Professional VB 2005 with .NET 3.0

Bill Evjen

Billy Hollis

Tim McCarthy

Kent Sharkey

Bill Sheldon

Wiley Publishing, Inc.

Published by
Wiley Publishing, Inc.
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© 2007 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana

Published simultaneously in Canada

ISBN: 9780470124703

Manufactured in the United States of America

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About the Authors

Bill Evjen is an active proponent of .NET technologies and community-based learning initiatives for .NET. He has been actively involved with .NET since the first bits were released in 2000. In the same year, Bill founded the St. Louis .NET User Group (www.stlnet.org), one of the world’s first such groups. Bill is also the founder and former executive director of the International .NET Association (www.ineta.org), which represents more than 450,000 members worldwide.

Based in St. Louis, Missouri, Bill is an acclaimed author and speaker on ASP.NET and XML Web Services. He has written or co-written more than 13 titles, including Professional ASP.NET Special Edition, Professional XML, Professional C# 2005 with .NET 3.0, and more. In addition to writing, Bill is a speaker at numerous conferences, including DevConnections, VSLive, and TechEd.

Bill is the technical architect of Lipper (www.lipperweb.com), a wholly owned subsidiary of Reuters, the international news and financial services company. You can reach Bill at [e-mail] and he presently keeps his weblog at www.geekswithblogs.net/evjen.

This book, like most, took an entire team to get out the door. First and foremost, I would like to thank Katie Mohr for providing me with the opportunity to write this book. Big thanks go to Bill Bridges, the book’s development editor, who kept the book together. Thanks to my family for putting up with this second job. I love you all greatly. My share of this work is dedicated to Tuija.

Billy Hollis is an author and software consultant based in Nashville, Tennessee. Billy was co-author of the first book ever published on Visual Basic .NET, as well as many other books on software development. He is a member of the Microsoft Regional Director program and a Microsoft MVP. In 2002, Billy was selected as one of the original .NET “Software Legends.” He is heavily involved with consulting, training, and development on the .NET platform, focusing on architecture, smart-client development, commercial packages, and user-interface technologies. He regularly speaks on software development at major conferences all over the world, including Microsoft’s PDC and TechEd events, DevConnections, VSLive, and architecture events such as the Patterns and Practices Architect Summit.

I owe tremendous thanks to my family, who have somehow learned to put up with marathon writing sessions, and to my business partner, Gary Bailey, for keeping our clients happy while I’m writing.

Tim McCarthy is a principal engineer at InterKnowlogy, where he architects and builds applications utilizing the latest Microsoft technologies. He is a Microsoft Certified Application Developer, Microsoft Certified Solution Developer, Microsoft Certified Trainer, and Microsoft Certified Database Administrator. Tim is also an IEEE Certified Software Development Professional.

Tim speaks regularly at several San Diego area user groups (including both .NET and SQL Server groups) and he has been a speaker at Microsoft Developer Days in San Diego for the last several years. He also presents MSDN webcasts, many of which are repeat requests from Microsoft.

He holds a BBA in marketing from the Illinois Institute of Technology as well as an MBA in marketing from National University. Before becoming an application developer, Tim was an officer in the United States Marine Corps. His passion for .NET is surpassed only by his passion for Notre Dame athletics.

I would like to thank my family for putting up with some of the long hours I had to put in to work on my various books, articles, and presentations. Jasmine, maybe someday you will be writing books. I also want to dedicate this book to my mom and dad, who recently celebrated their fiftieth wedding anniversary. Thank you for always giving me the self-confidence to do anything that I set my mind to do.

Kent Sharkey is an independent consultant who lives and codes in the midst of the wilds of Vancouver Island. Before going solo, Kent worked at Microsoft as a Technical Evangelist and Content Strategist, promoting the use of .NET technologies. When not coding or writing, he’s hiking, biking, or canoeing (or exploring the wilds of Azeroth). He shares his house with his wife, Margaret, and two “children,” Squirrel and Cica.

To Babi, for keeping me alive and putting up with me-hopefully, for a long time to come.

Bill Sheldon is a software architect and engineer, originally from Baltimore, Maryland. Holding a degree in computer science from the Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT), Bill has been actively employed as a software engineer since resigning his commission with the United States Navy. He is employed as a principal engineer with InterKnowlogy in Carlsbad, California, and works as an instructor for Visual Basic and Team System–related courses at the University of California San Diego Extension.

In addition to writing books, Bill has published dozens of articles, including the Developer Update Newsletter and occasional feature articles with SQL Server magazine and other Penton publications. He is an established online presenter for MSDN and speaks at live events such as Microsoft Developer Days and community events such as user groups and code camp. Bill is an avid cyclist and is active in the fight against diabetes.

To my wonderful wife, Tracie, who is forced to carry on while I isolate myself to concentrate on writing. And to all the children who have joined our extended Sheldon family over the past three years: Nikita, Elena, Ben, Billy V, and Abigail-each and every one of you is a valuable part of our lives.