I've been strictly in a C++ environment for years (and specialized statistical languages). Visual Studio until 2001, and Borland since. Mostly specialized desktop applications for clients.
I'm not remaining willfully ignorant of it, but over the years when I've dipped into other things, I've spent my time playing around with JavaScript, PHP, and a lot of Python.
Is "ASP.NET" the language? Is C# the language and "ASP.NET" the framework? What's a good answer to "What is ASP.NET"? Is there a correspondence between ASP.NET and anything I'd be familiar with in C++?
I know I can google the same title, but I'd rather see answers from this crowd. (Besides, in the future, I think that Google should point here for questions like that.)
I was going to write a lengthy answer but I felt that Wikipedia had it covered:
ASP.NET is a web application framework
developed and marketed by Microsoft,
that programmers can use to build
dynamic web sites, web applications
and web services. It was first
released in January 2002 with version
1.0 of the .NET Framework, and is the successor to Microsoft's Active Server
Pages (ASP) technology. ASP.NET is
built on the Common Language Runtime
(CLR), allowing programmers to write
ASP.NET code using any supported .NET
language.
So ASP.NET is Microsoft's web development framework and the latest version is 4.0.
How do I get started? Check out the following resources:
Learn ASP.NET
ASP.NET Documentation
ASP.NET Developer Center
ASP.NET is the framework, just like .NET
The code itself, will be a mix of HTML, JavaScript(for Client-Side) and any .NET compatible language. So C#, VB.NET, C++.NET, heck...even IronPython
ASP.NET is a web application framework
developed and marketed by Microsoft,
that programmers can use to build
dynamic web sites, web applications
and web services. It was first
released in January 2002 with version
1.0 of the .NET Framework, and is the successor to Microsoft's Active Server
Pages (ASP) technology. ASP.NET is
built on the Common Language Runtime
(CLR), allowing programmers to write
ASP.NET code using any supported .NET
language.
ASP.NET (Wikipedia)
That's on the second result searching on Google so I'm guessing (half-expecting) that you don't understand what that means either.
Webpage development started with simple static HTML pages. That meant the client asked for a page by means of an URL and the server sent the page back to him/her exactly as it has been designed. Sometime after that several technologies emerged in order to provide a more "dynamic" or personalized experience.
Several "server side languages" were developed (PHP, Perl, ASP...) which allowed the server to process the Web page before sending it back to the client. This way when a client requested a webpage the server could interpret the request, process it (for example connecting to a database and fetching some results) and send it back modifying the contents and making them "dynamic". The fact that the process took place on the server stands for the name of "server side".
So the original ASP (predecessor of the ASP.NET) was a server side language that was focused on serving web pages. In such way it supported several shortcuts such as the possibility to intercalate HTML and ASP source into the file which was on that time much popular due to PHP implementation. It was also (as most of these languages) a dynamic language and it was interpreted.
ASP.NET is an evolution of that original ASP with some improvements. First it does truly (try to) separate the presentation (HTML) from the code (.cs) which may be implemented by using Visual Basic or C# syntax. It also incorporate some sort of compilation to the final ASP pages, encapsulating them into assemblies and thus improving performance. Finally it has access to the full .NET framework which supports a wide number of helper classes.
So, summing up, it is a programming language located on the server and designed to make webpages.
ASP.NET is a framework, it delivers:
A class hierachy you hook into, that allows both usage of supplied components, as well as development of your own.
Integration with and easy access to the underlying webserver.
An event model, which is probably the "best" thing about it.
A general abstraction from the underlying medium of HTML and HTTP.
Not sure if ASP.NET compares to any C++ frameworks you may be familiar with. Web frameworks usually tend to be unique due to the statelessness of HTTP and the relatively low-tech technologies involved (HTML, scripting, etc).
Let's say it's a technique from MS to build web applications. ASP stands for Active Server Pages, .NET is the framework behind it.
C# and VB.NET are the languages which can be used, but I guess other .NET languages also can be used.
Take a look at MS' info for those who don't know or understand the platform.
http://www.asp.net/get-started
Related
I want to reuse a project developed in vb.net in c# webform project. The login form should be same for both the projects. How can I achieve this? Can I add vb.net and C# forms in single project.
If created as separate projects in single solution, can I share the session variable between two projects?
I want a common login form for c# and vb.net project. Need to share user credentials between two apps
Well, you can intermix pages of vb and c# only if the web site is NOT a web site application.
So, it kind of depends.
If your web site is setup as a website application? Then no, you can't do this.
You can certainly take any of the code modules, classes, and business logic from the vb.net applcation, and refreence such assemblies in the new c# project.
And its not really recommended to do this anyway (ie: mix both types of pages in one project - but, you can do this for a web site, but not for web site applications).
I see VERY but VERY little advantage to simple re-writing all that code. It not like your going to get more features, or anything of value here.
If you looking to migrate to .net core, MVC etc? Then again, those pages could not be used anyway - even if they were written in C#.
So, either you consider this a migration project out of webforms (and .net 4.8), or you don't. Anything in-between is really a waste of time and resouces. If that site is to continue running as webforms, then I can't really make the case to migrate the code to c# - I just don't see any benefits here.
So, this can work for a asp.net web site, but not for a asp.net website "application".
And, I always hands down preferred the "application" choice, since then things like including other projects and code (often written in c#) can be used and is supported.
But, a page with code behind in vb.net, mixed in with pages and code behind in c#? No, you can't do this with a web site application, and giving up the application choice (vs that of a web site) I think is too high of a price to pay in that you lose out of the benefits of a asp.net application choice in the first place.
This sounds like good money after bad. Unless you going to migrate to a newer framework? It makes VERY little sense to spend time + money to migrate to JUST c#, and I can't see any real benefits of doing so.
if the developers in question know well asp.net + webforms, then the learning curve to maintain the site "as is" with vb.net? I can't see more then a day or so for any good c# developer to get up to speed with vb.net.
c# or vb.net is really moot - what matters is a good solid skill set in the .net framework, and unless you jumping over to .net core, then as noted, I can't see how the cost of this work can be justified. it in effect amounts to stealing money from those paying for this conversion, and that means someone is being mislead, or miss informed here.
I am trying to migrate a project from classic ASP.Net Web Forms to ASP.NET MVC.
While I have read through http://www.codeproject.com/Articles/38778/ASP-NET-WebForms-and-ASP-NET-MVC-in-Harmony. I have a basic idea on how the code structure, libraries and routing should be done.
For your information, the scope of my existing project is around 400 pages and 300 tables.
On top of my head I have two approaches:
Start from stretch, rewriting the whole system - Obviously this would require intensive work and take a long time. Any change made on existing system would need a duplicate change made to the new system.
Migrate the page one each - I still have a rebuild the entire core library (for accessing db), and get the page migrated one by one. For this I would assume to have two core libraries (new and old) running simultaneously with different pages connect to one of those.
Would anyone have similar experience and advise a proper way to start?
For this complete revamp I may also target at the latest technology - .NET Core and MVC6, by taking these would I have extra advantage, or some blockages I would have to take care of?
Any suggestion and opinions are appreciated. Cheers.
Microsoft is a bit hush hush on the subject but the WebForms engine is probably never going to make its way to ASP.NET Core. One might think that MS is waiting to see if the community is calling for a port, but I think they're trying to kill it discretely (not like Silverlight).
Why? Because it proved to be a bad good idea on the long run, easy to use at first, but extremely complex to master (because of viewstate and page lifecycle), with a tendency to allow average developers to build very tedious application (in french we say steam factories). Also it was very poorly adapted to modern web development (Ajax, unit testing, IoC). They tried to fix it with a couple of tweaks, but the overall architecture is just not adapted to this kind of things. MVC is a treat in comparison!
To answer your question, it's not really possible to migrate WebForms to MVC, because those are quite different architectures, and of course the architecture is what an application sits on top on, so if you change it, you might as well rewrite it from scratch.
What can help you a lot is if your app is divided in tiers (business, data access, UI). If it's not the case, you could start by doing this, properly separating the UI project from the rest. Then you would just have to rewrite the ASP.NET project and not the rest.
There are some useful resources I'd like to share with the StackOverflow community just in case you are having troubles to decide what to do:
modernization of your existing Web Forms app
migration to MVC or Core
or whether to start a new project on Web Forms, MVC and Core.
Here you go:
https://www.telerik.com/blogs/review-of-telerik-toolsets-for-aspnet-web-forms-core
Modernizing ASP.NET Web Forms Applications by Tomáš Herceg (Microsoft MVP ) - https://tomasherceg.com/blog/post/modernizing-asp-net-web-forms-applications-part-1
Migrating Old ASP.NET Applications to .NET Core by Edi Wang (Microsoft MVP) - https://edi.wang/post/2018/10/31/migrating-old-aspnet-applications-to-net-core
Choose between ASP.NET and ASP.NET Core (Microsoft docs) - https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/aspnet/core/fundamentals/choose-aspnet-framework?view=aspnetcore-3.1
Migrate from ASP.NET to ASP.NET Core (Microsoft docs) - https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/aspnet/core/migration/proper-to-2x/?view=aspnetcore-3.1
i have come across below links
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZuqMrWSano
https://www.dotvvm.com/blog/59/Modernizing-ASP-NET-Web-Forms-applications-with-DotVVM
DotVVM package helps us to migrate ASP.Net Web Forms migration to ASP.NET Core without re-writting completely.
i have not tried any production application. still have tried some sample pages. you can try this out.
I can agree that for many cases a re-write of an ASP.NET application where WebForms is used widely may do not provide any business value.
Therefore we decided to use our experience with ASP NET WebForms to develop a highly compatible port of WebForms for ASP NET Core / .NET 6.0.
We use the solution in our own ASP NET WebForms-based products and projects as well as a licensable component library.
So the Forms can still be used and you can focus on the .NET CORE/6 migration.
I know Google Web Toolkit (GWT) is a development toolkit for building and optimizing complex browser-based applications. GWT is used by many products at Google, including Google Wave and Google AdWords. It's open source, completely free, and used by thousands of developers around the world.
It can be integrated in java based web applications....
Is there any suitable replacement of GWT for asp.net web application?
If so,what is it?
GWT is platform agnostic. It can be easily integrated with any web application, not just Java. You just tell it to inject widgets into elements on the host page - the host page could be static HTML.
The built in RPC mechanism makes it easy to do RPC with a Java on the server side, but you can certainly use JSON or XML to exchange data with your server. It's a little more work, but not impossible. Look up 'overlay types' - these make working with JSON data extremely easy.
Consider SmartGWT. It has a built-in REST connector that is easy to connect to REST services on the .NET platform, which Visual Studio can help you generate.
On the .NET platform, the free open source (LGPL) edition is all you need. If you need commercial license terms, those are available too.
Take a look at Script#, but I'm not sure if it's still in development. "Essentially the Script# compiler is a C# compiler that generates Javascript instead of IL."
http://www.nikhilk.net/Entry.aspx?id=121
If you're just looking to hook up an ASP.net web application with GWT, try
GWT and .NET
I am wanting to learn ASP.Net and am just a beginner. I have done some windows c# forms development before but have no experience of web development.
I have looked at the ASP.net website but beyond this, does anyone have any ideas as to good learning resources particulary in relation to the differences to windows development. For instance, It seems that the way events work is quite different under ASP to windows forms.
Thanks you all.
Thank you very much. I will have a look at MVC. It looks even more complicated but if this is the way things are going then I would be better maybe to invest my learning in this.
I would advise you at this stage in ASP.NETs life to instead direct your attention at ASP.NET-MVC. This url http://www.asp.net/mvc/ is a very good resource for learning.
ASP.NET Forms do a good job of hiding the nature of a connection-less HTTP/browser based technology and presenting a familiar Form with controls and lots of useful events environment that Windows Forms developers are used to.
However this approach comes with a price. For any serious project there is no avoiding getting under the hood of ASP.NET forms and properly understanding the underlying technology. At this point you start to realise the significant compromises the ASP.NET Forms has had to make in order to make Windows Forms developers feel at home.
ASP.NET-MVC, on the other, makes no such compromises. Learning MVC means learning how HTTP works up-front. It also has the advantage of being a much more test friendly approach which when used properly will save you days of debugging.
ASP.NET website - seriously, it's a really good resource.
I'd seriously consider starting with ASP.NET MVC. You'll end up learning what you need from ASP.NET "classic" but you'll pick up all the goodness of MVC (testability, seperation of concerns in your code etc) instead of learning bad habits.
Google for "ASP.NET MVC", check out ScottGu's blog, Scott Hanselmans's blog, or search StackOverflow for ASP.NET MVC (use the ASP.NET MVC tag too).
One good place to start...
http://weblogs.asp.net/scottgu/archive/2009/04/01/asp-net-mvc-1-0.aspx
I know they are a bit out of date, but I still think the two Fritz Onion books give a great look at what's happening in ASP.NET under the hood.
Some resources:
asp.net (as you mentioned)
channel9
scott hanselman's blog (some useful entries)
Windows Client Homepage
W3Schools Tutorials (Useful for more than just .NET, but this is the .NET page)
I've been a .NET Windows Forms (not Web forms) developer for 1 and a half years. Then I switched jobs and started using WebForms for like... 2 years. Then I discovered ASP.NET MVC (January 2008) and since then although I still master ASP.NET WebForms I will always prefer ASP.NET MVC.
My recommendation also goes into ASP.NET MVC. You will have to learn HTTP, HTML and a bit of Javascript but after these you will master web development on ALL PLATFORMS.
A great alternative to ASP.NET MVC is ASP.NET Web Pages with Razor syntax. In fact, the latest release of ASP.NET MVC and the latest release of ASP.NET Web Pages both use the same view engine.
Here is a link to the complete ASP.NET Web Pages book:
Getting Started with WebMatrix and ASP.NET Web Pages
Also, here is the complete WebMatrix Content Guide:
WebMatrix Content Guide
Here's the description:
WebMatrix is a free, lightweight set of web development tools that provides the easiest way to build websites. It includes IIS Express (a development web server), ASP.NET (a web framework), and SQL Server Compact (an embedded database). It also includes a simple tool that streamlines website development and makes it easy to start websites from popular open source apps. The skills and code you develop with WebMatrix transition seamlessly to Visual Studio and SQL Server.
I am a junior developer, doing my last year at college. I'm mostly asp.net oriented and even have a part time job coding in that language. I am interested on converting to linux and since visual studio is unsupported write my code in Mono.
Are there any notable limitations in Mono that I should be aware of (regarding ASP.NET)?
According to the Mono website:
Mono's ASP.Net does not implement the
following features:
Precompiled Websites
Webparts APIs.
Also most if not all 3rd party ASP.Net controls are not compatible with Mono unless otherwise specified. ComponentArt controls for example are not usable in Mono. However, there's no reason to think that this won't change as Mono gains popularity. ComponentArts has already mentioned that they are considering adding support in the future.
I'd say the biggest thing you lose is IIS. ASP.net and IIS were very deeply linked. Many of the advantages from ASP.net come from the utilization of hosting features in IIS. The biggest one I can name is the ability of HTTP.sys to directly respond to a request in kernel mode if the page is in cache. This means that the socket open is responded to immediately and can allow for orders of magnitude more hits to your webserver.
Its a bit of an edge case but Microsoft's Web Service Enhancements are not supported on Mono. I ran into this problem trying to get some WSE services working on Mono.
Regarding web services there are two very good open-source alternatives: ServiceStack.Net (using it) and NANCY.
These area a lot easier implement, use and maintain, IMHO, than services built on top of WCF.