Search Engine Marketing - PPC Management Services

Web Applications with C# and Visual Web Developer

Web Apps with C# and Visual Web Developer

Let's get started

Ok, so you've downloaded Visual Web dev and all supporting tools like SQLExpress AJAX etc. Now you want to get started and start writing code. Surprisingly in Visual studio you can do lot without even writing a single line of code. Well here we go! What we will do is something very simple at first, but as we move along it will develop into something more significant. You have to craw before you can walk, walk before you can run. We will create a web site or web application that will show you the workflow (steps, process, etc) of a typical web application. Ok so it will be the most famous application ever created in the world. Care to take a guess. "Hello World". Whoever did that should have patented it, they would have made millions. It may be simple but there are some basic and foundational things to learn that will put you in good stead as we carry on in these tutorials.

OK so open Visual Web Developer (VWD) or Visual Studio (VS). We will now create a new project and solution. Notice that you can create a project from two different places. When VWD opens you will notice a start page with different windowed type sections. One of them being a "Recent projects". Which will list, obviously you recent projects, then at the bottom of that section you are able to open or create new projects. You can also do so by using the menu. Choosing File -> New -> Project. A new project window will open. You will notice two sections, one project types. This being self explanatory, allows you to create different project types. You will also notice that you have a choice of which language you can develop in. We will choose C#. So under c# choose the project type of "Web". To the left of that section you will notice a Template section. These are templates supplied by MS, third parties or yourself that when chosen give you a project with some pre-written code, suiting the template chosen, with in which you develop your application. SO there will be different template for each project type. Go ahead and select "ASP.Net web application. Also, notice that near the top right hand corner, you will see a button labelled ".NET Framework 3.5". Clicking that button you will notice a dropdown list with some other version of the framework. This is framework targeting. It allows you to target a certain framework. SO if you choose .NET 2.0, then your application will target that framework. What this means is that you won't have access to any of the higher framework functionality, like LINQ, etc. SO for the time being leave it at .NET 3.5. Then at the bottom is where we can name our project and solution and set its location and a few other things, which are not important at this moment. So you can name the project and solution now, or just leave the defaults, which is what I am going to do. Click "OK" to get started

The first thing you will notice is that you get presented with the VWD IDE. You will also notice a tabbed interface, of which one of the, the currently selected one is Default.aspx. A web site and web page is created based on the template, "web", that we selected. You will also notice a few other windows, one of which is the solution explorer on the right hand side. If it's not there, you can invoke by going to the menu and choosing View->Solution Explorer, or pressing cntrl-alt-L key combination. In the solution explorer you will notice the solution and project structure. Also you will see the Default.aspx file. The aspx extension denotes to the .net runtime engine that will handle the post backs that will come from our web users. It lets the engine know that it will be responsible for this page.

As I mentioned before the Default.aspx page is automatically opened in our main area and can be selected by selecting the tabs on the top. What we have in line 1 is something that does not look like anything like HTML. But everything else looks pretty much like what you will see in an HTML document. You have html tags, head tags, body tags, div tags, etc. Also note that we are currently looking at the source view of our web page, also denoted by the currently selected button tab at the bottom of the main window are. There you will notice two other buttons Design and split. Click the design tag, brings you to a WISIWIG design interface, similar to what you might get in any WISIWIG Web authoring tool, like FrontPage or Expression. You can drag and drop visual elements and work with a more graphical view of you web page. Then the split button takes this one step further, where the source view and design view are split within the same workspace. SO you can easily see what source is responsible for which graphical component. Making changes in the design view will make changes in the source and vice-versa. I tend to work in the split view, but the choice is yours. To the left you might also see the toolbar window. Once again if it's not there you can get it by using the menu, View->Tool box or the ctrl+alt+L key combination.

Our First Web App.

Ok, what we want to do now is go to the tool box and drag some controls onto the Design surface. So from the toolbox, under the standard tab, drag a label and a button to the design surface. Both controls will be place right next to each other. Using your arrow keys twice, place the curser caret between the label and button, press enter to move the button to the next line.

This is where the separation comes from building just another HTML page. Notice that it is not all that different from developing windows forms. Where you can visual design a form, place controls on that form, set properties, create events etc.

So double click on the button. You will notice another page appear. This will be filled with C# code. This code looks very similar to the code behind file of a windows application. If you have been doing the windows tutorials you will notice the similarities. Notice also, that we get an event handler that looks similar to a button click event handler on a windows form. These are no different to the onclick events found in dbase forms. Ain't it amazing that we can get event handlers in web forms AKA web pages. We will see how theses work later on. This enables us to write C# code for events that take place or are raised by our web form, this make the web page highly interactive, and enables us to mimic certain windows forms behaviour. This file is named default.aspx.cs. In our solution explorer you will find it in a tree hierarchy under the default .aspx, denoting a supporting dependency between the two.

In the code behind file, pace you care between the two curly braces under the Button1_Click event. The braces denot the beginning and end of the function. Curly braces are used extensibly in C# denoting the begin and end of code block. We will find out more about this later. So now we can start typing C# code. Start by typing Label1. Keep in mind that C# is a type safe language, which means that it is case sensitive. SO the label id is Lable1. Note as you start typing, the intellisense window starts up. Whats intellisense for anyway you might ask. Well if you ever tried to see all the properties methods events etc of the dotnet framework, there is no way you can remember it all. Itellisense helps us to navigate throu tons of stuff that is irrelevent and also helps us find stuff that we might have forgotton. You can either choose to type the full name of the control, or select it. The type a dot '.' Intellisense pops upo again. Now you can shoose methods and properties that belong to the label. SO what we are going to do is type: Label1.Text = "Hello World"; Dont forget the line termination character for c# the semi-colon ";". What are we doing, we are setting the text property of the lable to "Hello world". Similar to the text property in a windows forms application. What this does is everytime someone clicks the button the text property of the label will be changed to "Hello world". Test the application by click the play button next to the debug dropdown or pres F5 function key.

You will get a message box. This happens each and every time you run a application for the first time. All it telling you that you dont have debug property set in you config file set.It give you the opertunity to have the IDE automatically set that, or for you to not run with debugging. Choose ok, we will explain this and the web config file at a later stage.

The browser opens, but notice a balloon message on the status bar. Stating as ASP.Net Development server and a random port number. This is a development web server, similar to IIS. It is the default for VS and VWD. This is so that you can develop web apps even if you do not have IIS. It is also much lighter that IIS. You will notice that in the address bar is the web address where you web app is hosted. This being the local server (Casini) on a random port.

In your browser click on the button. Notice that when you do, the text Label1 is changed to "Hello world". SO we have an interactive application. We are able to write real C# code. WE are able to design web forms similar to that of windows forms. We will see how all this works later on.

Pretty cool hey. We are able to leverage C# skills in developing web applications, by being able to drag and drop controls from the toolbox to the design surface. Just like in windows forms development. We are able to dounle click on various controls then write C# code to handle events. And then we are able to deliver to the user a very interactive web based application.

But how does this all work behind the seens.

To be Continued ......

Robert Bravery is a programmer, first stated out with dBASEIII, moved to C# and web development and loving it. Stay In South Africa, work from home, developing and hosting websites. Website Design and Development

MORE ARTICLES:

Search Engine Optimization Firm, Brick Marketing Revises Search Engine Optimization Service
Brick Marketing, an internet marketing company, has recently revised and re-launched their search engine optimization services to adjust with growing trends. Brick Marketing has acknowledged that a revision of this product and the way it was offered to our clients had to be revised in order to stay competitive with other agencies. Potential customers can now be accustomed to similar pricing strategies has other players in the industry. The online marketing industry is a very fast moving industry with changes occurring sometimes over night. In order for firms and consultants to stay in a competitive range a watchful eye must be kept on all offerings in order to be able to provide only the best solution for clients.

Atlanta Search Engine Marketing Firm Prominent Placement is Finalist for Three American Marketing Association Awards
Prominent Placement, Inc., a leading Atlanta search engine marketing firm, received three Atlanta Marketer of the Year (AMY) Finalist Awards from the American Marketing Association (AMA). All three of the firm's entries were selected as finalists out of 130 total submissions.

Internet Marketing Agency Reveals Search Engine Optimization Secrets
If your web site doesn't have a Top 10 search engine ranking, you're missing out on approximately 85% of the Internet users who are looking for the exact products or services you offer.

Search Engine Optimization Company Announces Expansion in Business and New Marketing Strategy
Within the past two years Keyword Performance LLC, a creative search engine marketing firm, has tripled in size, offering new services and gaining large company recognition.

Icelandic Internet Marketing Firm Invited to Speak at London's Search Engine Strategies Conference
Nordic eMarketing's Director of Internet Marketing, Kristjan Mar Hauksson, has been invited to present at the Search Engine Strategies Conference and Expo 2007 in London, England.

Internet Marketing Expert Shows How Search Engine Optimization and RSS Can Boost Public Relations Visibility
TopRank CEO Lee Odden to Speak at Bulldog Reporter's Advanced Public Relations Technology in Practice Event

SEO Link Building and Copywriting Service Relaunched by Search Engine Optimization Firm Brick Marketing
Brick Marketing has realized the importance of incorporating and combining link building into all aspects of online marketing for each of their clients. They have since re-launched their link building service for those interested in introducing online marketing in their business model.

BrainPulse Technologies: Launches Advanced Internet Marketing / Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Services
BrainPulse has stepped forward to revolutionize Internet marketing and SEO Services to help global businesses achieve their internet marketing goals effectively and in a planned strategical manner to enhance the marketing campaing effectiveness and maximize the return on investments.

Why PPC And SEO (Search Engine Optimization) Are The Most Popular Web Site Promotion Methods
There has to be a reason why PPC (pay-per-click) ads and SEO (search engine optimization) are the two most popular website promotion tools on the World Wide Web today. As a matter of fact, it is not too difficult to figure out why these two website promotional methods are so popular. It is quite simple ? they work. Actually they are very fast and effective in getting traffic to a web site. Internet Marketing can be overwhelming for some but if you leave it to the reputable professionals you can expect great results. Picture this situation. You select a few keywords come up with some attractive headlines and then launch a PPC ad campaign with Google Adwords. The next thing you know is that your site is receiving a steady flow of traffic...

New Law Firm Marketing Subsidiary Combines Web Design and Search Engine Optimization for Lawyers
For over a year, Adviatech has been providing web design and search engine optimization for lawyers. Now they have launched a subsidiary to specialize on the niche service.

SpiderSplat.com Expands Search Engine Marketing to Include Social Media Optimization Services (SMO Consultant)
SpiderSplat, a leading provider of Search Engine Marketing, Pay-per-Click marketing and Keyword syndicated press releases, has expanded its offering to now include Social Media Optimization services. This new service called the SMO Consultant, offers clients the ability to have the opportunity to dramatically increase traffic and turn visitors into paying customers when used with SpiderSplat's SEM services.

Bill Casey Opens Full-Service Web Site Design, Development and Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Firm
New Atlanta web site design and SEO firm gives small and medium sized businesses a simple and effective path to creative, profitable web sites. Bill Casey Consulting provides all the web services a business needs, gauges its success on the profitability of its clients' sites, and streamlines the development process to lessen client burdens.

Search Engine Marketing Agency, Target Marketing Solutions, Announces Four New SEM/SEO/PPC Clients
More and more companies are utilizing search engine marketing as a key advertising strategy for reaching potential customers. Through the use of website analytics, search engine marketing provides trackable and actionable data to maximize advertising effectiveness.

Engine77 -- Search Engine Internet Optimization Firm Unveils New SEO Technology and Service
Infinidigm, Inc., a search engine optimization, search engine marketing, and software development firm, announces its cornerstone search engine marketing and search engine optimization technology-based service called Engine77. Engine77 is a robust software platform and service used to optimize web sites, perform market research, and develop sites based upon the analysis.

Local Search Engine Marketing Expert to Speak at Search Engine Strategies Conference in Chicago
Janet Driscoll Miller, a local leading search engine marketing expert, will be speaking at the Search Engine Strategies Conference in Chicago on Monday, December 4, 2006. Miller is the president and CEO of Search Mojo, a search engine marketing firm.