Week 2. In Review

Week 2 covered many very cool topics. You learned about data access, I/O, and XML. You also learned how to write your first component in .NET, and how technologies such as ADO.NET and XML Web services can dramatically improve the way you write your applications.

On Day 8, you learned about the fundamentals of the Visual Basic .NET and C# languages. You learned about variables, data types, decision structures, and looping techniques. After going through the code on Day 8, you probably realized that Visual Basic .NET and C# aren't so different after all.

Day 9 introduced you to namespaces in .NET, and how they make up the framework class library. You learned that each namespace can have child namespaces, and that the classes in each namespace are the objects that you interact with in your code. You also learned how to use the SDK help files to get information about namespaces.

Day 10 was your first look at data access in .NET using ADO.NET. ADO.NET is the next-generation data access technology to access any type of data store using .NET. You learned that DataReaders provide a highly efficient mechanism for getting forward-only, read-only data, and DataAdapters and DataSets allow a robust disconnected environment for literally any type of application.

Day 11 built on Day 10 with an introduction to the visual database tools in Visual Studio .NET that aid you in developing data-driven applications. Using tools such as the Server Explorer, you learned how to manage your SQL Server databases and write data-driven applications with almost no code.

On Day 12, you learned how to work with XML in .NET. Using the System.XML namespace, you learned that reading, writing, and parsing XML is a trivial task when working with Visual Studio .NET.

On Day 13, you learned about XML Web services, a cornerstone of the .NET vision. You learned that using XML Web services to build an application enables you to expose your application's methods to any other type of application running on any other type of operating system. You also learned how to return datasets with SQL Server data from a Web service, and how to call Web services from the client script in an HTML page.

Day 14 wrapped up the week with a lesson on components in .NET. You learned how designers work in Visual Studio .NET, and about the options you have when building components using the different project templates in Visual Studio .NET. You also learned how to create your own namespaces, and how to use legacy COM components in managed code using Visual Studio .NET.