M313: Developing & Upgrading applications using VB.NET
(5 days)

Who should attend?

Application developers, database programmers, web developers who want to develop new VB.NET applications or upgrade their existing applications to their .NET platform.

Prerequisites
Some programming experience with Visual Basic is recommended.

Objectives

To help participants to obtain skills to write applications in new .NET platform as well as helping senior developers and software architects to show how to upgrade their old VB programs. Introduction to web services and XML management will be covered as well.

Contents

New Features in Visual Basic .NET

Examining the New IDE, Development Accelerators, .NET Framework, History of .NET, What is ASP.NET, Common Language Runtime (CLR), Object-Oriented Language and Concepts, Advantages of Object Oriented Design (OOA, OOD, OOP), Introduction to Namespace Concepts, Web Applications Overview, Web Forms and Services, Simple Object Access Protocol Concepts (SOAP), Introduction to Security issues, Compiler Improvements and changes, Changes from Visual Basic 6.0, Variable Types and changes : Variants, Variable Lower Bounds, Fixed Length Strings, Properties and Variables, Get and Set, Date Type
Default Properties

.NET Framework Issues

What Is the .NET Framework?, Introduction to the Common Language Runtime (CLR), Creating, Using, Handling and Compiling Assemblies, Understanding Metadata, What Metada helps about ?, Assembly Dependencies, Reflection interfaces and attributes, No more DLL Hell, System Services Usage, Exception Handling, Console I/O, Microsoft Intermediate Language, The Just-In-Time Compiler (JIT), Garbage Collection Mechanism, Framework Security and permissions

Common Language Runtime Usage and Concepts

New Component Architecture, Managed Code versus Unmanaged Code, System Namespace, File I/O, Type Casting, Garbage Collection, Object Allocation/ Deallocation, Close/Dispose

VB.NET IDE Concepts

The New IDE, Wizards, Macros, Add-Ins, Creating an Add-In Using the Add-In Wizard, Project Options, Toolbox, Solution Explorer, Properties Window, Form Layout Toolbar, Web Forms, Customizing the IDE

Programming With .NET

Variables, Constants, Structures, Program Flow Control and branching statements, Arrays and manipulation of arrays, Functions, Object Oriented Programming Concepts, System.Object, Constructors, Overloading, Overriding
String Handling, Error Handling

Advanced Programming Concepts

Using Modules and Namespaces, Implementing Interfaces, Event Programming
Handles Keyword, File Operations with VB.NET: Directory Listing, Data Files, Text Files, Appending Files, Drawing : Images, Printing, Multithreading Issues : Threads and Locks

Graphical User Interface design with Visual Basic .NET

What is Windows Forms ?, Windows Forms Properties and Methods
Creating Windows Forms and adjusting its properties, Events available on WinForms, Creating Multiple Document Interface Applications (MDI), Which Common Controls are available and examples, Creating Dialog Boxes, Creating and Working with Menus (Design and Runtime behaviors), Status Bars and Toolbars, Data Binding To form elements, Using Class Viewer

WinForms Components and Controls

Built-In Controls: Label,TextBox Control, Button Control and more, TrackBar Control, DateTimePicker Control, Panel Control, GroupBox Control, TabControl Control, Creating Custom Windows Components

Database connections

Overview of XML, ADO.NET, XML Support, configure and redirect ADO.NET
How to prepare Connection Strings, Command Objects, DataReader, DataSet
Relational Schema, Collection of Tables, Data States, Populating with the DataSet Command, Populating with XML, Populating Programmatically, Using the SQL Server Data Provider, Data Controls, DataGrid, DataRelation, DataList


Debugging and Testing

Debugging Concepts, Debug Menu, Trace and Assertions, Code Optimization
Garbage Collection, Compiler Options, Optimization Options, .NET Assembly Options, Stress, PerfMon

Deployment Issues

How to Package, Configuring the .NET Framework, CLR configuration
Windows Installer and CAB Files

How to Upgrade?

Considerations, Early Binding of Variables Issues, Using ADO, Using Date Data Type, Intranet/Internet Applications, Internet Information Server (IIS) Applications
Client/Server and Multi-Tier Applications, Data Types, convert VB Forms to WinForms, Programming Differences: Procedures, methods, parameter passing, Properties

VB.NET and Web


What is Web Forms, A Simple Web Form, How to Create a Simple Web Form
How Web Forms Differ from Windows Forms, Why Web Forms Are Better Than Classic ASP, How to add controls to Web Forms, ASP.NET Server Controls and Control Types : Databound, Validation, Creating Custom Web Form Controls, What are Web Services ?, How Web Services Work ?, Developing Web Services, Consuming Web Services from Web Forms