Robert Beasley - Essential ASP.NET Web Forms Development : Full Stack Programming with C#, SQL, Ajax, and JavaScript

This book was written for anyone interested in learning the ASP.NET Web Forms, C#.NET, SQL, Ajax, and JavaScript Web application development stack, including novice software developers, professional software developers, and college or university students enrolled in a one-semester course or two-semester sequence of courses in Web application development.

This book helps you become a pro in one of the most effective and widely used technology stacks for developing highly interactive, professional-grade, database-driven Web applicationsASP.NET Web Forms, C#.NET, SQL, Ajax, and JavaScript. It takes you from beginner to pro in no time. In Part 1, you become familiar with some of the major concepts, methodologies, and technologies associated with .NET Web application development. In this part, you learn about the client-server model, the .NET Framework, the ASP.NET and C# programming languages, and the Visual Studio integrated development environment. In Part 2, you learn how to develop a single-page .NET Web application. In this part, you learn how to create a page and add server and data validation controls to it. The concepts in this part of the book lay the foundation required for learning the C# programming languagein the context of an ASP.NET Web application. In Part 3, you learn how to program in the C# programming language. In this part, you learn how to perform assignment operations, conversion operations, control operations, string operations, arithmetic operations, date and time operations, array operations, collection operations, and file system operations, as well as create custom C# classesin the context of a .NET Web application. In Part 4, you learn how to develop a multiple-page .NET Web application. In this part, you learn how to maintain state between pages and create master pages, themes, and navigation controls. In Part 5, you learn how to connect a .NET Web application to a SQL Server database. In this part, you learn to read a database schema, program in the SQL programming language, utilize data binding, perform single- and multiple-row database table maintenance, and write code behind database operations. And in Part 6, you learn how to enhance the interactivity of a .NET Web application. In this part, you learn to generate email messages, make use of basic Ajax controls and the Ajax Control Toolkit, and program in the JavaScript programming language.

A class diagram is included for every class discussed in the text. Each class diagram articulates some of the most important properties, methods, and events of the class. For those properties, methods, and events that are not included in the class diagram, a link to the official class reference is provided.

A significant proportion of the examples in the text are drawn from the real-life experiences of the authors own software development practice that began in 1987.

Every effort has been made to present concepts clearly and logically, utilize consistent language and terminology across all chapters and topics, and articulate concepts fully yet concisely.

Although the subject matter of this book is highly technical and specialized, trendy and/or arcane language that is inaccessible to the average learner is either clearly defined or replaced in favor of clear and generalizable terminology.

For any project like this to be successful, input is required from a number of people. I would like to thank David G. Barnette for providing a significant amount of technical feedback on the entire book, Elijah M. Beasley for providing a number of suggestions for improving the flow and continuity of the book, and my other software engineering students for reporting misspellings, typos, and other defects as they were encountered.