ASP.

NET

Fraser Gallop
Microsoft Student Consultant
University of Alberta
The 5 Pillars of .NET
Devices
PocketPC, Cell Phones, Desktop, WebTV

Web Services Enterprise Servers

XML, SOAP, ASP.NET

Development Tools

.NET Framework
Operating System
Heading towards a new
model for the Internet
XML
Web Web
Service Service

XML
XML
Web Web
Service Service

“Building
Client Block
Client
Device Device Services”
XML
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Pre-ASP Era
 In the old days…
1. Send a request to
the server
2. Receive a reply
containing the Client
requested data

Server 4
Entering the ASP Era

 What did we want?

 Dynamically generated HTML pages
 Program logic to generate pages
 Ability to receive data from the user and
write output to the browser
 Security—keep unauthorized people out,
and prevent people from doing things
they should not
 Ability to manage user sessions

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The ASP Era

 A Web server run-time environment

that was easy to use for simple tasks
 Allowed for dynamic generation of
content when the page was loaded
 Server side executable code
 Code directly embedded in the HTML files
<p><%=now%></p>
Write some HTML here.
<% Response.Write(“hello”) %>
<h3>how are you <%=Request.Form(“username”)%>?</h3>

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Upsides to ASP

 Server side includes

 Component Building model
 Server side access to databases
 Use of Visual Basic or JavaScript
 ODBC Link to any data source
 Scripting embedded into the HTML
pages

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Downsides to ASP

 Tied tightly into IIS

 Not Really Cross-platform
 Solutions
exists for Apache & Linux
Not easy to implement

 Can only use Visual Basic or Java

 Script Language – must be interpreted

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A New Era – ASP.NET

 A complete rewrite of the original ASP

 Kept the best concepts
 Detangles your code from the HTML
 Separates the programming logic from
the look of the page
 Program in ANY
.NET language
 Better tools, debugging WOW!

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New Features in ASP.NET

 Pre-fabricated controls
 Similar to Windows controls
 Built-in security mechanisms
 Web farmable session management
 Just-in-time compilation
 No server restarts required
 Settings stored in XML

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Web Controls Function
Text display
Name
Label
Text edit TextBox
Selection from a list DropDownList

 Encapsulate reusable ListBox

Graphics Display Image
program logic AdRotator
 Deal with the user Value setting CheckBox
interface RadioButton
Date setting Calendar
 Richer, more Commands Button
numerous, and easier LinkButton

than standard HTML ImageButton

Navigation controls HyperLink
controls Table controls Table

 Render their own TableCell

TableRow
HTML for the client Grouping other controls CheckBoxList
 Detect the capabilities Panel

of the browser being RadioButtonList

used List controls Repeater

DataList
 Maintain their state DataGrid

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 Page execution engine
1. .ASPX page request 2. Request forwarded
from client to execution engine

IIS

3. Compiles .ASPX page first time

page is encountered.
.ASPX page
<asp: label> etc.

Execution engine
4. Loads compiled class and creates
Code-behind object code-behind object.
contains event handlers. 5. Code-behind object creates
controls and tells controls to render
themselves in HTML.

6. HTML returned to IIS.

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The Web.config file

 Configuration management for

ASP.NET
 XML file
 Hierarchical structure
Master system
machine.config

App A web.config App B web.config

App B subdir
web.config
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State Management
Client Browser
Server
1. Client requests first page
Session ID cookie 2. Server receives request, creates
Session object, stores cookie on
4. Client requests second the client.
page, passing cookie.
3. Programmer stores data in Session object

7. Client receives second 5. Server transparently fetches

page based on what he Session object identified by cookie.
did on the first page.
6. Programmer fetches data from
Session object. It magically contains
 Different requests from a the user’s right data.
single user may need to know
about each other
 Need to maintain separate Sessions
data for many users at the
same time
User A’s User B’s
 Deleted after a configurable data data
time interval
 Can be stored in a separate Other users…
process, machine, or in a SQL
Server database

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 Security
 Different areas of an application require different
levels of security
 Does not provide data encryption
 Authorization can be specified in the web.config file

Name Description
None Anonymous access to pages
Windows Standard Windows authentication from IIS (best for Windows-
only intranets)
Forms All page request headers contain a cookie issued by the server,
pages requested without the cookie are redirected to a login
page (best for sites with many users where issuing a Windows
account is not practical)
Passport Uses Microsoft’s external Passport authentication service (a
cool alternative to forms-based authentication)
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 Demonstration

An few examples of ASP.NET

Putting ASP.NET to work

 Programmers will create applications

from services available on the Web
 Everyday applications will have built-in
Internet access
 We need technology that will
communicate with other technology
 Find the lowest common denominator
 On the Internet, it is HTML and XML

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