Visual Studio 2008 All-In-One Desk Reference For Dummies

842 Pages·2008·17.52 MB·English

by  Rick Leinecker

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Visual Studio®2008 All-in-One Desk Reference For Dummies®
Published by
Wiley Publishing, Inc.
111 River Street
Hoboken, NJ 07030-5774
www.wiley.com
Copyright © 2008 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana
Published by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana
Published simultaneously in Canada
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or
by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning or otherwise, except as permit-
ted under Sections 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without either the prior written
permission of the Publisher, or authorization through payment of the appropriate per-copy fee to the
Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, [phone], fax [phone].
Requests to the Publisher for permission should be addressed to the Legal Department, Wiley Publishing,
Inc., 10475 Crosspoint Blvd., Indianapolis, IN 46256, [phone], fax [phone], or online at
http://www.wiley.com/go/permissions.
Trademarks:Wiley, the Wiley Publishing logo, For Dummies, the Dummies Man logo, A Reference for the
Rest of Us!, The Dummies Way, Dummies Daily, The Fun and Easy Way, Dummies.com, and related trade
dress are trademarks or registered trademarks of John Wiley & Sons, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the United
States and other countries, and may not be used without written permission. All other trademarks are the
property of their respective owners. Wiley Publishing, Inc., is not associated with any product or vendor
mentioned in this book.
LIMIT OF LIABILITY/DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTY: THE PUBLISHER AND THE AUTHOR MAKE NO REPRESENTATIONS
OR WARRANTIES WITH RESPECT TO THE ACCURACY OR COMPLETENESS OF THE CONTENTS OF THIS WORK AND
SPECIFICALLY DISCLAIM ALL WARRANTIES, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION WARRANTIES OF FITNESS FOR A
PARTICULAR PURPOSE. NO WARRANTY MAY BE CREATED OR EXTENDED BY SALES OR PROMOTIONAL MATERIALS.
THE ADVICE AND STRATEGIES CONTAINED HEREIN MAY NOT BE SUITABLE FOR EVERY SITUATION. THIS WORK IS
SOLD WITH THE UNDERSTANDING THAT THE PUBLISHER IS NOT ENGAGED IN RENDERING LEGAL, ACCOUNTING,
OR OTHER PROFESSIONAL SERVICES. IF PROFESSIONAL ASSISTANCE IS REQUIRED, THE SERVICES OF A COMPE-
TENT PROFESSIONAL PERSON SHOULD BE SOUGHT. NEITHER THE PUBLISHER NOR THE AUTHOR SHALL BE LIABLE
FOR DAMAGES ARISING HEREFROM. THE FACT THAT AN ORGANIZATION OR WEBSITE IS REFERRED TO IN THIS
WORK AS A CITATION AND/OR A POTENTIAL SOURCE OF FURTHER INFORMATION DOES NOT MEAN THAT THE
AUTHOR OR THE PUBLISHER ENDORSES THE INFORMATION THE ORGANIZATION OR WEBSITE MAY PROVIDE OR
RECOMMENDATIONS IT MAY MAKE. FURTHER, READERS SHOULD BE AWARE THAT INTERNET WEBSITES LISTED IN
THIS WORK MAY HAVE CHANGED OR DISAPPEARED BETWEEN WHEN THIS WORK WAS WRITTEN AND WHEN IT
IS READ.
For general information on our other products and services, please contact our Customer Care
Department within the U.S. at 800-762-2974, outside the U.S. at 317-572-3993, or fax [phone].
For technical support, please visit www.wiley.com/techsupport.
Wiley also publishes its books in a variety of electronic formats. Some content that appears in print may
not be available in electronic books.
Library of Congress Control Number: 2008923599
ISBN: 978-0-470-19108-8
Manufactured in the United States of America
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
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Visual Studio
®
2008
ALL-IN-ONE DESK REFERENCE
FOR
DUMmIES
‰
by Rick Leinecker and Vanessa L.Williams
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Visual Studio®2008 All-in-One Desk Reference For Dummies®
Published by
Wiley Publishing, Inc.
111 River Street
Hoboken, NJ 07030-5774
www.wiley.com
Copyright © 2008 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana
Published by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana
Published simultaneously in Canada
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or
by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning or otherwise, except as permit-
ted under Sections 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without either the prior written
permission of the Publisher, or authorization through payment of the appropriate per-copy fee to the
Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, [phone], fax [phone].
Requests to the Publisher for permission should be addressed to the Legal Department, Wiley Publishing,
Inc., 10475 Crosspoint Blvd., Indianapolis, IN 46256, [phone], fax [phone], or online at
http://www.wiley.com/go/permissions.
Trademarks:Wiley, the Wiley Publishing logo, For Dummies, the Dummies Man logo, A Reference for the
Rest of Us!, The Dummies Way, Dummies Daily, The Fun and Easy Way, Dummies.com, and related trade
dress are trademarks or registered trademarks of John Wiley & Sons, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the United
States and other countries, and may not be used without written permission. All other trademarks are the
property of their respective owners. Wiley Publishing, Inc., is not associated with any product or vendor
mentioned in this book.
LIMIT OF LIABILITY/DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTY: THE PUBLISHER AND THE AUTHOR MAKE NO REPRESENTATIONS
OR WARRANTIES WITH RESPECT TO THE ACCURACY OR COMPLETENESS OF THE CONTENTS OF THIS WORK AND
SPECIFICALLY DISCLAIM ALL WARRANTIES, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION WARRANTIES OF FITNESS FOR A
PARTICULAR PURPOSE. NO WARRANTY MAY BE CREATED OR EXTENDED BY SALES OR PROMOTIONAL MATERIALS.
THE ADVICE AND STRATEGIES CONTAINED HEREIN MAY NOT BE SUITABLE FOR EVERY SITUATION. THIS WORK IS
SOLD WITH THE UNDERSTANDING THAT THE PUBLISHER IS NOT ENGAGED IN RENDERING LEGAL, ACCOUNTING,
OR OTHER PROFESSIONAL SERVICES. IF PROFESSIONAL ASSISTANCE IS REQUIRED, THE SERVICES OF A COMPE-
TENT PROFESSIONAL PERSON SHOULD BE SOUGHT. NEITHER THE PUBLISHER NOR THE AUTHOR SHALL BE LIABLE
FOR DAMAGES ARISING HEREFROM. THE FACT THAT AN ORGANIZATION OR WEBSITE IS REFERRED TO IN THIS
WORK AS A CITATION AND/OR A POTENTIAL SOURCE OF FURTHER INFORMATION DOES NOT MEAN THAT THE
AUTHOR OR THE PUBLISHER ENDORSES THE INFORMATION THE ORGANIZATION OR WEBSITE MAY PROVIDE OR
RECOMMENDATIONS IT MAY MAKE. FURTHER, READERS SHOULD BE AWARE THAT INTERNET WEBSITES LISTED IN
THIS WORK MAY HAVE CHANGED OR DISAPPEARED BETWEEN WHEN THIS WORK WAS WRITTEN AND WHEN IT
IS READ.
For general information on our other products and services, please contact our Customer Care
Department within the U.S. at 800-762-2974, outside the U.S. at 317-572-3993, or fax [phone].
For technical support, please visit www.wiley.com/techsupport.
Wiley also publishes its books in a variety of electronic formats. Some content that appears in print may
not be available in electronic books.
Library of Congress Control Number: 2008923599
ISBN: 978-0-470-19108-8
Manufactured in the United States of America
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
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About the Authors
Rick Leineckerhas held a number of prestigious positions in companies
such as IntraCorp, MCI, and Landmark Communications. He has written more
than 20 books on technical subjects such as C++, C#, ASP.NET, and computer
security. He has a thriving consulting practice in North Carolina’s Triad area
and innovates in fields such as imaging, podcasting, and artificial intelligence.
Vanessa L. Williamsis a consultant and author specializing in Microsoft’s Share
Point and .NET technologies. Through her Midwest consulting business, Vanessa
Williams Business Solutions, she provides custom development, systems imple-
mentation, hosting, and training services for SharePoint, .NET, and Visual Studio
Team System. She has ten years of business information systems experience
spanning several industries including transportation, petroleum marketing,
manufacturing, retail, and motor-sports entertainment. Her nontechnical
experience –– including jobs as a shipping clerk, accounting clerk, and forklift
driver –– gives her the unique ability to view systems implementations from an
end-user’s perspective.
Vanessa grew up in Indianapolis, where she graduated from the Kelley School
of Business at Indiana University with a Bachelor of Science degree in Business
Management and Computer Information Systems. She is active in the online
tech community and welcomes comments, feedback, and questionsvia her
Web site, www.sharepointgrrl.com.
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Dedication
Rick Leinecker: This book is dedicated to John and Tina.
Vanessa L. Williams: To Mel and Rosie.
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Publisher’s Acknowledgments
We’re proud of this book; please send us your comments through our online registration form
located at www.dummies.com/register/.
Some of the people who helped bring this book to market include the following:
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Contents at a Glance
Introduction.................................................................1
Book I: Visual Studio 2008 Overview...........................11
Chapter 1: What Is Visual Studio?..................................................................................13
Chapter 2: Exploring .NET...............................................................................................21
Chapter 3: Modern Software Development...................................................................31
Chapter 4: The Languages of .NET.................................................................................55
Chapter 5: The Many Editions of Visual Studio 2008...................................................67
Book II: Getting Started..............................................79
Chapter 1: Installing Visual Studio Professional...........................................................81
Chapter 2: Browsing Visual Studio.................................................................................89
Chapter 3: Making Connections with Visual Studio...................................................103
Chapter 4: Upgrading .NET............................................................................................115
Book III: Building Applications..................................127
Chapter 1: Getting Smart about Smart Clients...........................................................129
Chapter 2: Building Smart Client User Interfaces.......................................................149
Chapter 3: Building Visual C++ Applications..............................................................175
Chapter 4: Building Web Applications.........................................................................187
Chapter 5: Using AJAX For Rich Web Pages................................................................213
Chapter 6: Laying Out Your Site...................................................................................225
Chapter 7: Exploring ASP.NET Services.......................................................................253
Chapter 8: Building a Mobile Application...................................................................271
Book IV: Getting Acquainted with Data Access...........289
Chapter 1: Accessing Data with Visual Studio............................................................291
Chapter 2: Show Me the Data........................................................................................309
Chapter 3: Working with Strongly Typed DataSets....................................................345
Chapter 4: Working with XML.......................................................................................381
Chapter 5: Under the Hood with ADO.NET.................................................................399
Chapter 6: Using Visual Studio with SQL Server........................................................437
Chapter 7: LINQ..............................................................................................................467
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Book V: Coding.........................................................473
Chapter 1: Programming with Visual Studio 2008......................................................475
Chapter 2: Understanding Data Types.........................................................................493
Chapter 3: Get Some Class............................................................................................525
Chapter 4: Wiring Up Events in the User Interface....................................................551
Chapter 5: Getting Productive with Visual Studio 2008.............................................569
Chapter 6: Exploring Web Services..............................................................................595
Chapter 7: Handling Exceptions and Debugging........................................................617
Chapter 8: Testing Code with Visual Studio................................................................639
Book VI: Going the Extra Mile....................................657
Chapter 1: Building Solutions and Projects................................................................659
Chapter 2: Deployment Options...................................................................................675
Chapter 3: Checking Out Source Control....................................................................701
Chapter 4: Building Professional Reports with Crystal Reports..............................719
Book VII: Extending Visual Studio..............................737
Chapter 1: Exploring Visual Studio Extensions..........................................................739
Chapter 2: Being a Team Player with Visual Studio Team System...........................747
Chapter 3: Using Visual Studio with Vista and Office 2007.......................................765
Index.......................................................................781