ASP.NET Web Forms - Tutorial

ASP.NET is the next generation of ASP, not an update version of ASP.

The basic knowledge you should possess

Before proceeding with the study, you should have a basic understanding of the following knowledge:

  • Basic knowledge of WWW, HTML, and website construction
  • Scripting languages such as JavaScript or VBScript
  • Basic knowledge of server-side scripting

If you wish to learn these projects first, please visit our Home page Access these tutorials.

What is ASP?

Microsoft's former server-side scripting technology ASP (Active Server Pages) is now commonly referred to as classic ASP.

ASP 3.0 is the last version of classic ASP.

For more content about ASP, please learn our ASP Tutorial.

ASP.NET is not ASP

ASP.NET is the next generation of ASP, not an update version of ASP.

ASP.NET is a new technology for server-side scripting. Microsoft has rewritten ASP.NET from the ground up, and ASP.NET is not backward compatible with ASP.

You will learn more about the differences between ASP and ASP.NET in the next chapter of this tutorial.

ASP.NET is a major part of Microsoft .NET Framework

What is ASP.NET?

ASP.NET is a server-side scripting technology that allows scripts embedded in web pages to be executed by Internet servers.

  • ASP.NET is a technology from Microsoft Corporation
  • ASP refers to dynamic server pages (Active Server Pages)
  • ASP.NET is a program that runs in IIS
  • IIS (Internet Information Services) is Microsoft's Internet server
  • IIS is a component bundled for free with the Windows servers operating system
  • IIS is also a component of Windows 2000 and XP Professional Edition

What is an ASP.NET file?

  • ASP.NET files are similar to HTML files
  • ASP.NET files can contain HTML, XML, and scripts
  • The script in ASP.NET files is executed on the server
  • The file extension of ASP.NET files is ".aspx"

How does ASP.NET work?

  • When the browser requests an HTML file, the server will return the file
  • When the browser requests an ASP.NET file, IIS will pass the request to the ASP.NET engine on the server
  • The ASP.NET engine will read the file line by line and execute the script in the file
  • Finally, ASP.NET files will be returned to the browser in the form of pure HTML

What is ASP+?

ASP+ is equivalent to ASP.NET.

ASP+ is the early name used by Microsoft during the development of ASP.NET.

Microsoft .NET Framework

.NET Framework is the infrastructure of Microsoft .NET platform.

.NET Framework is an environment for building, developing, and running Web applications and Web services.

Microsoft's first server technology ASP (Active Server Pages) is a powerful and scalable 'programming language'. However, it is too code-oriented and does not count as an application framework or an enterprise-level development tool.

The purpose of Microsoft developing the .NET Framework is to solve these problems.

.NET Framework Keywords:

  • Faster and easier programming
  • Reduce code quantity
  • Declarative programming model
  • Richer service control event layer
  • Larger type library
  • Better development tool support

.NET Framework includes 3 main parts:

Programming Languages:

  • C# (Pronounced C sharp)
  • Visual Basic (VB .NET)
  • J# (Pronounced J sharp)

Server and client technologies:

  • ASP .NET (Active Server Pages)
  • Windows Forms (Windows desktop solutions)
  • Compact Framework (PDA / Mobile solutions)

Development Environment:

  • Visual Studio .NET (VS .NET)
  • Visual Web Developer

This tutorial explains the content related to ASP.NET.

ASP.NET 2.0

ASP.NET 2.0 has improved on ASP.NET by adding support for a variety of new features.

In the next chapter of this tutorial, you can learn more about the differences between ASP.NET 2.0 and ASP.NET.

ASP.NET 3.0

ASP.NET 3.0 is not a new version of ASP.NET. It is just the name of the new ASP.NET 2.0 framework library, which supports:

  • Windows Presentation Foundation
  • Windows Communication Foundation
  • Windows Workflow Foundation;
  • Windows CardSpace

Note:This tutorial does not cover ASP.NET 3.0.