Did it become necessary for you to build reports? You created them in Word, Excel, used special programming packages. It took so much time, efforts. You were nervous, suffered from insomnia. Deadline was near but your work was not complete. Finally, you got some result. But it did not meet your expectations. But reports were not good. And it was impossible to say yourself – yes, that’s exactly what I wanted, that’s exactly what my client wants. In fact, there are no hopeless situations. As they say, the one, who owns the information, owns the world.

Stimulsoft Company, a leading manufacturer of software for data processing and analysis, announces the release of version 2009.2 for products Stimulsoft Reports.Net, Stimulsoft Reports.Web, Stimulsoft Reports Designer.Web, Stimulsoft Reports.Wpf. As one can see from product names, Stimulsoft Reports.Net is used to generate reports from various data sources and can be used in Windows Forms and in ASP.NET, Stimulsoft Reports.Web is the reporting tool for creating reports in Web, Stimulsoft Reports.Wpf is the best tool for creating applications on the base of Windows Presentation Foundation technology, Stimulsoft Reports Designer.Web is the reports designer for Web.

In general, Stimulsoft Reports is the line of reporting tools which can be used for rendering reports on different platforms. Reports are fully compatible with all Stimulsoft reporting tools. In other words, if you have created a report in Stimulsoft Reports.Net, then it can be opened and edited in both Stimulsoft R!eports.Web and Stimulsoft Reports .WPF. Do you think that there are reports which cannot be created? There is nothing impossible with Stimulsoft Reports. Great numbers of enhancements in products make them simpler and more flexible.

What are the changes in version 2009.2?

First of all, it is necessary to say about Stimulsoft Reports.Web reports viewer – WebViewerFx. This component is developed using the Flex technology and used to view reports. WebViewerFx has well thought-out, user-friendly interface, feature-rich, and, at last, it is good-looking. Using WebViewerFx it is possible to view reports, change report zoom. It allows printing reports. WebViewerFx can save reports to more than 20 different file formats. The viewer Demo is available at http://webfx.stimulsoft.com/WebViewerFx.aspx .

Stimulsoft Reports now supports additional 2 new export formats. These are SVG and MS PowerPoint. Royal Mail 4-state that is used for automatic mail sorting was also included. Starting with version 2009.2 reports can be saved in encrypted format. The choice of supported languages has been expanded with Arabic, making the product accessible to more people in their native language.  Stimulsoft Reports.Web v2009.2, Stimulsoft Reports.Wpf v2009.2, and Stimulsoft Reports Designer.Web v2009.2 support cross-tabs. Also some errors of previous versions were corrected. This made the products more robust.

Read more about all changes in products at http://www.stimulsoft.com/ru/AllNews.aspx. The site page http://www.stimulsoft.com/FeaturesByProducts.aspx describes the distinguishing features of the product.

Additional information on Stimulsoft Reports.Net, documentation, Flash tutorials, as well as its free evaluation copy is available at http://www.stimulsoft.com

P.S. "From time to time we are surprised at our products possibilities, – says Jan Kowal, a technical support manager. – When we see reports, created by our clients, only two questions we ask ourselves – is it possible in Stimulsoft Reports? …is it possible in our product? "

[tags]aspnet, visual studio, stimulsoft, reports[/tags]

Nevron has announced the immediate availability of the new major version release (2009 Vol.2) of Nevron SSRS Vision suite – the leading Data Visualization suite for SQL Server Reporting Services 2005 and 2008. In 2009 Vol.2 we have introduced many improvements in the Chart for SSRS and the new Nevron Gauge for SSRS – 8 new Charting Types with many variations, complete set of Gauge Types, Gauge Formulas, Save/Load Chart and Gauge Templates, Code Customization which allows you to use the full Nevron Chart for .NET API in SSRS and much more.

For full details about this new major release, please visit http://www.nevron.com/Nevron.Company.NewsAndEvents.NevronNews.aspx

Nevron SSRS Vision suite includes two products – Nevron Chart for Reporting Services and Nevron Gauge for Reporting Service. Below are the product URLs:
Nevron SSRS Vision suite (SSRS 2005/2008)

http://www.nevron.com/Products.SQLServerReportingServices.Overview.aspx

Nevron Chart for Reporting Services (SSRS 2005/2008)
http://www.nevron.com/Products.ChartForSQLReportingServices.Overview.aspx

Nevron Gauge for Reporting Services (SSRS 2005/2008)
http://www.nevron.com/Products.GaugeForSQLReportingServices.Overview.aspx

Microsoft’s .NET SDK ships with a command line compiler called csc.exe. It can be executed from within the DOS prompt. In this article, I will show you how to build a simple C# program using this compiler with Notepad as the editor.

Open your editor and enter the code as given in listing 1

Listing 1

001: // HelloWorld.cs

002: // -------------

003: using System;

004: class HelloWorld

005: {

006: public static void Main()

007: {

008: Console.WriteLine("Hello World");

009: }

010: } 

The line numbers are given only for the sake of explanation and does not form part of the source code.

In the above listing, Line 3 defines the namespace System. Line 4 declares our class named HelloWorld. Line 6 defines the Main() method, which is considered as a entry point for all C# programs. Line 8 calls the WriteLine() method of the Console class and prints "Hello World" as output.

Save the file as HelloWorld.cs and compile the code using a C# compiler. I assume you are using the compiler which ship with .NET SDK. For this purpose, you have to give the following command at the DOS prompt as shown in the figure given below

csc HelloWorld.cs 

Figure 1

If you have installed Visual Studio 2008, you can compile a C# program using Visual Studio Command Prompt. You can launch it from Start | All Programs | Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 | Visual Studio Tools

If you have installed Mono C# Compiler then you should compile the above program using the following command:

mcs HelloWorld.cs 

If there are any errors and warnings, the compiler will display them during the above process. You have to go through all those messages and correct them preferably by going back to the source code. As explained earlier, C# is a case sensitive language and hence even if you miss a semicolon or a comma, the compiler will throw error messages. If there are no errors and warnings your screen would look like as shown in the figure given above.

To view the output of the above program, you have to supply the name of the assembly (HelloWorld.exe) at the DOS prompt.

For example, you have to give the following command for executing the above program.

HelloWorld 

The output will be as shown in the figure given below

Figure 2

For mono compiler, the execution statement will be as shown below:

mono HelloWorld.exe 

An Assembly is a file which is created by the compiler upon successful compilation of every C# application.

Commenting the Code

If you look at line numbers 1 and 2 in the above code, you would see two slash lines at the beginning. In programming terminology, these lines are called as comments. C# compiler won’t compile the statements inside these comments and they are given only for documentation and reference purposes. It is a best practice to give comments while coding as it will help you to study the code at a later stage or for others who look at your code.

There are three ways by which you can give comments in C#. The first two will be already familiar to you if you had worked with C++ and Java. They are single-line and multiline comments.

Single-line comments are given with the symbol //, while Multiline comments are applied with /*…..*/ symbols and can spread more than one line (See Listing 2)

Listing 2

// this is a single line comment

/*

This is a

Multiline

Comment

*/

The third type of comment which is given with “///” is a new one introduced by the .NET Framework. It is used to generate documentation for your C# program and they are denoted by using the relevant XML tags as shown in listing 3:

Listing 3

/// <summary>

/// this is a new comment system

/// <summary>


 

[tag]microsoft, c#, java [/tag]

Once you have installed a C# compiler, the next process is to choose an editor to enter source codes. There are different types of editors such as Notepad and Visual C#. In addition to these two, many third party vendors have also developed editors for programming with C#. This FAQ briefly discusses each one of these editors.

Notepad is a commonly used editor among many programmers. It comes with Windows and it is very easy to use as well. But there are lots of disadvantages with this editor like it doesn’t supports syntax coloring and other features such as intellisense. Moreover, you cannot directly compile and execute a C# program from within the editor. Although it doesn’t support features such as line numbering, you can jump to a specific line of the code by using the CTRL+G shortcut.

Microsoft Visual Studio is a full featured development tool and it includes project templates for all .NET languages in an Integrated Development Environment (IDE). Other than C#, the IDE supports the development of major .NET languages such as Visual Basic , Visual J#  and Visual C++. In other words, it provides a single development environment for all these languages. You need to master the various elements found on the IDE such as Toolbox, Properties window apart from learning the C# language.

Will I get Visual C# as a separate product?

Yes. Microsoft sells a standard version of the product named “Visual C# .NET Standard Edition” at a reduced price. It comes with four CD’s along with a printed manual. This product doesn’t supports advanced features such as Crystal Reports which is available with Visual Studio. This product is a big boon for developers with limited budget.
Visual C# .NET provides you with the required templates and wizards for building applications. It also supports features such as Intellisense and Dynamic Help. Dynamic Help is a new functionality which will provide you help according to the relevant situation while developing a project. It will be available only if you have installed MSDN Library collection. Moreover, it ships with powerful debugging capabilities and automatic syntax/clause completion features. For instance, if you enter the keyword “try”, remaining clauses like catch and finally will be automatically get listed on the code editor.

What do you mean by IntelliSense?

IntelliSense refers to popping up of methods and properties according to the context. For instance, if you enter Console followed by a dot, a menu automatically pops up, which gives you all the methods and properties of the Console class. You should already be aware of this useful feature, if you had used any of the languages in Visual Studio 6.0.

Where will I get MSDN Library?

MSDN Library ships with all editions of Visual Studio. You will be automatically prompted to install the same after the installation of Visual Studio. You will get periodic updates of the library if you have subscribed to MSDN. Alternatively, you can access the library online at any time. The biggest advantage of using Visual C# is that it significantly reduces the development time of projects by integrating all parts of a project under a single roof. Even though there are lots of benefits, Visual C# is not compulsorily required for programming with C#.

In addition to Visual C#, many third party vendors have also released editors for C#. They can be downloaded from the websites of the respective vendors. One of the most popular editors is SharpDevelop. It supports syntax coloring, compilation and execution from the IDE apart from other features. With the help of this editor, you can also build Visual Basic, User controls and Web Services applications. You can also create XML and XSL files. Moreover, the developers of SharpDevelop have provided the complete source code for this editor under an Open Source License Agreement. The product and its source code can be downloaded from www.isharpdevelop.com.

Another editor is Antechinus C# editor developed by c-point but it is not as much popular due to its limited capabilities. Some of the other popular editors are given below

Borland C# Builder
CodeWright
EditPlus

Even though there are many editors available on the market its up to you to decide which editor to use. I strongly recommend you to install one editor and learn the language completely.

First of all, you need to install a C# compiler. You can either use a command line compiler available from Microsoft or third party compiler kit developed by Mono. Microsoft’s C# compiler is widely used by many developers as the Mono compiler kit is not yet fully developed. In addition to this you can also build C# applications with Visual C# 2008, which is available with Visual Studio 2008. It is a robust development tool used for developing all kinds of C# applications.

Is it necessary to install Visual Studio 2008 to build C# applications?

Not necessary. A command line compiler is sufficient to learn C#. Visual C# is only used to simplify the development process. Microsoft’s C# compiler is available in the form of a package called Software Development Kit (SDK). A latest version of this kit can be downloaded from http://www.microsoft.com/downloads. You will also find this kit along with many programming magazine CD’s or from popular C# books such as Sams Teach Yourself the C# language in 21 Days by Brad Jones.

After the kit has been downloaded, you have to install it. The installation process normally takes between 15-30 minutes depending upon the speed of your computer and is self explanatory. The setup will automatically register the required environment variables and hence you can straight away start programming with C# after the completion of its installation.

Is it necessary to install .NET SDK and Visual Studio 2008 separately?

If you have installed Visual Studio 2008 on your system, then there is no need to install .NET SDK separately as it will be automatically installed as a prerequisite during the installation of Visual Studio. To test whether .NET Framework has been successfully installed on your system, go to Visual Studio 2008 Command Prompt and enter csc. If the system returns a fatal error message with the code CS2008 then the installation is perfect. All C# error messages are documented with codes. These messages will become familiar to you as you gain more experience with C#.

In addition to Microsoft’s C# compiler you also have an option to install Mono C# compiler kit available from http://www.mono-project.com/Main_Page. Mono is a project started to create .NET compilers meant for platforms other than Windows, such as Linux. But the project is still under development and with each release of the kit more features and additional support for namespaces are added. The upcoming version of this kit promises to provide support for Windows Forms, ASP.NET and ADO.NET. Moreover, the new compiler will also provide database connectivity support for MySQL databases.

Can I install Mono C# compiler kit under Windows?

Yes. While Microsoft’s .NET SDK has been designed to work with Windows, Mono C# kit can be installed in both Windows and Linux.

The first major requirement is that you should require a system running either Windows 2000 Professional or Windows XP Professional or Windows 2003/2008 Server. Windows XP Home Edition doesn’t provide support for .NET. It is not recommended to work with C# on Windows 98 systems as it is not compatible for developing server side applications or ASP.NET. Microsoft Vista Ultimate completely supports .NET Framework. The recently released release candidate of Windows 7 also provide support for .NET Framework. Linux also supports C# with the help of Mono C# compiler Kit.

Secondly, you should install .NET Framework Software Development Kit (SDK) which can be downloaded from the website of Microsoft located at http://msdn.microsoft.com/downloads. Windows 2003/2008 Server ships with .NET Framework and hence there is no need to install the SDK separately. However, it doesn’t comes with Visual Studio.

Finally, you require an editor to enter codes. In programming parlance, codes are called as source codes. They are nothing but syntaxes which adheres to the C# language conventions. Notepad is one of the most popular editors among many programmers. Even though Notepad is sufficient to learn C#, it would be better if you have installed Visual Studio. It ships with Visual C#, which offers many advanced functionalities than a traditional editor like Notepad.

Many third party vendors have released editors for programming with C# and other .NET languages. Notable among them are SharpDevelop and Antechinus C# Editor using which you can not only create HTML, XML, XSL and ASCX files but also the files oriented for ASP.NET development.

Common Language Runtime shortly called as CLR provides a universal execution engine for .NET applications and it is provided by the .NET Framework. Every target computer should require CLR for executing .NET applications. One of the most interesting points to note is that the CLR itself manages the life of objects. This is the effect of Automatic Garbage Collection system built into it. When the CLR finds an object that is not being used, it destroys them and thus freeing memory allocation.

The corresponding compilers (C#, Visual Basic .NET) generate meta code upon successful compilation. This meta code contains lot of information about code types, its members and references used. The CLR generates Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) when it makes remote procedure calls. SOAP is a protocol used to access .NET Web Services. In addition to the garbage collection, CLR also provides support for Managed Code, Effective Memory Management, Type Safety Verification, Conversion of IL to native code, Structured Exception Handling and Effective Interoperability between COM components and Unmanaged Code. You can build secured applications using the runtime since the .NET Framework provides support for advanced security features as well.

C#, pronounced as C-Sharp, is one of the powerful programming languages provided by the .NET Framework. According to Microsoft “C# is a modern, object-oriented language that enables programmers to quickly build a wide range of applications for the new Microsoft .NET platform, which provides tools and services that fully exploit both computing and communications”. The main brains behind C# were Anders Hejlsberg and Scott Wiltamuth. However, many other personalities like Rob Howard, Scott Guthrie were also involved behind C# and the .NET Framework. The programming language has been standardized by European Computer Manufactures Association (ECMA).

Microsoft originally released beta versions of .NET Framework to get feedback about the product from developers and customers. Based on the massive response and suggestions received from them for the first beta, Microsoft released second beta in early 2001. Finally, they released final versions of C# under the name, .NET Framework 1.0 in 2002 and that of 1.1 in 2003. With each release, the product shipped with improved features for developing secured and scalable applications along with high quality documentation.

Mike Murach & Associates has just published a new edition of their popular ADO.NET book. Now entitled Murach’s ADO.NET 3.5, LINQ, and the Entity Framework with VB 2008, it covers what today’s Visual Basic developer needs to know to create database applications the way the best professionals do. Here are some highlights:

#1: For rapid application development and prototyping…
This book shows how to use the ADO.NET tools, like data sources and the DataGridView control, that enable developers to create working database applications in a minimum of time, with a minimum of coding.

#2: For serious production applications…
This book shows how to go beyond the RAD tools, using heavy-duty ADO.NET coding and object data sources to build 3-layer applications that consist of presentation, business, and database classes.

#3: For incorporating LINQ into Windows and web applications…
This book has a 6-chapter section that’s a short course in LINQ, the .NET 3.5 feature that provides a consistent way to query different types of data. This section covers LINQ to Objects, LINQ to DataSet, LINQ to SQL, LINQ data source controls for web applications, and LINQ to XML.

#4: For database programming with the Entity Framework…
This book gets developers going with the Entity Framework, the .NET 3.5 feature that may change the way you do database programming. Entity Framework (EF) provides a flexible model for mapping the business objects in an application to database objects, and it generates a lot of the code that has to be written from scratch otherwise. A 4-chapter section shows how to create an Entity Data Model and work with it using LINQ to Entities, Entity SQL, and Entity data source controls for web applications.

#5: For training and reference: The “paired-pages” format…
This book uses Murach’s standard format to present the content in 2-page spreads, pairing a page of explanation with an illustrative page of syntax, screen shots, coding examples, and bulleted guidelines. Developers report that this lets them read less to get information faster, whether they use the book for training or reference.

Murach’s ADO.NET 3.5, LINQ, and the Entity Framework with VB 2008 is available directly from the publisher at www.murach.com and from all major retail outlets.

Murach’s ADO.NET 3.5, LINQ, and the Entity Framework with VB 2008
Author: Anne Boehm
Pages: 708  – ISBN: 978-1-890774-52-3 – Price: $52.50

Microsoft has finally released Visual Studio 2005. In fact, developers were eagerly waiting for the same. Prior to this release, Microsoft had released several preview editions and developers (including beta testers) had got a chance to explore the product and provide feedback to Microsoft.

Visual Studio 2005 can be freely downloaded by clicking here. The product is also available in the form of CD’s for those enrolled in Microsoft’s Beta Testing Program.

You can submit bug reports and other issues associated with the product through MSDN Product Feedback Center. You can also view submissions posted by other developers.

In this article, I will examine three of the interesting features included with Visual Studio 2005 such as:

• (1) Surround With

• (2) Refactoring

• (3) Insert Snippet

Now let us examine each of the above features in detail

Surround With

Applicability – Visual C#

The Surround With feature enables you to automatically add a portion of the respective code syntax very easily. The main benefit of this feature is that the relevant code will be added instantly with the help of Visual Studio .NET and hence errors can be avoided. Your job is to dress up the blank spaces with the work to be done.

For instance, if you would like to add a do-while loop, it can be done by following certain simple steps

Double click the form to open the code window. Right click and select the option Surround With from the IntelliSense option of the popup menu (See Figure 1)

You will view a list box with lot of options as shown in Figure 2

For the purpose of this article, I’ve selected the do statement option. Double click on it and your code window will look like as shown below

You can add code snippets similar to the one shown above for almost every important task using this feature.

Refactoring

Applicability: Visual C#

Refactoring is one of the interesting features included with Visual Studio 2005. It enables you to automatically extract a certain portion of code snippet to a method. For instance, this feature will be useful if you have a source code with 2000 lines and you need to extract 550 lines of code from it.
The original code will be replaced with the created method call. Have a look at the walkthrough given below and you will understand the scene behind this cool feature
In order to work with this feature, you need to first add some code and select the same. Otherwise, IDE will show a message box as shown below.

Code Window before Refactoring

Right click the selected code and choose the Refractor -> Extract Method option. You will be presented with a dialog box as shown below

Enter a new method name. The method is a static method and is having private scope. Upon clicking OK, the selected code snippet will be enclosed inside the above method signature as shown in the figure given below

Code Window after Refactoring

You can download express editions of different products (Visual Basic 2005, Visual Web Developer 2005). Express editions are light weight products intended for students and hobbyists and their look and feel are very similar to that of Visual Studio 2005 IDE.

Insert Snippet
Applicability – Visual Basic 2005
This feature enables you to add full code snippet to your project. In order to see this in action, start a new Windows Application project by choosing the Visual Basic project type from within Visual Studio 2005. Add a Button control and double click on it to open the code window. Right click on the designer and select Insert Snippet menu from the popup menu (See Figure

Upon selecting the above option, an IntelliSense window pops up with various options (See Figure 9)

These options enable you to add code snippets for performing a wide variety of tasks such as Accessing Databases, Performing Math operations and much more. Upon double clicking an option, the IDE will produce another set of IntelliSense window as per your selection.

For the purpose of this article, I have selected Processing Folders, Drives and Files option. You will be presented with an option box and the corresponding code as shown in Figures 10 and 11.

Even though Visual Studio provides this useful feature, you have to sometimes tweak the inserted code snippet to suit your requirements. You can also learn how to achieve various tasks by studying the code provided by this functionality.

Essential Resources

Visual Studio 2005 Beta Home
Visual Studio 2005 Product Feedback Center
MSDN Documentation for Visual Studio 2005
The .NET Show: Introduction to Visual Studio 2005
Visual Studio 2005 Express Beta Products

Related Books

Introducing Microsoft Visual Basic 2005 for Developers
Introducing Microsoft ASP.NET 2.0

Conclusion

As you can see from the above explanations, Visual Studio 2005 greatly simplifies the costly development time of developers than its previous versions. There are many features available with Visual Studio 2005 Beta 1 and it is not possible to discuss all of them in an article. I suggest you to refer to the essential resources listed above if you require further information regarding Visual Studio 2005.

[tag]microsoft, visual studio, msdn, visual c#, asp.net[/tag]

First of all, let’s once again welcome you to the world of this new programming language. We hope you will have a basic idea about Object Oriented Programming languages because many languages like Java, C++ have come by the past five years.

However, there will be no difficulty in learning this language if you are a fresher, because this session and the coming ones will explain all the concepts and features right from the beginning. Wherever required, I explained the features involved in C-Sharp by comparing them with Java. This will ensure smooth progress for experienced programmers.  Let’s discuss the basic requirements needed to begin C# programming.

Requirements

To begin programming with C#, you should require the following:

Windows 2000, XP, Vista Operating System
.NET Framework Software Development Kit (SDK) 
Code Editors like NotePad, Visual Studio

Optional requirements

Visual Studio .NET
Third party editors

A detailed explanation regarding the above requirements are outlined below

Windows 2000 Operating System

As a first step, you should require this Operating System installed on your system. This Operating System comes in two flavors, viz., Professional and Server editions. However, Professional edition is the best choice among many users. Even though, Windows 98 is suitable for C# programming, it’s not possible to work any .NET based server-side programming on it. Hence, Windows 98 is not the best choice for C# programming.

.NET Framework Software Development Kit (SDK)

This Kit is required for compiling and executing C# and other .NET programming languages and it uses built-in command line compiler (csc.exe) and interpreter for the same. It can be downloaded as a 110 MB file from the Microsoft’s Website. The SDK comes with various tools for building, deploying applications, sample codes and the required documentations. It also comes with all the necessary tools to build and deploy ASP.NET applications. The topic of code editors as outlined in the requirement number 3 will be discussed later in this article. To know more this kit, refer to the section “Related Links” at the end of this article.

Visual Studio .NET

You can also develop C# applications using Visual C# .NET, available with Visual Studio .NET. But this is an optional choice and it’s up to you to decide whether to use it or not. This will help you to develop windows based applications easily and with limited effort because you don’t have to devote too much time in designing the user interface with WinForms. The only work left for you to do is to write the coding appropriately as per the .NET Standards. A forthcoming session on this article will explain about third party editors in detail. To know more details about Visual Studio .NET refer to the section Related Links at the end of this article.

Installation of .NET Framework SDK 

After downloading the SDK, locate the drive and folder where you have downloaded the file. Click on the file to begin installation. The following figures will show you the process of installation. When you click on the file, you will see a dialog box as shown in Figure 1. Click Yes to proceed further.

The setup will begin extracting the required cab files as shown in Figure 2

Sometimes, while extracting the setup will ask you to update the Windows installation. If you had done this before then it will not ask for the same. If not, click yes to have the setup update your current installation. Windows will prompt you to restart the system. Click Yes to do so.

After doing the above process, the setup will show a series of dialog boxes to proceed with the Installation. After displaying the initial screen, setup will show a license agreement box. Click on the I Agree radio button to move on to the folder selection box. You can either choose an existing folder or can specify a new folder name.

We recommend you to specify a new folder name. Setup will automatically create the folder for you. After this, you may have to select the options for Installation. The whole process is self-explanatory and may vary depending up on the versions. Finally, setup begins the Installation and it will also show you the balance time left to complete the Installation.

When the .NET Framework has been completely installed, you have to again restart your system. After that, you can start programming with C#. You should have to install optional components like Microsoft Data Access Components 2.7 for developing ASP.NET applications. The last session of this chapter illustrates how to code a simple “Hello World” C# program.

About the Editors

Choosing an editor for coding the source code is a tedious task ahead of every programmer. There will be various types of editors brought out by different companies. They are elaborated below in detail.

Notepad

Notepad is the best and widely used editor among developers using .NET SDK. It comes with the every edition of Windows Operating System and it’s easy to use. Also, it does not require much investment.

However, it is not the most suitable editor since it does not support syntax coloring and highlighting, compilation and execution directly from the editor, code numberings etc. But as you know, Notepad in Windows 2000 Professional would support the famous Ctrl+G shortcut for finding line numbers.

Visual C++ 6.0

Developers can use Visual C++ 6.0 included with Visual Studio 6.0. However, they should make some tweaking in the registry before using the same. It supports syntax colorings and other features such as finding line numbers (Ctrl+G). However, it is dangerous for a new user to make changes in registry. Hence, only advanced and experienced users can be able to use Visual Studio 6.0 for developing C#. It’s not possible to compile and execute the applications from the Visual C++ 6.0 environment. Hence, there is not much use except some of the one or two features listed above.

Visual Studio .NET

Visual Studio .NET provides all the integrated tools and wizards for creating C# and
other .NET based language applications. It also supports features such as Intellisense, Dynamic help etc. Moreover, you can compile and execute your applications from the IDE itself. Hence, in order to experience the power of developing the .NET applications, you should try out Visual Studio .NET. But be prepared to pay a huge sum for this wonderful stuff.

Third – Party Editors

Many Third Party editors are now available and can be downloaded from the Internet. One such editor is called Antechninus C# Editor. It supports color-coding, compilation and Execution from the IDE, Project maintenance and accessing .NET Framework documentation using its help menu and etc. It can be downloaded free of cost from http://www.c-point.com/download/csharped.zip. Moreover, the editor comes with built-in tutorials on C# and can be accessed from the Help menu.

However, it is up to you to decide upon which editor to use. I recommend you to try one common editor and learn the language in full.  

The “Hello C#” Program

Majority of developers use to learn programming by coding “Hello World” program. But for a change we will see “Hello C#” program. As mentioned in the previous session, you can use any editor to code the program. It’s up to your convenience as to which editor to use. Listing 1 shows the coding for our “Hello C#” program:

– Listing 1 –

using System;
class Hello
{
public static void Main()
{
Console.WriteLine("Hello C#");
}
}

After entering the above code in an editor, you have to perform the following steps

1. Save the file as Hello.cs. cs is an extension to indicate C-Sharp 
   like .java for a Java source file. You have to supply this extension while saving your file, otherwise the code will not compile correctly. The saved file will be of the extension .cs.txt.

1. Compile the code by giving the following command at the command prompt:

csc Hello.cs

1. If there are compile errors you will be prompted accordingly. Otherwise, you will be viewing a command prompt along with the copyright information as shown in Figure 4.
2. 

As a final step, you have to execute the program in order to view the final output. For that purpose, you have to simply give a command as shown below at the command prompt. See Figure 4. If everything goes on well, then you can be able to view the message “Hello C#” as shown in the figure above.

ASP.NET is a new and extended technology to the earlier classic ASP, introduced by Microsoft Corporation, which fully supports Microsoft’s .NET Framework. It supplies all the required user interfaces under the name "WebForms" and also works with all .NET languages like Visual C# .NET, Visual Basic .NET, etc. WebForms are used to create user interfaces for web pages. Till now, you’ve had to apply specific HTML tags for creating user interfaces and use an ASP scripting language such as VBScript or JavaScript.

But with the introduction of ASP .NET, you need not apply them any more. All you have to do is to call the custom GUI classes defined in the System.Web.UI.WebControls namespace of the .NET Framework. Moreover, System.Web namespace provides necessary classes, methods, and properties for developing client-server applications and the System.Web.UI namespace interacts with other .NET language like C#, VB .NET. Therefore, a C# file containing some methods or C# syntaxes can be easily called in your ASP applications. These topics will be examined in greater detail in the coming sections.
Benefits of ASP.NET

One major advantage of ASP.NET is that, you can apply the programming techniques of other .NET languages like C#, VB.NET etc. Hence, if you are conversant with any one language of .NET Framework, then it’ll be easy for you to write ASP.NET programs. Moreover, it eliminates the need for learning complex syntaxes. Another benefit of ASP.NET is that it supplies built-in controls for validations. Earlier you’ve to apply complex Java Scripts or VBScripts for validating form elements. Hence, all the essential tools for developing and deploying ASP applications is now under a single umbrella of Microsoft .NET.

Basic requirements

(1) Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional or Server, Microsoft Windows XP
(2) .NET Framework SDK
(3) Text Editor like Notepad
(4) Internet Explorer 5.5 and above
(5) Visual Studio .NET (Optional, but recommended)

Note: You have to install Microsoft Data Access Components 2.7 before installing .NET Framework SDK. You can download the same by clicking here. Please go through the additional notes given at the end of this article regarding Visual Studio .NET.

There are two phases involved in the ASP.NET development cycle, which are

(1) User Interface phase
(2) Coding phase

It’s the User Interface phase which we’ll call ‘WebForms’. So, before moving on to the coding phase, it’s essential for you to be aware of all types of user interfaces that .NET Framework provides. If you’re familiar with ‘WinForms’, then you are more likely to confuse it with WebForms. Keep in mind that WinForms are used to develop standalone GUI applications (Which can be executed by triggering the relevant .exe file), whereas WebForms are used to create Web based applications like Java Applets and for creating user interfaces for ASP applications.

Your First WebForm Program

Copy or enter the following code in Notepad and save the file as Firstwebform.aspx under Inetpub/wwwroot directory:

  1: <form method = "post" runat = "server">

  2: <asp:TextBox runat = "server" ></asp:TextBox>

  3: </form> 

If you save the above file in a directory under the www root, then you have to configure for the directory alias using personal web manager. Please review the additional notes given at the end of this article regarding configuration of Personal Web Manager. The execution of this file is very similar to that of classic ASP. Only thing you’ve to remember is to supply the correct extension for ASP.NET, which is .aspx.

A WebForm control is created using the following syntax:

  1: <form method = "post" runat = "server">

  2: <asp:ControlName runat = "server"></asp:ControlName>

  3: </form> 

The runat attribute is compulsory without which your code will not compile correctly. From the above code, it can be seen that ASP.NET follows the syntax of XML.

Working with controls

ASP.NET provides a lot of controls for building powerful user interfaces. Important among them are Buttons, Radio Buttons, Check Boxes, List Boxes, and Combo Boxes. The .NET Framework also supplies advanced controls like Calendars, AdRotators, and etc. In the following sections, I’ll cover each of these controls with the help of simple examples.

Buttons

Buttons are used to trigger actions. Without buttons, we cannot do any sort of work on the form.

  1: <form method = "post" runat = "server">

  2: <asp:Button id = "b1" runat = "server" text = "OK" ToolTip = "Click here">

  3: </asp:Button>

  4: </form> 

Radio Buttons

With radio buttons you can select only one item at a time. The only thing you have to remember is that the GroupName attribute should be same for radiobuttons.

<form method = "post" runat = "server">

Select your choice:<asp:RadioButton id = "r1" runat = "server"

Text = "Male" GroupName = "g1"></asp:RadioButton>

<asp:RadioButton id = "r2" runat = "server" Text = "Female"

GroupName = "g1">

</asp:RadioButton>

</form> 

CheckBoxes

Checkboxes enables you to select any number of items at a time. They can be activated either by clicking on it or by hitting the space bar.

<form method = "post" runat = "server">

Choose: <asp:CheckBox id = "c1" runat = "server" Text = "Television">

</asp:CheckBox><asp:CheckBox id = "c2" runat = "server" Text = "PC">

</asp:CheckBox><asp:CheckBox id = "c3" runat = "server"

Text = "Telephone">

</asp:CheckBox>> 

DropDownList

This control looks like a typical combo box in Visual Basic. Users can select any one item at a time.

<form method = "post" runat = "server">

<asp:DropDownList runat = "server">

<asp:ListItem id = "d1" runat = "server" value = "India">India

</asp:ListItem>

<asp:ListItem id = "d2" runat = "server" value = "China" >China

</asp:ListItem>

<asp:ListItem id = "d3" runat = "server" value = "Russia">Russia

</asp:ListItem>

<asp:ListItem id = "d4" runat = "server" value = "USA">USA

</asp:ListItem>

<asp:ListItem id = "d5" runat = "server" value = "UK">UK

</asp:ListItem>

</asp:DropDownList>

</form> 

List Box

With List boxes you can select multiple items by scrolling up and down.

<form method = "post" runat = "server">

<asp:ListBox runat = "server">

<asp:ListItem id = "l1" runat = "server" value = "India">India

</asp:ListItem>

<asp:ListItem id = "l2" runat = "server" value = "China">China

</asp:ListItem>

<asp:ListItem id = "l3" runat = "server" value = "Russia">Russia

</asp:ListItem>

<asp:ListItem id = "l4" runat = "server" value = "USA">USA

</asp:ListItem>

<asp:ListItem id = "l5" runat = "server" value = "UK">UK

</asp:ListItem>

</asp:ListBox>

</form> 

Image Button

You can create a button with an image on it. Try out the following code and observe the output:

<form method = "post" runat = "server">

<asp:ImageButton id = "b10" runat = "server"

src = "f:\logo.gif"></asp:ImageButton>

</form> 

Calendar

This is an advanced control in ASP.NET. Your users can choose a date with the help of this control. Try out by copying the following piece of code:

<form method = “post” runat = "server">

<asp:Calendar id ="c1" runat = 'server"></asp:Calendar>

</form> 

Link Button

You can easily give a link to your button using this new LinkButton control.

<asp:LinkButton id = "ib1" Text = "click me"

href = "http://www.yahoo.com" runat = "server" Font-Name="Verdana" Font-Size="14pt" > </asp:LinkButton> 

Hyperlink

If you’re still using the typical <a> tag for creating hyperlinks, check out the code for this new .NET control:

<asp:hyperlink runat = "server" target = "_blank"

navigateurl = "http://www.developer.com" text = "<b>Hello</b>">

</asp:hyperlink>

Validating Fields

Sometimes users may submit the form without filling in the required information. In order to avoid this, .NET supplies a control named RequiredFieldValidator, which checks the corresponding control attached to it. You will learn more about validations in a separate article.

<asp:RequiredFieldValidator id = "valid1" runat = "server"

ErrorMessage = "We need your email id"

ControlToValidate = "t1">

</asp:RequiredFieldValidator> 

AdRotator

You can randomly display advertisements by using AdRotator component. However, it involves several processes. Firstly, you have to create an XML file containing the listing as shown below:

<?xml version = "1.0"?>

<Advertisements>

<Ad>

<ImageUrl>logo.gif</ImageUrl>

<TargetUrl>http://www.logo.com</TargetUrl>

<AlternateText>Ok</AlternateText>

<Impressions>80</Impressions>

</Ad>

<Ad>

<ImageUrl>logo1.gif</ImageUrl>

<TargetUrl>http://www.microsoft.com</TargetUrl>

<AlternateText>Microsoft</AlternateText>

<Impressions>80</Impressions>

</Ad>

</Advertisements> 

You can modify this code by including your preferences. Make sure that both the XML file and the required images are in a same directory. The last step is to create a .aspx file with the following code:

<asp:adrotator id = "ad1" runat = "server" width = "50"

height = "50" advertisementfile = "ourads.xml">

</asp:adrotator> 

The above set of code produces a static Web page (i.e. Without any major actions). If you need to add some sort of dynamism to your pages, then you have to learn about event handling. It’s similar to JavaScript, but with some variation. As we’ve already seen, you can apply actions using any .NET language. But for our examples in this article, I use C#. The listing shown below shows how to activate a WinForm Button:

<html>

<head>

<%@language = "C#"%>

void show(Object sender, EventArgs e){

t1.Text = "Welcome to ASP.NET" }

</head>

<body>

<asp:TextBox id = "t1">

<asp:Button id = "b1" Text = "Click here"

onClick = show()>

</body>

</html> 

About Visual Studio

Visual Studio shortly called as VS provides a very easy way for designing user interfaces using WebForms. You are required to just place the controls from the Toolbox to the form and set relevant properties form the properties dialog box, just like Visual Interdev 6.0. Now Visual Studio .NET provides a single development environment with which you can develop any .NET applications using any .NET language. In the earlier version, Visual Studio 6.0, each language had a separate environment. Hence, developers faced many problems while migrating from one language to another. They have to understand the new environment and learn new syntax while migrating from Visual Basic 6.0 to Visual C++ 6.0. These difficulties are eliminated with the introduction of .NET technology and Visual Studio .NET.

First of all let me welcome you to the world of this new programming language. I hope you will have a basic idea about Object Oriented Programming languages because many languages like Java, C++ have come by the past 5 years. However, there will be no difficulty in learning this language if you are a fresher, because this tutorial and the coming ones will explain all the concepts and features right from the beginning.

Wherever required I explained the features involved in C-sharp by comparing them with Java. This will ensure smooth progress for experienced programmers. I recommend you to install the appropriate software’s outlined in the next section before learning this new language.

What you need to begin C-sharp (C#) Programming?

1 .NET Framework Software Development Kit (SDK) and
2 An Editor (like Notepad or DOS Editor) to write source codes.

Optional Requirements

1. Visual Studio .NET, Visual C# .NET Standard Edition, Visual Studio 2005, Visual Studio 2008 or Visual C# Express, Visual Basic Express
2. Visual C++ 6.0 included with VisualStudio 6.0

Installing .NET Framework SDK

As a first step you should install .NET SDK on your computer to begin C-sharp Programming. It can be downloaded from the Microsoft’s Website. It is also available with almost all the popular computing magazine CD’S. It also comes with the complete documentation in the form of HTML Help.

At the time of this writing only beta version of the kit is available. This kit enables you to compile & execute the source code in C#, Visual Basic by using its built-in Command line Compiler (csc and vbc) and runtime Just In Time (JIT) Compiler. This is similar to Java Compiler (javac) and Java Interpreter (java) included with Java Development Kit.

You can also develop applications with C-sharp and Visual Basic by using Visual Studio.NET languages like Visual C#.NET and Visual Basic.NET. This will help you to develop windows based applications easily and with limited effort because you don’t have to devote too much time in designing the user interface. The only work left for you to do is to write the codings appropriately as per the .NET Standards.

About the Editors

Notepad is the best choice among developers using .NET SDK to develop C# applications. However. it is not the most suitable editor since it does not support syntax coloring, code numberings etc.

Developers can use Visual C++ 6.0 included with Visual Studio 6.0. However they should make some tweaking in the registry before using the same. It supports syntax colorings and other features such as finding line numbers (Ctrl+G). However it is dangerous for a new user to make changes in registry. Hence only advanced and experienced users can be able to use Visual Studio 6.0 for developing C#. It is not possible to compile and execute the applications from the Visual C++ 6.0 Environment. Hence there is not much use except some of the features listed above.

Visual Studio provides all the integrated tools and wizards for creating C# and Visual Basic applications. It also supports features such as intellisense, Dynamic help. Moreover you can compile and execute your applications from the IDE itself. Hence in order to experience the power of developing the .NET applications, you should try Visual Studio.

Many Third Party Editors are now available either from magazine CDs or can be downloaded from the internet. However it is up to you to decide upon which editor to use. I recommend you to try one common editor and learn the language in full.