Features of This Book

Features of This Book

Each chapter contains sections that are designed to help you get the most educational value from the chapter:

• Each chapter opens with a Before You Begin section, which prepares you for completing the chapter.

• The chapters are then divided into lessons. Each lesson contains the reference and procedural information used for a specific skill.

• The lessons and exercises offer step-by-step procedures that are identified with a bullet symbol like the one to the left of this paragraph.

• At the end of each lesson is the Lesson Summary section, which identifies the key concepts from the lesson.

• The Lab section provides hands-on exercises that reinforce each of the skills taught in each of the chapter lessons. The exercises give you an opportunity to use the skills being presented or explore the part of the application being described. Wherever possible, the exercises in a lab build on each other to create a complete application by the end of that lab.

• At the end of each chapter is the Review section that you can use to test what you have learned.

Appendix A, Questions and Answers, contains all of the questions asked in each chapter with their corresponding answers.

Notes

Two types of Notes appear throughout the lessons.

• Notes marked Note contain supplemental information.

• Notes marked Caution contain warnings about the possible loss of data.

Notational Conventions

The following notational conventions are used throughout this book.

• Characters or commands that you type appear in bold type.

• Italic in syntax statements indicates placeholders for variable information. Italic is also used for book titles and program elements in text.

• Names of files and folders appear in initial capital letters except when you are to type them directly. Unless otherwise indicated, you can use lowercase letters when you type a filename in a dialog box or at a command prompt.

• Filename extensions, when they appear without a filename, are in lowercase letters.

• Acronyms appear in all uppercase letters.

• Monospace type represents code samples, examples of screen text, or entries that you might type at a command prompt or in initialization files.

• Angle brackets < > are used in syntax statements to enclose optional items. For example, <filename> in command syntax indicates that you can choose to type a filename with the command. Type only the information within the brackets, not the brackets themselves.

• When Visual Basic and Visual C# terms are mentioned together in text, the Visual Basic term appears first, followed by the C# term in parentheses.

• Icons represent specific sections in the book as follows:

Icon	Represents
	Supplemental course materials. You will find these materials on the Supplemental Course Materials CD-ROM.
	A hands-on exercise. You should perform the exercise to give yourself an opportunity to use the skills being presented in the lesson.
	Chapter review questions. These questions at the end of each chapter allow you to test what you have learned in the chapter. You will find the answers to the review questions in Appendix A, Questions and Answers at the end of the book.

Keyboard Conventions

• A plus sign (+) between two key names means that you must press those keys at the same time. For example, Press Alt+Tab means that you hold down Alt while you press Tab.

• A comma ( , ) between two or more key names means that you must press each of the keys consecutively, not together. For example, Press Alt, F, X means that you press and release each key in sequence. Press Alt+W, L means that you first press Alt and W at the same time, and then release them and press L.

• You can choose menu commands by using the keyboard. Press the Alt key to activate the menu bar, and then sequentially press the keys that correspond to the highlighted or underlined letter of the menu name and the command name. For some commands, you can also press a key combination listed on the menu.

• You can select or clear check boxes or option buttons in dialog boxes with the keyboard. Press the Alt key, and then press the key that corresponds to the underlined letter of the option name. Or you can press Tab until the option is highlighted, and then press the Spacebar to select or clear the check box or option button.

• You can cancel the display of a dialog box by pressing the Esc key.

Chapter and Appendix Overview

This self-paced training kit combines notes, hands-on procedures, and review questions to teach you how to create Windows-based applications with Visual Basic .NET and Visual C# .NET. It is designed to be completed from beginning to end, but you can choose a customized track and only complete the sections that interest you. (See the next section, Finding the Best Starting Point for You, for more information.) If you choose the customized track option, see the Before You Begin section in each chapter. Any hands-on procedures that require preliminary work from preceding chapters refer to the appropriate chapters.

The book is divided into the following sections and chapters:

• The About This Book section contains a self-paced training overview and introduces the components of this training kit. Read this section thoroughly to get the greatest educational value from this self-paced training and to plan which lessons you will complete.

• Chapter 1, Introduction to the .NET Framework, introduces the .NET Framework, the common language runtime, and the .NET base class library. It describes how memory is managed using garbage collection. It explains how to create a class and a structure, and how to implement and scope methods.

• Chapter 2, Creating the User Interface, describes the elements of the user interface and the steps you take in creating it. It explains controls, menus, using form and control events, and validating user input.

• Chapter 3, Types and Members, explains in detail how to implement and use custom types. It explains how to create arrays and collections, and how to implement properties and events.

• Chapter 4, Object-Oriented Programming and Polymorphism, introduces the concepts of object-oriented programming. It describes how to create overloaded members and how to implement polymorphism through inheritance and interface implementation.

• Chapter 5, Testing and Debugging Your Application, describes how to use the tools provided by Visual Studio .NET to debug your application. It explains how to use the Trace and Debug classes to get real-time feedback from your application, and how to throw and handle exceptions. This chapter also describes how to develop a unit test plan for your application.

• Chapter 6, Data Access Using ADO.NET, explains in detail how to use Microsoft ADO.NET to access data from a variety of sources. Connected and disconnected data access is explained, and binding data to the user interface is examined as well. This chapter also provides a sampling of XML data topics.

• Chapter 7, Creating Controls Using the .NET Framework, describes how to use the .NET Framework to create user controls, custom controls, and inherited controls. It describes how to render visual elements with GDI+ technology, and how to accomplish some common tasks with controls.

• Chapter 8, Advanced .NET Framework Topics, describes several advanced development topics. It explains how to create localizable applications, and how to implement printing in your application. It describes how to access COM components, the Windows API, and Web Services. It also explains how to implement help and set accessibility properties for your application.

• Chapter 9, Assemblies, Configuration, and Security, explains how to create assemblies and use resources. It describes how to retrieve values from the configuration file and use them in your application. This chapter also explains how to implement role-based and code access security in your application.

• Chapter 10, Deploying Your Application, explains how to create and configure a setup project for your application and how to plan a deployment scheme for your program.

• Appendix A, Questions and Answers, lists all of the review questions from the book, showing the page number for each question and the suggested answer.

• The Glossary provides definitions for many of the terms and concepts presented in this training kit.

Finding the Best Starting Point for You

Because this book is self-paced, you can skip some lessons and revisit them later. Use the following table to find the best starting point for you:

If you	Follow this learning path
Are preparing to take the Microsoft Certified Professional Exam 70-306 or Exam 70-316	Read the Getting Started section. Then work through the remaining chapters in any order.
Want to review information about specific topics from the exam	Use the Where to Find Specific Skills in This Book section that follows this table.

Where to Find Specific Skills in This Book

The following table provides a list of the skills measured on certification Exam 70-306, Developing and Implementing Windows-Based Applications with Microsoft Visual Basic .NET and Microsoft Visual Studio .NET, and Exam 70-316, Developing and Implementing Windows-Based Applications with Microsoft Visual C# .NET and Microsoft Visual Studio .NET. The table provides the skill and where in this book you will find the lesson relating to that skill.

NOTE
Note Exam skills are subject to change without prior notice and at the sole discretion of Microsoft.

Table A.1. Creating User Services

Skill Being Measured	Location in Book
Create a Windows Form by using the Windows Form Designer	Chapter 2, Lesson 2
Add controls to a Windows Form	Chapter 2, Lesson 3
Implement navigation for the user interface	Chapter 2, Lesson 2
Validate user input	Chapter 2, Lesson 5
Implement error handling in the UI	Chapter 5, Lesson 4
Implement online user assistance	Chapter 8, Lesson 4
Display data from a data source	Chapter 6, Lesson 4
Incorporate existing code into a Microsoft Windows-based application	Chapter 8, Lesson 2
Instantiate and invoke Web Services and components	Chapter 8, Lesson 2
Implement globalization	Chapter 8, Lesson 5
Create, implement, and handle events	Chapter 3, Lesson 4
Implement print capability	Chapter 8, Lesson 1
Implement accessibility features	Chapter 8, Lesson 3

Table A.2. Creating and Managing Components and .NET Assemblies

Skill Being Measured	Location in Book
Create and modify a .NET assembly	Chapter 9, Lesson 1
Create a Windows control.	Chapter 7, Lesson 2

Table A.3. Consuming and Manipulating Data

Skill Being Measured	Location in Book
Access and manipulate data from a Microsoft SQL Server database by creating and using ad hoc queries and stored procedures	Chapter 6, Lessons 1, 2, 3
Access and manipulate data from a data store	Chapter 6, Lessons 1, 2, 3
Handle data errors	Chapter 6, Lesson 3

Table A.4. Testing and Debugging

Skill Being Measured	Location in Book
Create a unit test plan	Chapter 5, Lesson 3
Implement tracing	Chapter 5, Lesson 2
Debug, rework, and resolve defects in code	Chapter 5, Lesson 1

Table A.5. Deploying a Windows-Based Application

Skill Being Measured	Location in Book
Plan the deployment of a Windows-based application	Chapter 10, Lesson 1
Create a setup program that installs an application and allows for the application to be uninstalled	Chapter 10, Lesson 1
Deploy a Windows-based application	Chapter 10, Lesson 1
Add assemblies to the Global Assembly Cache	Chapter 9, Lesson 1; Chapter 10, Lesson 2
Verify security policies for a deployed application	Chapter 10, Lesson 2

Table A.6. Maintaining and Supporting a Windows-Based Application

Skill Being Measured	Location in Book
Optimize the performance of a Windows-based application	Chapter 5, Lesson 2; Chapter 9, Lesson 2
Diagnose and resolve errors and issues	Chapter 5, Lesson 1; Chapter 9, Lesson 2

Table A.7. Configuring and Securing a Windows-Based Application

Skill Being Measured	Location in Book
Configure a Windows-based application	Chapter 9, Lesson 2
Configure security for a Windows-based application	Chapter 9, Lesson 3
Configure authorization	Chapter 9, Lesson 3