Chapter 18. Web Applications and Services
In this chapter
Understanding the Web Forms Programming Model
Writing Code Behind a Web Form
Managing Your Web Application Project
In this chapter, we’ll explore two new types of Web projects available in Visual Basic .NET: Web Applications and Web Services. Both types of projects are built on ASP.NET and contain code that executes on a Web server. ASP.NET Web Applications include a new programming model called Web Forms, which promises to make Web development much easier for the developer. Web Services, on the other hand, do not have a user interface, but can be used to expose business functionality to other programs and users via the Internet.
Technically speaking, an ASP.NET Web Application is just a collection of related files in a virtual directory. These files can be coded “by hand” using a text editor, or created in the Visual Studio development environment. Either way, when you create a Web page using ASP.NET you can use a powerful new programming model available, known as Web Forms. In this chapter, we will examine how Web Forms work, discuss some common coding techniques, and finally examine some issues involved with managing a Web Application project in Visual Studio .NET.