November 2005 - Posts

Programming ASP.NET 2.0 is Here
24 November 05 09:10 AM | despos | 24 comment(s)

Programming ASP.NET 2.0--Core Reference is here. I had a quick chance to take a look at it a few weeks ago at DevConnections. Passing by the book store I saw a copy of it. When I was back, only a few minutes later, it had been sold.

Yep, apparently the book sold out at DevConnections. But I can't honestly say how many copies were there, and I didn't dare ask ...

This book covers the fundamentals of ASP.NET and it's only (so to speak) 800 pages. You'll find here pages, controls, security, data binding, data source controls, caching, state management, intrinsics, a bit of internals, themes, profile, VS, ADO.NET.

You won't find here more advanced topics for the simple reasons that I'm currently writing the second volume of approx other 800 pages filled with experts stuff. The book will look nearly identical to the picture here except for the label "Advanced Topics" instead of "Core Reference". It's my pleasure to share the definitive TOC of the new book. We're still negotiating the release date, but it won't anyway happen until March 2006.

1. The ASP.NET Compilation Model
2. HTTP handlers and modules
3. ASP.NET Configuration
4. Custom ASP.NET Providers
5. Building Feature-Rich Pages
6. Working with Script Code
7. Composing Pages with Web Parts
8. Programming for the mobility
9. Working with Images
10. Site Navigation
11. ASP.NET Iterative controls
12. Web Forms User Controls
13. Creating Custom ASP.NET Controls
14. Data-bound and Templated Controls
15. Design-time Support for Custom Controls

Among the coolest examples you'll find there are: build providers, expression builders, page parser filters, virtual path providers, default and custom providers, Web Parts controls, script callbacks w/o Ajax, HTTP handlers and modules, rich pages, async pages, configuration, custom controls, design-time, resources and images, mobile apps.  

In one sentence, everything that is designed to be customizable in ASP.NET will find a representative example and/or chapter in this book. A lot of internals complete the book, especially the part where I describe HOW pages are compiled and which temp files are generated and where and what you can do about it.

DevConn Highlights--Hot Scripting
10 November 05 05:56 PM | despos | 6 comment(s)

I counted approx 200 people attending my session on ASP.NET 2.0 Script Callback and Ajax.NET yesterday. Not sure about the share, but it was great. But a measure of the interest on the topic is given by the fact that I finished the session on time at 5.00PM and hang around until 6:15PM to answer questions. (Mine was last session of the day.)

I've seen many of you posting comments and remarks on Atlas and Ajax.NET. Atlas is not an option today, a GoLive license won't be possible until mid 2006. Ajax.NET is an excellent tool. More elegant and lightweight than raw Script Callback, and functionally equivalent of course and available for 1.x too.

On Atlas, I think we have to wait and see to judge. It looks complex, quirky, unnecessarily too rich for what we want to do most of the time--just send an RPC style call to the server. In this regard, what's better than Ajax.NET? I agree.

We'll get back to this a couple of years (?) from now, when (guessing about the date) the Orcas, Atlas-powered platform might be here. What today appears a clear drawback to most people (use of custom JS), might easily turn into a cool and time-saving feature.

Let's wait and see.

 

 

DevConn Highlights--Browsers, Script, and Callbacks
09 November 05 06:47 PM | despos | 5 comment(s)

A few questions arisen yesterday in the lounges of ASP.NET DevConnections. 

After seeing the wonders of Atlas, is server-side programming dead?

No. Atlas is still based on server controls. How could it be otherwise? If not, we'll all be coding an enriched Javascript dialect in the next 12 months.

What about downlevel browsers?

What downlevel? Ajax-like features are now supported by 90% and more of the browsers today. Some quick (and hopefully not random) numbers that I've read somewhere. (OK it's not exactly a scientific method.) IE and Firefox alone approximately reach the critical mass of 95% (85+10). Plus Netscape 6 and higher, plus Safari 1.2 and higher, plus Opera 8 and higher. All considered, isn't it about 90% of the current audience?

Why ASP.NET Script Callbacks post the viewstate?

There should be a reason. There's certainly a reason. But it's currently beyond me.

DevConn Highlights--Atlas
09 November 05 06:39 PM | despos | 6 comment(s)

It was my first exposure to MS delivered Atlas contents. It confirmed my early impression.

• ASP.NET Script Callback is born dead, though you can still use it effectively in a number of 2.0 apps
• Ajax.NET is more lightweight and elegant I'd say. I'd go for it in any situation in which I'm building frequently used rich features
• Atlas is for the future, not meaning that it doesn't work today
• Atlas is not the MS version of Ajax; Atlas is much more

Atlas extends Ajax.NET in a number of ways.

• Browser object model to abstract away DOM differences between browsers
• Set of client-side enabled server controls, including data-binding and editable controls
• Access to server-side services through Web services (authentication, profile, session, cache)

The third point is easily replicable in Ajax.NET as well; and it probably already belongs to it in the Professional version.

I'm of course unable to see the exact future of Atlas, but I envision a perfect world in which we have one set of server controls with optional rich client capabilities. For now, we have two distinct sets which is not a bad or invalidating thing per se.

I can't say I love Atlas today, but I can't wait to see the final platform where Atlas is bringing us. Love the plan.

 

DevConn Highlights--Design-time Support
09 November 05 06:26 PM | despos | 1 comment(s)

<hype>

I was there when Jonathan Hawkins (ASP.NET team) illustrated the new capabilities of control designers in VS 2005. Impressive. Already in 1.x, I thought that designers were extremely powerful, only perhaps poorly documented and with no hype at all to make them known to a broad audience. In 2.0, it is beyond imagination. You can divide your control in regions and edit them separately. You can paint directly in the VS window thus overtaking the limitations of HTML in rendering phase. You can handle events and create small applets that make the user's experience richer than ever. Finally, auto-format windows are now integrated and don't have to be created from the grounds up.

</hype>

Some considerations. ASP.NET 2.0 comes with 70+ (trusting who said that, I never counted them...) new controls, most of which are rich of functions and cut off a large part of the features for which you had to create controls yourself in 1.x. If you get to create custom controls, good chances are that they are complex, sophisticated and rich of functions. A strong design-time model is required. And it is here.