What You Should Know

This book is not an introduction to programming with Visual Studio .NET. Many of the applications featured in the book are Web-based. It is assumed that the reader is already familiar with designing Web-based applications using ASP.NET. Readers should be familiar with such concepts as setting up a virtual directory and executing a Web application on their localhost machine. They should also understand the difference between server-side script and client-side script.

The sample applications are not intentionally complex, but they access code embedded in SQL Stored Procedures. These stored procedures contain some of the application logic in the form of T-SQL statements. The reader should have a basic understanding of T-SQL and know how to view stored procedure code using Microsoft's Enterprise Manager or Query Analyzer.

To simplify common operations such as data access and exception handling, the sample applications utilize Microsoft Application Blocks. These blocks contain code that demonstrates best practices for accessing common functionality. No additional installation steps are necessary for the reader to execute the sample code. However, readers interested in learning more about the functionality available in these blocks should visit the Microsoft Patterns and Practices Web site at http://www.microsoft.com/resources/practices/code.mspx.