ASP.NET 3.5 - An Overview

On November 19, 2007, Microsoft officially released the ASP.NET version 3.5 and Visual Studio 2008. The core assemblies installed from the .NET Framework version 2.0 are still used by the 3.0 and 3.5 versions. ASP.NET 3.5 doesn't change or take away or break any functionality, concepts, or code present in 2.0 - it simply adds new types and features and capabilities to the framework.

The .NET Framework version 3.5 includes enhancements for ASP.NET in the following areas:

• New server controls, types, and a client-script library that work together to enable you to develop AJAX-style Web applications.

• Extension of server-based forms authentication, roles management, and profile services as Web services that can be consumed by Web-based applications.

• A new EntityDataSource control that exposes the Entity Data Model through the ASP.NET data source control architecture.

• A new ListView data control that displays data and that provides a highly customizable UI.

• A new LinqDataSource control that exposes Language-Integrated Query (LINQ) through the ASP.NET data source control architecture.

• A new merge tool (Aspnet_merge.exe) that merges precompiled assemblies to support flexible deployment and release management. This feature is not available in Visual Web Developer Express Edition.

There are three new features worth noting in ASP.NET 3.5:

• Integrated ASP.NET AJAX support,
• The ListView control, and
• The DataPager control

The .NET Framework version 3.5 is also integrated with IIS 7.0. You can now use ASP.NET services such as forms authentication and caching for all content types, not just ASP.NET Web pages (.aspx files). This is because ASP.NET and IIS 7.0 use the same request pipeline. The unified request processing pipeline means that you can use managed code to develop HTTP pipeline modules that work with all requests in IIS. In addition, IIS and ASP.NET modules and handlers now support unified configuration

AJAX Development

The .NET Framework version 3.5 enables you to create Web applications that feature next-generation user interfaces with reusable client components. The AJAX server-based and client-based programming models feature the following:

• Server controls that support server-based AJAX development. This includes the ScriptManager, UpdatePanel, UpdateProgress, and Timer controls.

• The Microsoft AJAX Library, which supports client-based, object-oriented development that is browser independent.

• Server classes that enable you to develop server controls that map to custom client components whose events and properties are set declaratively.

• Support for script globalization and localization by using client script.

• Access to Web services and to ASP.NET authentication, roles management, and profile application services.

The .NET Framework version 3.5 enables you to easily enable asynchronous partial-page updates in a page, which avoids the overhead of full-page postbacks.

Lot more to explore with asp.net 3.5.. more to come... stay tuned...