This document outlines an ASP.NET best practices presentation, including an introduction to ASP.NET, demonstrations of best practices like using object browsers and handling page events, and tips on state management, exceptions, and AJAX. The target audience is programmers new to .NET development and existing ASP.NET developers. The presentation covers the ASP.NET page lifecycle, separation of concerns using multiple projects, and disabling viewstate where possible. Useful resources like MSDN and CodeProject are also listed.
ASP.NET Best Practices - Useful Tips from the Trenches
1. ASP.NET Best Practices - Useful Tips from the Trenches HabeebRushdan, MCT hrushdan@lowerhead.com LowerHead Consulting, LLC
2. Target Audience (Why should I sit through this session anyway?) Programmers new to .NET Development Any non-programmer(even those IT gals & guys) interesting in learning about ASP.NET Development Existing ASP.NET web developers interesting in learning a few best practices… we only have a little over an hour so we can’t cover too much!
3. Agenda Introductions Brief Introduction of ASP.NET Best Practice Examples More Best Practice Examples A bit More Best Practice Examples… Useful Websites & Articles Conclusion
4. About your Presenter 10 + Years working Professionally in the Technology Field Microsoft Certified Trainer (MCT) Microsoft Certified Professional Developer (MCPD: Web Developer) Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist (MCTS: .NET Framework 3.5, ASP.NET Applications) Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist (MCTS: .NET Framework 2.0: Web Applications) Microsoft Certified Application Developer (MCAD.NET) Adobe Certified Instructor - Flash Adobe Certified Expert (ACE - Flash CS3 Professional) Macromedia Certified Flash MX Developer
5. A little bit about you… Who are you? I really want to know… (Sorry CSI, I couldn’t resist!)
6. What is ASP.NET??? A series of Classes that live in the System.Web Assembly Provides the ability to easily create dynamic websites and applications in the .NET Framework Has all the benefits of OOP and the ability to access the thousands of classes built-in to Microsoft’s .NET Framework Class Library
7. Demo Time – Using Object Browser to look into System.Web Assembly’s Types
8. ASP.NET Page Execution Life-Cycle A series of ASP.NET Page Events that occur in a specific order Occurs every time you make a Request to an ASP.NET Page Whether it is the first time you visit a page or any additional PostBack to the same page!
9. ASP.NET Page Life-Cycle Events PreInit Init InitComplete PreLoad Load Control events e.g Button1_Click, UserNameTextBox_TextChanged LoadComplete PreRender SaveStateComplete Render Unload
10. Some of most commonly used ASP.NET Page Life-Cycle Events PreInit Set a Master page or Theme dynamically Load Set properties in controls and grab data to be bound to controls that allow Data-binding PreRender Make final changes to the contents of the page or its controls e.g. attaching custom HTML attributes to a Button
12. Tips for Creating WebSites Start with a Blank Solution Separate out your Application into logical Tiers Separate Projects for UI, Business Rules, Data-Access, etc Create a BasePage that other pages will inherit from Use MasterPages for consistent layout Use UserControls for reusable UI functionality
15. ViewState Maintains state at the Page/Control level Is stored in a Hidden Form Input Element on the Client It can get very large, very quickly so beware and disable it where possible
16. ASP.NET Control Tips Don’t use a <ASP:Label> Server-side Tag when a caption will not be changed programmatically. Instead, a good Ole’ <Span> Client-side Tag will suffice Disable ViewState in controls that don’t need to maintain their state during PostBacks
18. Session Maintains state at the Session level (generally speaking, per a user’s browser instance) Items are accessible from Page to Page Keep in mind that Items stored In Session “linger” until they Expire Don’t overuse or your web server’s memory will complain! Make sure any custom types you define that need to be stored in Session are marked “Serializable”
19. Cache Robust Application-wide and Non-Session specific state management object Provides many options for Item Expiration and Dependencies
20. Cache & Application Suggestions Use the Cache Object instead of the legacy Application Object Cache provides tons of more options for intelligently managing your application-wide state data Compare the options available with Application.Add to the Cache.Add & Cache.Insert
21. State Management NO NOs Don’t store unmanaged objects in State Management For example: No DataReaders No File Handles (however, the contents of a file stored as System.String is OK)
22. State Management Suggestions Always check for the existence of an object before accessing it (also called defensive programming) Use string constants for keys This prevents misspellings and other nasty side-effects Consider using a “Manager” pattern with State Management objects
24. Some General Tips Dispose of unmanaged resources after their use This is especially important in web applications because of their disconnected nature Therefore, indulge the “using” statement Make sure you have a robust exception handling strategy Use Try/Catch/Finally where potential issues may occur and have a consistent logical way of dealing with exceptions
25. Exception Handling in ASP.NET Web.config page redirect option Page_Error Application_Error
26. ASP.NET AJAX Options Server-side AJAX Using UpdatePanels with existing ASP.NET controls to “trick” the client that PostBacks are not occurring Client-side AJAX No trickery involved but more work & better bang for the buck
27. AJAX Tips Minimize the use of Server-side AJAX and Update Panels Bad for performance and may cause some unexpected results Embrace Client-side AJAX (true AJAX) Microsoft makes it easy but you will need to learn some JavaScript Don’t be scared… JavaScript is fun and exceptionally versatile!
29. Any Tips you would like to Add? Come on, don’t be shy… We won’t bite ya… we just had some free pizza!
30. What have you learned? An Overview of ASP.NET Several ASP.NET Best Practices
31. Useful Websites & Articles Microsoft’s Official Developer Network Site http://www.msdn.com ASP.NET Official Web Site http://www.asp.net/ http://www.asp.net/ajax/ CodeProject Web Site http://www.codeproject.com/
