ASP.NET Fundamentals: ASP.NET is integrated with the .NET Framework

ASP.NET Fundamentals: ASP.NET is integrated with the .NET Framework

The .NET Framework is divided into an almost painstaking collection of functional parts, with tens of thousands of types (the .NET term for classes, structures, interfaces, and other core programming ingredients). Before you can program any sort of .NET application, you need a basic understanding of those parts—and an understanding of why things are organized the way they are. The massive collection of functionality that the .NET Framework provides is organized in a way that traditional Windows programmers will see as a happy improvement. Each one of the thousands of classes in the .NET Framework is grouped into a logical, hierarchical container called a namespace. Different namespaces provide different features. Taken together, the .NET namespaces offer functionality for nearly every aspect of distributed development from message queuing to security. This massive toolkit is called the class library.

Interestingly, the way you use the .NET Framework classes in ASP.NET is the same as the way you use them in any other type of .NET application (including a stand-alone Windows application, a Windows service, a command-line utility, and so on). Although there are Windows-specific and web-specific classes for building user interfaces, the vast majority of the .NET Framework (including everything from database access to multithreaded programming) is usable in any type of application. In other words, .NET gives the same tools to web developers that it gives to rich client developers.

Tip: One of the best resources for learning about new corners of the .NET Framework is the .NET Framework class library reference, which is part of the MSDN Help library reference. If you have Visual Studio 2012 installed, you can view the MSDN Help library by clicking the Start button and choosing Programs ➤ Microsoft Visual Studio 2012 ➤ Microsoft Visual Studio 2012 Documentation (the exact shortcut depends on your version of Visual Studio).