Table Of Content5386fm_final.qxd 8/18/05 3:15 AM Page i
Beginning Object-Oriented
ASP.NET 2.0 with VB.NET
From Novice to
Professional
Brian R. Myers
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Beginning Object-Oriented ASP.NET 2.0 with VB.NET: From Novice to Professional
Copyright © 2005 by Brian R.Myers
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Lead Editor: Jonathan Hassell
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This book is dedicated to my dad,Donald Myers Jr.,
who helped me understand the value of work
and who thought I should “do something
in computers.”I am very glad I took that advice.
In Loving Memory of Donald Myers Jr.
February 18, 1945–April 23, 1998
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Contents at a Glance
About the Author . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xi
About the Technical Reviewer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xiii
Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xv
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xvii
(cid:1) CHAPTER 1 An Introduction to .NET and Visual Studio 2005. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
(cid:1) CHAPTER 2 Object-Oriented Programming . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
(cid:1) CHAPTER 3 Attributes and Actions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
(cid:1) CHAPTER 4 Encapsulation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
(cid:1) CHAPTER 5 Inheritance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
(cid:1) CHAPTER 6 Namespaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
(cid:1) CHAPTER 7 Class Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
(cid:1) CHAPTER 8 ASP.NETWeb Forms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
(cid:1) CHAPTER 9 ASP.NET Controls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149
(cid:1) CHAPTER 10 Web Services. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169
(cid:1) INDEX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179
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Contents
About the Author . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xi
About the Technical Reviewer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xiii
Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xv
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xvii
(cid:1) CHAPTER 1 An Introduction to .NET and Visual Studio 2005 . . . . . . . . . . . 1
VB.NET and ASP.NET. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
An Introduction to Microsoft .NET. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
The Common Language Runtime. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Assemblies. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
An Introduction to Visual Studio 2005. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
How to Get Started with Visual Studio 2005. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Creating a New Web Project (ASP.NET) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Opening an Existing Web Site . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Building Web Sites. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Accessing a Web Site . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Navigating the Visual Studio Environment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Debugging . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
IntelliSense. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
(cid:1) CHAPTER 2 Object-Oriented Programming . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Introduction to OOP Concepts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Why Objects Exist . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
Objects As the Building Blocks of OOP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
Introduction to Reusability. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
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viii (cid:1) CONTENTS
Introduction to OOP with .NET. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Objects in .NET. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
Using the Object Browser in Visual Studio 2005 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
Creating a Class with VB.NET . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
Using a Class in VB.NET. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
(cid:1) CHAPTER 3 Attributes and Actions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
Attributes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
Actions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
Attributes and Actions Within VB.NET . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
VB.NET Properties. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
Adding Properties to a VB.NET Class . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
Using a Class Public Property in VB.NET. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
VB.NET Methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
Parameters in VB.NET. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
Adding Methods in VB.NET. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
Using a Method in VB.NET . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
Overloading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
(cid:1) CHAPTER 4 Encapsulation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
A General Overview of Encapsulation and Information Hiding . . . . . . . . . 57
Encapsulation in VB.NET . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
Getting Started. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
Information Hiding Example . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
Encapsulation Example . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
(cid:1) CHAPTER 5 Inheritance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
Inheritance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
Inheritance in VB.NET. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
Overriding. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
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(cid:1) CONTENTS ix
(cid:1) CHAPTER 6 Namespaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
The Purpose of a Namespace. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
.NET Framework Class Library . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
Creating a Namespace. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
The My Namespace . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
(cid:1) CHAPTER 7 Class Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
Class Design Process. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
Case Study. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
Business Process Overview. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
Define the Business Process. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
Case Study:Define the Business Process. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
Review the Business Process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
Break Down the Business Process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
Case Study:Break Down the Business Process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
Create the Class or Classes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
Define the Properties and Methods of Each Class . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
Case Study:Define the Properties and Methods of Each Class. . . 113
Create the Class Structure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
Case Study:Create the Class Structure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128
(cid:1) CHAPTER 8 ASP.NET Web Forms. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
Using the Web Forms Designer. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
Adding Controls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130
The ASP.NET Page Class . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
Page Lifecycle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132
Round Trips. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132
View State. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133
Web Form Processing Stages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133
Session and Application Objects. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134
Expanding the Help Desk Application . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136
Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
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(cid:1) CHAPTER 9 ASP.NET Controls. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149
HTML Server Controls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149
Web Server Controls. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152
Working with Control Properties and Events. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152
Validation Controls. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155
Master Pages. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158
Expanding the Help Desk Application . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162
Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168
(cid:1) CHAPTER 10 Web Services. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169
Introduction to XML,SOAP,and WSDL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169
Introduction to Web Services. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170
Creating a Web Service. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170
Consuming a Web Service. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174
Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177
(cid:1) INDEX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179
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About the Author
(cid:1) BRIAN MYERS is a software engineer and database administrator for
alarge manufacturing company. He is a Microsoft Certified Solution
Developer for .NET, a Microsoft Certified Application Developer for
.NET, and a Microsoft Certified Professional. He holds an Associates
Degree in Microcomputer Applications Development from the Penn-
sylvania College of Technology and a Bachelors of Information Systems
from Pennsylvania State University. Along with his professional
accreditations, he is also an Eagle Scout.
He has been working with VB since VB 5 and has been writing OOP applications for
over seven years. He has more than seven years of experience as a software developer,
mostly with Microsoft technologies. Prior to taking his current position in June 2004, he
worked for a consulting company for six years, handling various development projects
asa developer as well as a project manager.
Brian has also written articles for www.AspToday.comas well as teaching courses in
.NET development and SQL Server.
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About the Technical Reviewer
(cid:1) RONALD LANDERS is the President and Senior Technical Consultant for IT Professionals, Inc.
(ITP), a staffing, recruiting, development, and IT project services company. Mr. Landers has
over 20 years of experience in the IT field and specializes in database design and implemen-
tation, application design and architecture, and web-based technologies, such as web
services, electronic commerce, and web portals.
In addition to ITP, Mr. Landers has been teaching IT classes for UCLA Extension for
thepast 13 years. Currently, Mr. Landers’s courses include beginning and advanced
classes in SQL Server, ASP.NET, Web Services, and Object Oriented Programming.
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