INTRODUCTION xxi
CHAPTER 1: GETTING STARTED WITH ASP.NET 6.0 1
An Introduction to ASP.NET vNext 2
Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) 2
Microsoft Internet Information Services 5
HTML 5 5
HTML Markup 5
Attributes in HTML 7
HTML Example 8
ASP.NET Web Forms 10
ViewState 10
ASP.NET Web Forms Events and Page Lifecycle 11
Control Library 13
ASP.NET MVC 15
Testability 16
Full Control over Output 17
Web Forms and MVC Similarities 17
Choosing the Best Approach 17
Using Visual Studio 2015 18
Versions 18
Downloading and Installing 19
The Sample Application 23
Summary 24
CHAPTER 2: BUILDING AN INITIAL ASP.NET APPLICATION 27
Creating Websites with Visual Studio 2015 28
Available Project Types 28
Web Site Project–Based Approach 28
Web Application Project 29
Creating a New Site 30
While Creating a Project 30
Empty Template 34
Web Forms Template 35
MVC Template 36
Web API Template 36
Single Page Application Template 37
Azure Mobile Service Template 38
Working with Files in Your Application 38
File Types of an ASP.NET MVC Application 38
File System Structure of an ASP.NET MVC Application 41
File Types of an ASP.NET Web Forms Application 43
MVC and Web Form File Differences 46
Creating the Sample Application 47
Summary 49
CHAPTER 3: DESIGNING YOUR WEB PAGES 51
HTML and CSS 52
Why Use Both HTML and CSS? 52
An Introduction to CSS 54
More CSS 58
Selectors 58
Properties 61
Precedence in Styles 65
The Style Sheet 67
Adding CSS to Your Pages 68
Creating Embedded and Inline Style Sheets 71
Applying Styles 72
Managing Styles 78
Summary 84
CHAPTER 4: PROGRAMMING IN C# AND VB.NET 87
Introduction to Programming 87
Data Types and Variables 88
Defi ning a Variable 88
Operators 91
Converting and Casting Data Types 93
Converting Data Types 93
Casting Data Types 96
Using Arrays and Collections 97
Using Arrays 97
Using Collections 99
Decision-Making Operations 101
Comparison Operators 102
Logical Operators 103
If Statement 104
Switch/Select Case Statement 106
Loops 106
For Loop 106
Foreach/For Each Loops 108
While Loop 109
Exiting Loops 110
Organizing Code 110
Methods: Functions and Subroutines 110
Writing Comments and Documentation 112
Object-Oriented Programming Basics 114
Important OO Terminology 115
Classes 115
Fields 116
Properties 117
Methods 120
Constructors 120
Inheritance 121
Events 123
Summary 125
CHAPTER 5: ASP.NET WEB FORM SERVER CONTROLS 129
Introduction to Server Controls 129
Defining Controls in Your Pages 130
Types of Controls 137
Standard Controls 138
HTML Controls 143
Data Controls 144
Validation Controls 144
Navigation Controls 145
Login Controls 145
AJAX Extensions 146
Other Control Sets 146
The ASP.NET State Engine 147
How the State Engine Works 148
Summary 157
CHAPTER 6: ASP.NET MVC HELPERS AND EXTENSIONS 161
Why MVC Has Fewer Controls Than Web Forms 162
A Different Approach 162
Razor 166
Controller 170
Routing 172
HTTP Verbs and Attributes 174
Form-Building Helpers 175
Form Extensions 175
Editor and EditorFor 177
Model Binding 177
Summary 194
CHAPTER 7: CREATING CONSISTENT-LOOKING WEBSITES 197
Consistent Page Layout with Master Pages 198
Creating and Using Master Pages in ASP.NET Web Forms 198
Creating a Content Page in ASP.NET Web Forms 208
Creating Layouts in ASP.NET MVC 212
Creating a Content View in ASP.NET MVC 215
Using a Centralized Base Page 219
Summary 225
CHAPTER 8: NAVIGATION 229
Different Ways to Move around Your Site 230
Understanding Absolute and Relative URLs 230
Understanding Default Documents 234
Friendly URLs 234
Using the ASP.NET Web Forms Navigation Controls 236
Using the Menu Control 240
Navigating in ASP.NET MVC 248
Routing 248
Default Configuration and Route 249
Creating a Navigational Structure 252
Programmatic Redirection 255
Programmatically Redirecting the Client to a Different Page 255
Server-Side Redirects 258
Practical Tips on Navigation 262
Summary 263
CHAPTER 9: DISPLAYING AND UPDATING DATA 267
Working with SQL Server Express 268
Installation 269
SQL Server Management Studio 276
Connecting in Visual Studio 282
Entity Framework Approach to Data Access 285
Data First 285
Code First 286
Selecting Data from the Database 295
Data Controls in Web Forms 297
Details View 297
Web Form GridView 303
Data Display in MVC 310
List Display in MVC 311
Details Views 314
Summary 318
CHAPTER 10: WORKING WITH DATA—ADVANCED TOPICS 323
Sorting and Pagination 324
Sorting and Pagination in Web Form Server Controls 324
Sorting and Pagination in MVC Lists 330
Updating and/or Inserting Data 339
A Non-Code First Approach to Database Access 347
Using SQL Queries and Stored Procedures 350
Caching 358
Different Ways to Cache Data in ASP.NET Applications 358
Common Pitfalls with Caching Data 362
Summary 363
CHAPTER 11: USER CONTROLS AND PARTIAL VIEWS 367
Introduction to User Controls 368
Creating User Controls 369
Adding User Controls 373
Sitewide Registration of a User Control 376
Managing the IDs of Any Controls 379
Adding Logic to Your User Controls 381
Using Partial Views 387
Adding a Partial View 389
Managing the Controller for a Partial View 393
Templates 400
Summary 408
CHAPTER 12: VALIDATING USER INPUT 413
Gathering Data from the User 414
Validating User Input in Web Forms 415
Understanding Request Validation 424
Validating User Input in MVC 426
Model Attribution 426
Client-Side Validation 434
Request Validation in ASP.NET MVC 443
Validation Tips 444
Summary 445
CHAPTER 13: ASP.NET AJAX 449
Introducing the Concept of AJAX 450
F12 Developer Tools 451
Using ASP.NET AJAX in Web Forms 457
The Initial AJAX Experience 457
Enhancing the AJAX Experience 466
Using AJAX in MVC 469
Using Web Services in AJAX Websites 483
jQuery in AJAX 489
Practical AJAX Tips 495
Summary 496
CHAPTER 14: jQUERY 499
An Introduction to jQuery 499
Early JavaScript 500
jQuery’s Role 500
Including the jQuery Library 503
Bundles 506
jQuery Syntax 512
jQuery Core 513
Working with the jQuery Utility Methods 514
Selecting Items Using jQuery 516
Modifying the DOM with jQuery 519
Changing Appearance with jQuery 519
Handling Events 523
Debugging jQuery 532
Practical Tips on jQuery 536
Summary 537
CHAPTER 15: SECURITY IN YOUR ASP.NET WEBSITE 541
Introducing Security 542
Identity: Who Are You? 542
Authentication: How Can Users Prove Who They Are? 542
Authorization: What Are You Allowed to Do? 543
Logging in with ASP.NET 543
Confi guring Your Web Application for Security 547
Working with Users within Your Application 558
Roles 566
Configuring Your Application to Work with Roles 567
Programmatically Checking Roles 572
Practical Security Tips 576
Summary 576
CHAPTER 16: PERSONALIZING WEBSITES 581
Understanding the Profile 582
Creating the Profile 582
Using the Profile 590
Practical Personalization Tips 602
Summary 603
CHAPTER 17: EXCEPTION HANDLING, DEBUGGING, AND TRACING 605
Error Handling 606
Different Types of Errors 606
Syntax Errors 606
Logic Errors 607
Runtime Errors 609
Catching and Handling Exceptions 612
Global Error Handling and Custom Error Pages 621
Error Handling in a Controller 627
The Basics of Debugging 629
Tools Support for Debugging 629
Moving Around in Debugged Code 629
Debugging Windows 631
Other Windows 634
Debugging Client-Side Script 638
Tracing Your ASP.NET Web Pages 647
Adding Your Own Information to the Trace 650
Tracing and Performance 654
Logging 654
Downloading, Installing, and Configuring a Logger 655
Summary 658
CHAPTER 18: WORKING WITH SOURCE CONTROL 661
Introducing Team Foundation Services 661
Why Use Source Control 662
Setting Up a Visual Studio Online Account 662
Checking Code In and Out 669
Undoing Changes 670
Shelvesets 672
Getting a Specific Version from the Server 672
Seeing Changed Items in Solution Explorer 675
Looking at History and Comparing Versions 675
Labeling 676
Interacting with a Team 677
Changing Default Source Control Behavior in Visual Studio 677
Branching and Merging 678
Summary 681
CHAPTER 19: DEPLOYING YOUR WEBSITE 683
Preparing Your Website for Deployment 684
Avoiding Hard-Coded Settings 684
The Web.config File 685
Expression Syntax 685
The Web Configuration Manager Class 687
Preparing for Deployment 691
Microsoft Azure 691
Publishing Your Site 695
Introducing Web.config Transformations 706
Moving Data to a Remote Server 713
Smoke Testing Your Application 720
Going Forward 722
Summary 722
Appendix: answers to exercises 725
Index 735
