Beginning ASP.NET 2.0 with C#

ASP.NET 2.0 is an amazing technology that allows you to develop web sites and applications with very little hassle, and its power and depth enable it to host even the most complex applications available. Using code examples in C#, this invaluable beginner's guide shows you how to program web applications in ASP.NET 2.0 and see dynamic results with minimal effort.

Through detailed explanations and working C# code examples, this popular author team eases you into the world of ASP.NET development and gradually introduces you to all sorts of interesting ASP.NET tricks and tools. You'll quickly see how ASP.NET 2.0 is designed to ensure a significant reduction in the amount of code you have to write--and, in turn, to make your life easier.

What you will learn from this book

• Why Visual Web Developer is an ideal environment for building feature-rich ASP.NET 2.0 applications with C#
• How to secure web sites, providing login functionality and role-based access to content
• Useful techniques for safely updating data, using ASP.NET 2.0's built-in data handling capabilities
• How centralized site design can be easily achieved
• How to add e-commerce functionality to a site
• Methods for enhancing an application's performance

Who this book is for

This book is for anyone new to web programming who wants to program dynamic, feature-rich web applications in ASP.NET 2.0. It will also be ideal for programmers seeking to upgrade their ASP 3 knowledge to ASP.NET, or programmers from non-Microsoft web disciplines who need to learn ASP.NET 2.0.

Wrox Beginning guides are crafted to make learning programming languages and technologies easier than you think, providing a structured, tutorial format that will guide you through all the techniques involved.

Chris Hart normally works at Trinity Expert Systems Plc, based in Coventry (UK) but is currently on maternity leave. She's worked on several major .NET, SharePoint, and CMS applications. She enjoys having a job where she gets to learn and play with new technologies on a regular basis, often working on-site with customers. She's been using.NET since the pre-Alpha days, and yet still enjoys the fun of working with beta software.
Chris lives in Birmingham (UK, not Alabama) with her extremely understanding husband James and baby Nathan, and is discovering that motherhood is more challenging than developing a CMS systems for a major client. She's currently trying to work out how to make the  home network toddlerproof.
I'd like to thank James for being so understanding - this was the hardest one yet, and you were great. Thanks also to my brother Rob for your inspiring creativity - best of luck in your final year at Uni. Thanks to Lou for designing the Wrox United site, and for being such a fantastic friend. Finally, thanks to Nathan for waiting eight more days after I finished my final drafts before arriving into the world.
Chris Hart contributed Chapters 3-5 and 11 and Appendix C to this book.

John Kauffman was born in Philadelphia, the son of a chemist and a nurse. He received his degrees from The Pennsylvania State University, the Colleges of Science and Agriculture. His early research was for Hershey foods in the genetics of the chocolate tree and the molecular biology of chocolate production. Since 1993 John has focused on explaining technology in the classroom and in books.
In his spare time, John is an avid sailor and youth sailing coach. He also enjoys jazz music and drumming. In addition to technical material, he manages to read the New Yorker magazine from cover-to-cover each week.
John Kauffman contributed Chapters 1, 2, 7, and 8 and Appendix D to this book.

Dave Sussman is an independent trainer, consultant, and writer, who inhabits that strange place called beta land. It's full of various computers, multiple boot partitions, VPC images, and very occasionally, stable software. When not writing books or testing alpha and beta software, Dave can be found working with a variety of clients helping to bring ASP.NET projects into fruition. He is a Microsoft MVP, and a member of the ASP Insiders and INETA Speakers Bureau. You can find more details about Dave and his books at his official website (www.ipona.com ) or the site he shares with Alex Homer (http://daveandal.net).
Dave Sussman contributed Chapters 6, 9, 14, and 15 and Appendix E to this book.

Chris Ullman is a free4lance web developer and technical author who has spent many years stewing in ASP / ASP.NET, like a teabag left too long in the pot. Coming from a Computer Science background, he started initially as a UNIX/Linux guru, who gravitated towards MS technologies during the summer of ASP (1997). He cut his teeth on Wrox Press ASP guides, and since then, he has written on over 20 books, most notably as lead author for Wrox's bestselling Beginning ASP / ASP.NET 1.x series, and has contributed chapters to books on PHP, ColdFusion, JavaScript, Web Services, C#, XML, and other Internet-related technologies to esoteric to mention, now swallowed by up in the quicksands of the dot.com boom.
Quitting Wrox as a full-time employee in August 2001, he branched out into VB.NET/C#programming and ASP.NET development and started his own business, CUASP Consulting Ltd, in April 2003. He maintains a variety of sites from www.cuasp.co.uk, his "work" site, to www.atomicwise.com, a selection of his writings on music and art. The birth of his twins Jay and Luca in February 2005 took chaos to a new level. He now divides his time between protecting the twins from their over-affectionate three-year-old brother Nye, composing electronic sounds on bits of dilapidated old keyboards for his music project Open E, and tutoring his cats in the