ASP .NET BASICS

Lesson Objectives : 
Introduces more 
advanced ASP.Net topics
such as:

           # ASP.Net Page Structure
# ASP.Net Server Controls
# Directives
# View State
# Name spaces
# ASP.Net Page Structure 
An ASP.Net page consists of the following elements:
Directives
Code declaration blocks
Code render blocks
ASP.Net server controls
Server-side comments
Server-side include directives
Literal text and HTML tags
Not every element always appears on a given page, we will learn when to use them
# Directives :
Control how the page is compiled
Specify settings when transferring between pages
Aid in debugging
Allow importing of classes
Start with the <@ sequence and end with a %> sequence
ASP.Net directives can appear anywhere on the page, but are usually placed as the first lines in the file
Three Common Directives :
The Page directive defines page-specific attributes like the language to be used as in:
<%@ Page Language=“C#” %>
The Import directive makes functionality defined elsewhere through the use of namespaces as in:
<%@ Import Namespace=“System.Web.Mail” %>
The Register directive links a user control to the ASP.Net page as in:
<%@ Register TagPrefix=“ux” TagName=“footer” Src=“footer.ascx” %>
#  Code Declaration Blocks :
When you add programming logic to your .aspx page, it resides inside a
 
<script runat=“server”> tag
Code declaration tags usually are placed in the <head> of your ASP.Net page
If you don’t specify the language of the code, it will default to the language in the Page directive
 <script runat=“server” language=“C#”>
# Code Render Blocks :
Used to define inline code or inline expressions
<% String Title = “Harry Potter”; %>
<% Title %>
The first line contains a complete line of C# code, the declaration and assignment of a String variable
The second line writes out the Title variable onto the page

# ASP.Net Server Controls :
Server Controls represent the dynamic elements users interact with.
There are four types of server controls:
HTML Controls
ASP.Net Controls
Validation Controls
User Controls
Most server controls must reside within a
  <form runat=“server> tag


# Advantages of Server Controls :

HTML elements can be accessed from within code to change their 
        characteristics, check their values, or dynamically update them

ASP.Net controls retain their properties even after the page was processed.  This process is called the View State

With ASP.Net controls, developers can separate the presentational elements and the application logic so they can be considered separately

# What is the View State??? :

The persistence of data after it is sent to the server for processing is possible because of the View State

If you have created forms using HTML controls, you have experienced the loss of data after form submission

The data is maintained in the view state by encrypting it within a hidden form field

# looking at the view state :

Look at the source code of the file after the page has been submitted to see code similar to this…

i.e.  <input type= hidden” name=“VIEWSTATE” value=“dWtMTcy0TAy0DawNzt)PDtsPGk6Mj47PjtsPHQ802w8aTWzPj+02wPGw5uAXJdGFaGaxk6t4=“ />

The View State is enabled for every page by default

If you don’t intend to use the View State, set the EnableViewState property of the Page directive to be false

<%@ Page EnableViewState=“False” %>

Server-Side Comments :

Server-side comments will not be processed by ASP.Net

It used the <%-- beginning sequence and the --%> ending sequence

<% --  This is a server-side comment --%>

#The difference between HTML comments and ASP.Net comments is that ASP.Net comments are processed by the browser or the ASP.Net runtime

#Don’t use HTML comments to comment out ASP.Net code

#HTML comments only hide things from the browser

Server-Side Include Directives :

#These includes help developers insert segments of code into a page from an external file

#There are two techniques for doing this:

#Using the file attribute, we give the physical path to the file on the server either as an absolute path starting from the drive letter or a relative path to the current file

#<! -- include file=“myinclude.aspx”  -->  (relative path)

#Using the virtual attribute, you can specify the file’s location from the absolute root of the site, or from a relative path to the current page.

#<! -- include virtual=“/directory1/myinclude.aspx” --> 

(absolute path

Literal Text and HTML Tag :

#One cannot do without text and HTML elements to display information from your ASP.Net controls and programming code

#Without these there would be no format to the page

#The surrounding <html>, <head>, and <body> tags make it possible for a browser to understand our page

ASP.NET LANGUAGES :

.Net supports many different languages

#Programmers used to VBScript or JavaScript to do their programming will have more robust, strongly-typed, and feature-rich choices in VB.Net and C#.Net

#VB.Net builds on the RAD that became popular in the 90’s.  VB.Net is easy to read, use and maintain.

C#.Net was developed to keep the simplicity of VB and the power and flexibility of C++ (some say to replace Java).  C# does away with confusing C++ syntax.

Summary :

On an ASP.Net page,
you will probably use: directives, code declaration blocks, code render blocks, includes, comments, and controls.
Two languages supported by ASP.Net are VB.Net and C#.Net.  We will focus on C#.Net syntax for this course.
In the next chapter we will cover some C# programming basics.






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