Acknowledgments

I have said it before and I’ll say it again: Writing a book may seem like the greatest of solo endeavors, but it requires a large team of people working together to get technical books out the door—and this book is no exception. Wrox put together a top-notch team to bring information on this outstanding new technology to you as quickly as possible, as well as to ensure the highest quality content. I would first like to thank Jim Minatel, the senior acquisitions editor on the book. Thanks for letting me take on this wonderful project.

One of the biggest thanks goes to Jodi Jensen, the book’s development editor. I have worked with Jodi on numerous books, and she is by far the best development editor out there. At the start of the project, I knew how tough it was going to be and wanted the best DE I know to work with me. Jodi is simply the best there is (I even tried to get a clause added to my contract stating that she would be the DE)!

Huge thanks go to Devin Rader for his work as the book’s technical editor. Devin had to deal with the issue of the ever-changing builds, just as I did. Our conversations concerning chapters usually began “What build did you write that with?” Devin is an outstanding technical editor and has edited a bunch of my books before this one. I am indebted to him for his hard work on this project and all the projects before this. Devin, who is getting married (finally!) this fall, also works with me on INETA.

Peter Lanoie was gracious enough to donate his time to providing technical and usability feedback on several chapters, which was greatly appreciated.

Additional thanks go to Joe Wikert (Wrox publisher), Mary Lagu (copy editor extraordinaire), Jennifer Webb (marketing manager), and Brian Herrmann (development editor).

I would also like to thank Kent Sharkey, Rob Howard, Shawn Nandi, Scott Guthrie, and Brian Goldfarb—all from the ASP.NET team—for their help with all the questions I posed throughout the writing process. Thanks guys, I really do appreciate it!

I travel quite a bit for my job, and I wrote much of this manuscript during late nights in various hotels. I find it interesting to note that I started this project somewhere over the Atlantic Ocean on my way to London and finished writing it sitting on the third floor of the New York Public Library at 7 p.m. on June 10, 2004 (which is also my 10th wedding anniversary).

Unfortunately, writing takes time away from the family. I am lucky that I have the most loving and understanding wife in the world. Therefore, I thank my wife, Tuija, for putting up with my perpetual writing habit and helping me with all the loose ends that I lose track of but still need to tie up. My work would not be possible without her help and love. I also want to thank my kids—Henri Oskari and Sofia Amanda. Many times during this project, they would bustle in early on a Saturday morning and ask what I was doing. “Writing a book,” I would answer. “Ohhhhh nooooo, not another book,” they would wail. These kids kept me sane by convincing me that I had to step away from the desk and play games with them—something I wish I could do every day of the week!

Introduction to ASP.NET 2.0

The evolution of ASP.NET continues! The progression from Active Server Pages 3.0 to ASP.NET 1.0 was revolutionary, to say the least — and I am here to tell you that the evolution from ASP.NET 1.0/1.1 to ASP.NET 2.0 is just as exciting and dramatic.

The introduction of ASP.NET 1.0 changed the Web programming model, but ASP.NET 2.0 is just as revolutionary in the area of productivity. The primary goal of ASP.NET 2.0 is to enable you to build powerful, secure, and dynamic applications using the least possible amount of code. This book focuses on the astounding new capabilities that are built into ASP.NET 2.0.

In writing this book, I assume that you are already familiar with ASP.NET 1.0 or 1.1. I do not cover the basic functionality of ASP.NET provided by those releases.

This book focuses on the Beta 1 release of ASP.NET 2.0. A beta release is a software release that comes out prior to the final release of the product (the final release is often referred to as the RTM or Release to Manufacturer version). Software companies sometimes release products early as betas in hopes that the programming community will demand the features and capabilities that the release offers. The vendors also hope that the beta version will reveal any bugs in the product prior to the release of the RTM version. Therefore, be aware that you might encounter errors or bugs as you code your applications in the ASP.NET 2.0 beta release. Also be aware that the method or parameter names might change between the beta version and the RTM version. You may have to rework any ASP.NET applications built using the ASP.NET 2.0 beta when the RTM version is released. A beta, however, gives you an outstanding opportunity to gain early insight into the direction a new technology is going and to get up to speed on its use, even before it is released.