Building a Web 2.0 Portal with ASP NET 3.5

310 Pages·2009·4.88 MB·English

by  Omar AL Zabir

Praise forBuilding a Web 2.0 Portal with ASP.NET 3.5
“Omarandhiscollaboratorshaveappliedtheirawesometalentsandahugeamountoftime
to crafting what might be the most advanced web site yet that’s based on ASP.NET and
Ajax. In this book, Omar distills everything he’s learned from his experience, going in-
depthintodesigngoals,architecture,andimplementation,includingmanypitfallsthathe
teaches you how to avoid. If you’re serious about creating a high-performance, modern,
Ajax-based ASP.NET web site,Building a Web 2.0 Portal with ASP.NET 3.5 is for you.”
—Mike Pope, Microsoft User Education, Microsoft Corporation
“An outstanding overview of the technologies, techniques, and best practices involved in
working with today’s most popular web application model. Highly recommended for any
web developer who wants to stay relevant.”
—Craig Wills, Training Manager, Infusion

Building a Web 2.0 Portal
with ASP.NET 3.5
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Building a Web 2.0 Portal
with ASP.NET 3.5
Omar AL Zabir
Beijing • Cambridge • Farnham • Köln • Paris • Sebastopol • Taipei • Tokyo
Building a Web 2.0 Portal with ASP.NET 3.5
by Omar AL Zabir
Copyright © 2008 Omar AL Zabir. All rights reserved.
Printed in the United States of America.
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Printing History:
December 2007: First Edition.
Nutshell Handbook, the Nutshell Handbook logo, and the O’Reilly logo are registered trademarks of
O’Reilly Media, Inc.Building a Web 2.0 Portal with ASP.NET 3.5, the image of a giant green sea
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This book uses RepKover™, a durable and flexible lay-flat binding.
ISBN-10: 0-596-51050-0
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[C]
Table of Contents
Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xi
1. Introducing Web Portals and Dropthings.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Defining a Web Portal 2
Defining a Web 2.0 Portal 4
Using a Web Portal 4
Navigating Dropthings 5
Using ASP.NET AJAX 8
Using C# 3.0 and .NET 3.5 9
Summary 10
2. Architecting the Web Portal and Widgets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Using a Widget Framework 20
Adding Widgets 26
Maximizing the First-Visit Experience 28
Rendering a Second-Visit Experience 30
Improving ASP.NET AJAX Performance 31
Adding Authentication and Authorization 36
Preventing Denial-of-Service Attacks 38
Summary 40
3. Building the Web Layer Using ASP.NET AJAX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
Implementing the Start Page of a Web Portal 41
Building a Custom Drag-and-Drop Extender for a Multicolumn Drop Zone 60
Implementing WidgetContainer 74
Building Widgets 81
Page Switching: Simulating a Nonpostback Experience 92
vii
Using the Profile Object Inside a Web Service 94
Implementing Authentication and Authorization 95
Implementing Logout 98
Summary 100
4. Building the Data and Business Layers Using .NET 3.5 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
Introducing LINQ to SQL 101
Building the Data Access Layer Using LINQ to SQL 104
Introducing Windows Workflow Foundation 112
Building the Business Layer Using WF 113
Implementing the DashboardFacade 127
Summary 133
5. Building Client-Side Widgets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134
Delaying Server-Side Widget Loading 135
Content Proxy 138
Building a Client-Side RSS Widget 142
Building a Client-Side Flickr Widget 146
Summary 151
6. Optimizing ASP.NET AJAX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152
Combining Multiple Ajax Calls into One Call 152
Timing and Ordering Ajax Calls to the Server 154
Using HTTP GET Calls Instead of HTTP POST 165
Working with the this Function 166
Summary 168
7. Creating Asynchronous, Transactional, Cache-Friendly Web Services . . . . 169
Scalability Challenges with Web Services 169
Asynchronous Web Methods 171
Modifying the ASP.NET AJAX Framework to Handle Web Service Calls 175
Developing Your Own Web Service Handler 177
Making an Asynchronous and Cache-Friendly Proxy 189
Scaling and Securing the Content Proxy 191
Summary 196
viii | Table of Contents