Paul Wilson's .NET Blog
Ramblings from the Creator of WilsonDotNet.com
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ASP.NET v2.0: Posting to Other Pages is too Limited
I'm definitely excited about ASP.NET v2.0 and all the new features it brings, so its hard to criticize it in most cases. However, one problem I have is with the current implementation of posting to other pages. As most ASP.NET developers know, your server-form is limited to posting back to itself in ASP.NET v1.*. This behavior will change in ASP.NET v2.0 with a feature called cross-page posting. Basically, each button (and other relevant controls) have a postTargetUrl property. This property allows you to specify where that control will cause the page to be posted to. This is great in most cases since it allows the post target to be changed on a case-by-case basis, while keeping the rest of the form to still post back to itself. The problem is that the current implementation forces this url to be a page in the same application!
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ASP.NET v2.0: New Web.Config Options in Whidbey
There are lots of new options in the web.config file in ASP.NET v2.0. I particularly like ability to globally define your RegisterTagPrefixes, as well as your Imports for all of your Pages. Its also nice to see the cookieless attribute for Forms Authentication, with more options then just true or false so that different devices are handled appropriately. Many of these others are very complicated, and they'll be discussed in articles about the specific features. Here's the general layout:
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ASP.NET v2.0: ObjectDataSource and ObjectSpaces
ASP.NET v2.0 has several datasource controls that allow you to declare all of your database access code when using the new GridView and other controls. One of the coolest versions of this is the ObjectDataSource control which lets you easily declare the name of a class and a method that will return a collection of bindable of objects -- not your usual DataSet or DataReader:
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ADO.NET v2.0: ObjectSpaces Delivers an O/R Mapper
ObjectSpaces is one of the most exciting parts of .NET v2.0 to me. Yes, I'm well known for ASP.NET, but I'm a software architect, and I've really been intrigued by the potential of O/R mappers. So read my article on ObjectSpaces and download my sample code that uses the Northwind database. The front-end is ASP.NET, and there's no links between pages or any instructions, but the code works if you have Whidbey.
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.NET v2.0: FTP Classes are now Provided
There are now a couple of FTP-specific classes in System.Net: FtpWebRequest and FtpWebResponse.
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VB.NET v2.0: Property Gets and Sets with Different Accessibility
Once again there is mention of a new cool feature in C#:
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.NET v2.0: Serial Port Communications Finally Arrives
System.IO.Ports.SerialPort (derives from System.ComponentModel.Component) -- Whidbey's MSDN:
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ASP.NET v2.0: Update on the Page Lifecycle
I just posted a new article on the Page Lifecycle in ASP.NET v2.0 (Whidbey). Its mostly just a brief update of my previous article on the Page Lifecycle in ASP.NET v1.*. Keep in mind that the page lifecycle is probably the single most important thing for any ASP.NET developer to understand, and I can't begin to count the number of problems that I see in the Forums from those that don't get it. I'll try to blog a few other experiences with .NET v2.0 today, and I'm going to work hard to get another article that will be really cool tomorrow, or as soon as possible.
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Update: My Master Pages Article is also on MSDN
You can also see my Master Pages article for free on MSDN.
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VB.NET v2.0: Generics are Supported in VB Also
Rob Chartier has created a really nice article titled Introducing .NET Generics. Unfortunately, all of the sample code was written using C# -- just like every sneak peek on generics so far. However, VB.NET will also fully support generics in .NET v2.0 (Whidbey), although not much has been stated about this. Take a look at my VB.NET translations here -- you'll note that Of is the VB keyword used for generics, instead of using the <> syntax of C#.