SUMMARY

In this chapter we've looked at several topics that deal with ASP.NET pages. We first looked at cross-page posting and how some new properties have made it easy to use the standard postback architecture to post to another page and then from that other page to easily access the details of the previous page.

We then looked at improvements to validation, showing how the introduction of validation groups has enabled validation to be limited to selections of controls. This is particularly useful when dealing with wizards, which provide a simple way to create multistep pages. Since all of the controls exist on the same page there's no problem about having to store the values from the previous step, and the validation groups allow each step to be validated as a whole but separately from the other steps.

We then looked at URL mapping, showing how virtual URLs can be mapped to real pages while preserving the original URL. This allows for easier site navigation without the work of constructing complex site hierarchies.

We then moved to the client-side features, first looking at simple improvements such as setting the default button and the focus of controls. This took us into improvements for registering client-side script blocks and then into the client callback architecture, which brings a powerful way to run server code without involving a postback.

We finished with the new and changed page directives and the page event life cycle, showing where the new events fit into the event order.

Now it's time to take a look at pages of a different kind and how to cater to mobile devices.