Essential ASP.NET™ fast : with examples in VB .Net

242 Pages·2003·14.41 MB·English

by  Simon Stobart BA(Hons), Ph.D, MBCS, CEng (auth.)

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Springer-Verlag London Ltd.
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Simon Stobart
Essential
ASP.NET™
f a s t
with examples in VB .NET
, Springer
Simon Stobart, BA(Hons), Ph.D, MBCS, CEng
School of Computing and Technology, University of Sunderland,
Sunderland SR6 ODD
Series Editor
John Cowell, BSc (Hons), MPhil, PhD
Department of Computer Science, De Montfort University, The Gateway,
Leicester LEI 9BH
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Stobart, Simon
Essential ASP.NET fast: with examples in VB .NET. - (Essential
series)
1. Active Server Pages (Computer file) 2. Internet
programming 3. ASP.NET fast
005.2'76
ISBN 978-1-85233-683-7 ISBN 978-1-4471-0005-8 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-1-4471-0005-8
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress
Apart from any fair dealing for the purposes of research or private study, or criticism or review, as
permitted under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, this publication may only be
reproduced, stored or transmitted, in any form or by any means, with the prior permission in writing
of the pubJishers, or in the case of reprographic reproduction in accordance with the terms of licences
issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside those terms
should be sent to the publishers.
Essential series ISSN 1439-975X
ISBN 978-1-85233-683-7
http://www.springer.co.uk
© Springer-Verlag London 2003
Originally published by Springer-Verlag London Berlin Heidelberg in 1997
The use of registered names, trademarks etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of
a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant laws and regulations and therefore
free for general use.
The publisher makes no representation, express or implied, with regard to the accuracy of the
information contained in this book and cannot accept any legal responsibility or liability for any
errors or omissions that may be made.
Typesetting: electronic text fIles prepared by the author
34/3830-543210
Contents
1. WHY USE ASP.NET? ........................................ 1
Introduction ................................................................................................................................. 2
What do I need? .......................................................................................................................... 2
Is this book for you? .................................................................................................................... 3
How to use this book .................................................................................................................. 4
Don't Type! .................................................................................................................................. 5
2. THE ASP.NET ENVIRONMENT ......................... 7
Introduction ................................................................................................................................. 8
Basic Software Components ...................................................................................................... 8
Installing Internet Information Server ...................................................................................... 8
Running Internet Information Server ..................................................................................... 11
Obtaining the .NET Framework ............................................................................................... 12
Your ASP.NET Development Directory ................................................................................... 13
Summary .................................................................................................................................... 13
3. INTRODUCING ASP.NET ................................. 15
Introduction ............................................................................................................................... 16
A Simple HTML Document ....................................................................................................... 16
What is ASP.NET and ASP? ....................................................................................................... 18
First ASP.NET Script .................................................................................................................. 19
Alternative Script ...................................................................................................................... 22
Error Messages .......................................................................................................................... 23
Static and Dynamic Web pages ............................................................................................... 25
How is ASP.NET Different? ....................................................................................................... 26
Formatting ASP.NET Instructions ............................................................................................ 28
Jumping in and out of ASP.NET.. ............................................................................................. 29
The Response.Write Object ...................................................................................................... 30
Summary .................................................................................................................................... 31
4. VB. NET BASICS .............................................. 33
Introduction ............................................................................................................................... 34
Essential ASP.NET fast
Variables .................................................................................................................................... 34
Assigning values to variables ................................................................................. 34
Explicit Variable Declarations ................................................................................. 35
Different Types of Variables ................................................................................... 35
Integer Numbers ...................................................................................................... 36
Floating point (real) numbers ................................................................................ 37
Other data types ...................................................................................................... 38
Declaring and Initialising Together ....................................................................... 38
Constants .................................................................................................................. 38
Automatic Conversion ............................................................................................. 39
Standard Conversions ............................................................................................. 39
Conversion Functions .............................................................................................. 40
Strings ........................................................................................................................................ 40
Expression, Operand &O perator ............................................................................................. 41
Arithmetic Operators ............................................................................................... 41
Assignment Operators ............................................................................................ 41
Comparison Operators ............................................................................................ 42
Logical Operators ..................................................................................................... 43
Loops and Ifs ............................................................................................................................. 43
If Then ....................................................................................................................... 43
Expanding If Then with Else ................................................................................... 44
Elseif .......................................................................................................................... 44
Select Statement ..................................................................................................... 45
Do While and Do Until Top Testing ......................................................................................... 45
Do While and Do Until Bottom Testing ................................................................ .46
For loop and step ..................................................................................................... 47
Arrays ......................................................................................................................................... 47
Subroutines ............................................................................................................................... 48
Subroutines and Arguments ................................................................................................... 50
Functions ................................................................................................................................... 51
Exiting a Function or Subroutine ........................................................................... 53
Summary ................................................................................................................................... 53
5. ASP.NET OBJECTS ........................................ 55
Introduction .............................................................................................................................. 56
Response Object ....................................................................................................................... 56
Randomize ................................................................................................................................. 57
Request Object .......................................................................................................................... 58
Further Request Object Methods ............................................................................................ 61
Request Object Browser Object ............................................................................................... 62
ArrayList Class ...........................................................................................................................6 4
HashTable Object ...................................................................................................................... 67
Contents
Summary ....................................................................................................................................7 0
6. INTERACTING WITH THE USER ...................... 71
Introduction ............................................................................................................................... 72
ASP.NET and Forms ................................................................................................................... 72
Server Controls ..........................................................................................................................7 2
Simple Form Processing ........................................................................................................... 73
ASP.NET Server Control Events ................................................................................................ 74
The Page Object ........................................................................................................................7 7
IsPostBack ..................................................................................................................................7 8
Passing non form variables between pages .......................................................................... 81
ViewState ...................................................................................................................................8 4
Page_PreRender ....................................................................................................................... 87
Summary .................................................................................................................................... 87
7. EXAMINING WEB SERVER CONTROLS ............ 89
Introduction ...............................................................................................................................9 0
The Textbox ...............................................................................................................................9 0
Forecolor and Backcolor .......................................................................................... 90
Bordercolor and Borderstyle ................................................................................... 92
Font Adjustment ...................................................................................................... 94
Height and Width .................................................................................................... 96
Te xtmode .................................................................................................................. 97
Columns, Rows and Maxlength .............................................................................. 98
Enabled / Visible ...................................................................................................... 99
ReadOnly ................................................................................................................ 100
ToolTip .................................................................................................................... 101
AutoPostBack ......................................................................................................... 101
The Label ..................................................................................................................................1 05
The Button ............................................................................................................................... 1O S
Summary .................................................................................................................................. 106
8. FURTHER INTERFACE CONTROLS ............... 107
Introduction ............................................................................................................................. 108
CheckboxList ........................................................................................................................... 108
Items(x).Text .......................................................................................................... 112
Items(x).Value ........................................................................................................ 113
Items. Count ............................................................................................................ 114
Items.Add ............................................................................................................... 114
Items.lnsert ............................................................................................................ 114
Essential ASP. NET fast
Items. Remove ........................................................................................................ 115
Items.RemoveAt .................................................................................................... 115
Items. Clear .............................................................................................................. 115
TextAlign ................................................................................................................ 115
CeliPadding and CeIiSpacing ................................................................................ 117
RepeatColumns, RepeatDirection and RepeatLayout ....................................... 120
AutoPostBack ......................................................................................................... 122
Checkbox ................................................................................................................................. 122
Text ......................................................................................................................... 123
Checked .................................................................................................................. 123
AutoPostBack ......................................................................................................... 124
RadioButtonLists ..................................................................................................................... 124
Selected Index and Selectedltem.Text ................................................................. 128
AutoPostBack ......................................................................................................... 129
RadioButton ............................................................................................................................ 129
Groupname ............................................................................................................ 129
DropDownList ......................................................................................................................... 132
ListBox ...................................................................................................................................... 135
Selection Mode ....................................................................................................... 136
Manipulating Listltems .......................................................................................................... 138
LinkButton ............................................................................................................................... 142
Summary ................................................................................................................................. 143
9. CALENDAR AND ADROTATOR CONTROLS ... 145
Introduction ............................................................................................................................ 146
Calendar ................................................................................................................................... 146
Backcolor and Forecolor ........................................................................................ 148
Firstdayofweek ...................................................................................................... 148
Showgridlines ........................................................................................................ 148
Shownextprevmonth ............................................................................................ 149
Visibledate .............................................................................................................. 149
Onselectionchanged and Selected Date .............................................................. 151
Adrotator ................................................................................................................................. 153
Summary ................................................................................................................................. 156
10. FORM VALIDATION CONTROLS ................... 157
Introduction ............................................................................................................................ 158
The Traditional Way ................................................................................................................ 158
New Validation Controls ........................................................................................................ 161
RequiredFieldValidator ......................................................................................... 161
CompareValidator ................................................................................................. 166
Contents
RangeValidator ...................................................................................................... 168
Summary .................................................................................................................................. 170
11. FILE HANDLING AND COOKIES .................... 171
Introduction ............................................................................................................................. 172
Creating and Closing a File .................................................................................................... 172
Writing to a new file ............................................................................................................... 173
Appending Data to a File ....................................................................................................... 175
Reading a File .......................................................................................................................... 177
Cookies ..................................................................................................................................... 179
Creating a Cookie .................................................................................................................... 179
Viewing a Cookie .................................................................................................................... 181
Summary .................................................................................................................................. 183
12. DATABASES AND THE DATAGRID ................ 185
Introduction ............................................................................................................................. 186
What is ADO.NET? ................................................................................................................... 186
Importing ADO.NET ................................................................................................................ 186
The ADO.NET Objects .............................................................................................................. 187
Connection Object ................................................................................................. 187
Command Object ................................................................................................... 189
DataAdaptor Object.. ............................................................................................. 190
DataSet Object ....................................................................................................... 191
Displaying Data ....................................................................................................................... 192
Creating Our Access Database ............................................................................................... 193
Displaying Database Records ................................................................................................ 194
DataGrid Properties ................................................................................................................ 196
DataGrid Columns ...................................................................................................................2 00
DataGrid Buttons ....................................................................................................................2 02
DataGrid Paging ......................................................................................................................2 09
Summary ..................................................................................................................................2 13
13. INTERACTING WITH DATABASES ................. 215
Introduction .............................................................................................................................2 16
Adding Records ....................................................................................................................... 216
Updating Records ...................................................................................................................2 20
Deleting Records .....................................................................................................................2 25
Summary ..................................................................................................................................2 28
Essential ASP .NET fast
14. WHERE NEXT? ............................................ 229
Introduction ............................................................................................................................ 230
Microsoft ASP.NET .................................................................................................................. 230
4GuysFromRoila ...................................................................................................................... 230
ASP Alliance ............................................................................................................................. 231
Brinkster ...................................................................................................................................2 31
411 ASP.NET Directory ........................................................................................................... 231
LearnASP ..................................................................................................................................2 31
DotNetJunkies ......................................................................................................................... 232
And Finally ............................................................................................................................2 32
15. INDEX ......................................................... 233