user requesting a web page and ends with the server
sending a response back to the client is called a round trip.
• If you omit the file name from the URL when you use your browser to request a page,
IIS will look for a file with one of four names by default: Default.htm, Default.asp,
index.htm, and iisstart.asp. If you want another page to be displayed by default, you can
add the name of that page to this list. See appendix A for more information.

Figure 1-4 How dynamic web pages work

12 Section 1 The essence of ASP.NET web programming

How state is handled in ASP.NET applications

Although it isn’t apparent in the previous figure, an application ends after it
generates a web page. That means that the current status of any data maintained
by the application, such as variables or control properties, is lost. In other
words, HTTP doesn’t maintain the state of the application. This is illustrated in
figure 1-5.
Here, you can see that a browser on a client requests a page from a web
server. After the server processes the request and returns the page to the
browser, it drops the connection. Then, if the browser makes additional requests,
the server has no way to associate the browser with its previous requests.
Because of that, HTTP is known as a stateless protocol.
Although HTTP doesn’t maintain state, ASP.NET provides several ways to
do that, as summarized in this figure. First, you can use view state to maintain
the values of server control properties. For example, you can use view state to
preserve the Text properties of label controls that are changed as a web form is
processed or to maintain a list of items in a drop-down list. Because ASP.NET
implements view state by default, you don’t need to write any special code to
use it.
Second, you can use session state to maintain data between executions of an
application. To make this work, ASP.NET creates a session state object that is
kept on the server whenever a user starts a new session. This session object
contains a unique session ID, and this ID is sent back and forth between the
server and the browser each time the user requests a page. Then, when the
server receives a new request from a user, it can retrieve the right session object
for that user. In the code for your web forms, you can add data items to the
session object so their previous values are available each time a web form is
executed.
Third, you can use an application state object to save application state data,
which applies to all of the users of an application. For example, you can use
application state to maintain global counters or to maintain a list of the users
who are currently logged on to an application.
Last, ASP.NET 2.0 provides a new profile feature that lets you keep track of
user data. Although a profile is similar to a session state object, it persists
between user sessions because it is stored in a database. When you use profiles,
for example, you can keep track of the last three products that a user looked at
in his last session. Then, when the user starts a new session, you can display
those products in a “Recently viewed items” list.
 Chapter 1 An introduction to ASP.NET web programming 13

Why state is difficult to track in web applications

Client First HTTP request: Server

The browser requests a
page.
Browser Web server

First HTTP response:

The server returns the
requested page and the
application ends.
Browser Web server
Next HTTP request:
The browser requests another
page. The server has no way
to associate the browser with
its previous request.
Browser Web server

Concepts
• State refers to the current status of the properties, variables, and other data maintained by
an application for a single user. The application must maintain a separate state for each
user currently accessing the application.
• HTTP is a stateless protocol. That means that it doesn’t keep track of state between
round trips. Once a browser makes a request and receives a response, the application
terminates and its state is lost.

Three ASP.NET features for maintaining state

• ASP.NET uses view state to maintain the value of form control properties that the
application changes between executions of the application. Since view state is imple-
mented by default, no special coding is required.
• When a user starts a new session, ASP.NET creates a session state object that contains a
session ID. This ID is passed from the server to the browser and back to the server so the
server can associate the browser with an existing session. To maintain session state, you
can add program values to the session state object.
• When an application begins, ASP.NET creates an application state object. To maintain
application state, you can add program values to the application state object. These
values are available to all users of the application until the application ends.

The new profile feature of ASP.NET 2.0

• ASP.NET 2.0 can also maintain a profile for each user of an application. Because
profiles are stored in a database, the profile data is maintained from one user session to
another. This makes it easier to personalize an application.

Figure 1-5 How state is handled in ASP.NET applications

14 Section 1 The essence of ASP.NET web programming

An introduction to ASP.NET application

development
In the three topics that follow, you’ll find out what software you need for
developing ASP.NET web applications, what the components of the .NET
Framework are, and what development environments you can work in.

The software you need

The first table in figure 1-6 summarizes both the client and the server
software that you need for developing ASP.NET applications. On your own PC,
you need an operating system like Windows 2000 or Windows XP, the
Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0, and a browser like Microsoft Internet Explorer.
You also need Visual Studio 2005 if you want to get the benefits from using that
Integrated Development Environment (IDE).
If you’re using a server for your development, it will need a server operating
system like Windows 2000 Server or later, Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0, and
Internet Information Services. If you’re going to develop applications from a
remote computer, it will also need FrontPage Server Extensions. And if you’re
going to develop applications for the Internet, it will need an FTP server. In
appendix A, you can get information about installing the software for both client
and server.
Because most ASP.NET applications require database access, you also need
a database server such as Microsoft SQL Server. For development work on your
own PC, you can use SQL Server 2005 Express Edition, which is a scaled-back
version of SQL Server that comes with Visual Studio 2005. But you’ll probably
need SQL Server itself on the server for a production application.
If you’re developing production applications, you should also download and
install other web browsers on your PC including Netscape Navigator and
Mozilla Firefox. That way, you can test your applications with a variety of
popular browsers.
The second table in this figure shows that Visual Studio 2005 is available in
several editions. Most professional developers will work with either the Stan-
dard Edition or the Professional Edition. But large development teams may use
the Team System edition, which includes features designed for specialized
development roles such as architects, developers, and testers.
A less expensive alternative is Visual Web Developer 2005 Express Edition,
which retails for around $100 and is available for free until November 2006.
This product is designed for individual developers, students, and hobbyists, and
most of the features in this book will work with this edition.
The third table in this figure lists some of the most important new features
of ASP.NET 2.0. Because each of these features is presented in detail later in
this book, I won’t describe them here. But this table should show you that
ASP.NET 2.0 provides several new features that you’ll probably want to use in
your new applications.
 Chapter 1 An introduction to ASP.NET web programming 15

Software requirements for ASP.NET application development

Client Server
Windows 2000 or later Windows 2000 Server or later
Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0 Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0
A browser like Internet Explorer (6.0 or later) Internet Information Services 5.0 or later (6.0 recommended)
Visual Studio 2005 Microsoft SQL Server or equivalent database
FrontPage Server Extensions (for remote development only)

Visual Studio 2005 Editions

Edition Description
Visual Studio 2005 Standard Edition Supports Windows and Web development using Visual Basic,
C#, C++, and J#.
Visual Studio 2005 Professional Edition Same as Standard Edition with several additional features
such as additional deployment options and integration with
SQL Server 2005.
Visual Studio 2005 Team System The top-of-the-line version of Visual Studio, with special
features added to support large development teams.
Visual Web Developer 2005 Express Edition Inexpensive web development in Visual Basic, C#, or J# for
hobbyists and novices.

New programming features for ASP.NET 2.0

Feature Chapters Description
Master pages 9 Lets you easily create pages with consistent elements such as
banners and navigation menus.
Site navigation 10 Provides controls that make it easy to create site navigation
menus.
Themes 11 Lets you easily customize formatting elements like fonts and
colors.
New data-access features 13-16 New data source controls and bound-data controls drastically
reduce the amount of code required for most database
applications.
Login and user registration 18 Provides controls to automatically register users and allow
them to log in to a web site.
Profiles 19 Uses a database to store data about users between sessions.
Web parts 22 Lets the user choose which elements to include in a web
page.

Figure 1-6 The software you need for developing ASP.NET 2.0 applications
16 Section 1 The essence of ASP.NET web programming

The components of the .NET Framework

Because you should have a basic understanding of what the .NET Frame-
work does as you develop applications, figure 1-7 summarizes its major compo-
nents. As you can see, this framework is divided into two main components, the
.NET Framework Class Library and the Common Language Runtime, and these
components provide a common set of services for applications written in .NET
languages like Visual Basic or C#.
The .NET Framework Class Library consists of classes that provide many
of the functions that you need for developing .NET applications. For instance,
the ASP.NET classes are used for developing ASP.NET web applications, and
the Windows Forms classes are used for developing standard Windows applica-
tions. The other .NET classes let you work with databases, manage security,
access files, and perform many other functions.
Although it’s not apparent in this figure, the classes in the .NET Framework
Class Library are organized in a hierarchical structure. Within this structure,
related classes are organized into groups called namespaces. Each namespace
contains the classes used to support a particular function. For example, the
System.Web namespace contains the classes used to create ASP.NET web
applications, and the System.Data namespace contains the classes used to
access data.
The Common Language Runtime, or CLR, provides the services that are
needed for executing any application that’s developed with one of the .NET
languages. This is possible because all of the .NET languages compile to a
common Intermediate Language (or IL). The CLR also provides the Common
Type System that defines the data types that are used by all the .NET languages.
That way, you can use the same data types regardless of what .NET language
you’re using to develop your application. Unlike Windows applications, though,
all of the forms in a web application must be developed using the same lan-
guage.
To run an ASP.NET application, the web server must have the .NET Frame-
work installed. However, the client computers that access the web server don’t
need the .NET Framework. Instead, the client computers can run any client
operating system with a modern web browser.
 Chapter 1 An introduction to ASP.NET web programming 17

The .NET Framework

.NET Applications

Visual Basic Visual C# Visual J# Visual C++ Other languages

.NET Framework

.NET Framework Class Library

Windows Forms classes ASP.NET classes Other classes

Common Language Runtime

Managed applications Common Type System Intermediate Language

Operating System and Hardware

Windows 2000 / 2003 Windows XP Other operating systems

Description
• .NET applications work by using services of the .NET Framework. The .NET Frame-
work, in turn, accesses the operating system and computer hardware.
• The .NET Framework consists of two main components: the .NET Framework Class
Library and the Common Language Runtime.
• The .NET Framework Class Library provides pre-written code in the form of classes that
are available to all of the .NET programming languages. These classes are organized into
groups called namespaces. The classes that support ASP.NET web programs are stored
in the System.Web namespace.
• The Common Language Runtime, or CLR, manages the execution of .NET programs by
coordinating essential functions such as memory management, code execution, security,
and other services.
• The Common Type System is a component of the CLR that ensures that all .NET applica-
tions use the same data types regardless of what programming languages are used to
develop the applications.
• All .NET programs are compiled into Microsoft Intermediate Language (MSIL) or just
Intermediate Language (IL), which is stored on disk in an assembly. This assembly is
then run by the CLR.

Figure 1-7 The components of the .NET Framework

18 Section 1 The essence of ASP.NET web programming

Three environments for developing ASP.NET

applications
Figure 1-8 shows three common ways to set up a development environment
for coding and testing ASP.NET applications. As you’ll see, each setup has its
advantages and disadvantages. The environment you choose will depend on
your development needs and on the resources that are available to you.
The simplest development environment is a standalone environment. In this
case, a single computer serves as both the client and the server. Because of that,
it must run an operating system that supports ASP.NET development, and it
must have the .NET Framework and Visual Studio 2005 installed. Because
Visual Studio 2005 comes with its own development server for local testing,
you don’t have to install IIS when you use a standalone environment. Also,
since Visual Studio comes with SQL Server 2005 Express Edition (or just SQL
Server Express), you don’t have to install a separate database product.
The second development environment works with separate client and server
computers that are connected via a local area network. Here, the client computer
has Windows, the .NET Framework, and Visual Studio 2005 installed, while the
server runs Windows 2000 Server with the .NET Framework, IIS, and
FrontPage Server Extensions (FPSE). FPSE provides the services that Visual
Studio 2005 uses to communicate with a web site on a remote computer. In
addition, the server uses SQL Server to handle database access. With this
environment, more than one programmer can work on the same application, but
all of the programmers are located at the same site.
With the third development environment, the client computers are con-
nected to the server via the Internet rather than a LAN. This makes it possible to
work with a web site that’s hosted on another server. This environment requires
an FTP server, which is used to copy the files in a web site between the client
computer and the server. The FTP server uses File Transfer Protocol (FTP) to
perform the copy operations, and IIS can be configured to act as an FTP server
as well as a web server. So if a web site is hosted on a server that you have
access to, you can configure the server so remote users can access it using FTP.
 Chapter 1 An introduction to ASP.NET web programming 19

Standalone development
Windows 2000 or later
.NET Framework 2.0
Visual Studio 2005
Optional: IIS, SQL Server

Local area network development

Windows 2000 or later Windows 2000 Server or later
.NET Framework 2.0 .NET Framework
Visual Studio 2005 IIS 5.0 or later (6.0 recommended)
SQL Server
FrontPage Server Extensions
LAN connection
Client Server

Internet development
Windows 2000 or later Windows 2000 Server or later
.NET Framework 2.0 .NET Framework
Visual Studio 2005 IIS 5.0 or later (6.0 recommended)
FTP server
Internet SQL Server
connection
Client Server

Description
• When you use standalone development, a single computer serves as both the client and
the server. Because Visual Studio comes with a scaled-back web server called the
ASP.NET Development Server (or just development server), you don’t need to use IIS
for testing web applications on your own PC. However, you do need to use IIS to test
certain features of web applications.
• When you use a local area network (LAN), a client computer communicates with a
server computer over the LAN. With this setup, two or more programmers at the same
site can work on the same application. This setup requires that FrontPage Server Exten-
sions (FPSE) be installed on the server.
• When you use Internet development, a client computer communicates with a server
computer over the Internet. With this setup, programmers at different locations can work
on the same application. This setup requires an FTP server on the server. The FTP server
uses File Transfer Protocol (FTP) to transfer files between the client computer and the
server.

Figure 1-8 Three environments for developing ASP.NET applications

20 Section 1 The essence of ASP.NET web programming

A quick preview of how an ASP.NET

application works
With that as background, you’re ready to learn more about how an
ASP.NET application works. That’s why this topic presents a quick preview of
how the Order form in the Shopping Cart application works.

The files used by the Shopping Cart application

Figure 1-9 presents the Order form of the Shopping Cart application as it
appears in the Web Forms Designer that you use when you develop web forms
with Visual Studio 2005. In chapter 2, you’ll learn how to use this Designer, but
for now just try to get the big picture of how this form works.
If you look at the Designer window in the middle of the IDE, you can see
the table that’s used for this form as well as the label controls that are used to
display the data for each product. You can also see that the smart tag menu for
the drop-down list has been used to enable the AutoPostBack property. This
means that the Order form will be posted back to the web server when the user
selects an item from the drop-down list.
If you look at the Solution Explorer to the right of the Designer window,
you can see the folders and files that this application requires. For now, though,
just focus on the six code files that are summarized in the table in this figure.
The first two files in this table, which are in the App_Code folder, are two files
that represent business classes named CartItem and Product. Both of these files
have vb as the extension, which means that they’re Visual Basic files.
The next four files in the table are for the two web forms, Cart and Order,
with two files for each form. The files with aspx as the extension (Cart.aspx and
Order.aspx) contain the code that represents the design of the form. This code
consists of standard HTML code plus asp tags that define the server controls
used on the forms. We refer to this as aspx code, because the files that contain
the code have the aspx extension.
The other two files, which have aspx.vb as the extension, contain the Visual
Basic code that controls the operation of the forms. These are called code-
behind files because they provide the code behind the web forms. For instance,
the Order.aspx.vb file is the code-behind file for the Order form.
Before I go on, you should realize that it isn’t necessary to store the aspx
and Visual Basic code for a web form in separate files. Instead, ASP.NET lets
you combine this code into a single aspx file. However, storing the aspx and
Visual Basic code in separate files can simplify application development
because it lets you separate the presentation elements for a page from its Visual
Basic coding. This also makes it possible for HTML designers to work on the
aspx files for an application, and then have Visual Basic programmers develop
the code for the code-behind files.
 Chapter 1 An introduction to ASP.NET web programming 21

The Order form in Design view

The aspx and Visual Basic files in the Shopping Cart application
Folder File Description
App_Code CartItem.vb A class that represents an item in the shopping cart.
App_Code Product.vb A class that represents a product.
(root) Cart.aspx The aspx file for the Cart page.
(root) Cart.aspx.vb The code-behind file for the Cart page.
(root) Order.aspx The aspx file for the Order page.
(root) Order.aspx.vb The code-behind file for the Order page.

Description
• For each web form in an application, ASP.NET 2.0 keeps two files. The file with the
aspx extension holds the HTML code and the asp tags for the server controls. The file
with the aspx.vb extension is the code-behind file that contains the Visual Basic code for
the form.
• If an ASP.NET 2.0 application requires other classes like business classes, they are kept
in the App_Code folder.

Figure 1-9 The files used by the Shopping Cart application

22 Section 1 The essence of ASP.NET web programming

The aspx code for the Order form

To give you some idea of how aspx code works, figure 1-10 shows some of
the aspx code for the Order form. All of this code is generated by Visual Studio
as you use the Web Forms Designer to design a form, so you don’t have to code
it. But you still should have a general understanding of how this code works.
The first set of tags for each web form defines a page directive that provides
four attributes. Here, the Language attribute says that the language is Visual
Basic, the CodeFile attribute says that the code-behind file is named
Order.aspx.vb, and the Inherits attribute specifies the class named Order. In
figure 1-12, you’ll see how the Order.aspx class inherits the Order class.
The second set of tags defines a DOCTYPE declaration, which tells the
browser what version of HTML the HTML document uses. You can ignore this
declaration for now, because you’ll learn more about it in chapter 5.
The Html tags mark the beginning and end of the HTML document, and the
Head tags define the heading for the document. Here, the Title tags define the
title that is displayed in the title bar of the browser when the page is run.
The content of the web page itself is defined within the Div tags, which are
within the Body and Form tags. Notice that the first Form tag includes a Runat
attribute that’s assigned a value of “server.” That indicates that the form will be
processed on the server by ASP.NET. This attribute is required for all ASP.NET
web pages and all ASP.NET server controls.
The asp tags within the Div tags define the server controls that appear on
the page. For example, the asp:Image tags define an Image control, the
asp:Label tags define a label control, the asp:DropDownList tags define a drop-
down list, and the asp:Button tags define a button. Since these controls include
the Runat attribute with a value of “server,” they will be processed on the server
by ASP.NET. The last phase of this processing is rendering the controls, which
means that the asp code is converted to standard HTML so the page can be
displayed by a browser.
If you look at the asp code for the drop-down list, you can see that the
AutoPostBack attribute has been set to True. That means that a postback will
occur whenever the user selects an item from that list. This is the attribute that’s
checked in the smart tag menu for the list in the previous figure. Note that a
postback will also occur whenever the user clicks the Add to Cart button.
However, the AutoPostBack attribute isn’t required for this control because
performing a postback is the default operation of a button.
Another attribute that you should notice is the PostBackUrl attribute for the
last button in the aspx code. This attribute provides the path for the Cart.aspx
file, which means that the Cart form will be requested when this button is
clicked. That’s one way to switch from one form to another as an application is
run, and you’ll see another in the next figure.
Although this has been a quick introduction to the aspx code for a web
form, you should begin to see how this code defines a web page. In the next two
chapters, though, you’ll learn more about this code. And just in case you need it,
chapter 5 presents a complete crash course in HTML.
 Chapter 1 An introduction to ASP.NET web programming 23

The aspx file for the Order form (Order.aspx)

<%@ Page Language="VB" AutoEventWireup="false" CodeFile="Order.aspx.vb"
Inherits="Order" %>

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN"

"http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1-transitional/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">

<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" >

<head runat="server">
<title>Chapter 3: Shopping Cart</title>
</head>
<body>
<form id="form1" runat="server">
<div>
<asp:Image ID="Image1" runat="server"
ImageUrl="~/Images/banner.jpg" /><br /><br />
<asp:Label ID="Label1" runat="server"
Text="Please select a product:"></asp:Label>
<asp:DropDownList ID="ddlProducts" runat="server" Width = "150px"
DataSourceID="AccessDataSource1" DataTextField="Name"
DataValueField="ProductID" AutoPostBack="True">
</asp:DropDownList>
<asp:AccessDataSource ID="AccessDataSource1" runat="server"
DataFile="~/App_Data/Halloween.mdb"
SelectCommand="SELECT [ProductID], [Name], [ShortDescription],
[LongDescription], [ImageFile], [UnitPrice]
FROM [Products] ORDER BY [Name]">
</asp:AccessDataSource>
<br />
<table>
<tr >
<td style="width: 250px; height: 22px">
<asp:Label ID="lblName" runat="server"
Font-Bold="false" Font-Size="Larger">
</asp:Label>
</td>
<td style="width: 20px" rowspan=4>
</td>
<td rowspan="4" valign="top">
<asp:Image ID="imgProduct" runat="server" Height="200" />
</td>
</tr>
.
. (Code for 3 more rows of a table)
.
</table>
<br />
<asp:Label ID="Label3" runat="server" Text="Quantity:"
Width="80px" BorderWidth = "0px"></asp:Label>
<asp:TextBox ID="txtQuantity" runat="server" Width="80px">
</asp:TextBox>
<asp:Button ID="btnAdd" runat="server" Text="Add to Cart" />&nbsp;
<asp:Button ID="btnCart" runat="server"
PostBackUrl="~/Cart.aspx" Text="Go to Cart" />
</div>
</form>
</body>
</html>

Figure 1-10 The aspx code for the Order form

24 Section 1 The essence of ASP.NET web programming

The Visual Basic code for the Order form

To give you some idea of how the Visual Basic code for a form works,
figure 1-11 presents the code-behind file for the Order form. Here, I’ve high-
lighted the code that’s specific to ASP.NET, and all of the other code is standard
Visual Basic code.
The first highlighted line is a Class statement that names the class, which
has the same name as the form. Because this statement uses the Partial keyword,
which is new with Visual Basic 2005, this is a partial class that must be com-
bined with another partial class when it’s compiled. The second line of code in
this class indicates that it inherits the System.Web.UI.Page class, which is the
.NET class that provides all of the basic functionality of ASP.NET pages.
Each time the page is requested, ASP.NET initializes it and raises the Load
event, which is handled by the Page_Load procedure. This procedure uses the
IsPostBack property of the page to determine whether the page is being posted
back to the server from the same page. If this property isn’t True, the DataBind
method of the drop-down list is used to bind the products that are retrieved from
a database to the list. You will often see the IsPostBack property used like this in
a Page_Load procedure to determine whether or not a page is being posted back
by the user.
The btnAdd_Click procedure is executed when the user clicks on the Add to
Cart button on the Order page, which starts a postback. After this procedure
adds the selected item to the cart, it uses the Redirect method of the Response
property of the page to transfer to the Cart page. This is a second way to switch
from one page to another.
To refer to the session state object, you use the Session property of the page.
This is done in the GetCart procedure, which is the last method for the page.
Here, if the session state object doesn’t already contain a cart, a new sorted list
is added to the object. Otherwise, the current cart is retrieved from the session
object as a sorted list. Either way, control returns to the calling procedure,
which is the AddToCart procedure, and that procedure can add a cart item to the
cart. In addition, the Cart page will have access to the cart when the Order page
is redirected to the Cart page.
One coding point worth noting is that IsPostBack, Response, and Session
are all properties of the page. As a result, you could code them with Page as a
qualifier as in
Page.IsPostBack
However, since Page is the default object within a code-behind file, you can
omit this reference.
Although this is just a quick introduction to a code-behind file, I hope it
gives you some insight into the way code-behind files are coded. Keep in mind,
though, that all of this code will be explained in detail in the next two chapters.
For now, you just need a general idea of how the events are processed, how the
IsPostBack property is used, how one web page can switch to another page, and
how the session state object is used.
 Chapter 1 An introduction to ASP.NET web programming 25

The code-behind file for the Order form (Order.aspx.vb)

Imports System.Data
Partial Class Order
Inherits System.Web.UI.Page

Private SelectedProduct As Product

Protected Sub Page_Load(ByVal sender As Object, _

ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Me.Load
If Not IsPostBack Then
ddlProducts.DataBind()
End If
SelectedProduct = Me.GetSelectedProduct()
lblName.Text = SelectedProduct.Name
lblShortDescription.Text = SelectedProduct.ShortDescription
lblLongDescription.Text = SelectedProduct.LongDescription
lblUnitPrice.Text = FormatCurrency(SelectedProduct.UnitPrice)
imgProduct.ImageUrl = "Images\Products\" & SelectedProduct.ImageFile
End Sub

Private Function GetSelectedProduct() As Product

Dim dvProduct As DataView = CType(AccessDataSource1.Select( _
DataSourceSelectArguments.Empty), DataView)
dvProduct.RowFilter = "ProductID = '" & ddlProducts.SelectedValue & "'"
Dim Product As New Product
Product.ProductID = dvProduct(0)("ProductID").ToString
Product.Name = dvProduct(0)("Name").ToString
Product.ShortDescription = dvProduct(0)("ShortDescription").ToString
Product.LongDescription = dvProduct(0)("LongDescription").ToString
Product.UnitPrice = CDec(dvProduct(0)("UnitPrice"))
Product.ImageFile = dvProduct(0)("ImageFile").ToString
Return Product
End Function

Protected Sub btnAdd_Click(ByVal sender As Object, _

ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles btnAdd.Click
Dim CartItem As New CartItem
CartItem.Product = SelectedProduct
CartItem.Quantity = CType(txtQuantity.Text, Integer)
Me.AddToCart(CartItem)
Response.Redirect("Cart.aspx")
End Sub

Private Sub AddToCart(ByVal CartItem As CartItem)

Dim Cart As SortedList = GetCart()
Dim sProductID As String = SelectedProduct.ProductID
If Cart.ContainsKey(sProductID) Then
CartItem = CType(Cart(sProductID), CartItem)
CartItem.Quantity += CType(txtQuantity.Text, Integer)
Else
Cart.Add(sProductID, CartItem)
End If
End Sub

Private Function GetCart() As SortedList

If Session("Cart") Is Nothing Then
Session.Add("Cart", New SortedList)
End If
Return CType(Session("Cart"), SortedList)
End Function
End Class

Figure 1-11 The Visual Basic code for the Order form
26 Section 1 The essence of ASP.NET web programming

How an ASP.NET application is compiled and run

The diagram in figure 1-12 shows what actually happens behind the scenes
when a user requests a page of an ASP.NET 2.0 application. In step 1, the
ASP.NET runtime reads the aspx file for the requested web page and generates a
Visual Basic source file that contains two classes. The first generated class is a
partial class that contains the declarations for each of the controls contained on
the page. This class has the same name as the web page, which is the same
name that’s used for the partial class for the code-behind file. In step 2, these
partial classes are compiled to create a single class that provides all of the event-
handling code for the page. The result is stored in a single assembly (dll file).
The other class that’s generated by the ASP.NET runtime contains the code
that actually creates the ASP.NET page. This class gets its name from the aspx
file plus _aspx, so its name is Order_aspx in this example. In step 3, this class is
compiled and stored in another assembly. Because this class inherits the Order
class, an object that is instantiated from the Order_aspx class will contain the
code that creates the page, as well as the event-handling code provided by the
Order class.
In step 4, after the page classes are compiled, the ASP.NET runtime calls
the Visual Basic compiler to compile any class files that are in the application’s
App_Code folder. For the Shopping Cart application, this means that the
CartItem and Product classes are compiled and the result is saved in a single
assembly.
After all the files are compiled into assemblies, ASP.NET creates an in-
stance of the page and raises the appropriate events. Then, the events are
processed by the event handlers for the page and the HTML for the page is
rendered. To complete the round trip, the HTML document for the page is
passed back to the web server and on to the user’s browser.
Please note that the first four steps are done only the first time an aspx page
is accessed. That’s because ASP.NET caches the assemblies that are created by
these steps. Then, when the page is accessed again, the saved assemblies are
reused, so the application doesn’t have to be recompiled. However, ASP.NET
does compare the time stamps on the source files with the time stamps on the dll
files. If any of the source files have been modified since they were last com-
piled, ASP.NET automatically recompiles them.
You may be interested to know that this method of compiling and running
web pages is a significant improvement over the way this worked with
ASP.NET 1.x. In particular, the declarations for the controls that you add to a
web page are no longer placed in a hidden code region of the code-behind file.
Instead, these declarations are generated at runtime and stored in a partial class
that’s compiled together with the partial class for the code-behind file. That
means that the code-behind file can’t get out of sync with the page file like it
could with ASP.NET 1.x.
 Chapter 1 An introduction to ASP.NET web programming 27

How an ASP.NET application is compiled

Order.aspx Order.aspx.vb Other classes

Code-behind file
Web form Order
(partial class) Class files in
App_Code folder

ASP.NET runtime
4

2 Compiler

Order Order
Order_aspx
(partial class) Compiler class
(dll)

Order.aspx Other
Compiler class classes
(dll) (dll)

What happens when an ASP.NET page is requested

1. The ASP.NET runtime processes the .aspx file and generates two Visual Basic classes.
The first is a partial class that has the same name as the web form (Order); it contains
the declarations for each of the controls. The second class has the name of the web form
followed by _aspx; it contains the code that will create and render the web page.
2. The Visual Basic compiler compiles the partial class that contains the control declara-
tions and the code-behind partial class into a class (Order) that provides the event-
handling code for the requested page. This class is saved as an assembly (.dll).
3. The Visual Basic compiler compiles the second generated class (Order_aspx), which
inherits the first compiled class (Order). The resulting class is saved as an assembly
that’s executed when the page is requested.
4. If necessary, the Visual Basic compiler compiles any other class files that are stored in
the application’s App_Code folder. These classes are saved in a single assembly.
5. ASP.NET creates an instance of the page from the page’s final assembly. Then,
ASP.NET raises the appropriate events, which are processed by the event handlers for
the page, and the page generates the HTML that’s passed back to IIS for the response.

Description
• The first four steps of this process are done only the first time the aspx page is requested.
After that, the page is processed directly from the compiled assemblies.
• For the Default page, the name of the code-behind class is _Default.

Figure 1-12 How an ASP.NET 2.0 application is compiled and run

28 Section 1 The essence of ASP.NET web programming

Perspective
Now that you’ve read this chapter, you should have a general understanding of
how ASP.NET applications work and what software you need for developing these
applications. With that as background, you’re ready to learn how to develop
ASP.NET applications of your own. And that’s what you’ll learn how to do in the
next two chapters.

Terms

web application session state

web page session state object
web form session ID
client/server application application state
client application state object
server profile
HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol) .NET Framework
web browser .NET Framework Class Library
web server class
IIS (Internet Information Services) namespace
DBMS (database management system) CLR (Common Language Runtime)
LAN (local area network) IL (Intermediate Language)
intranet MSIL (Microsoft Intermediate
static web page Language)
HTML document Common Type System
HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) standalone environment
URL (Uniform Resource Locator) development server
HTTP request SQL Server Express
HTTP response FPSE (FrontPage Server Extensions)
domain name FTP (File Transfer Protocol)
dynamic web page FTP server
server control business class
application server aspx code
application mapping code-behind file
round trip page directive
postback attribute
state render
stateless protocol assembly
view state