In this chapter, many new features of ASP.NET 2.0 have been discussed. Among these new features are master pages, profiles, and Web Parts.
Master pages allow defining a common layout for all pages. Profiles are used to store user data persistently in a database. Contrary to session variables, where the state is lost when the session timeout occurs, profiles are stored in the database. Because profiles are strongly typed, it is easy to access the value using properties and Visual Studio IntelliSense. Web Parts are a mighty new feature of ASP.NET. Web Parts allow creating portal-style Web applications that can be customized for every user with just a few clicks. With the Web Parts framework you've seen different zone types; beside the WebPartZone, the Editor zone, Catalog zone, and Connections zone have been used.
User controls were also discussed, because these controls make it easy to reuse components with Web pages. User controls can be used within Web zones.
In this chapter, you've learned about:
Creating and using master pages
Creating a structure for your site to navigate different pages
Creating user controls
Storing user-specific data using profiles
How to let the user customize a Web application using Web Parts
In the exercises in this chapter, you create a new Web application that uses the ASP.NET features demonstrated in this chapter and the previous chapter.
the next chapter gives you a start on how to write Web services with ASP.NET.