The ASP.NET Live! event focuses on the web centric technologies found in the .NET Framework used for building web applications.  This includes the core ASP.NET functionality as well as the newer ASP.NET AJAX and WPF/e technology used for building Web 2.0 applications.  With ASP.NET AJAX and WPF/e around the corner the .NET Framework is bringing to the table cutting edge technologies for building dynamic and exciting applications today.

ASP Track 1 – Tuesday, November 13, 2007

Silverlight for Business Applications
Billy Hollis
10:30 a.m.
Microsoft has talked a lot about Silverlight for media applications and consumer-oriented Rich Internet Applications. But Silverlight can also be a platform for Internet-based business applications, offering dramatically better user interfaces than today's HTML-based business apps. This session will walk through the typical architecture of a Silverlight business application, including how to get data into and out of the Silverlight client, security implications on the client, and how to create and use .NET objects inside Silverlight applications. Some exposure to WPF or Silverlight concepts is a
pre-requisite for this session.

Exploiting the ASP.NET Adapter Architecture, Intermediate
Robert Boedigheimer
11:45 a.m.
ASP.NET 2.0 provides the ability to override control and page rendering in order to tailor the output for specific browsers or provide new behaviors. A recent example of the power of this architecture is the "ASP.NET 2.0 CSS Friendly Control Adapters 1.0" provided by Microsoft that can be used to render existing ASP.NET controls with CSS rather than tables (such as the Menu control). Another great use of adapters is to use session storage for viewstate rather than a hidden client field saving bandwidth and improving performance, which can be easily accomplished with a custom page adapter. Discover how to exploit adapters on your web site, and how to use alternative rendering or behavior without abandoning existing controls!

Build a 3-Tier Data Driven Website, Introductory
Chris Franz
2:00 p.m.
Many developers have the need to store, manipulate and display data to users. This is a very common practice in the development of Websites. ASP.NET 2.0 has powerful data access components which simplify the presentation and manipulation of data. Using a 3-Tier approach (data access layer (DAL), business logic layer (BLL) and presentation layer) allows for more manageable and portable code. This session provides an introduction to implementing a 3-Tier data driven web site. We will create a data access layer using an existing set of tables. A business logic layer will be added to ensure that the data is manipulated according to defined business rules. Finally we will use the tools within ASP.NET to display, filter, sort and manipulate the data.

Serious WebPart Customization, Intermediate
Benjamin Day
3:15 p.m.
Ever tried to customize how your ASP.NET WebParts look? Sure, you can change colors and fonts, but what if you want to change the layout? What if you need to put the WebPartVerb menu in a different place? That goes beyond simple tweaking; now you need custom WebPartChrome. In this session, Ben will do a deep-dive on the ASP.NET WebParts architecture and show you how to seriously customize your WebParts by creating your own WebPartChrome and WebPartZone, all without losing the benefits of personalization.

Exploring the AJAX Control Toolkit, Intermediate
Robert Boedigheimer
4:30 p.m.
Discover how to add great new functionality to ASP.NET web sites using the AJAX Control Toolkit. Review the masked edit extender which allows the developer to specify a specific pattern that the input must match. This extends the TextBox control to display the mask to the user for better feedback about what is required for entry. See how the AlwaysVisibleControl extender can keep a control pinned to a specific area of the browser so that even when the user scrolls the content will be visible. Learn how the Accordian control can allow multiple areas with content with only one displayed at a particular time. These are just a handful of the controls available from the toolkit. Why live with dated user experiences in your ASP.NET web sites when these can enhance the site experience so easily?

Wednesday, November 14

Introduction to ASP.NET 2.0 Security, Introductory to Intermediate
Paul Sheriff
10:30 a.m.
This seminar will show you step-by-step how to use the new security controls and classes within ASP.NET 2.0. Learn how to create users, setup roles, add a login page, view who is logged in, and how to keep track of who is logged in, into your application. In addition, you will see how to create a custom Provider to retrieve/store users and roles in any data store. Familiarity with .NET is recommended.

ASP.NET/AJAX/Silverlight – Which one to Use, and When?, Intermediate
Vishwas Lele
11:45 a.m.
This talk is an extension of Vishwas’s popular AJAX-style application development from 2005 and 2006 VSLive! Conferences. With the announcement of Silverlight, web developers have yet another tool for building rich, interactive web applications. This talk compares and contrasts these options and provides guidelines on their usage.

IIS 7 for Web Developers, Intermediate
Robert Boedigheimer
2:00 p.m.
Effective web developers understand not only how pages are created but how they are executed. IIS 7 provides many new features that will be critical for ASP.NET developers. IIS 7 has been modularized so functions can be removed or extended as needed. Learn how extend IIS with ASP.NET, and how the pipelines have been integrated which allows Forms Authentication to be applied to all files including images, documents, and HTML files. Use failed request
tracing to not only troubleshoot problems but to also learn how requests are executed. Find detailed information about how web sites are processing requests, such as which requests are currently executing.

Architecting ASP.NET Applications, Intermediate
Paul Sheriff
3:15 p.m.
Putting together an ASP.NET Application so that it is easy to maintain, easy to change the look and feel of, and is flexible can be a real challenge these days. In this seminar you will learn how to take advantage of Master Pages, Themes, Skins, and CSS for building the front end UI. In addition, you will be exposed to other concepts like the use of Providers for maximum flexibility in dealing with exceptions and configuration management. Prior knowledge of how to build ASP.NET applications is recommended.

Building Custom Providers, Intermediate
Chris Franz
4:30 p.m.
The 2.0 .NET Framework introduced the concepts of providers which encapsulate common functionality. Microsoft provides a several default providers, but what if you have an existing database schema or you are using a different database server? This session will discuss the properties and methods of these providers and demonstrate how to create new providers. Examples will include creating a membership, role and sitemap provider.