Introduction

to
ASP.NET
Yingcai Xiao

Approach
Get the

BIG picture before programming

Why? then How?

Principles and practices: know the concepts
and know how to design and implement an
application.
In the industry: design then coding

What is a Computer?
From the Websters New World Dictionary:
1. A person who computes.
2. A device used for computing (an
electronic machine which by means of
stored instructions and information,
perform rapid, often complex calculations
or compiles, correlates, and selects data).

What is a program and what is programming?

Programs:
stored computer instructions for data
processing.
Programming
= Data Structures + Algorithms
Professor Donald E. Knuth

What Types of Programs?

(1) Stand Alone:
MS PowerPoint
(2) Web/Internet-based:
(a) Client-side: client-side JavaScript
(b) Server Side:
ASP.NET, JSP, Web Services
3-Tir Enterprise Applications
(c) Both-sides: Apps
(3) Cloud: Applications on the Cloud. Everything is
on the Internet and the Internet is a huge computer.

Why? Code Reuse!

Traditional Compilation/Linking (C/C++)

Source Code for Language 1

Source Code for Language 1

Language 1 Compiler on OS1

Language 1 Compiler on OS2

Binary Code for OS1

Binary Code for OS2

OS1

OS2

Common Binary Code?

Java Intermediate Language: Java Bytecode

Java Source Code (.java)
Java Compiler (javac) on OS1

Java Compiler (javac) on OS2

Java Bytecode (.class)

Java Interpreter on OS1 (java)

Java Interpreter on OS2 (java)

Binary Code for OS1

Binary Code for OS2

OS1

OS2

Program statements are interpreted one at a time during the run-time.

JIT Compiler
An interpreter interprets intermediate code one
line at a time. Slow execution.
A JIT (Just-In-Time) Compiler compiles the
complete code all at once just into native binary
code before execution. Faster execution.

JIT Complier: Java Bytecode Compiler

Java Source Code (.java)
Java Compiler (javac) on OS1

Java Compiler (javac) on OS2

Java Bytecode (.class)

Java JIT Compiler on OS1

Java JIT Compiler on OS2

Binary Code for OS1

Binary Code for OS2

OS1

OS2

All programming statements are compiled at compile time.

OS-Independent Code:
Intermediate Languages
The trend to support OS-independent binary
code is to compile the source code into the binary
format of an intermediate language.
And to provide an interpreter for the
intermediate language on each OS to translate the
binary code of the intermediate language into the
native binary code of the OS.

OS-Independent Compilation: Intermediate Language

Source Code for Language 1
Language 1 Compiler on OS1

Language 1 Compiler on OS2

Intermediate Binary Code

Intermediate Code Interpreter OS1

Intermediate Code Interpreter OS2

Binary Code for OS1

Binary Code for OS2

OS1

OS2

MSIL: Microsoft Intermediate Language

Source Code for Language 1
Language 1 Compiler on OS1

Language 1 Compiler on OS2

MSIL Code
MSIL JIT Compiler on OS1

MSIL JIT Compiler on OS2

Binary Code for OS1

Binary Code for OS2

OS1

OS2

.NET OS-Platform-Independence

The Programming Language for .NET: C#

C#:
(0) C^+^2n; n = 0, 1, 2, => C, C++, C#
(1) The most advanced programming language to date
(3) OOP (Object-oriented Programming)
(4) EDP (Event Driven Programming)
(5) Dynamic type generation
(6) Platform-independent?: Code runs on any platform
with .NET runtime
(7) Visual Studio

A Common Language?

.NET Common Language Runtime

To make .NET language independent, CLR (Common Language
Runtime) is defined as the runtime environment.
CLR defines CTS (Common Type System) which should be
followed by all languages to be used in the .NET framework.
Syntax: int, for, ..
Semantics: multiple inheritance is not allowed in CTS
The code that follows CTS standard is called managed code.
regular C++ supports multiple inheritance
managed C++ does not support multiple inheritance

CLR: Common Language Runtime

Source Code for Language 1

Source Code for Language 2

Language 1 Compiler on OS1

Language 2 Compiler on OS2

MSIL Code Confirming CTS (Managed Code)

CLR on OS1

CLR on OS2

Binary Code for OS1

Binary Code for OS2

OS1

OS2

.NET Language-Independence

.NET Architecture for Language and Platform Independence

(fan-in and fan-out on MSIL)

Source Code for Language 1

Source Code for Language 2

Language 1 Compiler on OS1

Language 2 Compiler on OS2

MSIL Code Confirming CTS (Managed Code)

CLR on OS1

CLR on OS2

Binary Code for OS1

Binary Code for OS2

OS1

OS2

CLI (Common Language Infrastructure)

CLR/CTS for Everyone?

CLI : Common Language Infrastructure

A specification defines an environment for multiple
high-level languages to be used on different computer
platforms.
Created by Microsoft based on .NET, standardized by
MS, Intel, HP and others, ratified by ECMA and ISO.
.NET is an implementation of CLI for desktop systems.
.NET Compact Framework is an implementation of CLI
for portable devices.
Open Source implementations: Mono development
platform (Novell), Portable .NET (dotGNU)

CLI (Common Language Infrastructure) Specification

Open Architecture for Language and Platform Independent Programming

Source Code for Language 1

Source Code for Language 2

Language 1 Compiler on OS1

Language 2 Compiler on OS2

CIL (Common Intermediate Language) Code

Confirming CTS (Common Type System)
CLR for OS1

CLR for OS2

Binary Code for OS1

Binary Code for OS2

OS1

OS2

Even though, CLI/CTS/CLR can make a program

written in any language to run on any platform, the
entire program (including all libraries used) has to be
on the platform before running.
Can we have part of a program on one computer and
another part of the same program on another
computer?
Distributed Computing. A program is divided into
multiple parts and different parts are distribute on
different computers.
e.g. virtual surgery.

Web Enabled & Distributed

.NET

What is .NET?
.Net is a framework for developing OSplatform-independent, programminglanguage-independent, web-enabled,
distributed applications.

.Net is Web-enabled and Distributed

To run distributed code on the web, we need a
standard way to register the code and a standard
way to access the code.
Registration:
UDDI Registry: Universal Description,
Discovery, and Integration.
Access:
SOAP: Simple Object Access Protocol
WSDL: Web Service Description Language

.NET Architecture for Web-based Distributed Computing

Client 1

UDDI Registry 2
SOAP

Client 2

Web Service 1

UDDI Registry 1

WSDL Interface 1

Web Service 2
WEB

SOAP

WSDL Interface 2

.NET Framework Composition

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.NET_Framework

.NET Framework Compositions

Common Language Runtime (CLR ): provides
the runtime environment for MSIL code.
Framework Class Library (FCL) : provides
standard libraries for developing common .Net
applications.
.NET runtime environment comes with
Windows
.NET development environment comes with
Visual Studio

.NET Application Types

Web Services

Browser

Local

Distributed

Accessible

Applications

Applications

Remote
Applications

(Windows
Forms or
Console
Applications)

(ASP.NET)

Other
Applications
(Mobile, )

.Net Framework Class Library

Common Language Runtime
OS

.Net Framework Class Library

System
Windows

Web

Data
(Database)

Forms
(GUI)

UI

Services

Enterprise
Services

XML

String,

(Data
Description)

Connection
DataSet

XmlDocument

Language Integrated Query,

Windows Presentation Foundation,
Windows Communication Foundation,

.NET Enterprise Servers

Internet Information Services (IIS): web server
Commerce Server: e-commerce server
SQL Server: database server
Exchange Server: MS exchange services
Mobile Information Server: wireless server
Internet Security and Acceleration (ISA) Server:
firewall, proxy,
BizTalk: B2B (Business-to-Business) server

History: .Net & COM : Code Reuse

MFC: Microsoft Foundation Class, code reuse
within an application (process)
COM: Component Object Model, code reuse
across applications (processes)
DCOM: Distributed COM, code reuse across
systems
COM+: Internet-based Enterprise COM, code
reuse across the Internet
.NET: COM+ 2.0, all COM+ services are
available in .NET, even those not in managed
code, interoperable with COM-based applications

Versions of .NET
.Net is evolving.
1.0: fundamentals
CLR, FCL
2.0: http://forums.asp.net/t/1115522.aspx
partial classes, profile object, ACL
3.0: http://forums.asp.net/t/1115522.aspx
WCF (Communication),
WWF (Workflow),
WPF (Presentation)
4.0: http://msdn.microsoft.com/enus/library/ms171868.aspx
DLR (dynamic language runtime)
improved security model
parallel processing (PLINQ)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.NET_Framework

Latest .NET Framework

http://msdn.microsoft.com/enus/vstudio/aa496123
Current version: framework 4.5 (08/2012)
Framework 4.5 for Windows 8.
ARM (Advanced RISC Machine) support in 4.5
on Windows 8 in addition to x86
SIMD (single instruction, multiple data), multi
and many core processors (GPUs). Some support
through Direct3D. No support yet for SSE
(Streaming SIMD Extensions to x86)

A Common Language for the Internet

(free of compilation and translation)?

A Common Language for the Internet

Tim Berners-Lee
ASCII text (ISO/IEC 8859-1) is platform-independent.
HTTP (Hyper Text Transport Protocol)
e.g.
GET wp.html
Assembly Language for the Internet
HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language)
High-level language for the Internet)
hyper text: text that describes other text
tags: type definition of text in text
<title>WP</title>
all tags are predefined in HTML
only system defined types, no user defined types
Recognizable by all types of computers. (World Wide Web)

A Common Language for the Internet

XML (eXtensible Markup Language)
Allow user defined tags (types)
SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol)
Standards for defining objects for the Internet
Based on XML
WSDL (Web Service Description Language)
Standards for describing web services for the Internet
Based on XML

Textbooks and References

Textbooks:
Programming Microsoft .NET, Jeff Prosise, Microsoft Press
http://www.amazon.com/Programming-Microsoft%C2%AE-NET-Core-reference/dp/0735613761
In Safari (free online read for UA students through VPN)
http://proquest.safaribooksonline.com/book/programming/microsoft-dotnet/0735613761/firstchapter

Pro C# 2010 and .NET 4 Platform, Andrew Troelsen, Apress

http://www.amazon.com/2010-NET-Platform-Andrew-Troelsen/dp/1430225491/ref=pd_sim_b_3
In Safari (free online read for UA students through VPN)
http://proquest.safaribooksonline.com/book/programming/csharp/9781430225492

Textbooks and References

Reference Books:
Professional C# 4 and .NET 4, Christian Nagel, et. al., Wrox
Professional C#, Simon Robinson, et. al., Wrox
Microsoft .NET for Programmers, Fergal Grimes, Manning
Programming C#: Building .NET Applications with C#, Jesse Liberty, OReilly
For Beginners:
C# Concisely, Bishop & Horspool, Pearson / Addison Wesley
Beginning C# Objects from Concepts to Code, Barker and Palmer, Apress
Microsoft Visual C#.NET Step by Step, John Sharp, Microsoft Press
Visual C#2010, Deitel & Deitel
Understanding .NET, David Chappell, Pearson / Addison Wesley