Conclusion

Since version 1.0, ASP.NET has been characterized by a well-balanced mix of low-level and feature-rich tools. Using low-level tools such as events, HTTP modules, and HTTP handlers, you can plug into the ASP.NET pipeline to influence the processing of requests at every stage. At the same time, ASP.NET offers a wealth of feature-rich components for those who don't need control over every little step.

The quantity and quality of application services has grown significantly in ASP.NET 2.0, which was designed with the goal of making things happen with the least amount of code. The introduction of rich composition tools for building pages like the ones we examined in this chapter is just a confirmation of the trend. In this chapter, we explored master pages to create content pages based on a predefined template made of graphics and, optionally, code. Master pages are not pure object-oriented visual inheritance a l Windows Forms; instead, they benefit from aggregation and let derived pages personalize well-known regions of the master. With full support from the Visual Studio .NET 2005 environment, master pages are a time-saving feature that brings concrete added value to ASP.NET 2.0 solutions.

Likewise, themes let developers code pages and controls that allow users to apply skins at will. ASP.NET themes work like Windows XP themes, and overall they're a superset of CSS that covers control properties in addition to HTML element styles. Themes work well in conjunction with the user profile API we discussed in Chapter 5. Using both, developers can let end users choose the theme and persist its name back to the personalization storage layer.

Finally, wizards are made-to-measure controls to quickly and efficiently write multistep input forms that divide complex operations into simple steps.

With this chapter, we completed the first part of the book, dedicated to building ASP.NET pages. With the next chapter, we approach the world of data access and explore ways to add data to a Web site.