Chapter 11 Building Data-Driven Web Applications

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Page 271

Chapter 11
Building Data-Driven Web Applications

THIS CHAPTER COVERS THE primary new tools—especially server-side controls such as the essential DataGrid—that make creating database-connected web pages a pleasure to program. If you've struggled with the task of attaching databases to websites in the past, you'll appreciate how much work .NET's tools and controls do for you, and how quickly you can build an effective solution.

First you'll read an overview of the important new advances that make .NET Internet-database programming so much more efficient than previous technologies. Then you'll see how to best make use of the DataGrid, DataList, and Repeater controls. You'll next see how to handle post-back and validation. Finally, you'll find out how to send graphics and when you would perhaps want to revert to old-style HTML controls, rather than the new .NET WebForm controls. Now, on to the overview of the advantages of .NET's approach to creating database-driven web pages the easy way.

New Features in ASP.NET

The .NET database features integrate well with its web page features. Both ADO.NET and WebForms offer high-level tools, rapid application development elements, and programmatic support for hooking up Internet browsers to databases.

In addition you'll find up-to-date special capabilities, such as the capacity to translate database tables into XML and vice versa. Life has become much easier for the Internet programmer, thanks to ADO.NET and ASP.NET.

There's no point in reviewing the mind-numbing struggles of the past few years as developers wrestled with e-commerce ''solutions" that involved tedious client-side scripting (often either blocked for security reasons or the victim of browser incompatibilities), ActiveX, JavaScript, and other attempts to bridge the gap between databases and web pages. ASP.NET gives you a full server-side language that, along with client-side scripting, security via compiled code, and other features, makes our work far less wearisome.

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