Millions of people have found enjoyment, employment, or both creating pages for the World Wide Web. Despite the limitations of HTML—or perhaps because of them—creating effective Web pages is both a challenging and satisfying experience. This euphoria quickly fades, however, when you need to create Web pages by the dozen or by tens of thousands. Uniformity rather than creativity becomes the key objective. Monotony sets in and the attractiveness of automating the task grows by the minute.
Simple document display, the application that sparked invention of the World Wide Web, now accounts for a tiny fraction of the Web’s use. There’s simply too much information for any group of Web developers to update and organize in reasonable time, and too much information for any Web visitor to locate by clicking simple hyperlinks.
Today’s modern Web sites—even small, personal ones—are complete information systems replete with input, processing, output, and interactivity. Unlike traditional information systems, however, systems on the Web require development times measured in days and weeks rather than months and years. This sets the stage for high-productivity, easy-to-learn operating environments, programming languages, database interfaces, and system services. Microsoft’s .NET initiative provides all of these at no cost other than the price of Windows itself.
Not only have Web sites become information systems; information systems have become Web sites. Web-based systems are so easy to deploy and use that in many cases, Web technologies have replaced terminal-oriented and client-server architectures for new systems. And again, despite their ease of use, .NET technologies provide an industrial-strength base for such development.
This book equips you to develop Web-based information systems of all kinds by teaching you the basics of the following .NET technologies:
ASP.NET, an advanced operating environment for Web pages that execute program code on a Web server.
Visual Basic .NET, a powerful, easy-to-learn programming language that provides full access to .NET features and services.
ADO.NET, a totally new way to access database systems of all kinds.
Because the Web pages in this book use ASP.NET, they require the .NET Framework and software development kit running on a Microsoft Web server. Microsoft provides Web servers for most of its recent operating systems, but the .NET Framework and SDK require either Windows 2000 or Windows XP Professional with Microsoft Internet Information Services installed. Therefore, to run any ASP.NET pages you develop, you’ll need access to a Web server running one of these operating systems. Also, to view your Web pages, you will need to use Microsoft Internet Explorer. You can download the latest version at www.microsoft.com/windows/ie.
You can obtain the .NET Framework and SDK with Visual Studio .NET or by downloading it from www.microsoft.com/net/. The major difference between the versions is that Visual Studio .NET provides a graphical integrated development environment, while the download requires that you work with a text editor. The same code, however, will work in either environment. This book deals only in code and makes no assumption that you’ve purchased Visual Studio .NET.
Similarly, there’s no requirement to use a particular HTML editor; you can use Microsoft FrontPage 2002, Notepad, or any other editor you prefer. Be aware, however, that ASP.NET code contains XML tags that no browser understands or ever will. Be suspicious of the way graphical HTML editors treat this code, especially if the editor makes no claim of ASP.NET compatibility.
Accessing the database requires several layers of software, all of which come bundled in a package called Microsoft Data Access Components (MDAC). Version 2.7 is the first release of MDAC that includes ADO.NET, and therefore it is the minimum version required for the pages in this book to work. You can download the latest version of MDAC from www.microsoft.com/data.
You can access almost any type of database from a Web database page, but the database used in this book is created with Microsoft Access. The decision to use Access was based on ease of use and accessibility; Access is easily the most prevalent and easiest-to-use database system around. If, however, your application requires high-transaction volumes or extremely high reliability, the book also explains how to access Microsoft SQL Server databases.
The book consists of four parts, organized as follows:
Part 1, provides a high-level introduction to the material and explains how to create a simple Web database page. In short, this is a preview of everything that follows.
Part 2, first explains how to configure a Web server to run the ASP.NET pages from this book or elsewhere. This can be a personal Web server on your own PC, a full-blown production server, or anything in between. It then provides background information on the ASP.NET operating environment, the Visual Basic .NET programming language, the design and use of databases, and the interfaces between ASP.NET pages and databases.
This part of the book contains a lot of reference material you might want to scan or skip on the first pass. You can always return for additional detail as needed.
Part 3, explains how to create a variety of practical, real-world applications. Chapter 8 explains how to create a zero-maintenance photo gallery: one that creates its own thumbnail pictures and menu pages on the fly. The next five chapters explain how to implement the core functions of a classified ad site, and then Chapter 14 explains how to create and consume Web services.
The Web pages in these chapters aren’t rudimentary examples; they’re reasonably full-featured pages with elements you’re likely to want in your own site. After all, you want your site to be more full-featured than a textbook example. There’s a certain amount of complexity, but hopefully nothing that’s overwhelming.
Part 4, provides a series of tips for improving the performance of Web database pages and for diagnosing pages that run amok. The last topic in the book explains how to start interactive debugging sessions that execute Web database pages one statement at a time, highlighting the current statement and providing access to all current values and properties.
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