Microsoft ASP.NET is a programming framework built on the common language and can be used to create anything from small, personal websites through to large, enterprise-class web applications with a minimum of coding.
The first versions of ASP.NET offered several important advantages over previous Web development models. The last release - ASP.NET 3.5 provides new and exciting features in the areas of developer productivity, flexible extensibility, and performance. The .NET Framework version 3.5 is designed to enable you to create Web applications that feature next-generation user interfaces with reusable client components.
ASP.NET 3.5 Enhancements
ASP.NET 3.5 doesn't change or take away or break any functionality, concepts, or code present in previous releases - it simply adds new types and features and capabilities to the framework.
Support for LINQ
One of the most exiting enhancements is LINQ, which stands for Language Integrated Query. It a query syntax, that provides a unified programming model for dynamic querying and updating data from different types of data sources and extends data capabilities directly into the C# and Visual Basic languages. LINQ is designed to bridge the gap between the world of objects and world of data.
The benefits of using LINQ are significant - it simplifies the way you work with data queries. LINQ offers you a declarative syntax model to query any data source including an XML document, SQL database, an ADO.NET Dataset. It is easier now for developers to catch many errors during compile-time; also supports IntelliSense and debugging.
- LINQ to SQL
LINQ to SQL is an Object Relational Mapping implementation which allows developers to easily model a relational database using .NET classes. LINQ makes it very easy to query the database, as well as update, insert, or delete data from it.
LINQ to SQL fully supports transactions, views, and stored procedures and also provides an easy way to integrate data validation and business logic rules into your data model. - LINQ to Dataset
In previous ASP.NET, neither the DataTable nor the DataSet implement IEnumerable or IQueryable, but LINQ to DataSet treats DataTables as enumerations of DataRow Objects and lets developers query DataSets and DataTables. - LINQ to XML
LINQ to XML allows XML data to be queried by using the standard query operators as well as tree-specific operators. It provides a clean programming model that enables developers to read, construct and write XML data. You can use LINQ to XML to perform LINQ queries over XML that you retrieve from the file-system, from a remote HTTP URL or web-service, or from any in-memory XML content.
LINQ to XML provides much richer (and easier) querying and data shaping support than the low-level XmlReader/XmlWriter API in .NET. It also ends up being much more efficient (and uses much less memory) than the DOM API that XmlDocument provides.
New Data Controls
The ListView and DataPager are new controls in NET Framework version 3.5.
- ListView
The ListView control is useful for displaying data in any repeating structure, similar to the Gridview, Datagrid, Repeater and similar list controls. Unlike those controls, the ListView control supports edit, insert, and delete operations as well as sorting and paging. The paging functionality is provided for ListView by the new DataPager control. - DataPager
The DataPager control offered in 3.5 provides paging support to the ListView control. The best advantage is that you need not have to keep it with the control on which the paging is being done. You can keep it anywhere on the page.
DataPager gives you a consistent way of paging with the controls that support it. In addition, you can use the DataPager control to handle all the work of allowing your users to page through large numbers of records.
Built-in ASP.NET AJAX support
With ASP.NET AJAX, you can quickly create pages with sophisticated, responsive user interfaces and more efficient client-server communication by simply adding a few server controls to their pages. Previously an extension to the ASP.NET runtime, ASP.NET AJAX is now is integrated into the .NET Framework 3.5 and makes the complicated task of building cross-platform; standards based AJAX applications easier and intuitive.
ASP.NET Merge Tool
ASP.NET 3.5 includes a new merge tool (aspnet_merge.exe). This tool lets you combine and manage assemblies created by the ASP.NET pre-compilation tool (Aspnet_compiler.exe). The merge tool creates single assemblies for the site. You can create an assembly for the whole Web site, for each Web site folder, or for just the files that make up the Web site UI (pages and controls).
ASP.NET Web Hosting
Intermedia provides ASP.NET hosting on Windows 2008/IIS7 Server with .NET support. As the software web server MS Internet Informational Server is used with Microsoft .NET Framework 1.0, 1.1, 2.0, 3.0, 3.5. For dynamic pages creation Intermedia provides .NET web hosting services, ASP web hosting services, MSSQL hosting services. Choice of ASP.NET web hosting is defined by a choice of Microsoft development technologies: IIS, Windows server, MSSQL server as a platform of web applications development. Using ASP.NET web hosting allows you to work with high-efficiency MS SQL Server databases.
