9780201741629

The complete, independent NET briefing for every developer and technical manager, this volume is clear, concise, jargon-free, and accessible--without compromising accuracy or thoroughness. It covers the .NET framework, common language runtime, Web services, C#, Visual Basic.NET, .NETUs new class libraries, ASP.NET, ADO.NET, and much more.

Preface

xi

An Overview of .NET

1

(42)

Defining .NET

2

(1)

Web Services

3

(3)

The .NET Framework

6

(24)

The Common Language Runtime

11

(4)

CLR-Based Languages

15

(7)

The .NET Framework Class Library

22

(7)

The .NET Compact Framework

29

(1)

.NET My Services

30

(4)

The .NET Enterprise Servers

34

(4)

A .NET Scenario

38

(1)

Conclusion

39

(4)

Web Services

43

(32)

Describing Web Services

44

(2)

Applying Web Services

46

(6)

Access to Internet Applications

46

(1)

B2B Integration

47

(1)

A2A Integration

48

(1)

A Web Services Scenario

48

(4)

Web Services Technologies

52

(19)

Describing Information: XML

52

(3)

Defining Web Services: WSDL

55

(3)

Accessing Web Services: SOAP

58

(7)

Finding Web Services: UDDI

65

(6)

Future Directions for Web Services

71

(3)

Conclusion

74

(1)

The Common Language Runtime

75

(44)

Building Managed Code: The Common Type System

76

(10)

Introducing the Common Type System

77

(3)

A Closer Look at CTS Types

80

(5)

The Common Language Specification

85

(1)

Compiling Managed Code

86

(8)

Microsoft Intermediate Language (MSIL)

87

(3)

Metadata

90

(4)

Organizing Managed Code: Assemblies

94

(5)

Metadata for Assemblies: Manifests

94

(3)

Categorizing Assemblies

97

(2)

Executing Managed Code

99

(17)

Loading Assemblies

99

(2)

Compiling MSIL

101

(3)

Securing Assemblies

104

(6)

Garbage Collection

110

(3)

Application Domains

113

(3)

Conclusion

116

(3)

.NET Languages

119

(48)

C#

120

(22)

A C# Example

122

(3)

C# Types

125

(7)

C# Control Structures

132

(1)

Other C# Features

133

(9)

Visual Basic.NET

142

(17)

A VB.NET Example

142

(4)

VB.NET Types

146

(8)

VB.NET Control Structures

154

(1)

Other VB.NET Features

155

(4)

C++ with Managed Extensions

159

(6)

A Managed C++ Example

161

(2)

Managed C++ Types

163

(1)

Other Managed C++ Features

163

(2)

Conclusion

165

(2)

The .NET Framework Class Library

167

(68)

An Overview of the .NET Framework Class Library

167

(13)

The System Namespace

168

(1)

A Survey of System's Subordinate Namespaces

169

(11)

Input and Output: System.IO

180

(3)

Serialization: System.Runtime.Serialization

183

(4)

Working with XML: System.Xml

187

(8)

The XML Technology Family

188

(4)

What System.Xml Provides

192

(3)

Reflection: System.Reflection

195

(5)

.NET Remoting: System.Runtime.Remoting

200

(14)

An Overview of the Remoting Process

202

(1)

Passing Information to Remote Objects

203

(2)

Choosing a Channel

205

(2)

Creating and Destroying Remote Objects

207

(7)

Enterprise Services: System.EnterpriseServices

214

(6)

Interoperability: System.Runtime.InteropServices

220

(7)

Accessing COM Objects

220

(5)

Accessing Non-COM DLLs

225

(2)

Windows GUIs: System. Windows.Forms

227

(6)

Building GUIs Using Windows Forms

227

(5)

Windows Forms Controls

232

(1)

Conclusion

233

(2)

Accessing Data: ADO.NET

235

(28)

.NET Data Providers

237

(5)

Direct Access to Data

242

(4)

Accessing Data with DataSets

246

(16)

Creating and Using DataSets

248

(5)

Accessing and Modifying a DataSet's Contents

253

(2)

Using DataSets with XML-Defined Data

255

(7)

Conclusion

262

(1)

Building Web Applications: ASP.NET

263

(36)

Browser Applications: System.Web.UI

264

(25)

How Browser Applications Work

266

(4)

Web Controls

270

(4)

Separating the User Interface from the Code

274

(2)

Other Topics

276

(13)

Web Services Applications: Systems.Web.Services

289

(9)

Web Services Servers

289

(3)

Web Services Clients

292

(1)

Options for Web Services Applications

293

(4)

Microsoft-Specific Support for Web Services Applications

297

(1)

Conclusion

298

(1)

.NET My Services

299

(26)

Defining .NET My Services

300

(10)

Applying .NET My Services

304

(2)

Assuring Privacy

306

(2)

The .NET My Services Business Model: Software as a Service

308

(2)

Describing .NET My Services

310

(9)

The Authentication Service: Passport

311

(2)

XML-Based Services

313

(6)

A .NET My Services Scenario

319

(5)

Conclusion

324

(1)

About the Author

325

(2)

Index

327

What is included with this book?

The New copy of this book will include any supplemental materials advertised. Please check the title of the book to determine if it should include any access cards, study guides, lab manuals, CDs, etc.

The Used, Rental and eBook copies of this book are not guaranteed to include any supplemental materials. Typically, only the book itself is included. This is true even if the title states it includes any access cards, study guides, lab manuals, CDs, etc.

There's no single way to write good software, and there's no perfect platform for it, either. Yet the people who create platforms keep striving for that unreachable ideal, and so they regularly give us new technology foundations to build on. With very few exceptions, each change is better than what it replaces. But with no exceptions at all, each innovation makes the current contents of our heads at least partially obsolete. Change is the essence of working with software. .NET is the biggest single set of new technologies that Microsoft (or possibly any vendor) has ever presented to its technical customers. The tremendous changes wrought by .NET improve nearly every aspect of a developer's life, but they also present a massive amount of new technology to understand. The goal of this book is to help you make the move to this big new world. Who This Book Is For .NET is huge. There will be plenty of books that provide detailed examinations of each facet of this enormous technology crystal, plenty of books with hardcore, hands-on information. This isn't one of those books. I believe strongly that understanding .NET as a whole is essential before delving more deeply into any single part of the technology. Accordingly, my goal here is to provide a broad overview of the major .NET technologies. And because one of the greatest strengths of this family of software and services is the way one part exploits another, this book also tries to show how those technologies fit together. If you're looking for a big-picture introduction and a perspective on the whole of .NET, this book is for you. Whether you're a developer just getting started with .NET, a technical manager who needs to make decisions about these technologies, or a student seeing some of these ideas for the first time, this book should be a useful guide. There is enough detail here to satisfy many people completely, while others will use this book as a stepping-stone to more specific knowledge. In any case, I hope the book's organization and content make it easier for you to come to grips with this mass of technology. Fact and Opinion Grasping a new technology requires learning the fundamentals. What are its main parts? How do they work? How do they fit together? But really understanding a technology requires more than this. You need to know not just how things work but also why they're important, how they compare with what's gone before, and what might happen next. This book provides all of these things. In the text itself, I've tried hard to remain strictly tutorial, focusing solely on describing what .NET is. In the analysis boxes, I give some broader perspective on various aspects of this technology. In every case, the analysis expresses my view of why things are the way they are or what the future is likely to hold. By separating the objective and the subjective, I hope to make it easier for you to distinguish between the two. By providing opinion as well as fact, I hope to make this book both more interesting and more enlightening. Acknowledgments If you've ever written a book, you know how much help you get from other people. If you haven't, well, trust me: Without these people's assistance, this book would be substantially less than it is. I'd like to express my heartfelt thanks to Bob Beauchemin, Keith Brown, Cori Day, Ted Demopoulos, Bill Estrem, Jeannine Gailey, Kit George, Greg Hack, Rob Howard, Maxim Loukianov, Juval Lowy, Peter McKiernan, Yahya H. Mirza, John D. Mitchell, Christophe Nassare, Eric Newcomer, David Sceppa, Aaron Skonnard, and Mike Woodring for reading, commenting on, and often correcting various parts of this book. I'd like to single out Richard Monson-Haefel, a strong technologist and fine writer, who read and commented intelligently on e

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Understanding . NET : A Tutorial and Analysis

Understanding . NET : A Tutorial and Analysis

0201741628

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