C# and ASP.Net. Guidance required

Question

I am a student and do my work and projects in c#.. I have not experienced WEB still. The question I wish to ask is that whenever in or near future if I wish to switch onto developing WEB Applications on ASP.Net, will I experience any difference ?? excluding any syntax changes.. I mean in C# the way do Add Update and Delete Records and the calculations, will I be experiencing the same in ASP.Net??

I don't have any concepts of WEB.I want to ask you people that what do you consider the most important to learn before switching onto ASP.Net?

Guide me please.. :/

Answer 1

If you are talking about the difference between Windows apps and Web apps, the most important and hardest thing will be for you to grasp the page life cycle. Check here for Microsofts overview.

Answer 2

There are no differences in server-side code. The main different is in the UI. While Microsoft tries to maintain a UI experience similar to Windows applications using its custom controls and the designer, you need a good knowledge in HTML and CSS if you want to create complex UI tasks.

Custom controls actually generate client side code such as HTML, CSS and Javascript. So your main challenge will be the presentation layer and how to create client side code that is well parsed on different browsers. It's more difficult than Windows' "Drag and drop" technique, but it's quite a lot more powerful.

You'll notice that you can't drag and move controls the way you do with Windows apps, changing their coordinates on the screen. HTML is not about coordinates, it's based on a certain document flow in manually defined layouts.

Don't be tempted by changing Web controls to absolute positioning, just because you think it's "easier". It's a mistake a lot of migrators to ASP.NET do, and it's generally a huge mistake that I suggest you don't fall into.

Answer 3

I guess the web and desktop applications have considerable difference. The one and most important is that when on Web there are two states of WEB application

1. On Server side : where we have C# code and stuff.

2. Client side : Where we have CSS, HTML and JavaScript doing it all for us.

Besides this HTTP which is communication bridge.

This is one big different that desktop application developer face when they switch to the Web Applications.

I will suggest you to take a look at basics of CSS, HTML and JavaScript while swiching on web applications. That really helps in log term.

Answer 4

First, I'd say if you look into web application, make a few quick examles with ASP.NET WebForms, and then a few with ASP.NET MVC, to learn the differences between good design (MVC with AJAX and without postbacks) and bad design (quick and dirty WebForms with postbacks and without AJAX).

Try using JavaScript on pages, and look at how postbacks reset all JS variables, and the impact that has on anything dynamic. Also look at how postbacks exponentially increase the complexity (and bugs, such as session timeouts with label text stored in session) and decrease the debugability of your application.

Take a look at JQuery, JQuery uploadify and JQuery Treeview, and JQuery DataTable, and JQuery Charts.

Add and UpdateRecords imply editing a DataTable and saving the changes. This is the worst thing you can possibly get your hands in with ASP.NET, that is, if you want to do it properly (with the possible exception of asynchronous data processing).

Answer 5

If you are really passionate to dive into web application development especially ASP.NET, I would recommend the following path for a beginner to kick start with.

1. Start learning HTML , JavaScript , CSS

2. Next you could try Classical ASP . Having a know how of classical ASP will definitely be a plus, when moving to ASP.NET because, you will under stand how ASP.NET renders pages and what ASP.NET controls really does etc etc. In my own words ASP.NET is a chocolate coated version of classical ASP, I am telling this from my classical ASP experience.

3. Next you need to firm understanding of on how the web works and its internals . If you need you could also refresh on How Internet works and How website works ( this too ).

4. Finally you could start off with ASP.NET 2.0 and later move to advanved stuff like AJAX, MVC etc.

5. You could further enhance you skill by learning jQuery and some CMS (Content Management Tools) like DotnetNuke.