Delivering rich, Web 2.0-style experiences has never been easier. This book gives you a complete hands-on introduction to Microsoft ASP.NET AJAX 1.0, the new framework that offers many of the same benefits for Ajax development that ASP.NET provides for server-side development. With Programming ASP.NET AJAX, you'll learn how to create professional, dynamic web pages with Ajax in no time.

Loaded with code and examples that demonstrate key aspects of the framework, this book is ideal not only for ASP.NET developers who want to take their applications a step further with Ajax, but for any web developers interested in ASP.NET AJAX, no matter what technology they use currently. That includes JavaScript programmers who would like to avoid the headaches of writing cross-browser code.

The most up-to-date and comprehensive introductory ASP.NET book you’ll find on any shelf, Beginning ASP.NET 3.5 in VB 2008 guides you through Microsoft’s latest technology for building dynamic web sites. This book will enable you to build dynamic web pages on the fly, and it assumes only the most basic knowledge of VB 2008.

The book provides exhaustive coverage of ASP.NET, guiding you from your first steps right up to the most advanced techniques, such as querying databases from within a web page and tuning your site for optimal performance. Within these pages, you’ll find tips for “best practices” and comprehensive discussions of key database and XML principles you need to know in order to be effective with ASP.NET. The book also emphasizes the invaluable coding techniques of object orientation and code behind, which will start you off on the track to building real-world web sites right from the beginning–rather than just faking it with simplified coding practices.

By the time you’ve finished the book, you will have mastered the core techniques and have all the knowledge you need to begin work as a professional ASP.NET developer.

This book shows you just how powerful, and yet easy to use, the new Web development environment from Microsoft really is. Visual Web Developer 2005 Express Edition, along with the relational database SQL Server 2005 Express Edition, allows you to build great Web sites using drag-and-drop techniques, wizards, and a huge range of developer-friendly tools and controls. The book demonstrates this by leading you through the creation of a fully featured and highly interactive e-commerce Web application, like those you are used to seeing on the Internet today.

This is not a reference book. You will not find listings of the objects, classes, properties, and methods of each feature in ASP.NET. Instead, this book is task-focused to provide you with the experience of working in Visual Web Developer, quickly getting to grips with the environment and ASP.NET, and learning how to achieve the kinds of requirements you will meet every day as you build your  applications. For example, after a brief section on installing Visual Web Developer and an introduction to the development environment, Chapter 1 gets you building pages that display and allow you to edit the data in a database.

As you progress through the book, you will learn about the following:
- Designing the structure of your Web site
- Implementing the database
- Displaying and editing data
- Building a shopping cart
- Publishing your finished site

ASP.NET 3.5 is the latest version of Microsoft’s revolutionary ASP.NET technology. It is the principal standard for creating dynamic web pages on the Windows platform. Pro ASP.NET 3.5 in C# 2008 raises the bar for high–quality, practical advice on learning and deploying Microsoft’s dynamic web solution.

Seasoned .NET professionals Matthew MacDonald and Mario Szpuszta explain how you can get the most from this groundbreaking new technology. They cover ASP.NET 3.5 as a whole, illustrating both the brand–new features and the functionality carried over from previous versions of ASP. This book will give you the knowledge you need to code real ASP.NET 3.5 applications in the best possible style.

The book will teach you ASP.NET 3.5 starting with core concepts to more advanced topics. You will learn

    * Core concepts of ASP.NET 3.5. Why it’s special. What it’s fundamental principals are. The basics of Visual Studio. How ASP.NET 3.5 controls are created, and how they fit into ASP.NET 3.5 pages, ultimately creating full applications
    * Data access details. The intricacies of ADO.NET and how to perform data binding to many sources from databases to file streams to XML. We include LINQ coverage so you’re on the bleeding edge
    * Security. Once considered the Achilles heel of all Windows web applications, security has vastly improved and is a cornerstone of ASP.NET 3.5. This section explains the various forms of available security, and how to best apply them
    * Taking things further using advanced user interface techniques. This includes user controls, customer server controls, client–side JavaScript, and GDI+.
    * Web services. In an increasingly connected world, working with web services grows in importance. This book will show you how to work with them.
    * ASP.NET AJAX, with an emphasis on comtemporary web development techniques
    * Development using Internet Information Services 7, Microsoft’s premier web hosting platform.
    * And much more.

Pro ASP.NET for SQL Server: High Performance Data Access for Web Developers explains how to use ASP.NET 2.0 and SQL Server 2005 most efficiently together. It covers all crucial performance issues and illustrates optimal techniques with enterprise-quality development.

Performance is always an issue, and optimizing database access is one of the most daunting performance challenges facing web developers. With Brennan Stehling as your guide, you'll explore the many overlaps of web and database technologies, including configuration, programming, performance tuning, and deployment. You’ll learn how to make high-performance database access not just a goal, but a reality.

What you’ll learn

• Discover what impedes ASP.NET 2.0 access to SQL Server 2005 and how to make web applications and databases work blindingly fast together.
• Learn to make the subtle choices between DataSets, DataReaders, and DataObjects, to simplify code and maximize performance.
• Optimize data-bound controls and create your own.
• See when a custom database provider is advisable and how to build one.
• Understand how to monitor and measure web/database performance.
• Learn to build, deploy, and configure enterprise-level web applications against SQL Server 2005.