Liveblogging Drew Robbins at GANG...
...on a very slow GPRS connection.
Topic: ASP.NET 2.0.
70% reduction in code size for our apps.
Project Architectire:
* Project-less Development. Easier to manage (according to some people; I don't see it).
* Code Separation. Code beside, not code behind.
* Dynamic Compilation. Can browse to the pages without requiring compilation.
* Pre-Compilation of Applications.
Data Sources and Controls
* Easier data binding.
* Flexible.
* New controls: GridView, DetailsView.
Master Pages: Control look and feel of site with a single set of Master Pages. (Sounds like templates to me! Also sounds long overdue.) Cleaner than User Controls, and works in design, not code.
Navigation
* Easy creation of SiteMaps.
* Create TreeViews and Breadcrumbs (?).
Security
* Integrated Membership, Role Manager
* Cookieless authentication.
* Personalization: flexible profile storage,
* Themes: Create user selectable themes. Can work with CSS. (Sorta server-side CSS.)
Web Parts and Portals
* Modular Content.
* Rich User Experience.
* Compatible with SharePoint (future), Content Management Server, and Office 2003.
Caching: SqlcacheDependency lets SQL database invalidate the cache automatically.
* Cross-Page Posting.
* Validation.
* Wizard Framework. Lets you create wizards easily.
* Client-Side Scripting, including Client Callbacks.
New Controls (Even More!)
* Bulleted List
* File Upload
* Hidden Field
* Table
* MultiView and View
* ImageMap
New Events in Lifecycle
* PreInit
* PreLoad
* LoadComplete
* PreRenderComplete
Demo...
What an embarassment! The Microsoft projectors and screens have an automated timer: just in case someone forgets and leaves the system running, the projectors turn off and the screens roll up at 8 p.m.... right in time for the start of Drew's presentation. Now we have to wait for it all to warm up again...
HTML View now supports drag-and-drop from the designer toolbox.
Demonstrating dynamic compile. Pretty slick!
Code-beside: much sparser than Code-behind. Relies on Partial classes. Replaces the kludgey inheritance mechanism from 1.0.
Drew struggles to write VB.NET code:
Demonstrating new data source controls and binding. A page viewing rows from a database, with paging and sorting, in under 5 minutes and maybe 5 lines of HTML. (NO code-beside/behind/whatever!)
Added editing with two minutes, two lines of HTML, no code!
I don't believe that 70% reduction in code figure. It looks like almost 95% of the ASP.NET code I ever wrote won't be needed anymore!
Adding a filter to the data view. Looks like maybe four to five lines of HTML. Oops! First HTTP error. Not bad, really.
Defining SQL query parameters in the HTML, and then tying them to controls. Again, no code!
Applying themese automatically. Simple, simple, simple!
Administration pages added to the site automatically. Allows config, membership, etc. Can easily add log-in pages, registration option, Get My Password, etc.
My word, when can I start using this stuff?
Member security (as above) is normally in an automatically generated SQL Server Express database. Can be stored in your database instead. And is accessed via an interface which you can implement, in case you want to work through your existing user accounts mechanism.
Giveaways: Writing Secure Code (2 copies), Introducing Microsoft ASP.NET 2.0 book (2 copies), some tool kit.
For more on GANG, go to http://www.migang.org.
BONUS UPDATE: After the giveaway, Drew gave more demos, mostly of the Master Pages stuff. (The meeting theoretically ends at 8:30 p.m.; but we stay until the MS contact guy throws us out. And since the MS contact guy is Drew Robbins, we could be here a while!) I missed most of his start, because I just got a call that my Mom is in the hospital with acute pancreatitis.
Demo: creating content placeholders, and then creating content elements to fill those elements. Manoman, I sweated and sweated to try to get all of those non-commercial blog engines to work before signing up with PowerBlogs (who are giving me fine service, don't get me wrong); and here ASP.NEt 2.0 gives me all the features I would need, all really easy to use. Cool, cool, cool!
Topic: ASP.NET 2.0.
70% reduction in code size for our apps.
Project Architectire:
* Project-less Development. Easier to manage (according to some people; I don't see it).
* Code Separation. Code beside, not code behind.
* Dynamic Compilation. Can browse to the pages without requiring compilation.
* Pre-Compilation of Applications.
Data Sources and Controls
* Easier data binding.
* Flexible.
* New controls: GridView, DetailsView.
Master Pages: Control look and feel of site with a single set of Master Pages. (Sounds like templates to me! Also sounds long overdue.) Cleaner than User Controls, and works in design, not code.
Navigation
* Easy creation of SiteMaps.
* Create TreeViews and Breadcrumbs (?).
Security
* Integrated Membership, Role Manager
* Cookieless authentication.
* Personalization: flexible profile storage,
* Themes: Create user selectable themes. Can work with CSS. (Sorta server-side CSS.)
Web Parts and Portals
* Modular Content.
* Rich User Experience.
* Compatible with SharePoint (future), Content Management Server, and Office 2003.
Caching: SqlcacheDependency lets SQL database invalidate the cache automatically.
* Cross-Page Posting.
* Validation.
* Wizard Framework. Lets you create wizards easily.
* Client-Side Scripting, including Client Callbacks.
New Controls (Even More!)
* Bulleted List
* File Upload
* Hidden Field
* Table
* MultiView and View
* ImageMap
New Events in Lifecycle
* PreInit
* PreLoad
* LoadComplete
* PreRenderComplete
Demo...
What an embarassment! The Microsoft projectors and screens have an automated timer: just in case someone forgets and leaves the system running, the projectors turn off and the screens roll up at 8 p.m.... right in time for the start of Drew's presentation. Now we have to wait for it all to warm up again...
HTML View now supports drag-and-drop from the designer toolbox.
Demonstrating dynamic compile. Pretty slick!
Code-beside: much sparser than Code-behind. Relies on Partial classes. Replaces the kludgey inheritance mechanism from 1.0.
Drew struggles to write VB.NET code:
Demonstrating new data source controls and binding. A page viewing rows from a database, with paging and sorting, in under 5 minutes and maybe 5 lines of HTML. (NO code-beside/behind/whatever!)
Added editing with two minutes, two lines of HTML, no code!
I don't believe that 70% reduction in code figure. It looks like almost 95% of the ASP.NET code I ever wrote won't be needed anymore!
Adding a filter to the data view. Looks like maybe four to five lines of HTML. Oops! First HTTP error. Not bad, really.
Defining SQL query parameters in the HTML, and then tying them to controls. Again, no code!
Applying themese automatically. Simple, simple, simple!
Administration pages added to the site automatically. Allows config, membership, etc. Can easily add log-in pages, registration option, Get My Password, etc.
My word, when can I start using this stuff?
Member security (as above) is normally in an automatically generated SQL Server Express database. Can be stored in your database instead. And is accessed via an interface which you can implement, in case you want to work through your existing user accounts mechanism.
Giveaways: Writing Secure Code (2 copies), Introducing Microsoft ASP.NET 2.0 book (2 copies), some tool kit.
For more on GANG, go to http://www.migang.org.
BONUS UPDATE: After the giveaway, Drew gave more demos, mostly of the Master Pages stuff. (The meeting theoretically ends at 8:30 p.m.; but we stay until the MS contact guy throws us out. And since the MS contact guy is Drew Robbins, we could be here a while!) I missed most of his start, because I just got a call that my Mom is in the hospital with acute pancreatitis.
Demo: creating content placeholders, and then creating content elements to fill those elements. Manoman, I sweated and sweated to try to get all of those non-commercial blog engines to work before signing up with PowerBlogs (who are giving me fine service, don't get me wrong); and here ASP.NEt 2.0 gives me all the features I would need, all really easy to use. Cool, cool, cool!
