Visual Studio, .NET, ASP.NET, VB.NET, C#, and F#
István Novák
András Velvárt
Adam Granicz
György Balássy
Attila Hajdrik
Mitchel Sellers
Gastón C. Hillar
Ágnes Molnár
Joydip Kanjilal
PART I VISUAL STUDIO
PART II .NET 4
PART III ASP.NET 4.0
PART IV VB.NET
PART V C#
PART VI F#
ISTVÁN NOVÁK is an associate of Grepton, a Hungarian IT services company.
He works as a software architect and community evangelist. In the last 20 years, he
participated in more than 50 enterprise software development projects. In 2002,
he co - authored the fi rst Hungarian book about .NET development. In 2007, he was
awarded with the Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP) title. He holds a
master ’ s degree from the Technical University of Budapest, Hungary, and also has
a doctoral degree in software technology. He lives in Dunakeszi, Hungary, with his wife and two
daughters. He is a passionate scuba diver. You may have a good chance of meeting him underwater
at the Red Sea in any season of the year.
ANDRÁS VELVÁRT is a Silverlight MVP, with a passion for user experience. As an
accomplished speaker, he gives talks at numerous conferences where Windows
Presentation Foundation (WPF) or Silverlight is the topic. Chapter 8 of this book
feeds from his experience at teaching many Silverlight and WPF classes and workshops.
He is also the owner of Response Ltd. ( www.response.hu ), a small consulting
and WPF/Silverlight development company in Hungary.
ADAM GRANICZ is the CEO of IntelliFactory, a leading provider of F# training, development, and
consulting services, as well as technologies that enable rapid functional, reactive web development.
As one of the fi rst F# users, he is a key community member and an active F# evangelist. He has been
the co - author of two F# books with Don Syme, the designer of the language. He is a regular speaker
at developer conferences and various industry partner events.
GYÖRGY BALÁSSY teaches web portal development as a lecturer at Budapest
University of Technology and Economics. He is a founding member of the local
MSDN Competence Centre (MSDNCC), having an important role in evangelizing the
.NET platform as a speaker, book author, and consultant. He provided leadership in
the foundation of the Hungarian .NET community as a key evangelist on Microsoft
events, technical forums, and as the head of the Portal Technology Group in the
MSDNCC. He is a regular speaker on academic and industrial events, presenting in - depth technical
sessions on .NET, ASP.NET, Offi ce development, and ethical hacking, for which he won the Best
Speaker and the Most Valuable Professional (MVP) Awards in SharePoint and ASP.NET multiple
times. He was selected to be the member of the ASPInsiders group. Since 2005, he has been the
Microsoft Regional Director in Hungary.
ATTILA HAJDRIK has worked in the IT industry for more than 14 years. He is the founder and lead architect of Eyedea Ltd., a small independent software vendor (ISV) specializing in Rich Internet Application (RIA) development. Before founding his own company, he worked for 6 years at
Microsoft as an Application Development Consultant, and later as a Senior Consultant in Microsoft
Services. He specialized in .NET - based custom development projects. In 2004, He was awarded an
ASP.NET Most Valuable Professional (MVP) title. He has experience with all .NET - related technologies
from the back end to the front end. He is addicted to Doman Specifi c Languages, model -
based development, and a big believer in design patterns. His favorite technologies are Silverlight,
Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF), and ASP.NET Model View Controller (MVC).
MITCHEL SELLERS specializes in software development using Microsoft technologies.
He is the CEO of IowaComputerGurus Inc., a Microsoft C# MVP, a Microsoft
Certifi ed Professional, and experienced technical writer. He enjoys spending time
sharing information with the development community through books, blog postings,
and public speaking events. He is also an active participant in the DotNetNuke
development community. For more information on him, visit his website at
http://www.mitchelsellers.com .
GASTÓNC. HILLAR has been working with computers since he was 8 years old.
He began programming with the legendary Texas Instruments TI - 99/4A and
Commodore 64 home computers in the early 1980s. He has worked as developer,
architect, and project manager for many companies in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
He is now an independent IT consultant working for several American, German,
Spanish, and Latin American companies, and a freelance author. He has written four
books in English, contributed chapters to two other books, and has written more than 40 books in
Spanish. He contributes to Dr. Dobb ’ s Go Parallel programming portal ( http://www.ddj.com/go-parallel/ ), Dr. Dobb ’ s ( http://drdobbs.com ), and is a guest blogger at Intel Software
Network ( http://software.intel.com ). He lives with his wife, Vanesa, and his son, Kevin.
When not tinkering with computers, he enjoys developing and playing with wireless virtual
reality devices and electronic toys with his father, his son, and his nephew, Nico. You can reach
him at gastonhillar@hotmail.com . You can follow him on Twitter at http://twitter.com/gastonhillar . His blog is at http://csharpmulticore.blogspot.com .
ÁGNES MOLNÁR has been working with Microsoft technologies and SharePoint since 2001. After
a few years of working as a developer and SharePoint expert, she founded a SharePoint consulting
company in Hungary, Central Europe. She ’ s been working as a senior consultant, and has led
SharePoint implementations at numerous Central European companies.
Her main focus is on architecture, governance, information and knowledge management, and enterprise search. She ’ s a frequent speaker at conferences around the globe, and is also the co - author of various SharePoint books.
JOYDIP KANJILAL was awarded a Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP) title in
ASP.NET in 2007, 2008, and 2009. He has more than 12 years of industry experience in IT, with
more than 6 years experience in Microsoft .NET and its related technologies. He was selected as
MSDN Featured Developer of the Fortnight (MSDN), and was also selected as Community Credit
Winner at www.community - credit.com several times. He has authored numerous books on
ASP - related topics.
ABOUT THE TECHNICAL EDITOR
DOUG PARSONS is a software architect and the director of Ohio Operations for NJI New Media. His expertise is in web development with a specialization in political websites. Most notably, he has worked on the 2008 John McCain presidential campaign website and, more recently, Mitt Romney ’ s offi cial book tour website. In his downtime, he enjoys spending time with his lovely fi anc é e, Marisa, and their four puppies.
Introduction
IN THE .NET DEVELOPMENT WORLD, we have seen massive improvements and enhancements tothe framework over the last several years. Since 2006, we have seen releases of .NET 3.0, .NET 3.5, and .NET 4. We have also seen the introduction of many new technologies such as Windows Communication Foundation (WCF), Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF), Windows Workfl ow, and Silverlight that came as parts of the various releases.
Keeping up with all of this change can be diffi cult for all developers, both those new to the industry and those who have been using .NET since its inception almost ten years ago. To help keep up with this rapid change, this book serves as an “ all - in - one reference ” for the major changes and enhancements and provides a glimpse into the specifi cs of the new technologies.
WHO THIS BOOK IS FOR
This book was written with the experienced .NET developer in mind. Many of the chapters talk
specifi cally about the enhancements or changes that have been introduced with the new versions of the .NET Framework. However, even those readers who are not fl uent in .NET development should be able take a lot out of the detailed examples provided in this book.
For the experienced reader, a few “ history ” chapters have been added to help identify when various functionality has been added so that you can quickly identify the needed toolset to be able to adopt a specifi c feature.
'WHAT THIS BOOK COVERS
This book focuses on enhancements that have been added to .NET and Visual Studio 2010 over
previous versions. In certain chapters and sections, a more historical view is presented to help
provide context. For example, in the chapters discussing WCF, an examination of WCF basics and features added in .NET 3.5 are needed to help provide a full understanding of the functionality provided in the 4.0 release.
This book is intended to be an overview of Visual Studio and .NET as a whole. It is not a book on
any single topic, but rather a more macro - level overview. As such, many concepts will be introduced in one or two chapters to provide an overview of the functionality and how it can be leveraged. For many of the topics such as WCF, Silverlight, and WPF, there are several entire books dedicated to the topic. The goal of this book is to provide an introduction to the technology, allowing you the capability to make a selection of the next area to study in more detail.
HOW THIS BOOK IS STRUCTURED
Given the broad scope of this book, it has been divided into six distinct sections that will help you quickly locate the content most relevant to you. It is not necessarily structured in a manner to be read cover - to - cover, although chapters are tied together to make that reading style as cohesive as possible.
The following sections provide you with a section - by - section and chapter - by - chapter breakdown of the content included.
Part I: Visual Studio
This section is dedicated to the discussion of the Visual Studio 2010 Integrated Development
Environment (IDE), and the enhancements and features available to developers.
Chapter 1: “ History of Visual Studio ” — This chapter provides an important introduction
to the history of how the Visual Studio product has evolved from the foundation to the
current product it is today. Major milestones and supported languages are discussed, along
with major enhancements included in each release.
Chapter 2: “ Visual Studio UI Enhancements ” — This chapter focuses on the major User
Interface (UI) changes between the Visual Studio 2008 and Visual Studio 2010 products.
The conversion of Visual Studio to use Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) provided
an incredible amount of new UI features and functionality, which are all discussed in this chapter.
Chapter 3: “ Visual Studio Code Snippets ” — From a developer productivity standpoint,
Visual Studio ’ s Code Snippets functionality is one of the biggest timesavers when it comes
down to reducing total keystrokes. This chapter is dedicated to discussing how to use and
create code snippets to improve productivity.
Chapter 4: “ Visual Studio Templates ” — In addition to code snippets, Visual Studio
provides a robust template system that allows for templates to be created for projects or
specifi c items. This chapter focuses on introducing the various template types, and how they
can be used to improve the development process.
Chapter 5: “ Getting the Most Out of the IDE ” — The feature set included in Visual Studio
2010 is massive, and the number of confi guration items can be mind - boggling, even to those
who have been using Visual Studio for a long time. This chapter focuses on ways to get the
most out of the IDE, including customization, window management, shortcuts, and the gallery.
Chapter 6: “ Visual Studio Extensibility ” — In addition to the robust confi guration and
other features included with Visual Studio, there is additional support for extensibility in
the form of plug - ins, macros, and the like. This chapter illustrates how Visual Studio is set
up to allow for extension by developers.
Part II: .NET 4
The second portion of the book is dedicated to functionality provided by the 4.0 version of the
.NET Framework. Each of these chapters dives into new functionality that has been added across
the various technology sections of the .NET Framework.
Chapter 7: “ .NET Framework Version History ” — Before individual enhancements can
be discussed, it is important to understand the history of the .NET Framework. With
such rapid change in .NET over the past few years, this chapter helps to level - set the
times, versions, and release cycles that introduced new or improved functionality to the
framework.
Chapter 8: “ Modern UI Frameworks (WPF and Silverlight) ” — Recent releases of Visual
Studio have added two new UI frameworks. This chapter provides a quick overview to
answer the three most important questions when looking at new frameworks: when it
should be used, why it should be used, and how it should be used.
Chapter 9: “ Windows Communication Framework (WCF) ” — This chapter is dedicated to
WCF as it functions within the .NET 4 and Visual Studio 2010 environment.
Chapter 10: “ Enhancements to the .NET Core Framework ” — This chapter examines
the new functionality added to the framework that can support development using various
other framework portions. You will learn about changes to the Common Language
Runtime (CLR), the addition of parallel computing, code contracts, and the Managed
Extensibility Framework (MEF).
Chapter 11: “ Enhancements to the .NET Workfl ow Framework ” — Windows Workfl ow
is another of the .NET framework pieces that has seen a large number of changes with past
releases of Visual Studio. This chapter is dedicated to discussing the major changes that
have been introduced in the .NET 4 release.
Chapter 12: “ Enhancements to the .NET Data Framework ” — Microsoft has been
dedicated to providing object relational mapping (ORM) style tools for developers and,
as such, items such as the entity framework and the like have seen a number of massive
changes in recent releases. This chapter is dedicated to the enhancements included within
the Data portions of the framework.
Chapter 13: “ Enhancements to the .NET Communications Framework ” — This chapter
about communications discusses the enhancements and changes that have been introduced
with .NET 4. This chapter is most helpful for readers who are moving forward from older
versions of WCF.
Chapter 14: “ .NET Charting Components ” — Although available as part of .NET 3.5
Service Pack 1 (SP1), the .NET charting components are a very powerful and recent
addition to the .NET Framework. This chapter examines the usage and benefi ts provided by
the built - in charting components that are available with .NET 4.
Part III: ASP.NET 4.0
The third portion of this book focuses on ASP.NET 4.0 and related items. For web application
developers, this section pulls together all of the new features and enhancements into one location,
making it easy to fi nd the items specifi c to web functionality.
Chapter 15: “ ASP.NET Version History ” — Similar in nature to the .NET Framework as
a whole, it is important to remember major milestones with regard to the previous releases
of ASP.NET to ensure that you are aware of new or changed functionality that has been
introduced. This chapter provides that needed foundation.
Chapter 16: “ ASP.NET Charting Controls ” — This chapter examines .NET Charting
components in a general manner. Here you will learn about the controls within the context
of an ASP.NET application, and the steps necessary to properly leverage the controls.
Chapter 17: “ ASP.NET Dynamic Data ” — Microsoft recently added support for dynamic
data, and this chapter is dedicated to discussing the features, benefi ts, and options available
when using dynamic data.
Chapter 18: “ ASP.NET Model View Controller (MVC) ” — Microsoft has added a new
project template type that supports web application development using the well - known
MVC design pattern. The introduction of MVC to the ASP.NET feature set has added a
number of items that can be used by developers of both MVC and Web Forms applications,
and this chapter is dedicated to those discussions.
Chapter 19: “ ASP.NET Ajax Improvements ” — ASP.NET Ajax is the foundational
component for creating a rich user experience with an ASP.NET application. A number of
enhancements were added to ASP.NET Ajax implementation, and this chapter is dedicated
to outlining all new features.
Chapter 20: “ Ajax Control Toolkit, jQuery, and More ” — In addition to the base ASP.NET
Ajax offering, Microsoft maintains a secondary download of the Ajax Control Toolkit, which
provides a robust set of additional controls. Microsoft has also embraced and added support
for the jQuery Open Source JavaScript library. This chapter discusses these items and how they
can relate within your applications.
Part IV: VB.NET
This section of the book is dedicated to discussing new features and enhancements that have been
added to the Visual Basic language. This is a short section because of the limited changes that
impact the Visual Basic language only.
Chapter 21: “ History of Visual Basic ” — To help get an understanding of the changes to
the Visual Basic language, it is important to understand the history of the language, and
when certain features were added. This chapter provides the needed introduction.
Chapter 22: “ Visual Basic 10 Language Enhancements ” — This chapter focuses on additions
and enhancements to the Visual Basic language as provided by Visual Studio 2010.
Part V: C#
This section of the book is dedicated to discussing new features and enhancements that have been
added to the C# Language. This is a short section because of the limited changes that impact the
C# language only.
Chapter 23: “ History of C# ” — To help get an understanding of the changes to C#
included with Visual Studio 2010, this chapter has been provided to set up the history of the
language with a short summary of major enhancements provided in past releases.
Chapter 24: “ C# 4.0 Language Enhancements ” — This chapter examines the new language
features that have been added to C# for version 4.0. Items such as covariance and other
language enhancements are discussed with examples.
Part VI: F# and Other .NET Languages
The fi nal section of this book discusses the F# language and other .NET languages such as
IronRuby and IronPython. This section contains Chapter 25, which is the fi nal chapter of the book. This extensive chapter introduces the F# language with detailed examples and explanations that will allow you to quickly get up and running with F#. The chapter fi nishes with information on IronRuby and IronPython.
WHAT YOU NEED TO USE THIS BOOK
Readers will need access to an edition of Visual Studio 2010; this book uses the Premium edition
of Visual Studio 2010 for most of the examples.
However, other editions (including the Express editions) will work.
Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION xxxiii
PART I: VISUAL STUDIO
CHAPTER 1: HISTORY OF VISUAL STUDIO 3
Roots 4
The First Breakthrough: Visual Basic 4
Other Languages and Tools 4
Visual Studio 97 and 6.0 5
Visual Studio.NET 2002 and 2003 5
Visual Studio 2005 7
Visual Studio 2008 8
Visual Studio 2010 10
Changes in Editions 10
What’s New in Visual Studio 2010 12
Shift to WPF 12
Summary 13
CHAPTER 2: VISUAL STUDIO UI ENHANCEMENTS 15
Basic IDE Overview 15
Exploring the Start Page 15
Understanding Window Management 16
New Project Dialog Window 17
Creating New Projects in a New Way 19
Using the Add Reference Dialog Window 19
Using the Extension Manager 20
Exploring New Daily Development Features 20
Exploring the Code Editor Window 20
Code Navigation 22
Generate From Usage 24
Exploring the Visual Designers 25
WPF Designer 26
XML Schema Designer 27
New Tools for Architects 27
Summary 29
CHAPTER 3: VISUAL STUDIO CODE SNIPPETS 31
Understanding Code Snippets 32
Using Code Snippets 34
HTML, SQL, and JScript Code Snippets 37
Creating Code Snippets 38
Creating a Simple Code Snippet 38
The Code Snippet File Structure 41
Managing Code Snippets 51
The Code Snippet Manager 52
Code Snippet Storage 53
Adding and Removing Snippets 54
Importing Snippets 54
Advanced Code Snippet Features 56
Multiple Snippets in a File 56
Code Snippets in Other Languages 58
Building Online Code Snippet Providers 59
Snippet Editors 59
Export as Code Snippet Add-In 60
Snippet Designer 61
Snippet Editor 62
Summary 63
CHAPTER 4: VISUAL STUDIO TEMPLATES 65
The Role of Templates 66
Project Templates 67
Item Templates 69
Creating Templates 70
Creating a Simple Project Template 71
Creating a Simple Item Template 76
Template Storage Structure 81
Template Folders 82
The Template Manifest File 84
Customizing Templates 98
Template Parameters 98
Custom Template Parameters 99
Wizards 101
Deploying Templates 110
Exporting and Importing Templates 111
Creating a Template Installation Kit 114
Summary 125
CHAPTER 5: GETTING THE MOST OUT OF THE IDE 127
Window Management 128
Visual Studio Window Architecture 128
Tool Windows 131
Document Windows 132
Arranging Windows 134
Customizing Menus and Toolbars 138
The Customize Dialog 139
Adding Menus and Commands 140
Creating and Rearranging Toolbars 144
Context Sensitivity 145
IDE Confi guration 145
The Options Dialog 145
Changes in Option Pages 147
Visual Studio Settings 150
Reducing Eff orts with Keyboard Shortcuts 155
Command Routing and Command Contexts 155
Working with Keyboard Shortcuts 157
Working with Keyboard Mapping Schemes 160
Custom Start Pages 162
Creating Your First Custom Start Page 163
Changing the StartPage.xaml File 173
Accessing the Visual Studio Context 176
Accessing the Visual Studio Object Model 182
A Few More Points About Start Pages 186
Customizing the Toolbox 186
A Lap Around the Toolbox 186
Customizing Toolbox Tabs 189
Adding Items to the Toolbox 190
A Few More Points About Toolbox Customization 193
Visual Studio Gallery 193
Browsing the Visual Studio Gallery 194
Downloading and Installing Components 196
Adding Your Own Contributions to the Gallery 197
Working Together with the Community 198
Summary 198
CHAPTER 6: VISUAL STUDIO EXTENSIBILITY 201
The Visual Studio Shell and Packages 202
Package Integration 203
Extensibility Out of the Box 204
Extending Visual Studio by Customization 204
Using Macros to Automate Common Tasks 208
Visual Studio Add-Ins 209
Extensions with Visual Studio SDK 210
The Full Power of Extensibility 210
Visual Studio Package Development 211
Editor Extensibility 212
Creating Visual Studio Macros 213
Understanding the Structure of Macros 213
Using the Macros IDE 218
Recording and Developing Macros 221
Macro Samples 225
Creating Visual Studio Add-Ins 229
Add-In Architecture 229
Creating a Simple Add-In 230
Using the Automation Model 239
Going on with Add-In Development 241
Visual Studio Packages in a Nutshell 242
Creating a Package with a Simple Menu Command 242
Debugging the Package 254
Extending the New Editor 255
Extending the Editor with the Managed Extensibility Framework 256
Editor Extensibility Points 258
Creating a Simple Classifi er 260
Summary 275
PART II: .NET 4
CHAPTER 7: .NET FRAMEWORK VERSION HISTORY 279
Before the .NET Framework 279
Win/Win32 Programming in C 279
C++ Programming 280
Programming in Visual Basic 280
Programming in Delphi 281
COM Programming 281
The Origin and Goals of the .NET Framework 282
Evolution of the .NET Framework 283
.NET Framework 1.0 286
.NET Framework 1.1 286
.NET Framework 2.0 286
.NET Framework 3.0 287
.NET Framework 3.5 287
.NET Framework 4.0 288
.NET Compact Framework 289
.NET Micro Framework 289
.NET Framework Architecture 289
Common Language Run-time (CLR) 290
Base Class Library 291
Services of the .NET Architecture 292
Main Benefi ts of the .NET Framework 293
Summary 294
CHAPTER 8: MODERN UI FRAMEWORKS (WPF AND SILVERLIGHT) 297
The Importance of User Experience 297
Developers Are from Vulcan, Designers Are from Venus 299
A New Generation of Presentation Frameworks 301
The Ten Pillars of Silverlight 303
XAML 304
Tools for Working with Silverlight (and WPF) 313
Layout 315
Data Binding 322
Styles 330
Templates 332
Animations 341
Media 345
Networking 352
Other Features 355
Windows Presentation Foundation 359
WPF Features not Available in Silverlight 361
Choosing Between WPF and Silverlight 366
Designer - Developer Cooperation in Silverlight and WPF 367
A Common Solution Format 367
Blendability 368
Design Time Sample Data in Blend 369
SketchFlow 370
Triggers, Actions, and Behaviors 371
Model-View-ViewModel Pattern 372
Summary 373
CHAPTER 9: WINDOWS COMMUNICATION FOUNDATION (WCF) 375
WCF Versus ASMX Web Services 375
A Quick Look at SOA 376
Service 377
Service Provider 377
Service Consumer(s) 377
Service Registry 377
Service Contract 377
Service Proxy 378
Service Lease 378
Message 378
Service Description 378
Advertising and Discovery 378
Building Blocks of the WCF Architecture 378
Getting Started With WCF 381
Creating the WCF Service 382
Defi ning Data Contracts 386
Specifying the Binding Information 387
Hosting the WCF Service 388
Creating the Service Proxy 389
Creating the Service Client — The Service Consumer 391
Working with an Ajax-Enabled WCF Service 392
REST and WCF 394
Implementing a WCF Service Declaratively 394
Defi ning the Service Contract 395
Hosting the Service 396
Implementing the Service Logic Declaratively 396
Summary 398
CHAPTER 10: ENHANCEMENTS TO THE .NET CORE FRAMEWORK 399
Changes in Common Language Run-time 400
In-Process Side-By-Side Execution 400
DLR Integration 402
Type Equivalence 411
Parallel Computing 415
The Challenge of Many-core Shift 416
The Microsoft Approach 418
Parallel LINQ 421
Task Parallel Library 428
Code Contracts 455
Managed Extensibility Framework 463
The Challenge 463
A Simple MEF Example 465
Basic MEF Concepts 471
Composition 477
A Few More Points on MEF 486
Summary 487
CHAPTER 11: ENHANCEMENTS TO THE .NET WORKFLOW
FRAMEWORK 489
An Introduction to WF 4.0 490
The Workfl ow Design Surface 491
The Hello Workfl ow Application 492
Creating Flowcharts and Coded Workfl ows 499
Flowcharts in WF 4.0 500
Code-Only Workfl ows 505
Workfl ow Architecture 509
Workfl owApplication and Hosts 510
Activities 511
Extensions 512
Workfl ow Activity Model Changes 513
Workfl ow Activity Library 517
Primitive Activities 518
Flow Control Activities 518
Workfl ow Run-Time Activities 520
Flowchart-Specifi c Activities 521
Error-Handling Activities 522
Transaction-Handling Activities 523
Collection-Handling Activities 524
Messaging Activities 525
Using the Compensating Transaction Model 527
The ConferenceWorkfl ow Example 527
Implementing Cancellation, Confi rmation, and Compensation 528
Cancellation 530
Compensation 530
Persistence and Human Interactions 532
The DomainNameWorkfl ow Project 533
Workfl ow Tracking 544
Workfl ow Services 551
Creating a Workfl ow Service 551
Using Workfl owServiceHost 553
Summary 562
CHAPTER 12: ENHANCEMENTS TO THE .NET DATA FRAMEWORK 563
Language Integrated Query (LINQ) 563
LINQ Operators 564
LINQ Implementations 566
Parallel LINQ (PLINQ) 572
Entity Framework 573
Entity Framework Architecture 573
The Entity Data Source Control 579
Choosing Between LINQ to Entities and LINQ to SQL 579
Summary 579
CHAPTER 13: ENHANCEMENTS TO THE .NET COMMUNICATION
FRAMEWORK 581
Enhancements in WCF Framework 3.5 581
Enhancements in WCF Framework 4.0 583
Simplifi ed Confi guration 583
Standard Endpoints 585
Discovery 586
REST Improvements 588
Routing Service 589
Summary 592
CHAPTER 14: .NET CHARTING COMPONENTS 593
Creating Charts 594
Creating a Simple Chart 594
Adding Data to the Chart Programmatically 598
Adding Charts to WPF Applications 603
Using Chart Controls 605
Elements of a Chart 606
The Chart Class 607
Chart Types 609
Chart Coordinate System 617
Three-Dimensional Charts 619
Appearance of Chart Elements 621
Axes and Related Chart Elements 623
Data Points 630
Advanced Chart Manipulation 633
Annotations 633
Binding Data to Series 638
The DataManipulator class 641
More Chart Manipulations 648
Summary 649
PART III: ASP.NET 4.0
CHAPTER 15: ASP.NET VERSION HISTORY 653
Development of the Web and Web Development 653
Enter ASP 654
Enter ASP.NET 655
ASP.NET Version History 657
ASP.NET 1.0 659
ASP.NET 1.1 659
ASP.NET 2.0 659
ASP.NET 3.0 664
ASP.NET 3.5 665
ASP.NET 3.5 SP1 667
ASP.NET 4.0 667
Summary 668
CHAPTER 16: ASP.NET CHARTING CONTROLS 669
Creating Charts 670
Adding a Chart Control to a Page 670
Setting up Charts in an Event Handler Method 674
Binding Data to the Chart 676
Rendering ASP.NET Charts 679
Image URL Rendering 680
Using Charts with Legacy Web Sites 683
Binary Stream Rendering 684
Chart State Management 688
Saving Chart State 688
Advanced Chart State Management 690
User Interactivity 694
Using Tooltips 694
Handling Clicks on Data Points 696
Interactivity With Ajax 697
A Few More Points on User Interactivity 709
Summary 709
CHAPTER 17: ASP.NET DYNAMIC DATA 711
Creating a New Dynamic Data Web Site 711
Working Against a Data Model 711
Displaying Data from Existing Tables 716
Creating Simple CRUD Applications 718
Creating a Dynamic Data Application for Master-Detail Relationships 725
Working to Modify Implementation to Fit Business Needs 730
Understanding Dynamic Data’s Structure 730
Customizing the Look and Feel 732
Working with Page Templates 735
Working with Field Templates 738
Working with Entity Templates 741
Working with Filter Templates 744
Creating Custom Pages 746
Customizing Validations 747
Summary 750
CHAPTER 18: ASP.NET MODEL VIEW CONTROLLER (MVC) 751
Introduction to MVC 752
Similar Design Patterns 753
Microsoft and the Web Platform 753
What Is Microsoft ASP.NET MVC 2? 754
Extensibility in MVC 760
Creating an MVC 2 Application 761
The Project Structure 763
How Does it Work? 764
Adding New MVC 2 Pages 771
Create a Database 771
Create a Model 772
Listing Books 773
Adding Book Actions 779
Customization in MVC 2 790
Model Binding 790
Validation 795
UI Customization 804
Routing Details 816
Controller Factory 816
Infl uencing the Execution Flow 817
Authorization 819
Action and Result Filtering 821
Exception Filtering 822
ActionResult 822
Testing with MVC 2 824
Refactoring AcmeLibrary 824
Creating and Running Unit Tests 831
A Few More Points on MVC 2 834
Areas 834
Metadata Providers 834
Value Providers 834
Model Binders 835
Child Actions 835
Asynchronous Controllers 835
Summary 835
CHAPTER 19: ASP.NET AJAX IMPROVEMENTS 837
Understanding Ajax 838
The XMLHttpRequest Object 839
ASP.NET and Ajax 840
Using the ASP.NET Ajax Server Controls 841
Refactoring the Framework Libraries 844
Using the Microsoft CDN 846
Using the Microsoft Ajax Library 848
Working with DOM Elements 852
The Script Loader 855
Client-Side Data Binding with Templates 859
Advanced Data-Binding Scenarios 872
Working with Server-Side Data 878
Summary 892
CHAPTER 20: ASP.NET AJAX CONTROL TOOLKIT AND JQUERY 893
First Look at the Ajax Control Toolkit 894
Installing the Ajax Control Toolkit 894
Creating a Simple Web Application with the Toolkit 896
Using the Controls of the Toolkit 908
New Server Controls 915
Control Extenders 938
Animations 957
The jQuery Library 962
“Hello, World” with jQuery 963
Selectors and Filters 965
Chaining and Utility Functions 970
Eventing Model and Event Handlers 971
Visual Eff ects and Animations 975
jQuery Ajax Features 976
Summary 977
PART IV: VB.NET
CHAPTER 21: HISTORY OF VISUAL BASIC 981
The Roots of Visual Basic 982
Structured and Unstructured BASIC 982
Moving to “Visual” 984
Visual Basic in the 1990s 985
Visual Basic in the .NET Framework 986
Design Goals and Debates 986
Visual Basic .NET (7.0) and .NET 2003 (7.1) 987
Visual Basic 2005 (8.0) 989
Visual Basic 2008 (9.0) 997
Summary 1005
CHAPTER 22: VISUAL BASIC 10.0 LANGUAGE IMPROVEMENTS 1007
New Productivity-Improving Syntax 1008
Implicit Line Continuation 1008
Auto-Implemented Properties 1010
Collection Initializers 1012
Multiline Lambda Expressions 1018
Working with Dynamic Objects 1020
Late Binding in Visual Basic 2010 1021
Accessing an IronPython Library 1023
Variance 1026
Type Substitution 1026
Variance in Visual Basic 2010 1029
A Few More Points on Variance 1033
Summary 1038
PART V: C#
CHAPTER 23: HISTORY OF C# 1041
The Evolution of C# 1041
Design Goals 1042
Short History 1042
Implementations 1043
C# 1.0 1044
Type System 1044
Memory Management 1045
Syntactic Sugar 1046
C# 1.1 1047
C# 2.0 1047
Generic Types 1048
Partial Types 1050
Static Classes 1051
Iterators 1052
Anonymous Methods 1052
Delegate Inference 1053
Delegate Covariance and Contravariance 1053
Nullable Types 1054
Property Accessors 1055
Null-Coalesce Operator 1056
Namespace Aliases 1056
C# 3.0 1056
Local Variable Type Inference 1057
Extension Methods 1057
Anonymous Types 1058
Lambda Expressions 1059
Query Expressions 1060
Expression Trees 1061
Automatic Properties 1062
Object Initializers 1062
Collection Intializers 1063
Partial Methods 1063
Summary 1064
CHAPTER 24: C# 4.0 LANGUAGE IMPROVEMENTS 1065
Pains with Interoperability 1066
Creating the PainWithOffi ce Application 1066
Frustrating Issues 1069
Remove the Pain 1070
Dynamic Lookup 1072
Dynamic Binding 1072
The dynamic Type 1073
Dynamic Operations 1074
The Dynamic Language Run-time 1077
Named and Optional Parameters 1078
Using Optional Parameters 1079
Using Named Parameters 1081
Overload Resolution 1082
COM-Specifi c Interoperability Features 1084
Dynamic Import 1084
Omitting ref from Parameters 1084
Indexed Properties 1085
Compiling Without PIAs 1086
Variance 1087
Type Substitution 1087
Bird’s-Eye View of Variance 1089
Variance in C# 4.0 1090
A Few More Points on Variance 1094
Summary 1099
PART VI: F#
CHAPTER 25: VISUAL F# AND THE OTHER .NET LANGUAGES 1103
A Brief History of F# 1104
F# at First Glance 1105
Trying Things Out with F# 1106
Understanding Syntax 1107
Your First F# Project 1112
Programming with F# 1113
Namespaces and Modules 1113
Attributes 1115
Literals and Bindings 1115
Expressions 1120
Values and F# Types 1124
Type Augmentations 1137
Computation Expressions 1138
Sequences 1141
Range Expressions 1143
Sequence Expressions 1143
Asynchronous Workfl ows 1144
Pattern Matching 1146
Active Patterns 1149
Exceptions 1154
Units of Measure 1157
Lazy Computations 1159
Quotations 1160
Working with Database Queries 1161
A Larger Application in F# 1163
The Ast Module 1164
The Language Module 1164
The Evaluator Module 1166
The FunctionPlotter Module 1167
Running the Function Plotter 1170
Other .NET Languages 1170
IronRuby 1170
IronPython 1170
Summary 1171
INDEX 1173