ASP.NET is a server side web application framework developed by Microsoft to allow programmers/developers develop enterprise level dynamic web applications, web services and websites.
It was first released in 2002 with .NET version 1.0 and was launch as successor of Active Server Pages (ASP) technology. ASP.NET is currently in the market in two flavors i.e. ASP.NET web forms and AP.NET web forms. ASP.NET web forms lets you build web application by simple drag of drop of controls and supports event driven model.
Its supports Rapid Application Development(RAD) and because of its event driven model its quite easy to get started on for .NET Winforms or WPF developers. The second flavor is ASP.NET MVC. ASP.NET MVC is a light weight and highly testable presentation framework integrated with existing ASP.NET features as in case of Webforms like master pages and membership based authentication. ASP.NET is based on MVC (Model View Controller) design pattern that’s makes any application development in ASP.NET MVC highly testable and maintainable.
The successor of ASP.NET is ASP.NET Core. ASP.NET is a complete rewrite uniting the previously separate ASP.NET MVC and Web API in to a single programming model. It is free and open source next generation web framework that runs on .NET Framework, Windows and cross platform .NET Core.
This article is going to focus on resources and help only for ASP.NET Webforms. We will write in next parts for ASP.NET MVC and ASP.NET Core.
As the core of ASP.NET is .NET framework that actually is the reason of ASP.NET as successor ASP. Let’s first look into .NET framework.
.NET framework is a framework by Microsoft for development of desktop to web and mobile apps. It supports multi languages letting developers of different languages work on this platform or they can work on a single project using different languages on this platform.It is one of the most powerful frameworks available today and at back of it is Microsoft and new features and updates are continuously introduced to give more and more power to developers.You must be thinking how many PCs over the globe have .NET framework installed. Here is your answer I found from hanselman blog.
“Well over 90% of the PCs in the world have some version of the .NET Framework installed.Over 65% of Windows PCs in the world have .NET 3.5 SP1 installed.”
Here is how MSDN defines it
“The .NET Framework is a technology that supports building and running the next generation of applications and XML Web services. The .NET Framework consists of the common language runtime and the .NET Framework class library. The common language runtime is the foundation of the .NET Framework. You can think of the runtime as an agent that manages code at execution time, providing core services such as memory management, thread management, and remoting, while also enforcing strict type safety and other forms of code accuracy that promote security and robustness.In fact, the concept of code management is a fundamental principle of the runtime. Code that targets the runtime is known as managed code, while code that does not target the runtime is known as unmanaged code. The class library is a comprehensive, object-oriented collection of reusable types that you can use to develop applications ranging from traditional command-line or graphical user interface (GUI) applications to applications based on the latest innovations provided by ASP.NET, such as Web Forms and XML Web services”.
You must install .NET framework to use. If you have installed Visual Studio, .NET must have been installed with it. In case you don’t have MS Visual Studio Installed, here we explain to you how to install .NET framework in your PC
“The developer pack for the .NET Framework 4.5.1 or 4.5.2, the targeting pack for the .NET Framework 4.6, and the developer pack for the .NET Framework 4.6.1, 4.6.2, or 4.7 provides the .NET Framework 4.5.1 or 4.5.2 or the .NET Framework 4.6, 4.6.1, 4.6.2, or the .NET Framework 4.7 reference assemblies, language packs, and IntelliSense files for use in an integrated development environment such as Visual Studio. If you are using Visual Studio, the developer pack or targeting pack also adds the installed version of the .NET Framework to the target choices when you create a new project. Choose one of these developer packs or the targeting pack:
Microsoft .NET Framework 4.7 Dev Pack
Microsoft .NET Framework 4.6.2 Dev Pack
Microsoft .NET Framework 4.6.1 Dev Pack
Microsoft .NET Framework 4.6 Targeting Pack
.NET Framework 4.5.2 Developer Pack to install version 4.5.2 on Windows 8.1 or earlier, Visual Studio 2013, Visual Studio 2012, or other IDEs.
.NET Framework 4.5.1 Developer Pack to install version 4.5.1 on Visual Studio 2012 or other IDEs.
From the developer pack download page, choose Download. Next choose Run or Save, and follow the instructions when prompted” (MSDN).
So, you have now downloaded and installed .NET or you have MS Visual studio installed you must be ready to learn amazing ASP.NET.
And if you are already known to ASP.NET, you must be here to find the resources here, right ?
Let’s go ahead.
Microsoft tutorials are step by step guide for beginners to get stared with ASP.NET and develop their skills. It serves the experts in the very similar way.
Lynda.com is one of the best tutoring site and is now owned by LinkedIn. You can find plenty of awesome video tutorials here for ASP.NET.
ASP.NET and Microsoft Virtual Academy are both Microsoft things and you can find the best experts here teaching you best of ASP.NET.
If you are an absolute beginner, and finding it difficult to go with above mentioned tutorials, follow this site, it illustrates basic steps and is entitled for absolute beginners and dummies of ASP.NET.
Tutorials point as a hub for a large set of basic and advance levels tutorials. You can also consider their ASP.NET tutorials for getting started with ASP.NET, they are pretty good.
If you have kicked started your journey on ASP.NET and need help understanding different components and controls of ASP.NET, this is one stop shop for you.
I love this site. Mudassir, the owner and major contributor of this site has done a lot of hard work to prepare for you different snippets that will solve your problems in minutes. If you are trying to get something done and stuck somewhere, go and check out the solutions here.
The ASP.Net Snippets has managed to write a snippet for almost every problem you going to face while development. Mudassir, the major contributor of site, he writes the snippet code very easy and clear , and give a link to the demo as well, that makes it easy to understand and quickly to induct.
Whether you are a beginner or advance level programmer, you are going love Microsoft tutorials. I bet it.
Along with the developers, Lynda got best of advance level courses for ASP.NET professionals a s well. You are good at ASP.NET, want to become a pro? Lynda is a must try for you.
Microsoft Virtual Academy provides free online courses by best of best industry experts to help you build your skills , boost them and advance in your career. It got courses for student, IT pros, data pros and developers. You can find best of what you love here.
Pluralsight is an online education website offering a variety of video trainings created by world-class experts for software developers, beginners and IT pros. MSDN Library
MSDN library is comprehensive and detailed reference for all of the Microsoft tools, technologies and services. Whether you’re a beginner, expert or a pro, or you are building apps, developing websites, or working with the cloud, you’ll find detailed syntax, code snippets, and best practices. MSDN is a home of all technical resources you will need as a .NET developer.
Beginning ASP.NET 4: in C# and VB
This book is for anyone who wants to begin on and learn developing rick, powerful and interactive ASP.NET websites and web applications. Anyone new to web development should be able to learn and follow along because no prior knowledge of web development is required although it helps if you do have a basic understanding of HTML and the web in general.
Beginning ASP.NET 4.5: in C# and VB 1st Edition
This introductory book that is update for ASP.NET 4.5 is filled with lots of helpful examples and code snippets to help you get along and contains a user-friendly and step-by-step format. It is written by popular Microsoft MVP Imar Spaanjaars and its really helpful.
Beginning ASP.NET 4.5.1: in C# and VB (Wrox Programmer to Programmer) 1st Edition
This book appears to be successor of Beginning ASP.NET 4.5: in C# and VB 1st EditionWritten by the same author updated for the next release of ASP.NET i.e. 4.5.1.
Professional ASP.NET 4 in C# and VB 1st Edition
This book is for making you pro if you have already begun and developed your basic skills at least in ASP.NET. It was written to introduce you to the features and capabilities that ASP.NET 4 offers and it assumes that you have a general understanding of Web technologies, such as previous versions of ASP.NET, Active Server Pages 2.0/3.0, or JavaServer Pages and you have prior basic knowledge of web programming.
Professional ASP.NET 4.5 in C# and VB 1st Edition
This book is the successor of the Professional ASP.NET 4 in C# and VB 1st Edition and is update for ASP.NET 4.5
C# 6.0 and the .NET 4.6 Framework 7th ed. Edition
This book is meant for the pros and it targets the latest changes in C# language specification and new advances in .NET framework. It has been totally revised for C# 6.0 and .NET 4.6
MCTS Training Kit by Microsoft
Buy this book and it will make sure you learn ASP.NET and you have got confidence in it. Its my favorite by the way.
The Principles of Beautiful Web Design: Designing Great Web Sites is Not Rocket Science! 3rd Edition
If you can already develop website and you are good at it but want to enhance their visual outlook, this book is for YOU.
Why don’t u visit this and download free e-books by Microsoft. https://mva.microsoft.com/ebooks
Here are the other best bookshttps://www.microsoftpressstore.com/store/browse/certification-training?page=10
One of the finest blogs, where you can find articles, code snippets, working demos and source codes. An easy to integrate approaches will save your time and help you integrate snippet in few minutes.
https://blog.maartenballiauw.be
This is an impressive blog by Maarten Balliauw, a Microsoft pro.
http://odetocode.com/blogs/all
This blog is maintained and updated by a .NET consultancy company and it is continuously updated with latest code snippets, examples and tutorials. This is a must try for all those willing to improve their coding and .NET skills.
https://weblogs.asp.net/scottgu
This guy is the father of ASP.NET. He developed ASP.NET with Mark Anders
And you can only image how his blog will weight in the community.
http://www.hanselman.com/blog/
Scott Hanselman is Microsoft pro and works in the web platform team. He is another scott and his blog contains a considerable weight as well. His blog contains a variety of topics and you should expect to find their latest updates, code snippets and kickstart tutorials.
Imran Baloch is a Microsoft certified professional and have deep interest and skills in ASP.NET. His blog contains lots of help, updates and code snippets.
Ricardo Peres is a Microsoft MVP (most valuable professional) who introduces himself as architect, software engineer, and web developer in coimbra district, Portugal his blog is one of the top asp.net blogs.
K. G. Sreeju Nair blogs contains codes and updates about C#, .NET and ASP.NET. If you want to be up to date and get a working example of every update out there, follow this blog.
.Net blog is run by Microsoft engineering teams and you are going to find updates, announcements, codes and everything (related ) there.
Another MS blog you must be following for all latest announcements, technologies and releases by Microsoft
For .NET developer, the best and should be the only choice is Visual Studio by Microsoft. It has different versions like express, community, professional and enterprise. You can you express and community additions (FREE) if you are student or using it for non-production purposes.
TFS is a version controlling and project management tool by Microsoft. It is shipped with Visual Studio and is separately available as well.
Visual Studio Extensions
NuGet is a free and open source package management system for the .NET.
Web Essentials for Visual Studio
It is a productivity enhancer plugin for VS and can help you write CSS , HTML and JS lesser and faster.
Resharper is one the best code refactoring plugin for Visual Studio. It helps you save time and efforts by highlighting design mistakes and bad practices followed in the code.
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