ASP.NET is probably one of the most exciting things about .NET from a developer’s perspective. ASP has been totally redone from the ground up.

Many developers made the jump from regular ASP to .NET immediately, drawn in by the all too familiar Microsoft hype and the promises of cross-platform compatibility, rapid and robust development, and the ability to develop web applications in the familiar, comfortable and slightly lazy VB environment.

The move to a .NET development environment was expensive and a far bigger change than many expected. The uptake was, and still is much slower than Microsoft ever expected. It is surely no accident then that the .NET suffix has been removed from the recent Visual Studio 2005. There is no such thing as VB.NET anymore, it is VB2005. It is also a surprise, (although not altogether unexpected), that Microsoft is now giving away a lightweight version of VB2005 for free! Change the name and give it away – a cunning recruitment drive or a company in panic?

In truth, it is possible to find VB2005 for traditional Windows application development a fantastic tool. A sensible object-orientated programming architecture combined with the marvelous ADO.NET database access, alongside powerful features such as Web Services, throw in some of the best layout tools ever seen in an environment of this nature, gently stir in the ability to code in C#, J#, or VB and you cannot deny that VB2005 is an order of magnitude greater than VB6, and is definitely a cake worth eating.

In this accolade, however, it is not possible to include ASP.NET. VB and ASP have now been bundled together in the same VB package and the distinction between the two is supposed to be invisible; VB2005 Windows Forms and VB2005 Web Forms – a slight difference in name, yet a huge difference to the developer. VB Windows Forms (or VB.NET, or VB2005, or VB) will improve your life. VB Web Forms (or ASP.NET, or ASP2005) will make you frown.

In fact, consider the following statement:

“ASP.NET for small to medium sized websites is a huge overhead in so many ways, and so for the foreseeable future I will be sticking with regular ASP for anything but the most complex of websites.”

1. Regular ASP has the most lightweight development environment ever used – Notepad. Yes, that’s all you need!

Installation time? – It’s already installed
Start up time? – It’s running in an instant
Configuration? – Not needed
Availability? – Any PC ever

2. Regular ASP hosting is still cheaper and more prevalent than ASP.NET hosting, and even the ASP.NET hosting is slow at moving to new versions. There are UNIX versions of the ASP compiler too so you don’t even need a Windows hosting company.

3. The workshop is aimed towards those responsible for building and creating their college’s Internet website and/or intranet systems and those who already maintain a college intranet or website. The events deal with practical methods of incorporating database driven information into your current networked HTML information interface using a server that is able to serve Classic Active Server Pages (ASP).

4. The event will cover the use of ASP scripts that search, add, amend and delete information using an Access Database. Scripts will be copied and explained to avoid large amounts of time typing code. The web examples used during the event can be adapted and used in a college and include a searchable telephone directory and searchable courses prospectus using alternative keywords for searching, a titles pages and a detail of course page. Hand coding scripts gives greater flexibility and uses many of the features of ASP that are not available when using Dreamweaver wizards.

5. The scripts may be adapted for reading from, writing to, amending and deleting information in a database, and password protection of web pages. It is not necessary to have any pre-knowledge of ASP or Visual Basic Script to attend the event.

How best to upgrade to Windows Vista? For ASP.NET application developers who move to the Windows Vista operating system, IIS 7.0 represents a significant advance over earlier IIS versions because of increased security and the application possibilities offered by IIS 7.0 Integrated mode. Most developers who move to Windows Vista will be upgrading from Microsoft XP operating system, to Windows Vista and will upgrade their ASP.NET applications in the process or else will install, on Windows Vista, ASP.NET applications that were developed on other Windows operating systems. There are some important post-installation and post-upgrade configuration steps that must be performed for applications to work on the new operating system and also describes changes between Classic mode and IIS 7.0 Integrated mode that affect ASP.NET applications, and how to work around these known problems.

It is easier now to see how to built-in functions of the 2.0 release reduces the amount of code we’ll need to write. There are and will be developed unique a resourceful ways to handle various problems we’re facing daily during the development of any website. It will be easier too to see how to implement new features including themes, membership, personalization, localization, master pages, web parts, and caching. The mastery of many of the new server controls including GridView, DetailsView, MultiView, Wizard, Menu, SiteMap and Login can be also done in a professional manner.

They say that a picture is worth a thousand words, and nowhere is this more evident than in the use of car charts. Thankfully, ASP.NET provides the means for doing just that within the existing .NET framework, via the SYSTEM.DRAWING namespace. With bar charts, it is possible to visualize past sales history, forecast stock prices, and display survey results pictorially, among literally thousands of other applications. Bar charts become even more valuable when they can be generated dynamically. The future development will make this feature more user friendly, of course.