Code Chronicles - Where Did Your Programming Language Come From?
It's often easy to forget how much commonality there is between our coding worlds - and as programmers and designers we can get pretty passionate about the tools, languages and approaches we use to create software... and every one has its advantages and its quirks.
Have a dig around and see where your own coding history stems from - you might be surprised at how closely related we all are... And if you're interested, we've also pulled together a load of resources specifically on ASP.NET, with information for existing programmers and for those who've toyed with the idea of using it but didn't know where to start. We've included the link to a fully licensed version of Visual Web Developer 2008 Express Edition with free tutorials if you fancy, so you can add to your coding knowledge.
Free Tools
Includes information on high-level concepts such as membership and data binding, as well as low-level ones like sockets, built-in AJAX and native editing support.
Hosting and Security
Things you just might not know about Internet Information Server (IIS). Including: security, deploying applications, working with PHP and a few more.
Support
We're not saying it's easy, but to help, we've put together quite a few tutorials, forums and a list of community sites which will guide you through the early stages of development.
Who's Using It
Just so you don't think it's just us telling you, we've got a number of articles about the technology decisions made when faced with challenging projects.
To Build Web Applications with ASP.NET
ASP.NET is the rich web application framework for building all kinds of web applications - and everything you'll need to create those websites can be downloaded and installed for free from our Downloads section.
Visual Web Developer 2008 Express Edition
Visual Web Developer is the fully functioning and free version of Microsoft Visual Studio for building web applications with ASP.NET and Silverlight.
Silverlight
The cross platform web browser plug-in for building and running rich Internet applications. Both the Silverlight plug-in and the developers kit are free of charge and with the Silverlight Tools for Visual Studio 2008, the developers kit is integrated right into Visual Web Developer 2008 Express Edition.
Language Support
When you install the free Visual Web Developer (see the Download section) you'll automatically have support for creating sites using C# or Visual Basic .NET - but the choice doesn't stop there. ASP.NET lets you choose your programming language. This could be C#, Visual Basic .NET, Python, Ruby or Perl, all the way through the Phalanger project providing PHP on .NET. The architecture of ASP.NET even allows it to be implemented in other web servers such as Apache or as a stand-alone web request architecture.
AJAX Support
Incidentally, ASP.NET also includes support for ASP.NET AJAX and an open source control library, which are available on CodePlex.com. As you would expect, the aim with ASP.NET AJAX libraries and controls is full cross-browser support, with specific testing done using Internet Explorer, Firefox and Safari. You'll be pleased to learn that Visual Web Developer also includes full support for writing and debugging JavaScript.
You'll get a quick overview of the inclusion of ASP.NET AJAX into Visual Studio 2008 (Orcas) and .NET 3.5. This will be demonstrated by using Visual Studio 2008 and the building of website applications.
Choose Your Coding Style
It's common when using a scripting language to mix HTML and code in the same page and although the trend is away from this model - simply for long-term maintainability - it's often great for getting simple sites created quickly. You can write pages using ASP.NET this way. Or you can choose to use the support for page and code separation through ASP.NET's code-behind feature.
Setting Up The Environment Training Video
Case Studies
Here's a small sample of the thousands of companies deploying websites using ASP.NET - developing in ASP.NET puts you in very good company.
easyJet
Leading Airline Set to Transform Customer Experience with Powerful Travel Portal
The new geospatial features in Microsoft SQL Server 2008 database software will allow customers to extract detailed geographical information about their destination. Microsoft Silverlight browser plug-in offers a seamless interface, new levels of flexibility, and inspiring travel options and services. Once complete, the website will meet the needs of all easyJet customers. The company expects that this unique service will not only leave competitors behind, but will also lead to significant revenue increases.
Reed.co.uk
Leading Online Recruitment Company Expands Services with New Web Environment
To expand its online business and increase revenue, reed.co.uk wanted to add new recruitment services. In 2007, the company collaborated with Microsoft Gold Certified Partner Attenda to plan a web environment based on the Windows Server 2008 Standard operating system and Microsoft .NET connection software. Now the development team can quickly plan and deploy web services - easily supporting new business initiatives.
MySpace
Microsoft Technologies Help MySpace Stay Ahead of Skyrocketing Growth
When the site's membership swelled to 9 million, MySpace converted parts of the site to an ASP.NET back-end, achieving immediate performance improvements and lower overall CPU usage. As the site grew to 17 million users, MySpace greatly expanded its use of ASP.NET, deploying a large-scale dynamic caching engine that helps ensure every member's home profile page - the centrepiece of the MySpace experience - is always available and quick to load. The company also moved to the 64-bit edition of Windows Server, enabling it to load up servers with more RAM and reduce the number of machines required to run the site.
Howard Baines
Start-Up Migrates from Open Source and Develops Web Solution in Just Three Weeks
Established in London in 2007, Howard Baines is a web consulting firm that provides Web 2.0-based consulting, design and development services. Clients include start-ups such as Trusted Places, as well as enterprises such as Reuters. The company needed a development environment to reduce the number of error reports for its applications, add new features easily, and cut down development time, money and labour. It explored alternatives to popular open source environments such as PHP and Ruby on Rails, and developed a web-based appointment scheduling application by using the Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 development system and Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5. As a result, it brought the solution to market within three weeks and reduced error reports to only two in the first month of releasing the application. The company will now develop all its applications using Microsoft technology.
huddle.net
Web 2.0 Start-up Boosts Business with Affordable Development Tools
By joining Microsoft Empower for ISVs, huddle.net accessed a full suite of Microsoft applications at minimal cost. Its development team created the huddle.net website by using the Microsoft .NET Framework with ASP.NET, and the company now has a fast-growing customer base.
Plentyoffish
Markus Frind created a dating site called Plentyoffish.com. He decided to use ASP.NET which allows the site to handle 1 billion pages per month with no technical staff. Markus and his sole operation took on the large companies to become a formidable competitor in the market with a net profit in the millions.
Seven Things You Might Not Know About Internet Information Server (IIS)
-
1. Security
We've often heard it said that people don't use IIS because it's not secure. In fact, IIS 6 has a great security record in the world of web servers. In 2003 it was launched with Windows Server 2003 in 2003 and only in 2008 has it had its first critical security update. The first regular update came three years after release. The misconception about IIS's overall security position came from IIS 6's predecessors, which provided the impetus to invest so heavily in IIS security. The latest version of IIS is version 7 released in Windows Server 2008 in February 2008 and with the same kind of intense focus paid to its security and stability.
-
2. It Works Well with PHP
The release of FastCGI for IIS 6 and its inclusion in IIS 7, along with the partnership between Zend and Microsoft- has made a huge difference to the performance and reliability of PHP on IIS and made it a viable prime deployment server for PHP.
-
3. You Don't Have to Use The GUI to Administer IIS
This is a strange misconception. IIS 7, for example, includes XML text-based administration files and an updated scriptable admin API. The configuration files can be hand edited and many changes can be applied immediately without restarting the server; and those config files can be shared by a web farm, copied to other servers and the rights to edit parts of the configuration can be delegated out... and of course you can script the administration in IIS 7 with an updated command line syntax. Oh yes, and you can also use the new GUI based admin console which can connect to the web server through HTTPS.
-
4. Easier to Deploy Applications
IIS 7 makes it easier to deploy applications, most significantly to a shared hosting environment - which may have a very different configuration to a local testing or staging server. In summary, simply the ability to include configuration information for the web server in your application configuration file makes a huge difference to the ease of deployment.
-
5. Think it Doesn't Perform or Scale as Well as Other Web Servers?
IIS has been put through its paces by some of the world's most visited websites, such as MySpace with its 23 billion page views per month, Play.com dealing with its 7 million members, and of course Microsoft.com with 10,000 requests per second and 300,000 concurrent connections.
-
6. IIS is Used by 54 Per Cent of Fortune 1000 Companies
port80software.com performs an annual survey of the Fortune 1000 companies to see which web server they use... and 54 per cent of them use IIS.
-
7. It's Easy to Extend
IIS has always provided many ways to extend its functionality. In IIS 7 there is a new modular architecture where every core feature of the web server is a separate module that can be included in the running web server, or excluded... and exactly the same modular approach can be used to extend IIS.
Security with ASP.NET
When it comes to user and application level security ASP.NET provides a set of standard features that are entirely customisable and extensible. You can implement your own security features or hook into those directly supported by ASP.NET. Whether it's authentication or authorisation or higher level membership services, you can learn much more about them online.
What You Might Not Know About the Security of Windows Hosting
We've often heard it said that people don't use IIS because it's not secure. In fact, IIS 6 has a great security record in the world of web servers. It was launched with Windows Server 2003 in 2003 and only in 2008 has it had its first critical security update. The first regular update came three years after release. This is different from IIS 6's predecessors, which provided the impetus to invest so heavily in IIS security and provided the misconception about the overall security position of IIS.
If You Want to Learn More About Security...
Training and Support
There is a huge community of ASP.NET developers out there providing peer support and advice - one example would be the forums at http://asp.net and we've listed a few others to the right. There is also wealth of free training available at all levels from novice to expert. For example, there is a short training series to get you started in ASP.NET if you already know PHP. As well as all the free training modules available, you'll be able to take advantage of all the community networks dedicated to ASP.NET.
All the downloads are full versions. The installation is all inclusive, with no pre-requisites necessary.
Visual Web Developer 2008 Express Edition
This is a free, full version of Visual Studio (not a trial edition) for developing web applications.
- Use the new Split View pane, which shows both the visual designer as well as the corresponding mark up
- Build CSS-enabled pages with the new Manage Styles and CSS Properties windows to easily design, preview and apply CSS styles to your web page
- Build JavaScript and AJAX-enabled applications more easily with improvements to JavaScript IntelliSense and debugging, and built-in support for ASP.NET AJAX
- Download the free AJAX Control Toolkit which includes over 30 AJAX controls including rounded corners, drop shadows, animation, ratings, slide shows, ratings and more
- Includes the installation of .NET Framework and ASP.NET
Silverlight Tools for Visual Studio
You’ll see in the Silverlight.net getting started section that you can download the tools to extend Visual Web Developer 2008 Express Edition to build Silverlight applications.
Open Source Applications
Codeplex.com is one of the open source repositories where you’ll find a load of ASP.NET and Silverlight projects – download code for your own use, contribute to existing projects or create your own. Microsoft contributes much of its open source to Codeplex.com including extensions to ASP.NET such as the model-view-controller support in ASP.NET MVC.
SQL Server 2008 Express Edition
A lightweight, feature-rich, powerful database for Windows and Web data-enabled needs.
- Free and easy to use
- Powerful and easy to upgrade
- Dynamic web development
- Sophisticated reporting service with Advanced Services download
- Automatic deployment and servicing
MSDN Library (Documentation)
The MSDN Library is an essential resource for developers using Microsoft tools, products and technologies. It contains a bounty of technical programming information, including sample code, documentation, technical articles and reference guides.
© 2008 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
