An Introduction to .NET Framework Ø The .NET Framework is a Microsoft's development platform. Ø It offers to develop software applications. Ø It was released by Microsoft Corporation in 2002. Later on, several improvements take place in .NET Framework, which makes it as much strong, advanced and more efficient platform for building different kinds of software applications. Ø Why it is called as “platform” is, it acts as platform for multiple languages, tools and libraries. Ø It offers visually stunning user experiences, which is mostly required today’s competitive programming world. Ø It offers much advanced security features never before. Ø Supports dozens of languages like C#, VB.NET, VC++.NET, COBOL, Pascal, Python etc. Features of .NET Framework n Next Generation User Experiences: .NET offers a Framework for building applications and high-fidelity experiences in Windows that blend together application UI, documents, and media content, while exploiting the full power of the computer. WPF (Windows Presentation .NET 3.5 and Visual Studio 2008 Hour 6 - Page 1 of 44 Foundation) offers developers support for 2D and 3D graphics, hardware accelerated effects, scalability to different form factors, interactive data visualization, and superior content readability. n Seamless and Secured Environment: Application security is a big deal these days; perhaps the most closely examined feature of any new application. .NET offers its best secured environment at run time. So that it is highly impossible to access the .NET application and its related data by the un-authorized users / hackers. The assembly (the compiled code of .NET framework) contains the security information like which categories of users or who can access the class or method. So that we can say that .NET Framework applications are much secured. The security can be improved in the ASP.NET Web Sites by Security models like Integrated Windows Authentication, Microsoft Passport Authentication, Forms Authentication, and Client Certificate authentication. n Multi Language Support: .NET provides a multi-language development platform, so you can work in the programming language you prefer. The Common Language Runtime (A part of .NET Framework) provides support for 3 Microsoft developed languages and several other languages from other vendors. Languages Supported by .NET Framework Languages from Visual C#.NET Visual Basic.NET Microsoft Visual C++.NET APL, Cobol, Languages from other Perl, Pascal, vendors Component Pascal, Curriculum, Eiffel, .NET 3.5 and Visual Studio 2008 Hour 6 - Page 2 of 44 Forth, Fortran, Haskell, J#, Mercury, Mondrian, Oberon, Python, IronPython, RPG, Scheme, Small Talk, Standard ML n Flexible Data Access: .NET Framework supports flexible accessibility of database data with ADO.NET (ActiveX Data Objects .NET). ADO.NET is a set of classes that expose data access services to the .NET programmer. ADO.NET provides a rich set of components for creating distributed, data-sharing applications. It is an integral part of the .NET Framework, providing access to relational, XML, and application data. Modules of .NET 1. C#.NET (C Sharp.NET) –(Language) è It is highly used .NET programming language, used by most of the .NET programmers. è It borrows some programming features from “C” and some other programming features from “C++”. In addition to these, it borrows few of the good features of java language. è It is the object oriented programming language. 2. VB.NET (Visual Basic.NET) –(Language) è It is the Microsoft’s recommended language for beginners of windows programming. .NET 3.5 and Visual Studio 2008 Hour 6 - Page 3 of 44 è But in fact, it is used in very few of the projects in the real-time development world, because most of the programmers usually comes with “C” and “C++” background; hence they feel comfortable with “C#”. è It borrows some programming features from VB (Visual Basic) language. è It is the object oriented programming language. 3. ASP.NET (Active Server Pages.NET) – (Web Technology) è It is the Microsoft’s web technology. è It is used for web sites development. è It offers much attractive and user friendly user interfaces in the server side applications. è It is the new version to another Microsoft’s technology called ASP (Active Server Pages), which is a famous web technology before introducing ASP.NET. è It requires HTML for web page designing. è It requires a .NET language (like C#, VB.NET, VC++.NET etc.) for server side logic implementation. 4. ADO.NET (ActiveX Data Objects.NET) – (Database Technology) It is the Microsoft’s database technology. è It offers necessary programming libraries to access the local / server databases. è It is the new version to another Microsoft’s technology called ADO (ActiveX Data Objects), which is a famous database technology, used with VB, VC++ and ASP languages. è It requires a .NET language (like C#, VB.NET, VC++.NET etc.) for logic implementation. Applications of .NET .NET 3.5 and Visual Studio 2008 Hour 6 - Page 4 of 44 Using .NET Framework, we offered to develop the following types of applications. 1. Console Applications § These applications contains similar user interface to the operating systems like MS- DOS and UNIX. § Known as C.U.I (Character User Interface) applications. § These are similar to C/C++ applications. § These are smaller in size. § Doesn’t contain any graphical features like mouse pointer, colors, fonts, buttons etc. 2. Windows Applications § These applications are designed similar to the “Windows” operating system. § Known as G.U.I (Graphical User Interface) applications. § Offers graphical features like mouse pointer, colors, fonts, buttons, text boxes etc. .NET 3.5 and Visual Studio 2008 Hour 6 - Page 5 of 44 3. Windows Services § A Windows service is a long-running executable application. § These can run only on windows platforms. § These perform specific functions as background process. § Doesn’t contain user interface or doesn’t require any user interaction. § Windows services can be configured to start when the operating system is booted and run in the background as long as Windows is running, or they can be started manually when required. § Examples: i. Windows Time. ii. Windows Audio. iii. Anti-Virus Security. iv. Database services like Sql Server, My Sql and Oracle etc. v. IIS State Services. vi. Battery Power Supply Status on Laptops. .NET 3.5 and Visual Studio 2008 Hour 6 - Page 6 of 44 etc. § To see the all the installed windows services on the system, click on “Start” – “Control Panel” – “Administrative Tools” – “Services”. 4. Windows Mobile Applications § The Mobile applications can run on the small devices like Pocket PCs, Smart phones and mobile devices. § Ex: Mobile based calculators, schedulers, database manipulation applications etc. .NET 3.5 and Visual Studio 2008 Hour 6 - Page 7 of 44 5. Web Sites / Web Applications § These are most frequently used applications by every internet literature. § In modern life every business (commercial) / educational / service oriented organizations are having their own web sites. § Some other web sites are offering general purpose services that can be used by anybody like E-Mail, Search Engines, and Blogs etc. § So, there is much demand for these applications in modern software development industry. § In .NET Framework, the web sites can be developed using the technology called ASP.NET. § Ex: i. http://www.yahoo.com/ ii. http://www.google.co.in/ iii. http://www.orkut.com/ iv. http://www.hotmail.com/ .NET 3.5 and Visual Studio 2008 Hour 6 - Page 8 of 44 6. Web Services § Web Services are simple and easy to understand. § These can be developed using again ASP.NET. § These are also known as “web applications” similar to “web sites”. But Web sites expose certain user interface (in the form of web pages) to the end-user; Web services expose a certain programming logic which can be accessed through another web site. § Examples: i. Online shopping requires credit card authentication. ii. www.way2sms.com accesses the mail services of Yahoo and Gmail. What we need to learn .NET To get started with .NET Programming, the programmer must have previous knowledge in the following languages. .NET 3.5 and Visual Studio 2008 Hour 6 - Page 9 of 44 n C (For Procedural Programming Experience) n C++ (or) OOP Knowledge (For Object Oriented Programming Experience) n SQL (For db queries) n HTML (For web page designing) Before .NET Branches of Microsoft Programming: In the late 1990s, Windows programming using the Microsoft platform had divided into a number of branches. n Most programmers were using Visual Basic (VB). n Some other programmers were using Visual C++ (VC++) with MFC (Microsoft Foundational Classes). n The remaining programmers were using C or C++ in a combination with raw Win32 API. Difficulties and Limitations: All of these technologies had their own problems and difficulties. n The raw Win32 API was not object-oriented, doesn’t supports a full-pledged graphical application because of limited libraries. .NET 3.5 and Visual Studio 2008 Hour 6 - Page 10 of 44 n MFC was object-oriented, but was inconsistent and getting old and it is very much complex in actual coding. n There is no a perfect platform independent language. n There is no easier mobile based application development language. Promises by Microsoft: While introducing .NET Framework, Microsoft Corporation given a promise to the software industry to deliver a standard Framework which overcomes the old problems and along with following: n Multiple platforms: The system runs on a broad