The .NET platform provides authoritative capabilities for software development and deployment. The Microsoft’s new software-development model, the .NET will increase the programmer's productivity and decrease development time.

 Part of this innovative technology is a new language, C#. C# is a simple, modern, object oriented language derived from C++ and Java. It aims to merge the high productivity of Visual Basic and the raw power of C++.

To whom this book aimed for?

This book “Application Development Using C# and .NET” gives a new-fangled dimension of realistic approach to programming in C#. This book is the part of The Integrated .NET Series from Object Innovations and Prentice Hall PTR.

This book covers important topics in the .NET Framework for experienced programmers. This book is perfect for programmers who have basic knowledge in object-oriented languages such as C++ or Java but no need of prior experience in C#. The self-reliant treatment provides an easy and concrete insight to application development in C#. This book gives experienced developers all the practical insight they need to build enterprise applications for Microsoft’s .NET Platform using C#. A seasoned Visual Basic programmer who has experience in working with objects and components in VB could also read the book.

Using extensive code examples and a running case study, the authors cover the complete process of constructing a .NET application: creating a monolithic C# console application; enhancing it with a Windows Forms interface; isolating functionality inside components; adding database access and security; and finally delivering functionality through ASP.NET and Web Services.

Organization of this Book:

This book is organized into five major parts and is well thought-out to make it easy for you to segregate what you most need to know.

The book is organized into five major parts:

The first part contains 2 chapters that explain, “What is Microsoft.NET? “ and summarize about the .NET Fundamentals. .NET is Microsoft’s vision of applications in the Internet age. From these chapters, one can gain all the details about the .NET from its underpinning and how it solve the past windows development problems in a clear, concise manner.

The second part, consisting of chapters 3-5, covers the C# programming language. The third chapter provides a glance of essentials of C# language. The object-oriented aspects of C# and Acme Travel Agency case study is introduced in the fourth chapter. This chapter provides in detail coverage of object oriented features of C# with an importance on Inheritance.

Interfaces are used to define a contract; a class or struct that implements the interface must adhere to this contract. Interfaces also facilitate dynamic programming.  The .NET Framework describes a special type (Delegate) that provides the functionality of a function pointer. A delegate is a class that can hold a reference to a method. Unlike other classes, a delegate class has a signature, and it can hold references only to methods that match its signature. A delegate is thus equal to a type-safe function pointer or a callback. The fifth chapter provides all such important topics such as Collections, Interfaces and Delegates and Attributes in an apparent and precise manner.

The third part, Chapters 6-9 covers important fundamental topics in the .NET Framework. Windows Forms is the new platform for Microsoft Windows application development, based on the .NET Framework. This framework provides a clear, object-oriented, extensible set of classes that enables you to develop rich Windows applications. The System.Windows.Forms namespace contains classes for creating Windows-based applications that take full advantage of the rich user interface features available in the Microsoft Windows operating system.

Chapter 6 provides user interface programming using the Windows Forms classes. With the help of Assemblies, the problems relating to deployment are conveniently solved. As I already said the Microsoft’s new software-development model .NET will increase the programmer productivity and decrease development time. The Visual studio.NET CAB and setup wizards are very useful for creating starter setup and deployment projects. The chapter 7 explores about the assemblies and deployment. Chapter 8 discusses the important topics of .NET such as Metadata, Serialization, threading, attributes, application domains, asynchronous programming, remoting, and Memory management.

Database access is an important topic. The .NET Framework provides database support with a new database technology known as ADO.NET. There are two central components of ADO.NET that accomplish data access: the DataSet, and the .NET data provider, which is a set of components including the Connection, Command, DataReader, and DataAdapter objects.

The Dataset consists of a collection of DataTable objects that you can relate to each other with DataRelation objects. Data adapter are an integral part of ADO.NET managed providers, the set of objects used to communicate between a data source and a dataset. You can access data sources in either a connected or disconnected mode. The chapter 9 covers ADO.NET which provides a consistent set of classes for accessing both relational and XML data in a step by step manner and give a clear picture about all this topics in an excellent way.

The fourth part of the book provides an in-depth introduction to web programming using ASP.NET and SOAP. ASP.NET offers a novel programming model and infrastructure that facilitates a powerful new class of applications. ASP.NET is a compiled. NET-based environment, so one can author applications in any .NET compatible language, including Visual Basic, C# and Jscript.NET. Web Forms permits us to build powerful forms-based Web pages. When building these pages, we can use Web Forms controls to create common UI elements and program them for common tasks. These controls permit us to rapidly build up a Web Form. The chapter 10 discuss the above said ASP.NET fundamentals and Web Forms.

 "As a result of the changes in how businesses and consumers use the Web, the industry is converging on a new computing model that enables a standard way of building applications and processes to connect and exchange information over the Web." 

– Bill Gates.

As Bill Gates quoted, Microsoft’s .NET approach embraces the Internet and Web as integral to the software development and deployment process. A Key component of the .NET architecture is Web Services. The Web Services can be used as reusable building blocks by the clients. A Web Service is a programmable entity that offers a particular element of functionality, such as application logic, and is accessible to any number of potentially dissimilar systems through the use of Internet standards, such as XML, SOAP and HTTP. The chapter 11 covers the above said topics, Web services and SOAP.

The final part of the book covers further significant topics in the .NET Framework.  The .NET Framework security system embraces the reality that software is moving toward multiple, mobile components, and provides protection based on that reality. With a fine-grained, extensible policy and permission system, customers can run more powerful code while reducing the associated high risk. The chapter 12 covers the topic of security in detail, including code access security, declarative security, and securing of Web applications and services. Chapter 13 looks at the debug and trace classes provided by .NET. Chapter 14 covers interoperability of .NET with COM and with Win32 applications.

As a conclusion this book is intended for experienced developers and provide all the practical insight they need to build enterprise applications for Microsoft’s .NET Platform using C#.  This book is clearly defined, in-depth and example-rich. The major case study, the Acme Travel Agency, is progressively developed in Chapters 4 through 12. It illustrates many features of C# and .NET working in combination, as they would in a practical applications. The experienced C++, Java and VB programmers become efficient with .NET with the help of this book.