ASP.NET Links for Getting Started
By Nannette Thacker
Ready to learn ASP.NET? Here are my recommendations for videos and articles to learn ASP.NET in a logical order. One thing about learning a new language, it won't happen in five minutes, no matter how badly you wish it did. Sometimes it seems it is taking you forever to learn. I suggest you keep a link-diary of all the pages you have read, tutorials you have walked-through, and videos you have watched. (See my article on Microsoft Office OneNote 2007 for a review on how you can use this product to keep a diary of pages you have studied.) Then when you become discouraged that things aren't moving as rapidly as you would like, review your list of subjects you have learned, and you will realize that you know more than when you started and that you are actually learning!
The two most important suggestions I can give you are: Walk-through the examples and become acquainted with all the features available so that when you need them you'll know they exist. If you keep a link-diary, when you need something and remember you read or watched it somewhere, you can refer to your link diary to find the information.
Use the Microsoft Developer Network (MSDN) and ASP.net web sites, and other internet resources such as tutorials on 4guysfromrolla.com. All of the resources below are FREE. You should be able to learn ASP.NET without having to purchase a single book or subscription. I recommend your public library as well. Most libraries have online services to allow patrons to search, check out, place a hold on books, and utilize Interlibrary Loans.
Learn ASP.NET
- Download Visual Web Developer Express
- ASP.NET 2.0 for Beginners - Videos
- Guided Tour of Creating Web Sites in Visual Web Developer
Creating Pages in ASP.NET
- Creating Pages
- Walkthrough: Creating a Basic Web Page in Visual Web Developer - In-Line Code
- Walkthrough: Creating a Basic Web Page with Code Separation in Visual Web Developer - Code-Behind Pages
- Walkthrough: Basic HTML Editing in Visual Web Developer - Design View, Source View, Document Outline, Tag Navigator
- Walkthrough: Working with Cascading Style Sheet Styles in Visual Web Developer - inline styles, style blocks, .css file, changing style sheet references programmatically
- Walkthrough: Advanced HTML Editing in Visual Web Developer - Formatting markup, Format Document, Format Selection, Formatting and Validation, Outlining Elements (creating collapsible regions to reduce clutter).
- Markup Validation in Visual Web Developer - wavy red lines, tool tips, error list, intellisense.
- How to: Select Validation Schemas for HTML Editing in Visual Web Developer
- Walkthrough: Code Editing in Web Pages in Visual Web Developer - Correcting errors, Refactoring and renaming code (C#), renaming symbols, inserting code snippets.
- Visual C# Code Editor Features - Refactoring, Code Snippets, Code Colorization, Metadata as Source
ASP.NET IntelliSense
ASP.NET Code Snippets
- Creating and Using IntelliSense Code Snippets
- Code Snippet Picker
- Code Snippets Manager - Tools | Code Snippets Manager
- Code Snippets (C#)
- C# Default Code Snippets
- How to: Use Code Snippets (C#) - Right Click in Code Editor, click Insert Snippet; or type: CTRL+K, CTRL+X; or start type keyword, intellisense drop down, TAB, TAB.
- C# How to: Use Surround-with Code Snippets - Right Click, Surround With, select then TAB or ENTER
- Visual Basic IntelliSense Code Snippets
- How to: Insert Snippets Into Your Code (Visual Basic) - Right Click in Code Editor, click Insert Snippet or type: ? TAB (the question mark, then TAB)
- How to: Customize Snippet Code Once It Is Inserted into Your Code
- How to: Share Snippets with other Developers
- Security Considerations in Using Snippets
- How to: Search for Code Snippets Online
ASP.NET Refactoring
- Refactoring (C#) (Below topics and: Encapsulate Field, Extract Interface, Promote Local Variable to Parameter, Remove Parameters, Reorder Parameters
ASP.NET Client Script
May your dreams be in ASP.NET!
Nannette Thacker