The
.NET Framework version 3.5 Service Pack 1 includes enhancements for ASP.NET in
targeted areas. Visual Studio 2008 and Microsoft Visual Web Developer Express
Edition also include enhancements and new features for improved Web
development.
The
most significant advances are improved support for developing AJAX-enabled Web
sites and support for Language-Integrated Query (LINQ). The advances include
new server controls and types, a new object-oriented client type library, and
full IntelliSense support in Visual Studio 2008 and Microsoft Visual Web
Developer Express Edition for working with ECMAScript (JavaScript or JScript).
The
following sections of this topic describe the changes in ASP.NET and Visual Web
Developer.
ASP.NET
Enhancements in SP1
ASP.NET
Enhancements in version 3.5
Visual
Web Developer Enhancements
ASP.NET Enhancements in SP1
The
following sections provide information about enhancements and new features in
Visual Studio 2008 and Visual Web Developer Express Edition.
Dynamic
Data
ASP.NET
Dynamic Data is a framework that lets you create data-driven ASP.NET Web
applications easily. It does this by automatically discovering the data model
at run time and determining UI behavior from it. A scaffolding framework
instantly provides a functional Web site for viewing and editing data. This
scaffolding can then be easily customized using metadata, templates, or by
creating standard ASP.NET pages to override the default behavior. At the same
time existing applications can easily integrate pieces of the scaffolding logic
with their existing pages.
URL
Routing
URL
routing in ASP.NET enables you to use URLs that do not have to map to specific
files in a Web site. Because the URL does not have to map to a file, you can
use URLs in a Web application that are descriptive of the user's action and
therefore more easily understood by users. In URL routing, you define URL
patterns that contain placeholders for values that are used when you handle URL
requests. At run time, the pieces of the URL that follow the application name
are parsed into discrete values, based on a URL pattern that you have defined.
EntityDataSource
Control
The
EntityDataSource control supports data binding scenarios based on the Entity
Data Model (EDM). The EDM specification represents data as sets of entities and
relationships. The EDM is used by the Entity Framework in object-relational
mapping and in other scenarios such as ADO.NET Data Services. Users accustomed
to the design-time model of ASP.NET data binding controls will find the
programming surface of the EntityDataSource control similar to that of other
data source controls.
The
EntityDataSource control manages create, read, update, and delete operations
with a data source on behalf of data-bound controls on the page. The
EntityDataSource works with editable grids, forms with user-controlled sorting
and filtering, dually bound drop-down list controls, and master-detail pages.
The EntityDataSource control is able to obtain query parameter values from page
controls, query parameters appended to the page URI, cookies, and other ASP.NET
parameter objects.
New
ASP.NET AJAX
The
new extensions for ASP.NET AJAX in SP1 give you more control over browser
history when you use the Back button. They also enable multiple client scripts
to be automatically combined into one composite script. This speeds script load
time by greatly reducing the required number of round trips to the server.
JScript
Formatting
Code
formatting capabilities has been extended to support JScript in Visual Studio
and Visual Web Developer Express Edition. You can choose to format code
manually for a document or selection, or to be automatically formatted as you
type.
ASP.NET Enhancements in version 3.5
The
.NET Framework version 3.5 includes enhancements for ASP.NET in the following
areas:
New
server controls, types, and a client-script library that work together to
enable you to develop AJAX-style Web applications.
Extension
of server-based forms authentication, roles management, and profile services as
Web services that can be consumed by Web-based applications.
A
new EntityDataSource control that exposes the Entity Data Model through the
ASP.NET data source control architecture.
A
new ListView data control that displays data and that provides a highly
customizable UI.
A
new LinqDataSource control that exposes Language-Integrated Query (LINQ)
through the ASP.NET data source control architecture.
A
new merge tool (Aspnet_merge.exe) that merges precompiled assemblies to support
flexible deployment and release management. This feature is not available in
Visual Web Developer Express Edition.
The
.NET Framework version 3.5 is also integrated with IIS 7.0. You can now use
ASP.NET services such as forms authentication and caching for all content
types, not just ASP.NET Web pages (.aspx files). This is because ASP.NET and
IIS 7.0 use the same request pipeline. The unified request processing pipeline
means that you can use managed code to develop HTTP pipeline modules that work
with all requests in IIS. In addition, IIS and ASP.NET modules and handlers now
support unified configuration. For more information, see ASP.NET Application
Life Cycle Overview for IIS 7.0.
The
.NET Framework version 3.5 enables you to create Web applications that feature
next-generation user interfaces with reusable client components. You can
develop Web pages by using a server-based approach, a client-based approach, or
a combination of both, according to your requirements. The AJAX
Server
controls that support server-based AJAX
The
Microsoft AJAX Library, which supports client-based, object-oriented
development that is browser independent. In addition to supporting the new
AJAX-enabled server controls, the client library enables you to develop custom
client components that extend DOM elements or that represent a DOM element.
Server
classes that enable you to develop server controls that map to custom client
components whose events and properties are set declaratively. Server types that
support this functionality include controls that derive from the
ExtenderControl or ScriptControl base classes, or that implement the
IExtenderControl or IScriptControl interfaces.
Support
for script globalization and localization by using client script. Globalization
enables you to display dates and numbers based on a culture value (locale).
Localization enables you to specify localized content (text, images, and so on)
in client components for UI elements or exception messages.
Access
to Web services and to ASP.NET authentication, roles management, and profile
application services.
The
.NET Framework version 3.5 enables you to easily enable asynchronous
partial-page updates in a page, which avoids the overhead of full-page
postbacks. You can just put existing controls and markup inside UpdatePanel
controls. Postbacks from inside an UpdatePanel control become asynchronous
postbacks and refresh only the part of the page that is inside the panel, which
creates a more fluid user experience. You can display the progress of the
partial-page update by using UpdateProgress controls.
Learning
About AJAX
The
documentation provides extensive information to help you learn how to develop
AJAX-style Web applications in ASP.NET. To start, follow the sequence of topics
described in Adding AJAX and Client Capabilities Roadmap.
Web
Services and Application Services
The
.NET Framework version 3.5 enables you to create both ASP.NET (.asmx) and
WCF-based Web services that you can call from Web pages in client script by
using the Microsoft AJAX Library. You can also call server-based application
services that are exposed as Web services, which includes forms authentication,
roles management, and profiles. These application services can be consumed in
WCF-compatible applications, which includes AJAX-enabled Web pages and Window
Forms clients. As a result, applications that are built with these ASP.NET or
WCF technologies can share information that is made available by application
services. For more information, see Web Services in ASP.NET AJAX and Using ASP.NET
Web Services.
ListView
Data Control
The
ListView control combines many aspects of existing data controls. The ListView
control is useful for displaying data in any repeating structure, similar to
the DataList and Repeater controls. Unlike those controls, the ListView control
supports edit, insert, and delete operations as well as sorting and paging. The
paging functionality is provided for ListView by the new DataPager control.
The
ListView control is a highly customizable control that enables you to use
templates and styles to define the control's UI. Like the Repeater, DataList,
and FormView controls, templates in the ListView control are not predefined to
render specific UI in the browser. For more information, see ListView Web
Server Control Overview.
DataPager
Control
The
DataPager control is used to page through data that is displayed by a control
that implements the IPageableItemContainer interface, such as the ListView
control. The DataPager control supports built-in paging UI. You can specify the
paging UI by using the NumericPagerField object, which lets users select a page
by page number. You can also use the NextPreviousPagerField object, which lets
users navigate through pages one page at a time, or to jump to the first or
last page. Alternatively, you can create custom paging UI by using the
TemplatePagerField object.
LinqDataSource
Control
The
LinqDataSource control exposes Language Integrated Query (LINQ) through the
ASP.NET data source control architecture. You use the LinqDataSource control
when you are creating a Web page that retrieves or modifies data and you want
to use the programming model that is provided by LINQ. You can simplify the
code in a Web page by enabling the LinqDataSource control to automatically
create the commands for interacting with the data. By using the LinqDataSource
control, you can reduce the amount of code that you must write to perform data
operations when compared to performing the same operations in the SqlDataSource
control or the ObjectDataSource control. When you use the LinqDataSource
control, you also benefit by learning only one programming model to interact
with different types of data sources.
You
can use declarative markup to create a LinqDataSource control that connects to
data from either a database or a data collection such as a collection. In the
markup, you can specify the criteria for displaying, filtering, ordering, and
grouping data. When the data source is an SQL database table, you can also
configure a LinqDataSource control to update, insert, and delete data. You do
not have to write the SQL commands to perform these tasks. The LinqDataSource
class provides an event model that enables you to customize display and update
behavior. For more information, see LinqDataSource Web Server Control Overview.
ASP.NET
Merge Tool
The
ASP.NET merge tool (Aspnet_merge.exe) lets you combine and manage assemblies
that are created by the ASP.NET pre-compilation tool (Aspnet_compiler.exe).
(The merge tool was released earlier as an add-on for Visual Studio 2005,) The
merge tool creates single assemblies for the site. You can create an assembly
for the whole Web site, for each Web site folder, or for just the files that
make up the Web site UI (pages and controls).
Note:
This
feature is not available in Visual Web Developer Express Edition.
For
more information, see ASP.NET Merge Tool (Aspnet_merge.exe). For more
information about the ASP.NET compiler tool, see ASP.NET Compilation Tool
(Aspnet_compiler.exe).
Visual Web Developer Enhancements
The
following sections provide information about enhancements and new features in
Visual Studio 2008 and Visual Web Developer Express Edition.
New
Design View and CSS Design Tools
The
Web page designer now lets you work in Design view, Source view, or Split
Visual
Studio now provides tools that make it easy to work with cascading style sheets
(CSS). You can design the layout and style content in Design view by using new
UI tools such as the CSS Properties window. You can also change positioning,
padding, and margins directly in Design view by using WYSIWYG visual-layout
tools.
For
more information, see the following topics:
Working
with CSS Overview
Walkthrough:
Creating and Modifying a CSS File
IntelliSense
for JScript and ASP.NET AJAX
Visual
Studio 2008 and Visual Web Developer Express Edition now offer significantly
improved IntelliSense for coding in ECMAScript (JScript or JavaScript), and for
writing client script for AJAX-style Web applications that use the Microsoft
AJAX Library. IntelliSense is available for client script in script elements
and for referenced .js script files.
Additionally,
IntelliSense displays XML code comments. XML code comments are used to describe
the summary, parameter, and return details of your client script. ASP.NET AJAX
also uses XML code comments to provide IntelliSense for ASP.NET AJAX types and
members. IntelliSense is also supported for external script file references
that use XML code comments.
For
more information, see the following topics:
JScript
IntelliSense Overview
Walkthrough:
JScript IntelliSense
Web
Application Projects
Web
applications projects, released earlier as an add-on for Visual Studio 2005,
are now integrated into Visual Studio and By using the Web application project
model, you can compile a Web site into a single assembly in the Bin folder and
explicitly define project resources.
The
Web application project model uses the same project, build, and compilation semantics
as Web projects in Visual Studio .NET 2003. This enables you to easily migrate
Visual Studio .NET 2003 Web sites to the current version of Visual Studio or
Visual Web Developer Express Edition.
Web
application projects do not replace the Web site project type introduced in
Visual Studio 2005. Instead, they provide another project model to provide more
options for how you deploy and maintain Web applications.
For
more information, see the following topics:
Web
Application Projects Overview
How
to: Create New Web Application Projects
Multi-targeting
Web Applications
Visual
Studio now enables you to target a Web application to a specific version of the
.NET Framework. You can use one instance of the Visual Studio to develop Web
applications for .NET Framework versions 2.0, 3.0 (Windows Vista), and 3.5. In
Visual Web Developer Express Edition, you can only create applications that
target the 3.5 version of the .NET Framework. However, you can later change the
.NET Framework to target versions 2.0, 3.0, and 3.5 by changing the related
project property.
For
more information, see the following topics:
.NET
Framework Multi-Targeting Overview
How
to: Target a Specific .NET Framework
Designer
and IntelliSense Support for LINQ
A
new set of features in Visual Studio 2008 support Language-Integrated Query
(LINQ) and extend the powerful query capabilities into the language syntax of
C# and Visual Basic. LINQ introduces standard, easily-learned patterns for
querying and transforming data, and can be extended to support any kind of data
source. The designer provides a visual representation of data classes that
enables you to quickly create and edit classes that map to objects in a
database. IntelliSense support provides information for LINQ language syntax
and for using the LinqDataSource control in Source view. For more information,
see LinqDataSource Web Server Control Overview
Support
for Creating and Consuming WCF Services in a Web Project
In
Visual Studio, you can add ASP.NET Web services (.asmx files) and WCF Web
services (.svc files) to a project. Client applications that are written in
managed code typically access these Web services through a proxy class. For
example, these applications use the proxy class that Visual Studio generates
when you use the Add Web Reference dialog box. AJAX
Support
for ASP.NET AJAX
Visual
Studio supports all ASP.NET AJAX extender controls. This includes extender
controls that you create and those that you add from sources such as the
ASP.NET AJAX Control Toolkit, which is available on the ASP.NET Web site.
