This five-day course provides a comprehensive and practical hands-on introduction to developing Web applications using ASP.NET 4.5.1 and Visual Studio 2013. It includes an introduction to ASP.NET MVC, a newer Web programming framework that incorporates use of the Model-View-Controller (MVC) pattern. It also includes coverage of using ASP.NET AJAX to build rich client applications and the use of Web API to create HTTP services.
The fundamentals of Web applications are reviewed, and a testbed is established for ASP.NET and Internet Information Services. The architecture of ASP.NET is outlined, including the role of compilation, the Page class and code-behind. Web Forms are introduced, including server controls, view state, life cycle, and the event model. Request/response HTTP programming using ASP.NET is covered.
Visual Studio 2013 is used to greatly simplify the development of ASP.NET Web applications, including facilitating UI design. ASP.NET Web applications are covered, including issues of application and session state and the use of cookies. Server controls represent an important innovation in ASP.NET and are covered in detail, including validation, rich controls, and user controls. There is an introduction to caching in ASP.NET, which provides an effective mechanism for optimizing the performance of your ASP.NET application. The fundamentals of configuration and security are introduced. Diagnostics and debugging are covered, including the use of tracing.
Additional server controls are introduced, including menus and master pages. Data access is covered in some detail in two chapters, including an introduction to ADO.NET, Language Integrated Query (LINQ), the Entity Data Model (EDM) and the powerful data access controls provided by ASP.NET 4.5. The LocalDB version of SQL Server 2012 Express is used as the database. This section of the course is tied together by a progressive case study illustrating a Web site for a publishing company.
The final section of the course introduces three important ASP.NET technologies: ASP.NET AJAX, ASP.NET MVC, and ASP.NET Web API.
An appendix covers customizing the HTTP pipeline through the Application class, HTTP handlers, and HTTP modules. Another appendix covers hosting ASP.NET applications on IIS 7.5.
Numerous programming examples and exercises are provided, including case studies. The student will receive a comprehensive set of notes and all the programming examples.
This course is designed for experienced application developers and architects responsible for Web applications in a Microsoft environment.
The student should have a good working knowledge of C# and the .NET Framework. Knowledge of JavaScript is recommended for the AJAX chapter.
Required software is Visual Studio 2013 and the LocalDB version of SQL Server 2012 Express Edition (bundled with Visual Studio 2013). Use either Visual Studio Professional or higher or else both the free Visual Studio Express 2013 for Web and Visual Studio Express 2013 for Windows Desktop. The recommended operating system is Windows 7. Internet Information Services should be installed. See the course Setup Notes for details.
A good minimal hardware profile for this course would have a 1.8 GHz or equivalent CPU, 2 GB of RAM, and at least 10 GB of free disk space for tools installation and courseware.