ASP.NET Supports Web Services
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Today, Dwight takes us through the ASP.NET features that you can apply immediately to your projects. If you're reluctant to learn .NET because of it's complexities, then this article serves as a great introduction to all the features you'll need to get up and running on .NET programming.
One of our primary obligations as developers is finding new and better ways of developing Web services to meet the consumer’s constantly evolving needs. As new technologies emerge, investigating new tools and learning to use them to both optimize your time and improve your methods of building web-oriented, enterprise applications and web services is challenging and exciting.
When Microsoft.NET released the .NET Framework, many developers felt overwhelmed by the vastness and power of this innovative set of technologies that facilitates interoperability between programming languages and supports Web services. The Framework plays host to a multi-faceted and component-based collection of namespaces containing classes that support application integration. Because classic ASP is a universally accepted technology of choice for building web services, it seems logical to begin with ASP.NET in learning .NET.
A typical first concern for most programmers might be: “what benefits do I receive by migrating to ASP.NET from classic ASP? Classic ASP provides practically everything I need to build Web services.” However, like every existing technology, there are drawbacks to each. For example, classic ASP is interpreted and impacts on efficient performance. Does ASP.NET address this issue? Another question immediately comes to mind: how many familiar classic ASP features have Microsoft retained in the new release?” This question raises concerns for developers because re-orienting oneself to another mindset is a time consuming, critical issue. Fortunately, ASP.NET has resolved these issues and many others to the benefit of all developers. ASP.NET retains many classic ASP features such as Request and Response, as well as the familiar Application.Session, and Server objects. You can still use the <SCRIPT RUNAT=”Server”>, or the ubiquitous <% %> ASP script delimiter. Perhaps the best feature allows classic ASP and ASP.NET to run side-by-side. This is great news because you can continue to program in your familiar environment using everything you feel comfortable with, while learning and enjoying the new enhancements contained within ASP.NET. The learning curve is well worth the effort.
Frequently, I lecture to both academic and IT professionals who are reluctant to learn .NET because of its complexities. They are baffled about where to begin learning this vast technology. Although this question is difficult to answer because it addresses many issues, let’s begin by examining the .NET Framework, version 1.0. The Common Language Runtime (CLR) acts as a container (similar to IBM’s Websphere) providing many low-level services such as automatic memory management, garbage collection, connection pooling, and security. The Common Type Specification (CTS) defines the common data types shared by all programming languages targeting the .NET Framework, whereas the Common Language Specification (CLS) provides guidelines to third party vendors on how to adhere to its specifications in order to receive support from the Framework. It is essential to understand their role before you can become fully productive. You may want to refer to some of the many informative articles and books written on this subject.(1)
So let’s focus on ASP.NET features we can apply immediately to our projects. If you are like me, it is exciting to jump in and see some immediate results.
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