Introduction to ASP.NET Framework
ASP.NET is Microsoft’s server-side web application development framework. It is an Open Source tool for creating dynamic web pages. It is used for dynamic web sites, web applications, and web services.
It came out in January 2002 as part of the .NET Framework version 1.0. It is a replacement for Active Server Pages (ASP). Since it runs inside the Common Language Runtime (CLR), ASP.NET programs can use any .NET language. It also provides a SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol) extension framework that allows easy processing of SOAP messages.
The main components of ASP.NET projects are Web Forms, ASP.NET’s term for web pages. They come in two types: web applications and web sites. Web applications require compilation before being deployed. Web sites can be copied directly to the server. Individual Web Forms are contained in .aspx files, which contain markup code. This markup can reference custom Web Controls and User Controls.
History of ASP.NET
The January 5, 2002 release of ASP.NET 1.0 was preceded by four years of development, and multiple beta releases in 2000 and 2001. These beta releases led to dozens of books being written about ASP.NET before version 1.0 even came out.
After it’s release it was promoted heavily by Microsoft, which put Scott Guthrie in charge of further development of the framework. He oversaw the April 24, 2003 release of ASP.NET 1.1, which improved support for mobile clients.
ASP.NET was succeeded by ASP.NET Core. It makes the framework modular in nature, designed to be used alongside technologies like the Entity Framework. This move brings ASP.NET MVC, ASP.NET Web API, and ASP.NET Web Pages together under the umbrella of ASP.NET Core.
ASP.NET Books
The fastest way to get up to speed with any new technology is with books. There are tons of great ASP.NET books on the market. The first ASP.NET books were published even before version 1.0 of the technology was released, and they never stopped coming!
To add value to the whole process of learning, you may want to learn ASP.NET online, and also watch LiveEdu.tv broadcasts from places San Francisco, London, New York, Moscow, Beijing, and Sao Paolo for a more valuable learning experience.
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by Sam Key
ASP.NET Programming at its best!
Discover A Book That Tells You What You Should Do and How! Instead of jumping right into the instructions, this book will provide you first with all the necessary concepts that you need to learn in order to make the learning process a whole lot easier.
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by Mugilan T. S. Ragupathi
Overview
Learn the fundamentals of ASP.Net MVC and build real-world web applications using ASP.Net MVC 6
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by Simone Chiaretta
Front-End Development with ASP.NET MVC 6, AngularJS, and Bootstrap is the professional's guide to fast, responsive web development. Utilizing the most popular combination of web technologies for Microsoft developers, this guide provides the latest best practices and ASP.NET MVP guidance to get you up to speed quickly. The newest ASP.NET MVC is leaner, easier to use, and less bound to the operating system and IDE.colle, giving you the perfect opportunity to leverage third-party frameworks and libraries that provide functionalities not native to ASP.NET MVC and Visual Studio. This book shows you how to integrate ASP.NET MVC with Angular JS, Bootstrap, and similar frameworks, with a bit of JQuery Mobile, Nuget, continuous deployment, Bower dependencies, and Gulp/Grunt build systems, including development beyond Windows on Mac and Linux. With clear, concise instruction and expert insight, this guide is an invaluable resource for meeting the demands of modern web development.
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by Alex Homer, Karli Watson, Rob Howard, Brian Francis
This comprehensive compendium provides a broad and thorough investigation of all aspects of programming with ASP.NET. Entirely revised and updated for the Golden Release of .NET, this book will give you the information you need to master ASP.NET and build dynamic, successful, enterprise Web applications.
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by James Singleton
Learn the importance of measuring, profiling, and locating the most impactful problems. Discover the common areas you might encounter performance problems and areas you don't need to worry about. Understand the differences between development workstations and production infrastructure and how these can amplify problems.
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by Scott Millett
Professional ASP.NET Design Patterns is all about showing you how to use the power of design patterns and core design principles in real ASP.NET applications. The goal of this book is to educate developers on the fundamentals of object oriented programming, design patterns, principles, and methodologies that can help you become a better programmer. Design patterns and principles enable loosely coupled and highly cohesive code, which will improve your code’s readability, flexibility, and maintenance. Each chapter addresses a layer in an enterprise ASP.NET application and shows how proven patterns, principles, and best practices can be leveraged to solve problems and improve the design of your code. In addition, a professional-level, end-to-end case study is used to show how to use best practice design patterns and principles in a real website.
ASP.NET Projects
As you would expect from a Microsoft technology, ASP.NET is supported by scores of projects. Here’s a few top picks.
Better CMS is a Content Management System focused on the publishing industry. It is Open Source, and strives to be friendly to developers wishing to extend it.
Explore this project!
.less is a .NET port of LESS. It allows you to use variables, mixins, and nexted rules inside otherwise normal style sheets.
Explore this project!
Glimpse is a browser-based debugging tool for web sites and web services. It strives to be the Firebug of server-side development.
Explore this project!
N2cms is a Content Management System that lets you quickly define strongly typed models and automatically generate corresponding management UIs.
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Chirpy minifies, verifies, and consolidates client files including JavaScript, style sheet, and dotless files. It can auto-update T4MVC and other T4 templates.
Explore this project!
NuGet.org is a package manager for .NET libraries. You can trivially download and install a wide range of .NET libraries and utilities with the NuGet client.
Explore this project!
ASP.NET Conferences
Microsoft spare no expense to produce great conferences for its developer technologies. ASP.NET is no exception.
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DEVintersection
DEVintersection is a week long conference with keynotes from notables like Scott Guthrie and in-depth workshops on Microsoft technologies like ASP.NET, Visual Studio, SQL Server, and Azure. There is a sister event in Europe. DEVIntersection also has an official Twitter account.
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Microsoft Ignite
Microsoft Ignite is a technology preview event that used to go under the name TechEd. It covers five days of presentations (more than 700 of them!), product demos, and one-on-one discussions with experts. More than 100 vendors attend. There is a corresponding Twitter account.
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Visual Studio Live!
Visual Studio Live is a seven-city tour by a team of Microsoft experts in ASP.NET, Visual Studio, and Database Analytics.
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Build
Build is a Microsoft event dedicated to .NET. It is jam-packed with learning opportunities, and sells out early!
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IT/DEV Connections
IT/DEV Connections is an event with 190 sessions and a full day of workshops. It covers Microsoft technologies like Azure and Azure Services, Visual Studio, and SharePoint. You can watch for updates through Twitter.