ASP.NET 2.0 Everyday Apps For Dummies (2006)

	Table of Contents		xv
Building the Master Page ............................................................................		238
Building the Menu Page ..............................................................................		239
Building the Category Maintenance Page .................................................		240
The CatMaint.aspx file .......................................................................		240
The code-behind file for the Catalog Maintenance page...............		245
Building the Product Maintenance Page ...................................................		249
The ProdMaint.aspx file.....................................................................		249
The code-behind file for the Product Maintenance page..............		265
Chapter 8: Building a Report Application . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .		. .269
The Application’s User Interface................................................................		270
Designing the Application...........................................................................		271
Building the Database..................................................................................		272
Designing the database......................................................................		272
Creating the database ........................................................................		274
Adding test data .................................................................................		274
SQL statements to retrieve the order data .....................................		275
Connecting to the database ..............................................................		276
Building the Master Page ............................................................................		276
Building the Order User Control ................................................................		277
Building the Default Page ............................................................................		283
The Default.aspx file ..........................................................................		283
The code-behind file for the default page .......................................		284
Building the Print Order page.....................................................................		286
Part V: Building Community Applications ...................		287
Chapter 9: Building a Content Management System . . . . . . . . . . .		. .289
Making Some Basic Decisions ....................................................................		289
The Content Management System’s User Interface.................................		291
The Login page ...................................................................................		292
The Home page...................................................................................		292
The Department Home page .............................................................		293
The Content List page........................................................................		294
The Content Detail page ....................................................................		295
Designing the Database ...............................................................................		297
The Departments table......................................................................		297
The ContentTypes table ....................................................................		298
The ContentItems table .....................................................................		298
Creating the Database .................................................................................		299
Adding Test Data ..........................................................................................		301
SQL statements for working with the database .............................		302
Connecting to the database ..............................................................		303
Creating the User Accounts ........................................................................		303
Building the Master Page ............................................................................		304
Building the Login Page...............................................................................		307
Building the Home Page ..............................................................................		308

xvi	ASP.NET 2.0 Everyday Apps For Dummies

Building the Department Home Page ........................................................	309
Building the Content List Page ...................................................................	313
The List.aspx file ................................................................................	314
The code-behind file for the Content List page ..............................	317
Building the Content Detail Page ...............................................................	318
The Detail.aspx file.............................................................................	319
The code-behind file for the Content Detail page ..........................	325
Chapter 10: Building a Web Forum . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .	329
Designing the Forum Application...............................................................	329
The User Interface for the Forum Application .........................................	331
The Forum Home page ......................................................................	331
The Threads page...............................................................................	332
The Messages page ............................................................................	332
The New Thread page........................................................................	334
The Post Reply page ..........................................................................	334
Designing the Database ...............................................................................	335
The Forums table ...............................................................................	335
The Topics table .................................................................................	336
The Threads table ..............................................................................	337
The Messages table............................................................................	338
Creating the Database .................................................................................	338
Adding Test Data ..........................................................................................	340
SQL statements for working with the database .............................	341
Connecting to the database ..............................................................	342
Building the Master Page ............................................................................	342
Building the Forum Home Page..................................................................	343
The Default.aspx page .......................................................................	344
The code-behind file for the Forum Home page.............................	346
Building the Threads Page ..........................................................................	350
The Threads.aspx page......................................................................	350
The code-behind file for the Threads page.....................................	353
Building the Messages Page........................................................................	355
The Messages.aspx page ...................................................................	355
The code-behind file for the Messages page ..................................	359
Building the New Thread Page ...................................................................	360
The NewThread.aspx page................................................................	361
The code-behind file for the New Thread page ..............................	363
Building the New Message Page.................................................................	367
The NewMessage.aspx page .............................................................	368
The code-behind file for the New Message page............................	371
Chapter 11: Building a Blog Application . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .	375
Designing the Blog Application ..................................................................	375
Designing the User Interface.......................................................................	376
The Blog Home page ..........................................................................	376
The Blog page .....................................................................................	378
The Comments page ..........................................................................	379
The Leave Comment page .................................................................	379

	Table of Contents		xvii
The Login page ...................................................................................		380
The Register page...............................................................................		381
The My Blogs page .............................................................................		381
The New Post page.............................................................................		383
Designing the Database ...............................................................................		383
The Blogs table ...................................................................................		384
The Posts table ...................................................................................		384
The Comments table..........................................................................		385
Creating the Database .................................................................................		386
Adding test data .................................................................................		388
SQL statements for working with the database .............................		389
Connecting to the database ..............................................................		390
Building the Master Page ............................................................................		390
Building the Blog Home Page .....................................................................		392
Building the Blog Page.................................................................................		395
The Blog.aspx page ............................................................................		395
The code-behind file for the Blog page............................................		399
Building the Comments Page......................................................................		402
The Comments.aspx page .................................................................		402
The code-behind file for the Comments page.................................		405
Building the Leave Comment Page ............................................................		407
The Comment.aspx page ...................................................................		407
The code-behind file for the Leave Comment page		.......................409
Building the Login Page...............................................................................		410
Building the Register Page ..........................................................................		411
Building the My Blogs Page ........................................................................		412
The MyBlogs.aspx page .....................................................................		413
The code-behind file for the My Blogs page ...................................		416
Building the New Post Page ........................................................................		418
The NewPost.aspx page.....................................................................		418
The code-behind file for the New Post page ...................................		421
Part VI: The Part of Tens............................................		423
Chapter 12: Ten New Features of ASP.NET 2.0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .		425
The New Code-Behind Model .....................................................................		426
App_ Folders.................................................................................................		427
Master Pages.................................................................................................		428
Creating a Master Page ......................................................................		429
Completing a Master Page.................................................................		430
Creating a Content page ....................................................................		431
New Data Controls .......................................................................................		432
The SqlDataSource control ...............................................................		433
The GridView control.........................................................................		436
The DetailsView control ....................................................................		438
The FormView Control.......................................................................		439
Login Controls ..............................................................................................		440

xviii ASP.NET 2.0 Everyday Apps For Dummies

The Wizard Control......................................................................................	440
The Generics Feature...................................................................................	441
The Web Site Administration Tool .............................................................	443
Chapter 13: Ten Rookie Mistakes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .	. .445
Coding Too Soon ..........................................................................................	445
Skimping On Documentation......................................................................	446
Inadequate Testing.......................................................................................	447
Abusing State Features ................................................................................	447
Not Validating Input Data ............................................................................	448
Reinventing the Wheel.................................................................................	448
Not Asking for Help......................................................................................	449
Chapter 14: Ten Database Design Tips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .	. .451
Use the Right Number of Tables.................................................................	451
Avoid Repeating Data ..................................................................................	452
Avoid Redundant Data.................................................................................	452
Use a Naming Convention ...........................................................................	452
Avoid nulls ....................................................................................................	453
Avoid Secret Codes ......................................................................................	453
Use Constraints Wisely................................................................................	454
Use Triggers When Appropriate.................................................................	454
Use Stored Procedures ................................................................................	454
Appendix: About the CD.............................................	455
System Requirements ..................................................................................	455
Using the CD .................................................................................................	456
Using the Source Files .................................................................................	456
Troubleshooting...........................................................................................	457
Index........................................................................	459

Introduction

Welcome to ASP.NET 2.0 Everyday Apps For Dummies, the book that teaches ASP.NET 2.0 Web programming by example. In this book, you’ll find eight complete ASP.NET applications. We’re not talking trivial

Hello-World-type applications here. Instead, they’re real-world applications like shopping carts and discussion forums. You can use any of them as-is, or modify them as you see fit. So you’ve got workable stuff already included. (What a concept.)

About This Book

This book is a practical introduction to ASP.NET 2.0 Web programming. It provides you with actual working code to build the most popular types of applications on the Web. These applications enable you to:

Restrict access to registered users, for all or part of your Web site

Sell products online via your Web site

Provide back-end functions for your public Web site, such as file maintenance and reporting

Let users manage specific types of online content

Create discussion forums and blogs

ASP.NET 2.0 Everyday Apps For Dummies doesn’t pretend to be a comprehensive reference for every detail of ASP.NET programming. Instead, it takes a learn-by-example approach, under the assumption that you are already a pretty competent programmer who can best learn by seeing real-world examples. Designed using the easy-to-follow For Dummies format, this book helps you get the information you need without laboring to find it.

Conventions Used in This Book

This book has a lot of code in it. You’ll find complete listing of every line of code, both C# and Visual Basic, for each of the eight applications presented in this book. You’ll also find listings for supporting files such as SQL scripts to generate databases and web.config files that provide configuration information for the applications.

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Most of these listings include reference numbers that correspond to numbered explanations in the text. In most cases, these explanations apply to both the C# and the Visual Basic versions of the code. (For example, the code explanation identified with reference number 3 applies to the line indicated with reference number 3 in both the C# and the Visual Basic versions of the listing.)

To keep page-flipping to a minimum, I always present the C# version of a listing first, followed by the text that explains it, followed by the Visual Basic listing. Thus, if you’re a C# programmer, you can flip forward from your listing to the text that explains it. And if you’re a Visual Basic programmer, you can flip backward from your listing to the corresponding blow-by-blow description.

On occasion, I’ll show a console prompt along with commands you need to enter. In that case, the command is presented as follows:

sqlcmd -S localhost\SQLExpress -s createdb.sql

How This Book Is Organized

This book is divided into six parts, with two or three chapters in each part. Chapters 4 through 11 present the applications themselves. In these particular chapters, you’re going to find the same basic structure, which (hopefully) gets the following information across for each one:

A discussion of design issues for the application.

An overview of the application’s user interface, including a diagram that shows the flow of the application’s pages, along with images of each page.

A description of the design for the database used by the application, along with listings of the scripts used to create the database and populate it with sample test data.

Listings of the .aspx files for each of the application’s pages.

Where appropriate, listings of the code-behind file in both C# and Visual Basic.

Explanations of the key parts of the listings.

If you’re up for a quick summary, the following sections offer a bird’s-eye view of what you can find in each part of the book.

Introduction 3

Part I: Introducing ASP.NET 2.0

Application Development

Chapter 1 in this part is a general introduction to ASP.NET application development. It explains bedrock concepts such as the system-development life cycle, using layered architectures in ASP.NET applications, and designing relational databases. Then Chapter 2 presents a quick introduction to building ASP.NET applications using Visual Studio 2005 or Visual Web Developer 2005 Express Edition.

Part II: Building Secure Applications

This part shows you how to build security into your applications. Chapter 3 is an introduction to ASP.NET 2.0 security. Then, behold: Chapter 4 presents the first application in this book — a user-authentication application that you can incorporate into any application that requires users to register and log in.

Part III: Building E-Commerce

Applications

This part provides two complete e-commerce applications. The first is an online product catalog that lets users view your products via a Web site. The second is a shopping-cart application that lets users purchase products. In fact, the shopping-cart application is an extension of the product-catalog application: It lets users purchase products they’ve had a chance to view via the online catalog.

Part IV: Building Back-End Applications

Just about all public Web applications have a back end that isn’t visible to the general public. This part presents two applications you’ll often need in the back end. The first is a file-maintenance application that lets you add, update, or delete records in a products database. And the second is a report application that generates reports based on data gathered from Web visitors.

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Part V: Building Community Applications

The three applications in this part let users create Web-based communities. Chapter 9 presents a content-management system for users’ Web sites; Chapter 10 presents a forum application for posting messages and replies. And Chapter 11 presents a blog application that lets users create blog articles that visitors can then read and comment upon.

Part VI: The Part of Tens

No For Dummies book would be complete without a Part of Tens. In Chapter 12, you get an overview of the most important new features of ASP.NET 2.0. If you’re an experienced ASP.NET programmer but haven’t worked with version 2.0 yet, you may want to read this chapter first to see what new features have been added for this version.

Next Chapter 13 describes ten-or-so rookie mistakes that (with any luck) you can avoid. And finally, Chapter 14 presents ten-or-so tips for designing your databases.

About the CD

The CD that’s glued into the back of this book contains all the source code for the applications presented in this book. You’ll find two versions of each application: a C# version and a Visual Basic version. The CD lets you choose which versions of the applications to install. If you want, you can install both versions of the applications; C# and VB can easily coexist within the same ASP.NET system. (Although it’s uncommon, C# and VB can even coexist within the same ASP.NET application.)

Icons Used in This Book

Like any For Dummies book, this book is chock-full of helpful icons that draw your attention to items of particular importance. You find the following icons throughout this book:

Pay special attention to this icon; it lets you know that some particularly useful tidbit is at hand.

Introduction 5

Did I tell you about the memory course I took?

Danger, Will Robinson! This icon highlights information that may help you avert disaster.

Watch out! Some technical drivel is just around the corner. Read it only if you have your pocket protector firmly attached.

Where to Go from Here

Yes, you can get there from here. With this book in hand, you’re ready to get right to the task of creating ASP.NET 2.0 Web applications. Browse through the table of contents and decide which type of application interests you most. Then, jump in and hang on. Be bold! Be courageous! Be adventurous! And above all, have fun!

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