Fully supported by Microsoft's ASP.NET team, this is an authoritative and practical look at the new version of ASP.NET

Alex Homer is managing director of Stonebroom, Ltd. Dave Sussman speaks frequently at Microsoft development conferences and has been writing about ASP since its earliest releases Rob Howard founded Telligent Systems

Dynamic Web page generation techniques have been around for many years, but ASP.NET took the world by storm when it was released in February 2002. The advent of a new page and postback architecture, server controls, and the whole .NET Framework made it easier to build Web sites and Web applications that performed better while reducing the amount of work required by the developer. So, it comes as no surprise to see a new version of the .NET Framework, and with it version 2.0 of ASP.NET, starting to appear on the horizon. Sometime in 2005 we should have the final release of version 2.0 of the .NET Framework, together with new versions of Visual Studio and other tools. In the meantime, Microsoft is following its usual policy of involving developers as early in the process as possible, giving them the chance to provide feedback on the new product. So, with the final release of version 2.0 still some way off, why would you be interested in it now? The simple answer is, of course, that as a developer you need to keep abreast of what's going on in your industry. And more than that, being aware of what's coming in the future might well in- fluence what you do today, in the overall design of your applications and the preparations and plans you make for upcoming products and applications. This book will help by introducing you to the new features that will be in version 2.0 of ASP.NET and how they can benefit your Web site and Web application development. And perhaps you don't actually intend to install the early releases of version 2.0, but you just want to know more about what it offers. No problem-that's OK with us as well! Versions and Release Schedules Before you read any further, it's important that you understand what this book covers and how it relates to the future and final releases of ASP.NET version 2.0. The first public beta of version 2.0 of the .NET Framework arrives in mid-2004. There will probably be another beta release later in 2004, followed by a final release. However, there are unlikely to be any significant changes between the first beta release and the finished product because this phase of the development cycle concentrates on moving from "code complete" status though fine-tuning and bug fixing to final release. This book covers the first beta release, and as such the class interface listings and code samples you see here cannot be guaranteed to work in exactly the same way right through to the final release version. However, the principles and general syntax are unlikely to differ by anything more than minor details. What This Book Covers This is not just a reference book but also a feature-packed exploration of version 2.0 of ASP.NET. It covers the changes between ASP.NET 1.x and ASP.NET 2.0 that make it even easier to build efficient, attractive, and interactive Web sites and Web applications using the new features in ASP.NET, while considerably reducing developer effort and code requirements. The first chapter presents an overview of the new version and also lays out the roadmap for the remainder of the book. The following chapters discuss how the common requirements of developers have been addressed, starting with the ubiquitous need to access data from your pages and then progressing through to a detailed look at the new configuration and management features that version 2.0 provides. Along with the final release of ASP.NET 2.0 we will, of course, see a new version of Visual Studio and other tools. While we do include some details of the new version of Visual Studio, called Visual Studio 2005, the book does not concentrate on this area. Many developers will be writing ASP.NET pages using other tools (including, we suspect, a text editor) while Visual Studio 2005 is still under development. What You Need to Use This Book The main thing you need to use this book is the beta release of versio