Programming Visual Basic .NET (Paperback)

Programming Visual Basic .NET is the complete guide to application development using Visual Basic .NET. Targeted at programmers with some prior programming experience, the book covers the major areas of application development for Microsoft's new .NET platform.

After starting with the traditional "hello world" application, the book discusses the two basic building blocks of any .NET application built with Visual Basic--the Visual Basic .NET programming language and the .NET Framework.

Topics covered include:

• Visual Basic language elements
  
• Visual Basic's object-oriented language features
  
• Programming with attributes
  
• The Common Language Runtime
  
• Garbage Collection and the Finalize and Dispose methods
  
• Programmatically reading from and writing to .NET configuration files
  

The remainder of the book focuses on the three major kinds of applications that can be developed with the .NET Framework: Windows Forms applications, ASP.NET applications, and web services. In each case, the book shows you how to build an application using Visual Studio .NET as well as using a text editor and the Visual
Basic command-line compiler. This gives you an "under the hood" look at what Visual Studio is doing and allows you to gain a greater understanding of how a .NET application works--an understanding that you can take advantage of in building your own applications. Individual development topics covered in these chapters include:

• Developing Multiple Document Interface (MDI) Windows Forms applications.
  
• Handling form and control placement and resizing
  
• Working with Windows Forms menus
  
• Working with Windows Common Dialogs
  
• Taking advantage of .NET printer services programmatically
  
• Using ASP.NET HTML controls and Web controls
  
• Understanding security in ASP.NET
  
• Creating, discovering, and consuming web services
  
• Accessing data in your .NET applications using ADO.NET
  

Published just in time for the first release of Visual Studio .NET,Programming Visual Basic .NET is sure to become a key component of developers' .NET libraries

Table of Contents

Preface 

1. Introduction

      What Is the Microsoft .NET Framework? 

      What Is Visual Basic .NET? 

      An Example Visual Basic .NET Program 

2. The Visual Basic .NET Language

      Source Files 

      Identifiers 

      Keywords 

      Literals 

      Types 

      Namespaces 

      Symbolic Constants 

      Variables 

      Scope 

      Access Modifiers 

      Assignment 

      Operators and Expressions 

      Statements 

      Classes 

      Interfaces 

      Structures 

      Enumerations 

      Exceptions 

      Delegates 

      Events 

      Standard Modules 

      Attributes 

      Conditional Compilation 

      Summary 

3. The .NET Framework

      Common Language Infrastructure (CLI) and Common Language Runtime (CLR) 

      Common Type System (CTS) 

      Portions of the CLI 

      Modules and Assemblies 

      Application Domains 

      Common Language Specification (CLS) 

      Intermediate Language (IL) and Just-In-Time (JIT) Compilation 

      Metadata 

      Memory Management and Garbage Collection 

      A Brief Tour of the .NET Framework Namespaces 

      Configuration 

      Summary 

4. Windows Forms I: Developing Desktop Applications

      Creating a Form 

      Handling Form Events 

      Relationships Between Forms 

      MDI Applications 

      Component Attributes 

      2-D Graphics Programming with GDI+ 

      Printing 

      Summary 

5. Windows Forms II: Controls, Common Dialog Boxes, and Menus

      Common Controls and Components 

      Control Events 

      Form and Control Layout 

      Common Dialog Boxes 

      Menus 

      Creating a Control 

      Summary 

6. ASP.NET and Web Forms: Developing Browser-Based Applications

      Creating a Web Form 

      Handling Page Events 

      More About Server Controls 

      Adding Validation 

      Using Directives to Modify Web Page Compilation 

      ASP.NET Objects: Interacting with the Framework 

      Discovering Browser Capabilities 

      Maintaining State 

      Application-Level Code and global.asax 

      Web-Application Security 

      Designing Custom Controls 

      Summary 

7. Web Services

      Creating a Web Service 

      Testing a Web Service with a Browser 

      Web-Service Descriptions 

      Consuming a Web Service 

      Web-Service Discovery 

      Limitations of Web Services 

      Summary 

8. ADO.NET: Developing Database Applications

      A Brief History of Universal Data Access 

      Managed Providers 

      Connecting to a SQL Server Database 

      Connecting to an OLE DB Data Source 

      Reading Data into a DataSet 

      Relations Between DataTables in a DataSet 

      The DataSet's XML Capabilities 

      Binding a DataSet to a Windows Forms DataGrid 

      Binding a DataSet to a Web Forms DataGrid 

      Typed DataSets 

      Reading Data Using a DataReader 

      Executing Stored ProceduresThrough a SqlCommand Object 

      Summary 

A. Custom Attributes Defined in the System Namespace
B. Exceptions Defined in the System Namespace
C. Cultures
D. Resources for Developers
E. Math Functions

Index