From Book News, Inc.
Intended for experienced web developers who want to plan ahead, this book identifies changes to expect in version 2.0 of ASP.NET, and explores how the new features may benefit web site and application development. It describes Visual Studio 2005, data source controls, page templates, simpler user authentication, the web site administration tool, personalization, the portal framework, cross-page posting, group validation, and the unified control architecture for mobile devices.Copyright © 2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

From the Back Cover
Praise for ASP.NET v. 2.0—The Beta Version

"This fast-paced book looks like an ideal way to jumpstart your ASP.NET 2.0 experience. It has coverage of all of the new bits and had me tapping away at my keyboard in no time."
         —Darren Neimke, Microsoft MVP-ASP.NET

"The new features in ASP.NET 2.0 will amaze and astound you, and these authors have methodically outlined the features with clear and concise examples. An absolute must for your library!"
         —Ronda Pederson, consultant

"These authors take the pain out of getting up to speed on the many new features in the ASP.NET 2.0 beta."
         —Ken Cox, Microsoft MVP-ASP.NET
             and ASP.NET Developer

"A clear and concise, yet thorough, introduction to new and improved features that are set to take the Web development community by storm in ASP.NET 2.0. An excellent resource for any ASP.NET developer."
         —Olga Londer, Microsoft MVP-IIS/CMS
             and Principal Technologist, QA

"ASP.NET 2.0 is not just a minor update. It allows you to create Web applications in an entirely new way. Just reading the chapter on the new membership and security features of ASP.NET 2.0 will make this book worth your while."
         —Douglas Reilly, MVP-ASP.NET
             Access Microsystems Inc.

"There's a large 'wow' factor to this book, which, coupled with the well-worded text and excellent examples, makes you wish the final release wasn't just out of reach."
         —Dan Maharry, .NET Developers Journal Praise for A First Look at ASP.NET v. 2.0

"I would highly recommend A First Look at ASP.NET v. 2.0 to existing ASP.NET developers. The topic is exciting and the authors did a great job of covering the bases in an enjoyable and easy-to-follow format."
         —Scott Forsyth, Microsoft MVP-ASP/ASP.NET,
             Director of IT, Orcsweb.com

"Those of us lucky enough to attend PDC or have an MSDN universal subscription can access the ASP.NET 2.0 alpha. For the rest of the world with an interest in 'Whidbey,' the next best thing to the actual bits is this book."
         —Scott Cate, Senior Engineer,
             myKB.com Corporation

"I couldn't wait to get my hands on this new title--not only does it open with Scott Guthrie's foreword, but it includes a chapter on caching by Rob Howard and features the exceptional writing talents of Alex Homer and Dave Sussman."
         —Rob Chartier, Microsoft MVP-ASP/ASP.NET

"The authors have worked closely with the ASP.NET team at Microsoft to make sure that this book is authoritative, accurate, and informative. Anyone using ASP.NET will find a wealth of useful info on the next version."

         —Scott Guthrie, Product Unit Manager, Web Platform and Tools Team, Microsoft

In this book, three world-class ASP.NET experts present a start-to-finish, developer-focused preview of Microsoft's latest Web development breakthrough: ASP.NET 2.0.

The first book to fully reflect the new ASP.NET 2.0 Beta, ASP.NET v. 2.0—The Beta Version identifies powerful new best practices for ASP.NET development. It will give you a jumpstart in creating new applications, optimizing their performance, extending them to mobile environments, improving their accessibility, and simplifying their deployment and management.

Drawing on their unsurpassed experience and unfettered access to Microsoft's ASP.NET development team, the authors cover every significant platform enhancement. Using realistic code examples, they illuminate improvements in data access, user-interface development, portals, personalization, security, and many other areas.

Coverage includes: Using ASP.NET 2.0's new Visual Web Developer and administration tools Simplifying database integration with "code-free" data binding and new data source controls Using Master Pages to improve control over application look-and-feel Strengthening security with membership providers, security server controls, cookieless forms authentication, and the new Role Manager Simplifying personalization with ASP.NET 2.0 Themes Building fast, flexible portals with newly improved Web Parts and the new Portal Framework Delivering more effective mobile device support—with less complexity Previewing new controls—including FormView, CreateUserControl, and other innovations absent from earlier ASP.NET 2.0 Technology PreviewsLeveraging major improvements to existing controls Improving accessibility for disabled site visitors and application users

Currently assessing ASP.NET 2.0? Piloting it? Already building production applications with it? Wherever you stand, wherever you're headed with ASP.NET 2.0, this book will get you there.



About the Author

Alex Homer is managing director of Stonebroom, Ltd., a software-development, consulting, and training organization. He was formerly lead technical author and reviewer for Wrox Press, specializing in Microsoft Web and database technologies.

Dave Sussman speaks frequently at Microsoft development conferences and has been writing about ASP since its earliest releases.

Rob Howard founded Telligent Systems, a solutions company specializing in Microsoft enterprise technologies. As Program Manager at Microsoft, he helped design ASP.NET's Web services support, caching, session state, and other features. His books include A First Look at ASP.NET v. 2.0 (Addison-Wesley, 2003) and ASP.NET Developer's Cookbook (Sams, 2003).



Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Dynamic Web page generation techniques have been around for many years, but ASP.NET took the world by storm when it was released in February 2002. The advent of a new page and postback architecture, server controls, and the whole .NET Framework made it easier to build Web sites and Web applications that performed better while reducing the amount of work required by the developer.

So, it comes as no surprise to see a new version of the .NET Framework, and with it version 2.0 of ASP.NET, starting to appear on the horizon. Sometime in 2005 we should have the final release of version 2.0 of the .NET Framework, together with new versions of Visual Studio and other tools. In the meantime, Microsoft is following its usual policy of involving developers as early in the process as possible, giving them the chance to provide feedback on the new product.

So, with the final release of version 2.0 still some way off, why would you be interested in it now? The simple answer is, of course, that as a developer you need to keep abreast of what's going on in your industry. And more than that, being aware of what's coming in the future might well in- fluence what you do today, in the overall design of your applications and the preparations and plans you make for upcoming products and applications. This book will help by introducing you to the new features that will be in version 2.0 of ASP.NET and how they can benefit your Web site and Web application development. And perhaps you don't actually intend to install the early releases of version 2.0, but you just want to know more about what it offers. No problem—that's OK with us as well! Versions and Release Schedules

Before you read any further, it's important that you understand what this book covers and how it relates to the future and final releases of ASP.NET version 2.0.

The first public beta of version 2.0 of the .NET Framework arrives in mid-2004. There will probably be another beta release later in 2004, followed by a final release. However, there are unlikely to be any significant changes between the first beta release and the finished product because this phase of the development cycle concentrates on moving from "code complete" status though fine-tuning and bug fixing to final release.

This book covers the first beta release, and as such the class interface listings and code samples you see here cannot be guaranteed to work in exactly the same way right through to the final release version. However, the principles and general syntax are unlikely to differ by anything more than minor details. What This Book Covers

This is not just a reference book but also a feature-packed exploration of version 2.0 of ASP.NET. It covers the changes between ASP.NET 1.x and ASP.NET 2.0 that make it even easier to build efficient, attractive, and interactive Web sites and Web applications using the new features in ASP.NET, while considerably reducing developer effort and code requirements.

The first chapter presents an overview of the new version and also lays out the roadmap for the remainder of the book. The following chapters discuss how the common requirements of developers have been addressed, starting with the ubiquitous need to access data from your pages and then progressing through to a detailed look at the new configuration and management features that version 2.0 provides.

Along with the final release of ASP.NET 2.0 we will, of course, see a new version of Visual Studio and other tools. While we do include some details of the new version of Visual Studio, called Visual Studio 2005, the book does not concentrate on this area. Many developers will be writing ASP.NET pages using other tools (including, we suspect, a text editor) while Visual Studio 2005 is still under development. What You Need to Use This Book

The main thing you need to use this book is the beta release of version 2.0 of the .NET Framework. Other than that, you'll need something to transfer your creative efforts into ASP.NET files on disk. We still prefer a text editor, though early experiments with Visual Studio 2005 suggest that Windows Notepad will be seeing the light of day a lot less often in the future. However, it doesn't really matter which tool or editor you use as long as it can generate text files with the .aspx file extension.

Finally, you'll need to be prepared to change the way you think about building code for your Web pages because in many cases you don't actually have to write any code at all in version 2.0. See Chapter 1 for more details, and get ready to be more productive! Obtaining and Running the Sample Files

Most of the examples you see in the book are provided for download so that you can experiment with them yourself, on your own server. We have also installed many of them on our server, where you can run them online to see the results, without having to download them. For more details, go to http://www.daveandal.net/books/ and follow the link to this book.

FROM OUR EDITORS

The Barnes & Noble Review
ASP.NET v.2.0 will make it easier to build consistent, professional user interfaces. It￯﾿ﾽll simplify application management. It￯﾿ﾽs faster. And it￯﾿ﾽll substantially reduce the amount of code you￯﾿ﾽll have to write. In short, it￯﾿ﾽs worth learning -- sooner rather than later. And nobody outside Microsoft knows ASP.NET v.2.0 better than the authors of this preview guide.

Alex Homer, Dave Sussman, and former ASP.NET program manager Rob Howard cover ASP.NET 2.0 in unprecedented depth: everything from ￯﾿ﾽcode-free data binding￯﾿ﾽ to mobile applications, security to caching. Especially helpful: a full chapter on master pages for standardizing look and feel, and another on the new Portal Framework. This isn￯﾿ﾽt just a regurgitation of Microsoft￯﾿ﾽs white papers: It￯﾿ﾽs best practices and superior code from professionals with unsurpassed ASP.NET experience. Bill Camarda

Bill Camarda is a consultant, writer, and web/multimedia content developer. His 15 books include Special Edition Using Word 2003 and Upgrading & Fixing Networks for Dummies, Second Edition.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

In this book, three world-class ASP.NET experts present a start-to-finish, developer-focused preview of Microsoft's latest Web development breakthrough: ASP.NET 2.0. The first book to fully reflect the new ASP.NET 2.0 Beta, ASP.NET v. 2.0 -- The Beta Version identifies powerful new best practices for ASP.NET development. It will give you a jumpstart in creating new applications, optimizing their performance, extending them to mobile environments, improving their accessibility, and simplifying their deployment and management. sDrawing on their unsurpassed experience and unfettered access to Microsoft's ASP.NET development team, the authors cover every significant platform enhancement. Using realistic code examples, they illuminate improvements in data access, user-interface development, portals, personalization, security, and many other areas. sCurrently assessing ASP.NET 2.0? Piloting it? Already building production applications with it? Wherever you stand, wherever you're headed with ASP.NET 2.0, this book will get you there.

SYNOPSIS