Featured ASP.NET 2.0 Site: EventMingle.com

Built entirely using the ASP.NET 2.0 platform and Visual Studio 2005, EventMingle.com is a social networking service covering the trade show/conference space.

Software developer, Scott Hunter wants to know what you think of this site. Check it out!

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Debug And Release Builds in ASP.NET 2.0

Some of you must have been wondering why is there only "Debug" build for web projects in Visual Studio 2005. Scott Allen has a nice post on how debug and release builds work in ASP.NET 2.0.  Points to take home are that VS 2005 knows nothing about compiling a web application and that the ASP.NET platform takes care of the compilation responsibility now.

Scott also described how the new Web Deployment Projects changes the build scenarios for VS 2005.

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Here Comes GridViewGirl.com!

DataGrid Girl Marcie Robillard makes a comeback...this time as GridView Girl! (GridViewGirl.com)

Back in the .NET 1.x days, Marcie rocked the .NET world with a distinctly pink-colored site focusing on the DataGrid.  The "upgrade" to GridViewGirl seems natural with the release of .NET 2.0.  Let's look forward to seeing fresh GridView resources from Marcie in her new site.

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Enterprise Library for .NET 2.0 - November CTP now available!

Early last week, Tom Hollander announced the availability of November CTP of Enterprise Library for .NET Framework 2.0. Two notable ommissions in this release were highlighted; in particular, the configuration tool and the Cryptography Application Block.  A December final release is expected.

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URL Mapper with Regular Expressions Support in ASP.NET 2.0

One of the things that limits the usefulness of the built-in URL Mapping feature in ASP.NET 2.0 is the fact that it does not support regular expressions. Scott Guthrie tells why such support did not make it into this release.

Meanwhile, Christopher Pietschmann has posted a URL mapping solution which provides regex support for ASP.NET 2.0.

If you are looking for URL mapping/rewriting solutions for ASP.NET 1.1, see HOW TO: Rewrite URL.

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Steve Balmer Delivers Live Keynote at Microsoft Launch 2005 in Kuala Lumpur

It was San Francisco last week and now live in Kuala Lumpur!  Steve Balmer along with Prashant Shidharan (MS Group Product Manager) introduced Microsoft's next application platform comprising Visual Studio 2005, SQL Server 2005, and BizTalk Server 2006 at the Malaysian stop of the worldwide Launch 2005 event. 

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Commerce Starter Kit 1.01 released

Commerce Starter Kit 1.01 for ASP.NET 2.0 has been released.  This version fixes some localization issues found in the initial release.

From the home of Commerce Starter Kit site:

The Commerce Starter Kit (CSK) is a free, open source e-commerce storefront written specifically for ASP.NET 2.0. It features out-of-the-box product catalog and shopping cart functionality that allows website owners to setup, run, and maintain an online store with little or no costs, license fees, or limitations.

The Commerce Starter Kit was created by Wekeroad and sponsored by the PayPal Developer Network. The goal of the project is to continually improve the kit by attracting a community of developers that support its ongoing development through feedback and code contributions.

Get it at: CommerceStarterKit.org

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Visual Studio 2005 Web Deployment Projects Beta Preview available for Download

Visual Studio 2005 Web Development Projects (Beta Preview) is now available for download.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/asp.net/reference/infrastructure/wdp/default.aspx

This add-in tool provides additional functionality for building and deploying web applications created in ASP.NET 2.0 and Visual Studio 2005. Scott Guthrie has a nice writeup on this new tool.  Among the features highlighted are:

1. More control over the number of assemblies generated by a pre-compiled web project, and control over their naming.
2. Ability to utilize the full power of MSBuild to customize build processes.
3. Ability to define and use custom build-configurations inside VS, and define per-build configuration options.
4. Ability to customize and modify a web application's web.config file at deployment.

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Recently published: Murach’s ASP.NET 2.0 Upgrader's Guide: VB Edition

[From the publisher]

Mike Murach & Associates has just published a VB edition of their ASP.NET 2.0 book for experienced developers entitled, appropriately enough, Murach’s ASP.NET 2.0 Upgrader’s Guide: VB Edition.

Like the C# edition that was published in August, this book focuses on the practical aspects of upgrading. According to Murach, it’s easy enough for ASP.NET 1.x developers to get information on what’s new in ASP.NET 2.0. But it’s harder to figure out how…and when…to upgrade to the new features on the job. So this book goes beyond the typical overview and gives examples of how to apply the new features in everyday web applications.

To see how this works, developers can download chapter 3 of the book from the Murach web site. This chapter is on master pages, an ASP.NET 2.0 feature that makes it easy to include banners, navigation menus, and other elements on all the pages in an application. After explaining the basic concept, this chapter shows sample pages that use this feature, then shows and explains all the aspx and code-behind code that’s needed to make those pages work.

The remaining chapters in the book cover other key features, like the Access, SQL, and XML data sources; the GridView, DetailView and FormView controls; object data sources that allow binding to custom business objects; login and site navigation controls; profiles; the MultiView and Wizard controls; themes; web parts for building portals; and tools for configuring and deploying new applications.

To let upgraders move at a quick, professional pace, all of the content is formatted in Murach’s "paired pages" style. Each two-page spread presents a single topic. The lefthand page explains the topic while the righthand page shows the critical details, using syntax, code, screen shots, and how-to notes. This format allows experienced developers to take in a lot of information at a glance, so they can put it to work more quickly.

Murach’s ASP.NET 2.0 Upgrader’s Guide: VB Edition is available directly from the publisher at www.murach.com and from online and brick-and-mortar bookstores.

Editor's note: This book is also available here.  Read here for free chapter.

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Community Server 2.0 Beta 1 Released

Rob Howard has announced the first public beta of Community Server 2.0.  The final release is currently planned for December.

Read about it here.

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