ASP.NET AJAX

With ASP.NET AJAX, developers can quickly create pages with sophisticated, responsive user interfaces and more efficient client-server communication by simply adding a few server controls to their pages. Previously an extension to the ASP.NET runtime, ASP.NET AJAX is now built into the platform and makes the complicated task of building cross-platform, standards based AJAX applications easy.

More Information

•  Watch the ASP.NET AJAX Support in VS2008 Video
•  Watch the Adding AJAX Functionality to an Existing ASP.NET Page Video
•  Watch the Creating and Using an AJAX-enabled Web Service in a Web Site Video
• The ASP.NET AJAX Site
• ASP.NET AJAX Overview

New ListView and DataPager Controls

The new ListView control gives you unprecedented flexibility in how you display your data, by allowing you to have complete control over the HTML markup generated. ListView‘s template approach to representing data is designed to easily work with CSS styles, which comes in handy with the new Visual Studio 2008 designer view. In addition, you can use the DataPager control to handle all the work of allowing your users to page through large numbers of records.

More Information

•  Watch the ListView Control Video
•  Watch the DataPage Control Video
• Using the ASP.NET 3.5 ListView Control
• ListView Web Server Control

LINQ and other .NET Framework 3.5 Improvements

With the addition of Language Integrated Query (LINQ) in .NET Framework 3.5, the process of building SQL queries using error-prone string manipulation is a thing of the past. LINQ makes your relational data queries a first-class language construct in C# and Visual Basic, complete with compiler and Intellisense support. For Web applications, the ASP.NET LinqDataSource control allows you to easily use LINQ to filter, order and group data that can then be bound to any of the data visualization controls like the ListView and GridView controls. In addition, all the other improvements to .NET Framework 3.5, including the new HashSet collection, DateTime offset support, diagnostics, garbage collection, better thread lock support, and more, are all available to you in your ASP.NET applications.

More Information

•  Watch the LINQ How Do I Video Series
• Part 1: Introduction to LINQ and SQL
• Part 2: Defining our Data Model Classes
• Part 3: Querying our Database
• Part 4: Updating our Database
• Part 5: Binding UI using the ASP:LinqDataSource Control
• Part 6: Retrieving Data Using Stored Procedures
• Part 7: Updating our Database using Stored Procedures
• Part 8: Executing Custom SQL Expressions
• Part 9: Using a Custom LINQ Expression with the <asp:LinqDataSource> control
• LinqDataSource Technology Overview

WCF Support for RSS, JSON, POX and Partial Trust

With .NET Framework 3.5, Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) now supports building Web services that can be exposed using any number of the Internet standard protocols, such as SOAP, RSS, JSON, POX and more. Whether you are building an AJAX application that uses JSON, providing syndication of your data via RSS, or building a standard SOAP Web service, WCF makes it easy to create your endpoints, and now, with .NET Framework 3.5, supports building Web services in partial-trust situations like a typical shared-hosting environment.

More Information

• Using ASP.NET Web Services Roadmap

New Web Design Interface

Visual Studio 2008 has incorporated a new Web designer that uses the design engine from Expression Web. Moving between design and source view is faster than ever and the new split view capability means you can edit the HTML source and simultaneously see the results on the page. Support for style sheets in separate files has been added as well as a CSS properties pane which clarifies the sometimes-complex hierarchy of cascading styles, so that it is easy to understand why an element looks the way it does. In addition Visual Studio 2008 has full WYSIWYG support for building and using ASP.NET Nested Master Pages which greatly improves the ability to build a Web site with a consistent look and feel.

More Information

•  Watch the New Designer Support in VS2008 Video
•  Watch the Quick Tour of the VS2008 IDE Video
•  Watch the VS2008 and Nested Masterpages Video
•  Watch the Creating and Modifying a CSS File Video
• VS 2008 Web Designer and CSS Support
• VS 2008 Nested Master Page Support
• Working with CSS Overview

JavaScript Debugging and Intellisense

In Visual Studio 2008, client-side JavaScript has now become a first-class citizen in regards to its debugging and Intellisense support. Not only does the Intellisense give standard JavaScript keyword support, but it will automatically infer variable types and provide method, property and event support from any number of included script files. Similarly, the JavaScript debugging support now allows for the deep Watch and Locals support in JavaScript that you are accustomed to having in other languages in Visual Studio. And despite the dynamic nature of a lot of JavaScript, you will always be able to visualize and step into the JavaScript code, no matter where it is generated from. This is especially convenient when building ASP.NET AJAX applications.

More Information

•  Watch the JavaScript Intellisense Support in VS2008 Video
•  Watch the JavaScript Debugging in VS2008 Video
•  Watch the IntelliSense for JScript and ASP.NET AJAX Video
• Visual Studio 2008 JavaScript Debugging
• Visual Studio 2008 JavaScript Intellisense

Multi-targeting Support

In previous versions of Visual Studio, you could only build projects that targeted a single version of the .NET Framework. With Visual Studio 2008, we have introduced the concept of Multi-targeting. Through a simple drop-down, you can decide if you want a project to target .NET Framework 2.0, 3.0 or 3.5. The builds, the Intellisense, the toolbox, etc. will all adjust to the feature set of the specific version of the .NET Framework which you choose. This allows you to take advantage of the new features in Visual Studio 2008, like the Web design interface, and the improved JavaScript support, and still build your projects for their current runtime version.

More Information

•  Watch the Multi-Targeting Support in VS2008 Video
• Visual Studio 2008 Multi-Targeting Support
• .NET Framework Multi-targeting Overview

What‘s New in ASP.NET and Web Development

Learn More about Visual Studio 2008

Forums

• ASP.NET AJAX Forums
• Visual Studio 2008 Forum
• Visual Web Developer 2008 Express Forum