Hour 22. Devising a Plan for the Photo Album Application

In this hour, we will cover

• An overview of how web applications are commonly designed

• The requirements for our online photo web application

• Ways to use multiple tables in a database

• The photo album application's data model

• Foreign key constraints and their importance in ensuring database consistency

In the past 21 hours, we have looked at accomplishing a number of discrete tasks that are commonly performed in an ASP.NET website. In Hour 8, "ASP.NET Web Controls for Displaying Text," we examined how to display dynamic text in a web page using the Label and Literal Web controls. Hours 9 through 12 focused on collecting using input through Web Forms using controls like TextBoxes, DropDownLists, RadioButtons, and CheckBoxes. We also saw how to ensure data validity using the validation Web controls.

In Hours 13 through 18 we examined working with databases, from creating a SQL Server 2005 Express Edition database and defining its structure, to displaying, editing, inserting, and deleting database data through ASP.NET pages. We looked at how the SqlDataSource control provides an easy way to access and modify data, while the GridView and DetailsView Web controls make working with that data through an ASP.NET page a breeze. In the past three hours we looked at concepts that apply to entire websites: site navigation, membership, and master pages.

Although we've examined the important features of ASP.NET, we've yet to take these concepts and create a complete, end-to-end, fully functional website. That is the goal of the remainder of this book. Over the next three hours we will be creating an online photo album web application from the ground up. Our application will store user and picture information and user comments in a database. Our site will support user accounts and use master pages and ASP.NET's site navigation features. The GridView and DetailsView controls will be used on many pages, displaying and modifying data accessed through SqlDataSource controls.

Every journey starts with a first step. In this hour we will begin by defining the project's requirements and creating a database. We will actually begin creating ASP.NET pages in the next hour.