Table of Contents

This book is made up of the following ten chapters with a sample project for each chapter:

Chapter 1: Getting Started

This chapter starts with preparing the development environment that will be used throughout the book. Then it moves into managing and configuring the provider services and finally creating users and roles.

Chapter 2: Data Model Choices

There are many ways to access the database from ASP.NET, so this chapter looks into those choices and explains how to decide what to use in different situations as well as the reasons why.

Chapter 3: Database Management

Many ASP.NET developers do not leverage the tools that are available in Visual Studio that make it very easy to manage the tables, stored procedures, and other resources that are in the database. This chapter walks through how to use a Database Project to manage the scripts to create tables and stored procedures as well as manage the indexes and constraints. Finally, it covers how you can test changes to the database regularly to ensure your application and database stay in sync.

Chapter 4: Databound Controls

ASP.NET has a broad collection of databound controls, and this chapter goes over the ones that you will use the most and then digs into techniques you can employ to minimize the amount of code that you would place in the code-behind files. Then it covers how to create a databound control from the ground up and walks through how every part works including the use of ViewStateand ControlState.

Chapter 5: SQL Providers

The provider model is very useful, and this chapter covers the three most used providers. It then covers the creation of a completely custom SQL Photo Album provider that works with a custom SQL SiteMap provider implementation.

Chapter 6: Caching

Improving the speed of an application can be done using caching, but there are so many ways this can be done. ASP.NET does include a caching mechanism, which is covered extensively, but there are also other simpler techniques that you can leverage that can also boost performance. All of these techniques are explained.

Chapter 7: Manual Data Access Layer

A manually constructed data access layer gives you the most control and greatest flexibility, and this chapter goes through everything that you can do to produce a fully functioning website built on top of a finely tuned data access layer.

Chapter 8: Generated Data Access Layer

Instead of manually building the data access layer, you can choose to generate some or all of the data access code using various utilities that are available. This chapter covers how to use code generation to automatically create working software and then explores two powerful utilities that generate complete data access layers for your website.

Chapter 9: Deployment

Once your website is built, you will need to deploy it, and this can often be the hardest part of the job. Fortunately, there are ways to make it the easiest task. This chapter covers how to use MSBuild to automate the build and deployment of a website including the database changes.

Chapter 10: A Sample Application

The final chapter puts it all together with a sample application that starts out with an explanation of performance and scalability and then shows how all of the concerns about speed are addressed by building a highly flexible website that can adapt to changing needs.