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Murach’s ASP.NET 4.5 Web Programming with VB 2012
If you know how to create Windows applications using Visual Basic, you’re ready for this 5th Edition of our classic web programming book. It will get you off to a fast start whether or not you have done any web programming. It will teach you the skills you need to develop bullet-proof web applications on the job. And when you’re done, this book does double duty as the best on-the-job reference that money can buy.
College Instructors
Go to our instructor’s site to learn more about this book and its instructor’s materials.
This is a fantastic book that gets you building powerful web applications with ASP.NET 4.5 – quickly and efficiently. True to form with the rest of Murach's library, the lessons are very comprehensive but not intimidating, focusing on specific tasks and organized very logically. It's a proper rundown of the concepts and code that beginners will treasure and experienced developers will appreciate, too.”
Posted at an online website
- About this Book
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What this book does
Section 1: Get started fast
To get you off to a fast start, this 5-chapter section shows you how to use Visual Studio to design, code, and test multi-page web applications that get database data and manage session state. Along the way, you’ll see where HTML5 and CSS3 fit in, so you can tweak that code as needed. This is the essence of ASP.NET Web Forms programming, and this prepares you for rapid progress in the sections that follow.
Section 2: Master the features you’ll use every day
This section teaches you how to use the rest of the server and validation controls…more about state management…how to build and format pages using master pages and themes…how to make a site easy for users to navigate…and how to use friendly URLs that improve search engine results. These are the features that you’ll use all the time.
Section 3: Handle database processing like a pro
In this section, you’ll learn how to use SQL data sources and five ASP.NET controls…GridView, DetailsView, FormView, ListView, and DataPager…to develop professional database applications with little or no Visual Basic code. Then, you’ll learn how to use object data sources to create 3-layer applications that let you separate the presentation code from the data access code.
Section 4: Complete your professional skill set
In this section, you’ll learn skills for polishing up your ASP.NET applications. Like: how to secure an application and authenticate users…how to handle back-button refreshes…how to send email…and how to deploy a web application on a remote web server.
Section 5: Go to the next level
This section shows you how to use ASP.NET Ajax to develop rich Internet applications and how to create and consume WCF and Web API services. This section also introduces you to ASP.NET MVC…a completely different approach to web programming than Web Forms…so you can decide if you want to learn more about it.
Who this book is for
If you have a core set of Visual Basic programming skills...the kind you get from a book like Murach’s Visual Basic 2012...you’re ready for this book. In fact, we’re confident that it will teach you ASP.NET faster and better than any competing book. That’s true whether you’re new to web programming or whether you’re coming to it with a background in another server-side language.
What’s new in this edition
Although ASP.NET and Visual Basic haven’t changed significantly in this release, we have added new content to this .NET 4.5 edition:
- Since HTML5 and CSS3 are now an integral part of ASP.NET applications, we’ve moved the chapter on HTML/CSS from chapter 5 to chapter 3. We’ve also updated all the applications in the book so they use HTML5.
- We’ve added friendly URLs to the chapter on site navigation, so you can use them to improve the search engine results for your sites.
- We’ve added material on Web API services to the WCF services chapter, since it’s another popular way to provide services that other websites can use.
- We’ve added an introductory chapter on ASP.NET MVC, which is an alternative to ASP.NET Web Forms that Microsoft has been promoting, so you can decide whether you want to learn more about it.
Of course, we’ve also updated the material and improved the instruction throughout the book. But that’s something we always do when we publish a new edition of a book.
Like the full editions, this Express edition includes the Visual Studio development environment, version 4.5 of the Microsoft .NET Framework, Visual Basic 2012, and SQL Server 2012 Express LocalDB.
Although the Express edition has a few differences from the full editions, this book carefully notes those differences. The good news is that all the skills that you learn with the Express edition will still work when you’re using one of the full editions on the job.
What software you need
Option 1: Any of the full editions of Visual Studio 2012
To develop ASP.NET applications, you can use any of the full editions of Visual Studio 2012. These editions come with everything you need, including Visual Studio, Visual Basic 2012, a built-in web server called IIS Express that’s ideal for testing ASP.NET applications on your own computer, and a scaled-back version of SQL Server called SQL Server Express LocalDB.
Option 2: Visual Studio Express 2012 for Web
For a no-cost alternative to the commercial packages, you can download Visual Studio Express 2012 for Web from Microsoft’s website. It too provides all of the items listed above, it’s a terrific product for learning how to develop ASP.NET applications, and both the applications and the skills that you develop with it will work with any of the full editions of Visual Studio.
What people say about this book
"This is a fantastic book that gets you building powerful web applications with ASP.NET 4.5 – quickly and efficiently. True to form with the rest of Murach's library, the lessons are very comprehensive but not intimidating, focusing on specific tasks and organized very logically. It's a proper rundown of the concepts and code that beginners will treasure and experienced developers will appreciate, too."
-- Jason Salas, Developer, Guam
“Excellent training and reference book!”
-- Ken Starnes, Portland Visual Basic User Group
“This is a great book from which to learn. Step-by-step instructions and examples. Good index as I've had to jump ahead sometimes for help with something I'm currently working on. Great learning tool.”
-- Posted at an online bookseller
View the table of contents for this book in a PDF: Table of Contents (PDF)
Click on any chapter title to display or hide its content.
Section 1 The essence of ASP.NET programming
Chapter 1 An introduction to ASP.NET programming
An introduction to web applications
Two pages of a Shopping Cart application
The components of a web application
How static web pages are processed
How dynamic web pages are processed
An introduction to ASP.NET development
Five ways to develop ASP.NET applications
Three environments for developing ASP.NET applications
What about Visual Studio 2013?
The components of the .NET Framework
How state is handled in ASP.NET applications
How an ASP.NET application works
The user interface for the Future Value application
The files used by the Future Value application
The aspx code for the Default form
The Visual Basic code for the Default form
Chapter 2 How to develop a one-page web application
How to work with ASP.NET web sites
How to start a new web site
How to add a web form to a web site
How to work with the Visual Studio IDE
How to add folders and files to a web site
How to open or close an IIS Express web site
How to convert a file-system web site to IIS Express
How to use Visual Studio to build a web form
How to enter the HTML for a web form
How to add a table to a form
How to add text to the cells of a table
How to add web server controls to a form
How to set the properties of the controls
Common properties for web server controls
How to add validation controls to a form
An introduction to the validation controls
How to use the required field validator
How to use the range validator
How to work with unobtrusive validation
The aspx code for the Future Value form
How to add Visual Basic code to a form
How to use the Code Editor
How to use page and control events
The Visual Basic code for the Future Value form
How to test a web application
How to run an IIS Express web site
How to view the HTML that’s sent to the browser
Chapter 3 How to use HTML5 and CSS3 with ASP.NET applications
The Future Value application with CSS formatting
The user interface
The HTML that’s generated for a new form
The aspx code for the application
The CSS style sheet for the application
The HTML and CSS skills that you need
How to code HTML elements
How to use the HTML5 semantic elements
How to use the div and span elements with HTML5
How to provide CSS styles for an HTML page
How to code the basic CSS selectors
How to code CSS rule sets and comments
How to ensure cross-browser compatibility
Visual Studio features for working with HTML
How to use the features for entering HTML
How to add the attributes for the WAI-ARIA accessibility standards
Visual Studio features for working with CSS
How to create and edit an external style sheet
How to use Visual Studio to create and modify styles
How to use the Apply Styles window
How to use the CSS Properties window
How to use the Manage Styles window
Chapter 4 How to develop a multi-page web application
Introduction to the Shopping Cart application
The two pages of the Shopping Cart application
The files and folders used by the Shopping Cart application
How to work with multi-page web sites
How to create a web site that has starting folders and files
How to change the starting page for a web site
How to rename or delete folders and files
How to add a class to a web site
How to redirect or transfer to another page
How to use cross-page posting
How to code absolute and relative URLs
How to create and use data sources
How to create an SQL data source
How to configure an SQL data source
How to bind a drop-down list to a data source
How to use Visual Basic code to get data from a data source
How to use session state
How session state works
How to work with data in session state
The business classes of the Shopping Cart application
The members of the three business classes
The code for the Product class
The code for the CartItem class
The code for the CartItemList class
The web forms of the Shopping Cart application
The aspx code for the Order page
The Visual Basic code for the Order page
The aspx code for the Cart page
The Visual Basic code for the Cart page
Chapter 5 How to test and debug ASP.NET applications
How to test an ASP.NET web site
How to test a web site
How to test a web site in two or more browsers at the same time
How to use the Exception Assistant
How to use the Page Inspector
How to use the debugger
How to use breakpoints
How to use tracepoints
How to work in break mode
How to use the debugging windows to monitor variables
How to use the trace feature
How to enable the trace feature
How to interpret trace output
How to create custom trace messages
Section 2 ASP.NET essentials
Chapter 6 How to use the standard server controls
An introduction to the standard server controls
The server controls you’ll use the most
How to use Visual Basic to work with the data in server controls
How to set the focus, default button, tab order, and access keys for a form
How to use the common server controls
How to use labels and text boxes
How to use check boxes and radio buttons
How to use image and hyperlink controls
How to use the file upload control
How to use the button controls
How to use buttons, link buttons, and image buttons
How to use the Command event
How to use the list controls
How to create drop-down lists and list boxes
How to use the properties for working with list controls
How to use the members for list item collections
How to use check box lists and radio button lists
How to use bulleted lists
A CheckOut page that uses server controls
The user interface and link elements
The aspx code
The code-behind file for the CheckOut page
An introduction to the other standard server controls
When and how to use the other standard server controls
How to use the Wizard control
Chapter 7 How to use the validation controls
Introduction to the validation controls
How ASP.NET processes the validation controls
How to set the attributes of the validators
How to provide for unobtrusive validation
How to use the validators
How to use the required field validator
How to use the compare validator
How to use the range validator
How to use the regular expression validator
How to create regular expressions
How to use a custom validator
Validation techniques
How to use the validation summary control
How to use validation groups
A CheckOut page that uses validation controls
The user interface
The aspx code
The Visual Basic code
Chapter 8 How to work with state, cookies, and URL encoding
How to use view state
How to work with view state
How to use view state for your own data
How to use session state
How to work with session state
When to save and retrieve session state items
Options for storing session state data and tracking session IDs
How to use application state and caching
How application state and caching work
How to work with application state and cache data
How to work with application events
How to use cookies and URL encoding
How to create cookies
How to work with cookies
How to enable or disable cookies
How to use URL encoding
An application that uses cookies, application state, and caching
The Order and CheckOut pages
The critical Visual Basic code for the Order and CheckOut pages
Chapter 9 How to use master pages
How to create master pages
An introduction to master pages
How to create a master page
How to work with the ClientIDMode property
How to create and develop content pages
How to create a content page
How to add content to a page
How to customize content pages
How to add default content to a master page
How to override and accept the default content from a content page
How to expose a public property in a master page
How to access a public property from a content page
The Shopping Cart application
Two pages of the Shopping Cart application
The aspx code for the master page
The code-behind file for the master page
The aspx code for the Order page
The aspx code for the Cart page
The Load event handler in the code-behind file for the Cart page
Chapter 10 How to use themes
An introduction to themes
A page with two different themes applied
How themes work
The difference between customization and style sheet themes
How to work with themes and skins
How to create and use themes and skins
The skln and CSS files for the Bats theme
How to apply themes and skins
How to remove themes
Chapter 11 How to use site navigation and ASP.NET routing
How to use the navigation controls
An introduction to the navigation controls
How to create a web.sitemap file
How to create a SiteMapDataSource control
How to use the Menu control
How to use the TreeView control
How to use the SiteMapPath control
The aspx code for the master page of the Shopping Cart application
How to use ASP.NET routing
An introduction to ASP.NET routing and friendly URLs
How to create a route collection
How to work with route parameters
How to work with file paths
The Visual Basic code for the Order page with a dynamic route
How to use the navigation controls with ASP.NET routing
The global.asax file for the Shopping Cart application with friendly URLs
The web.sitemap file with traditional URLs
The web.sitemap file with friendly URLs
Section 3 ASP.NET database programming
Chapter 12 An introduction to database programming
An introduction to relational databases
How a table is organized
How the tables in a database are related
How the columns in a table are defined
The design of the Halloween database
How to use SQL to work with the data in a relational database
How to query a single table
How to join data from two or more tables
How to add, update, and delete data in a table
How to work with other database objects
How to work with views
How to work with stored procedures
An introduction to ADO.NET 4.5
How the basic ADO.NET components work
Concurrency and the disconnected data architecture
How to work with data without using a data adapter
Chapter 13 How to use SQL data sources
How to create a SQL data source
How the SqlDataSource control works
How to choose a data source type
How to choose a data connection
How to create a connection
How to save the connection string in the web.config file
How to configure the Select statement
How to create a Where clause
How select parameters work
How to use custom statements and stored procedures
How to enter custom statements
How to select stored procedures
How to create a Select statement with the Query Builder
How to define the parameters
How to use the DataList control
How the DataList control works
How to define the templates for a data list
How to format a data list
How to use data binding
How to bind a list control to a data source
How to bind the controls in a template
A Product List application
The user interface
The aspx file
How to use the advanced features of a SQL data source
How to create a data source that can update the database
How to change the data source mode
How to use caching
Chapter 14 How to use the GridView control
How to customize the GridView control
How the GridView control works
How to define the fields in a GridView control
Elements used to create and format fields
How to enable sorting
How to enable paging
How to customize paging
A list application that uses a GridView control
The Product List application
The aspx file
How to update GridView data
How to work with command fields
How to use events raised by the GridView control
How to insert a row in a GridView control
A maintenance application that uses a GridView control
The Category Maintenance application
The aspx file
The code-behind file
How to work with template fields
How to create template fields
The template version of the Category Maintenance application
The aspx code for the template version
Chapter 15 How to use the DetailsView and FormView controls
How to use the DetailsView control
An introduction to the DetailsView control
Attributes and child elements for the DetailsView control
How to define the fields in a DetailsView control
How to enable paging
How to create a Master/Detail page
How to update the data in a DetailsView control
An introduction to command buttons
How to add command buttons
How to use events raised by the DetailsView control
How to create template fields
The Product Maintenance application
The operation of the application
The aspx file
The code-behind file
How to use the FormView control
An introduction to the FormView control
How to work with the Item template
How to work with the EditItem and InsertItem templates
A Shopping Cart application that uses a FormView control
The operation of the application
The aspx file for the Order page
The code-behind file for the Order page
Chapter 16 How to use the ListView and DataPager controls
How to use the ListView control
An introduction to the ListView control
How to configure a ListView control
How to work with the Layout template
How to work with the Item template
How to provide for sorting
How to provide for paging
How to customize paging
How to group ListView data
A list application that uses a ListView control
The Product List application
The aspx file
How to update ListView data
How to use buttons to perform update operations
How to work with the EditItem and InsertItem templates
How to use events raised by the ListView control
Chapter 17 How to use object data sources with ADO.NET
An introduction to object data sources
How 3-layer applications work in ASP.NET
How to create and work with ADO.NET classes
How to use the ObjectDataSource control
How to configure an ObjectDataSource control
How to work with bound controls
A Product List application
The aspx file
The ProductDB class
How to create a data access class
How to design a data access class
How to create a select method
How to create update, delete, and insert methods
How to use attributes to mark a data access class
A Category Maintenance application
The design
The aspx file
The code-behind file
The Category class
The CategoryDB class
How to use paging and sorting with object data sources
How to configure an ObjectDataSource control for paging and sorting
The aspx file that provides for paging and sorting
The code-behind file that provides for sorting
How to create a data access class that provides for paging and sorting
Section 4 Finishing an ASP.NET application
Chapter 18 How to secure a web site
An introduction to SSL
How secure connections work
How to enable SSL for a project that uses IIS Express
How digital secure certificates work
How to use a secure connection
How to request a secure connection
How to force a page to use a secure connection
A Halloween Store application that uses SSL
The operation of the Halloween Store application
The code for the Halloween Store application
Chapter 19 How to authenticate and authorize users
An introduction to authentication
Three types of authentication
How forms-based authentication works
How to set up authentication and authorization
How to use SQL Server Express LocalDB with the Web Site Administration Tool
How to start the Web Site Administration Tool
How to enable forms-based authentication
How to create and manage roles
How to create and manage users
How to create and manage access rules
How to use the login controls
How to use the Login control
How to use the LoginStatus and LoginName controls
How to use the CreateUserWizard control
How to use the PasswordRecovery control
How to use the ChangePassword control
How to use the LoginView control
The Authentication application
The pages
The directory structure
The access rules
The web.config files
Chapter 20 How to use email, custom error pages, and back-button control
How to send email
An introduction to email
How to use a third-party SMTP server
How to create an email message
How to send an email message
How to add an attachment to an email message
How to create an HTML message
How to create an HTML message with an embedded image
How to use custom error handling
An introduction to custom error handling
How to get and use the Exception object for an error
How to create a custom class for handling exceptions
How to handle HTTP errors with the web.config file
How to handle the back-button problem
An introduction to the back-button problem
How to use the Post-Redirect-Get pattern
How to use timestamps
Chapter 21 How to configure and deploy ASP.NET applications
How to use the Web Site Administration Tool
How to use the Security tab
How to use the Application tab
How to use the Provider tab
An introduction to deployment
Three ways to deploy an ASP.NET application
How to use XCopy deployment
How to use one-click deployment
How to create a publish profile
How to define the connection
How to set the file and database options
How to preview the files to be deployed
How to publish the web site
How to create and use a Setup program
How to create a setup project using InstallShield
How to configure an InstallShield project for deployment to IIS
How to add output files to an InstallShield project
How to create and use the installation files for a Setup program
Section 5 Going to the next level
Chapter 22 How to use ASP.NET Ajax
An introduction to Ajax
Examples of Ajax applications
How Ajax works
An introduction to ASP.NET Ajax
How ASP.NET Ajax works
The ASP.NET Ajax server controls
The ASP.NET Ajax Control Toolkit
How to use the ASP.NET Ajax server controls
How to use the ScriptManager control
How to use the ScriptManagerProxy control
How to use the UpdatePanel control
How to use the Timer control
How to use the UpdateProgress control
An application that uses ASP.NET Ajax
The View Products page
The ProductView class
The ProductViewList class
The aspx file and the first UpdatePanel control
The second UpdatePanel control
The code-behind file
Chapter 23 How to create and use WCF and Web API services
An introduction to web services
SOAP services
REST services
How to create a WCF service
How to start a WCF service application
How to code a service contract interface and a data contract class
How to code a service contract class that implements the interface
How to view and test a WCF service
How to create a web site that consumes a WCF service
The Edit Categories page of the WCF client web site
How to add a WCF service reference to a client web site
How to consume a WCF service
How to create a Web API service
How to start a Web API service
How to write a web service controller
How to view and test a Web API service
How to create a web site that consumes a Web API service
The Edit Categories page of the Web API client web site
How to consume a Web API service using jQuery
How to consume a Web API service using Visual Basic
Chapter 24 An introduction to ASP.NET MVC
An introduction to MVC
The MVC design pattern
The Shopping Cart as an MVC application
An introduction to ASP.NET MVC
How to start an ASP.NET MVC application
The folders and files for a new MVC application
The Razor view engine and syntax
How to work with routing
How to create a model
How to create a controller
How to create a view
How to work with views
How to work with regular views
How to work with strongly-typed views
How to work with controls and postbacks
How to work with controls
How to work with redirection
How to add AutoPostBack functionality with jQuery
How to work with the FormCollection object
How to work with model binding
Appendixes
Appendix A How to install and use the software and downloadable files
How to download and install the files for this book
How to install Visual Studio 2012
How to use the Halloween database
How to set up IIS on your local computer
Sample chapters
Chapter 1: An introduction to ASP.NET web programming
This chapter gives you the background you need to start writing ASP.NET 4.5 web applications of your own. So you’ll find out how web applications work, what software you need to develop them, and how the code that represents the design of a web form is coordinated with the Visual Basic code that makes the web form work the way you want it to.
Chapter 2: How to develop a one-page web application
This chapter teaches you how to use Visual Studio 2012 to design, code, and test a one-page web application. That means you’ll see how to build a web form using web server controls and HTML server controls, how to check for acceptable user input using validation controls, and how to write the Visual Basic code for the web form’s code-behind file.
Chapter 1 PDF (2.2Mb) Download Now
Chapter 2 PDF (1.8Mb) Download Now
Book applications and exercises
This download includes:
- The source code for the applications that are presented in the book
- The database that’s used by the book applications
- The starting source code and data for the exercises in the book
- The solutions to the book exercises so you can check your work
The appendix in the book describes how to install and use these files.
Exe file for Windows (64.4Mb) Download Now
Below are the answers to the questions that have come up most often about this book. If you have any questions that aren’t answered here, please email us. Thanks!
How Visual Studio 2013 affects this book
Visual Studio 2013 has a few nasty but relatively minor effects on what is taught in our ASP.NET 4.5 books. For this reason, we recommend that you use VS 2012 while you’re learning from our book.
If you do upgrade to VS 2013, though, here are the changes that you need to deal with.
No more websites
One of the new directions of VS 2013 is the concept of “One ASP.NET.” That means that Microsoft wants the creation of all ASP.NET project types to work similarly. As a result, VS 2013 provides only one option when you create a new application: ASP.Net Web Application. Then, within that option, you can select a Web Forms, MVC, Web API, Single Page Application (SPA), or Facebook project.
This eliminates the choice between starting a website or a web application, and it changes the way you start a new web application. It also changes the way ASP.NET special folders are used. In particular, there isn’t an App_Code folder and the code in a web application doesn’t need to go into it.
This will also change the way an application is deployed because a web application needs to be compiled before it is deployed.
No development server
With VS 2013, there is no development server for testing applications. As a result, you will always use IIS Express instead of the development server. Although this won’t change the way you create new web applications, this will change the way you open and use the downloadable applications and exercises for this book.
The Membership system is being replaced by the Identity system
Because Microsoft gets a lot of criticism about their frameworks being bloated and plodding, Microsoft is trying to be more modular. For instance, the Entity Framework is already a Nuget package.
Similarly, the Membership system of VS 2012 is being replaced by an Identity system in VS 2013 that will also be a Nuget package. If you’re interested in the reasons behind the replacement, here’s a link to a good description:
http://www.asp.net/identity/overview/getting-started/introduction-to-aspnet-identity
The trouble is that the documentation for the Identity system is very thin right now, and this feature doesn’t seem ready for prime time. We base this opinion in part on the articles at these links:
http://www.asp.net/aspnet/overview/authentication-and-identity
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/webdev/archive/2013/06/27/introducing-asp-net-identity-membership-system-for-asp-net-applications.aspx
The Website Administration Tool is gone
As part of this new modular direction, the Website Administration Tool has been removed from VS 2013. This is partly because of the new Identity architecture, but also because the Website Administration Tool uses the development server, and Microsoft hasn’t updated it to work with IIS Express.
If you want to use the Website Administration Tool with VS 2013, however, there is a command prompt option for running this Tool in IIS Express. For more information, you can go to this link:
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/webdev/archive/2013/08/19/asp-net-web-configuration-tool-missing-in-visual-studio-2013.aspx
Then, you can use the Membership system too.
Our recommendation: Don’t upgrade to VS 2013 right now
With this as background, you can see why we recommend that you don’t upgrade to VS 2013 until you’re through with our book. That way everything will work just as it is described in the book.
After you finish learning ASP.NET 4.5 with VS 2012 from our book, you can upgrade to VS 2013 whenever you want to...after it’s clear that all of the features of VS 2013 are ready to go. Then, because you’ve already read our book, you will have all the skills and concepts that you need for making that upgrade with relative ease.
There are no book corrections that we know of at this time. But if you find any, please email us, and we’ll post any corrections that affect the technical accuracy of the book here. Thank you!