What's New in .NET 2.0- big picture

ASP.NET is a programming framework built on the common language runtime that can be used on a server to build powerful Web applications. The first version of ASP.NET offered several important advantages over previous Web development models. ASP.NET 2.0 improves upon that foundation by adding support for several new and exciting features in the areas of developer productivity, administration and management, extensibility, and performance:

Experts from Hanu software Solutions are keeping close eye on recent developments in this technology .We will discuss each area in detail and let our readers know that what new .Net 2.0 is offering to its loyals. First is the turn of developer productivity….

Developer Productivity

ASP.NET 2.0 encapsulates common Web tasks into application services and controls that can be easily reused across web sites. With these basic building blocks, many scenarios can now be implemented with far less custom code than was required in previous versions. With ASP.NET 2.0 it is possible to significantly reduce the amount of code and concepts necessary to build common scenarios on the web.

• New Server Controls. ASP.NET 2.0 introduces many new server controls that enable powerful declarative support for data access, login security, wizard navigation, menus, treeviews, portals, and more. Many of these controls take advantage of core application services in ASP.NET for scenarios like data access, membership and roles, and personalization. Some of the new families of controls in ASP.NET 2.0 are described below.
• Data Controls. Data access in ASP.NET 2.0 can be accomplished completely declaratively (no code) using the new data-bound and data source controls. There are new data source controls to represent different data backends such as SQL database, business objects, and XML, and there are new data-bound controls for rendering common UI for data, such as gridview, detailsview, and formview..
• Navigation Controls. The navigation controls provide common UI for navigating between pages in your site, such as treeview, menu, and sitemappath. These controls use the site navigation service in ASP.NET 2.0 to retrieve the custom structure you have defined for your site.
• Login Controls. The new login controls provide the building blocks to add authentication and authorization-based UI to your site, such as login forms, create user forms, password retrieval, and custom UI for logged in users or roles. These controls use the built-in membership and role services in ASP.NET 2.0 to interact with the user and role information defined for your site.
• Web Part Controls. Web parts are an exciting new family of controls that enable you to add rich, personalized content and layout to your site, as well as the ability to edit that content and layout directly from your application pages. These controls rely on the personalization services in ASP.NET 2.0 to provide a unique experience for each user in your application.
• Master Pages. This feature provides the ability to define common structure and interface elements for your site, such as a page header, footer, or navigation bar, in a common location called a "master page", to be shared by many pages in your site. In one simple place you can control the look, feel, and much of functionality for an entire Web site. This improves the maintainability of your site and avoids unnecessary duplication of code for shared site structure or behavior.
• Themes and Skins. The themes and skins features in ASP.NET 2.0 allow for easy customization of your site's look-and-feel. You can define style information in a common location called a "theme", and apply that style information globally to pages or controls in your site. Like Master Pages, this improves the maintainability of your site and avoid unnecessary duplication of code for shared styles.
• Personalization. Using the new personalization services in ASP.NET 2.0 you can easily create customized experiences within Web applications. The Profile object enables developers to easily build strongly-typed, sticky data stores for user accounts and build highly customized, relationship based experiences. At the same time, a developer can leverage Web Parts and the personalization service to enable Web site visitors to completely control the layout and behavior of the site, with the knowledge that the site is completely customized for them. Personalizaton scenarios are now easier to build than ever before and require significantly less code and effort to implement.
• Localization. Enabling globalization and localization in Web sites today is difficult, requiring large amounts of custom code and resources. ASP.NET 2.0 and Visual Studio 2005 provide tools and infrastructure to easily build Localizable sites including the ability to auto-detect incoming locale's and display the appropriate locale based UI. Visual Studio 2005 includes built-in tools to dynamically generate resource files and localization references. Together, building localized applications becomes a simple and integrated part of the development experience.