Building Microsoft ASP.NET Applications for Mobile Devices, 2/e

Summary

A comprehensive reference for developing mobile Web applications with ASP.NET Mobile Controls, which ships with Visual Studio .NET 2003

This update of a popular Microsoft Press® title shows programmers how to use the Microsoft .NET Framework, ASP.NET, and Microsoft Visual Studio® .NET 2003 to create powerful, next-generation applications that are available anywhere, on phones, Pocket PCs, and other mobile devices. With this title, programmers learn how to incorporate dynamic access to data with ADO.NET, plus how to deliver content from a single ASP.NET page to multiple client browsers on devices with limited display and input capabilities.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	xv
Introduction	xvii
1   Introducing Microsoft ASP.NET for the Mobile Web	1
A Solution for the Wireless Muddle	4
Developing with Mobile Web Forms	5
Abstracting the Mobile Device User Interface	5
Using Mobile Web Forms Controls	6
Working with Mobile Web Forms Using .NET Tools	7
Implementing Code	8
Consuming Events	9
Building Mobile Solutions with Microsoft .NET	9
A Powerful Solution for Mobile Web Application Development	12
2   Getting Started	13
Setting Up Your Development System	13
Creating Your First Mobile Web Applications	16
Creating a Mobile Web Project with Visual Studio .NET	17
Using Solution Explorer and the Properties Dialog Box	19
Building the User Interface with the Toolbox	20
Building and Running Your Application	21
Testing with a Mobile Phone Emulator	22
Setting Up the Openwave Simulator	23
Using the Simulator for Testing	24
Working with the Mobile Internet Designer	26
The Mobile Web Forms Page and Form Control	27
Working with Multiple Form Controls	29
Backward and Forward Navigation in Mobile Web Applications	32
Device-Specific Rendering of Complex Controls	33
Basic Design Principles	35
3   Programming ASP.NET Mobile Web Forms	39
Understanding .aspx Files and Code-Behind Modules	40
The Code-Behind Technique	40
Design and HTML Views	42
The Inline Coding Technique	45
The MobilePage Class	47
Properties of the MobilePage Class	48
Using Events and Event Handlers	49
Programming State Management in ASP.NET	56
Persisting Class Members	58
Building and Testing the Application	61
Accessing .NET Framework Classes	63
Building and Testing the Application	66
Understanding the Application Life Cycle	66
Writing Applications with a Text Editor	68
Building the User Interface	68
Creating the Code-Behind Module	69
Building and Testing the Application	72
4   Programming the Standard Controls	75
How to Use the Control Descriptions	75
Introducing the Controls: Class Hierarchy	76
Common Mobile Controls Behavior	78
Container Controls	83
Containment Rules	84
Form Controls	85
Panel Controls	91
Core Controls	93
Command Controls	94
Image Controls	99
Label Controls	105
Link Controls	108
TextBox Controls	111
TextView Controls	117
5   Special-Purpose Controls and Validation Controls	121
Special-Purpose Controls	122
Calendar Control	122
PhoneCall Control	128
AdRotator Control	131
Validation Controls	136
Common Behavior of the Validation Controls	138
RequiredFieldValidator Control	140
CompareValidator Control	144
RangeValidator Control	148
RegularExpressionValidator Control	152
CustomValidator Control	157
ValidationSummary Control	161
Validation Controls Example	165
6   Programming the List Controls	169
Building Static or Data-Bound Lists	171
The SelectionList Control	175
Syntax	175
Properties and Events	176
Using the SelectionList Control	178
The List Control	186
Syntax	186
Properties and Events	187
Using the List Control	189
The ObjectList Control	196
Syntax	197
Properties and Events	198
Using the ObjectList Control	202
7   Using the Downloadable Controls	219
Using the Custom Controls	219
Adding the Controls to the Toolbox	220
Copying the Control Assembly to Your Application	222
Configuring Your Application to Use Custom Controls	223
The MobileCheckbox Control	224
Configuring Your Application	224
Syntax	225
Properties	226
Using the MobileCheckbox Control	227
The MobileMultiLineInput Control	228
Installation	230
Configuring Your Application	230
Syntax	231
Properties	231
Using the MobileMultiLineInput Control	232
The MobileDynamicImage Control	233
Installation	235
Configuring Your Application	235
Syntax	236
Properties	237
Using the MobileDynamicImage Control	238
8   Programming Styles and Style Sheets	241
Using Mobile Control Style Properties and the StyleSheet Control	241
Using Style Properties	243
Using the StyleSheet Control	248
Pagination and Styles	256
Using Pager Styles in Style Sheets	258
Working with Styles in Visual Studio .NET	259
The Styles Editor	259
Using Cascading Style Sheets (CSS)	260
Managing Cascading Style Sheets	262
Programming your own CSS Style Sheet	262
9   Customizing with Property Overrides and Templates	267
Customization Overview	267
Property Overrides	268
Templates	268
Writing Device Filters	269
Programming <DeviceSpecific> and <Choice> Elements	282
Device-Specific Customization with Property Overrides	286
Using Templated Controls	288
Using the Form Control’s <HeaderTemplate>, <FooterTemplate>, and <ScriptTemplate> Elements	291
Using the Panel Control’s <ContentTemplate> Element	298
Working with Controls in Form and Panel Templates	302
Defining Templates Using Visual Studio .NET Tools	305
Defining Templates Within Style Sheets	308
10   Advanced List Control Programming	313
Using the Advanced Data Binding Features of the List Controls	313
Defining Static List and SelectionList Items	313
Binding to a Data Collection	314
Understanding Data Binding and ViewState	317
Why the DataItem Property Is Sometimes null	320
Overriding Single-Field Display in the List Controls	321
Overriding Single-Field Display in SelectionList and List Controls	321
Overriding Single-Field Display in ObjectList	322
Using Templates in List and ObjectList Controls	323
Programming the List Control Templates	324
Programming the ObjectList Control Templates	332
Using the ObjectList Control’s <ItemDetailsTemplate>	336
Working with Controls in Templates Programmatically	341
Accessing Controls in List and ObjectList Templates from Code	343
11   Accessing Data	347
Using ASP.NET Declarative Data Binding	347
Using ADO.NET	352
Understanding the ADO.NET Objects	353
Using a DataReader Object for Read-Only Data Access	355
Using a DataSet Object for Data Binding	356
Creating a Mobile Web Application to Update a Database	358
Building Data Components with Visual Studio .NET	364
Using Server Explorer	364
Creating Data Components	365
Using a Data Component in a Web Application	369
Learning More About ADO.NET	372
12   State Management	373
Session State	374
Using the Session Object	376
Working with Cookies	378
Using Munged URLs	379
To Cookie or Not to Cookie	380
Hidden Variables	381
ViewState	384
Application State	388
Using Application State in Global.asax	389
Things to Consider When Using Application State	395
13   Enhancing Application Performance	397
Programming and Configuration Techniques	397
Turn Off Debug Support in Your Release Builds	397
Disable ViewState If It’s Not Required	398
Disable Session State If It’s Not Required	398
Cache Data in the Application Object	399
Use Custom Pagination with the List Controls	399
Don’t Perform Unnecessary Processing on Postback	400
Concatenate Strings Using System.Text.StringBuilder	400
Optimize SQL Server Data Access	400
Explicitly Declare Object Types in Visual Basic .NET	401
Caching	401
Using Output Caching	401
Using Fragment Caching	410
Using Data Caching	411
14   Multilingual and Multicultural Web Applications	413
Building Multilingual and Multicultural Mobile Web Applications	413
Defining Culture for Formatting Strings, Dates, and Times	414
Creating and Using Resource Files	418
Defining Character Set Encodings	424
15   XML Web Services	427
Introduction to XML Web Services	427
Using XML Web Services in Web Applications	428
Managing Session and Application State	429
Creating an XML Web Service	429
Creating an XML Web Service Using a Text Editor	429
Creating an XML Web Service Using Visual Studio .NET	430
Consuming an XML Web Service	432
Consuming XML Web Services Using Visual Studio .NET	432
Defining XML Web Service Behavior	437
Working with Data Types	440
Accessing Data	444
Considerations for Mobile Devices	449
16   Debugging, Testing with Emulators, and Handling Run-Time Errors	451
Debugging Mobile Web Applications	452
Configuring Applications to Support Debugging	453
Using the ASP.NET Trace Facility	455
Enabling Page-Level Tracing	456
Enabling Application-Level Tracing	457
Adding Your Own Trace Statements	459
Executing Blocks of Code in Trace Mode	460
Handling Errors	461
Implementing Custom Error Pages	461
Handling Errors Programmatically	464
Testing with Emulators and Real Devices	467
Using Pocket Internet Explorer for Application Testing	468
Using a Pocket PC Emulator	469
Testing with a Microsoft Smartphone Emulator	471
Testing with Mobile Phone Emulators	472
Integrating an Emulator into Visual Studio .NET	482
17   Packaging and Configuration	485
Packaging and Deploying an Application	486
Copying an Application	486
Creating a Web Setup Project	490
Deploying Applications to Servers Running Different Versions of the .NET Framework	494
Installing .NET Framework Runtime on a Web Server	496
Device Update Packs	497
Configuring Applications	497
Understanding the .NET Configuration Files	498
Web.config Configuration Example	501
Building ASP.NET Applications with Integrated Desktop and Mobile Access	502
Tailoring Functionality to the Client Device	503
Implementing a Redirect Page for the Mobile Web Site	503
18   ASP.NET Application Security	507
Encrypting Data Transfers Between Client and Server	507
Providing Authentication	509
IIS Authentication	510
ASP.NET Authentication	513
Forms Authentication	514
Passport Authentication	524
Windows Authentication	529
User Authorization	530
Impersonating a User	531
URL Authorization	532
19   Supporting New Clients	535
Defining Mobile Devices in Configuration Files	536
Device Configuration Files in .NET Framework 1.1	538
Supporting a New Client	539
Identifying the Device	540
Identifying Device Capabilities	543
Configuring Device Adapters	551
The Role of Device Adapters	551
Using Device Adapter Sets	553
Defining a Device Adapter Set	554
20   Building a Reusable User Interface as User Controls	559
Building a User Control	559
Creating a Simple User Control	560
Coding a User Control Module	560
Using a User Control in a Web Forms Page	561
User Control Example	561
Implementing Properties in a User Control	564
Displaying the Properties of the User Control	566
Responding to Events in a User Control	570
21   Creating Custom Controls by Inheritance and Composition	575
Building Controls in Code	575
Understanding the Control Life Cycle	576
Building Controls by Inheritance	580
Using a Compiled Custom Control	584
Building Controls by Composition	586
Creating the Child Controls in a Composite Control	587
Processing Postback Data	591
Raising Custom Events	592
Managing ViewState	596
22   Programming Device Adapters and Building Controls from Scratch	601
Building Controls from Scratch	602
The Control Life Cycle	602
The Role of Device Adapters	606
Building Simple Custom Controls and Device Adapters	612
A Simple Control with Device Adapters for HTML and WML	613
Writing Device Markup with the MobileTextWriter Classes	617
Handling Style Attributes in Device Adapters	617
Using Custom Controls and Device Adapters	620
Building a Data Bound Custom Control	623
Supporting Internal and Custom Pagination	629
Implementing the OnDataBind Event	632
Supporting ViewState in a Custom Control	634
Saving Control Properties to the ViewState Object	635
Understanding the IStateManager Interface	636
Using PrivateViewState	640
Implementing a Custom MobileControlBuilder Class	641
Enabling Client Postback in a Custom Control	643
Implementing Postback for the CMTable Control	644
Processing Postdata	649
Implementing Postdata Processing in the CMTable Control	649
Providing Different User Interfaces in the DeviceAdapter Classes	651
Adding Child Controls in a Device Adapter Class	654
Developing a Templated Custom Control	658
Implementing Support for Templates	658
Implementing Template Support for a Data Bound List Control	660
INDEX	667