Visual Studio 2005
The Toolbox
One of the first changes you notice when you open this latest release of Visual Studio is a change in the Toolbox. The controls in the IDE are now presented in a hierarchical manner. This change was made because of the tremendous number of new controls in ASP.NET 2.0. The Toolbox is shown in Figure 2-10.
Figure 2-10
Because of the number of new controls (somewhere around 50), they have been organized into sections in the Toolbox. The new control sections include those shown in the following table.
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Chapter 2
Control Section |
Controls the Section Contains |
|
|
Core |
This main control section contains the standard <asp:> controls, |
|
such as TextBox, Button, and other core controls. |
Data |
Includes all the controls that deal with the retrieval and display of data |
|
that comes from a data store of some kind. Therefore, this section |
|
includes all the data source controls (SqlDataSource, AccessDataSource, |
|
and more), as well as the data display controls, such as GridView and |
|
DetailsView. |
Personalization |
Includes all the controls that deal with the new personalization fea- |
|
tures provided by ASP.NET 2.0, including all the WebPart controls |
|
such as WebPartManager and WebPartZone. |
Security |
Contains all controls that deal with adding user login and password |
|
capabilities to your ASP.NET applications, such as Login, LoginView, |
|
and LoginStatus. |
Validation |
Includes all the validation controls that have always been a part of |
|
ASP.NET, such as RequiredFieldValidator and RegularExpression- |
|
Validator. |
Navigation |
Includes controls that enable end users to work through a collection |
|
of ASP.NET pages, including SiteMapPath, Menu, and TreeView. |
Crystal Reports |
Includes all controls that enable users to work with Crystal Reports. |
HTML |
Includes the HTML server controls that have been a part of ASP.NET |
|
since the beginning. The names of these controls, however, have |
|
changed. |
General |
Contains only a pointer, although you are free to use this section for |
|
your own custom developed controls. (You can also create a com- |
|
pletely new control section if you choose.) |
|
|
One feature that has always been present in Visual Studio, but makes more sense now that so many new controls have been added, enables you to turn off the List View of the controls. Doing this causes the Toolbox to show the controls simply as icons (see Figure 2-11).
Right-click in the section of the Toolbox you want to change and deselect List View. This changes the view only for those controls in the section where you right-clicked. Each section in the Toolbox maintains its own settings.
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Visual Studio 2005
Figure 2-11
The Solution Explorer
The Solution Explorer is still located where it was in previous versions of Visual Studio. The Solution Explorer, shown in Figure 2-12, provides you with an organized view of the projects in your application.
Figure 2-12
The toolbar at the top of the Solution Explorer still enables you to do many of the same tasks that you could perform in previous versions of Visual Studio, but this latest release of Visual Studio has some additional buttons on the toolbar. Figure 2-13 shows you the toolbar with a description of the items it contains.
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Chapter 2
Un–nest Related Files
View Designer
Unhide All |
ASP.NET Configuration |
Refresh |
Copy Web Site |
View Code
Add New Solution Folder
Figure 2-13
The Un-nest Related Files button is a new feature in the Solution Explorer that enables you to undo the nesting found in ASP.NET pages that are developed using code-behind files. By default when working with code-behind files, you click the plus sign next to the .aspx page to expose the code-behind file (.aspx.vb or .aspx.cs). Un-nesting these files puts them all on the same hierarchical level.
Another new button in the Solution Explorer is the Copy Web Site button. This opens up a new dialog in the Document Window that enables you to copy your application from one point to another. This dialog is shown in Figure 2-14.
Figure 2-14
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Visual Studio 2005
Using this dialog, you can copy your projects to a different place on the same server or to an entirely different server. You can now enjoy easy file movements and synchronization between two projects.
A final new button in the toolbar is the ASP.NET Configuration button that pulls up the ASP.NET configuration page for your selected application within the Document Window. This configuration system is discussed in detail in Chapter 14.
The Ser ver Explorer
The Server Explorer is one of the more valuable windows within Visual Studio. This window can now be found on a separate tab next to the Solution Explorer. The Server Explorer (shown in Figure 2-15) enables you to perform a number of functions, such as working with database connectivity and performance monitoring and interacting with event logs.
Figure 2-15
The Proper ties Window
The Properties Window is also relatively unchanged from the previous versions of Visual Studio. This window (shown in Figure 2-16) enables you to work with and control the properties of any item that is part of your application. After an item is selected, or if the cursor is focused on an item in the Code view of your ASP.NET page, the properties of that particular item are shown in the Properties Window.
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