Microsoft announced in early May that version 2.0 of its Windows Azure SDK for .NET was finally available to all. The SDK brings with it a number of new features that are sure to delight those who host .NET Web sites on the Azure platform.

You should check out the full blog post for more details as Microsoft’s Scott Guthrie explains all of the new features in full detail.

As for availability, you can grab the Windows Azure SDK 2.0 for .NET over at the Windows Azure .NET Developer Center. It’s also open source so you can poke and prod your way through the code over at GitHub.

In late October, Microsoft finally unveiled its roadmap for proposed updates and additions to ASP.NET and Web Tools 2012.2. There’s a number of new features that developers can look forward to, but Microsoft warns that these additions are only in the planning stage now and may not see the light of day for some time.

First up is SignalR, a new addition to the ASP.NET family. Microsoft says that it adds “real-time functionality to web applications using WebSockets and other down-level transports.” The first release of SignalR will add item templates and hubs to an ASP.NET application and integrate with both ASP.NET MVC and ASP.NET Web API. You can find out more at the SignalR GitHub directory.

Speaking of Web API, Microsoft will be extending to add “richer OData functionality, expand support for Windows Store Apps and enable simple tracing and monitoring.” To be more specific, the following features will be added in the future:

MVC is also receiving a number of new additions in the future. These updates are intended to help developers build ASP.NET applications that ‘feature Azure, Single Page Applications, real time updates using SignalR and Facebook integration.” The proposed updates include:

On a final note, Microsoft is looking to add an ASP.NET membership system. Microsoft says the new system would “provide first class support for modern methods of authentication (such as OpenAuth/OpenID), as well as local username and password.” The new system will also allow developers to “easily change the underlying storage mechanism to SQL server, Azure Table or any other store of choice.”

Once again, it’s important to note that these plans are not set in stone, and can change. Microsoft welcomes any developer input at its ASP.NET UserVoice site to help determine the future of the development platform. You can help contribute to the future of ASP.NET here as Microsoft made it open source back in March. You can also download the latest Fall 2012 ASP.NET update preview here.

Literal str = new Literal();

str.Text = “hello world”;

Page.Controls.Add(str);

I have always thought a Literal was too cumbersome to use for a simple thing like adding a string to a controls control collection. Then, the other day, I found the LiteralControl while browsing through the MSDN docs and that my friends are a real treat. It lives in the System.Web.UI namespace and it adds great value. You can use it to achieve the same task as the one above, but in a more natural way.

Page.Controls.Add(new LiteralControl(“Hello world”));

It’s much cleaner, much nicer and much simpler. Now I can’t live without it.

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Mads Kristensen currently works as a Senior Developer at Traceworks located
in Copenhagen, Denmark. Mads graduated from Copenhagen Technical Academy with a multimedia degree in
2003, but has been a professional developer since 2000. His main focus is on ASP.NET but is responsible for Winforms, Windows- and
web services in his daily work as well. A true .NET developer with great passion for the simple solution.

http://www.madskristensen.dk/

ASP stands for “Active Server Pages” and is marketed as an add-on for Internet Information Services.

Programming an ASP web site through the use of ASP web hosting is generally regarded as being quite simple, and this brief article will take you through some of the specifics involved in the process.

ASP web sites are made using “built-in objects” which correspond to a specific group of functions used to create “dynamic web pages”.

A dynamic web page is a web page that contains content that can be moved such as images or form data. The data can be moved without the need to reload or refresh the page. ASP technology functions best with dynamic web page construction.

There are various versions of ASP technology, for example “ASP 3.0″. I shall use ASP 3.0 in all examples of web hosting technology because it is one of the more commonly used versions of ASP. ASP 3.0 contains several of the built-in objects including “Application” and “Session”.

“Session” is an object that maintains various functions throughout the pages of your web site.

An ASP web hosting firm that uses ASP 3.0 is generally equipped with the proper technological information to provide the user with adequate system information at all times and of course, basic customer support.

There are several versions of ASP; the most recent is ASP.NET version 2.0 and this version hit the market in November of 2005. Many companies function using this version.

ASP Hosting Basics

An ASP web hosting firm gives the basics of ASP to the consumer and uses the technology to assist and maintain their web hosting company.

There are various promotions in place that can collaborate with the ASP technology to offer different discounts and time trial-type selections with which to administer your web site and its products to the consumers.

It is important to shop around, as always, to discover which ASP host will help you with the different aspects of your business and/or personal web site and the needs you have that go with it.

In a general sense, as with anything else, finding a good ASP web hosting service can be difficult but very rewarding as well.

Finding the best team to work with your team is an asset to all business and personal operators in the world of global marketing, personal marketing and services, and general internet technology.

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Fame Ahmed is a well known author worldwide. He has written numerous works on various topics. He is an expert in research and writing reviews and articles based on his findings. gmail google

In this article we will introduce several positives and negatives of using this new language framework and hopefully dispel some of the mysteries hidden in Microsoft’s ASP language.

Just over 10 years ago Microsoft poured money, time and considerable expertise into the development of an online framework that would launch it into the forefront of the, then, newest rising technology market, the internet. While many initially jumped onto the big ‘M’ bandwagon hoping to capitalize on the promised power of this new initiative, many more chose a more cautious ‘wait-and-see’ approach. Many of these companies are now adopting ASPs in various situations where it is best suited rather than using it for all their internet development needs.

Microsoft’s initiative has produced a strong, robust framework for many web design circumstances. However, it does have a number of drawbacks. Chiefly, ASP sites are often not well suited to very high volumes of traffic due to comparatively large code requirements, numerous browser compatibilities issues and the requirement of Microsoft specific tools to serve up ASP pages and, in the case of more complex functions, may require special applications to develop and/or maintain the pages.

This may sound like an argument against using the ASP language in the design and development of an internet presence. In actuality, the ASP language is extremely well suited to quickly develop most small and medium sized personal and corporate web sites. The language itself can be characterized as an extension of the Microsoft Visual Basic PC based language which many consider to be one of the easiest to learn and use. As such it is an extremely simple framework for anyone to learn quickly and become highly proficient with. ASPs can also natively plug into Microsoft robust Internet Information Server (IIS) and by extension utilize ODBC, ADO and DAO to access numerous other connectivity technologies and databases.

One of the greatest advantages of building ASP-based websites is the speed at which development can be completed. Microsoft developed ASP with the Visual Studio development platform in mind. Visual Studio provides all the tools, extensions and add-ons to produce exceptionally clean and fast web pages with advanced functions and templates. It also provides the ability to preview your development without requiring an ASP preprocessor or server.

Microsoft continues to forward the development of the ASP language and has included it in their ‘next generation’ framework known as .NET (Dot Net). This is a complex framework with strict programming rules that can be used to create highly robust applications, programs, web pages and database utilities. Microsoft defines .NET as “the Microsoft Web services strategy to connect information, people, systems, and devices through software.” It does this by exposing a number of web services that can be exploited to create rich, highly functional application by connecting backend programs and functions which can be written in alternate languages (most often Microsoft specific languages) to the internet through standard internet technologies like XML, SOAP and HTML. If you are already familiar with .NET then you will be familiar with the advantages of this framework. Otherwise you may wish to investigate it more thoroughly on the Microsoft .NET website. For more information on Microsoft .NET – Click Here -.

For the purposes of internet site development ASP provides an excellent platform from which to create full, rich, dynamic websites for all smaller or medium sized personal or business needs. Because of the requirement of Microsoft specific Servers and a relatively large ASP code base required to serve dynamic pages the scalability and speed of execution make ASP coded sites to not fit all situations. However, with the proper evaluation of web presence needs, the ASP language can be a valuable development tool in the creation of most web sites.

The ASP Resource Index – http://www.aspin.com- Provides a very complete set of resources for development in ASP

Genusa.Com – http://www.activeserverpages.com/genusa- Portal site listing over 140 other ASP resource web sites

4guysfromrolla.com – http://www.4guysfromrolla.com – Hosts numerous articles, tutorials and programmer forum boards

Note:

If you don’t wish to use the Microsoft specific Visual Studio you may utilize any number of third party development tools, many of which are marketed free for personal use, to quickly create ASP websites. For example, Yes Software (http://www.yessoftware.com) has created the Code Charge Studio for the rapid development of web pages, sites, and applications for a very reasonable rate.. It allows the creation of pages in numerous languages including ASP, PHP, JSP, C# and PERL. As well, it provides a very rich set of extensions, frameworks, templates and database tools to meet every development requirement. A downloadable 20 day fully featured demo version is available for evaluation purposes.

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Programming for over 10 years, Wayne Klapwyk has worked on various systems including IBM AS/400, PCs and Apple Macs. Over the last 8 years his focus has more and more turned to the web developing sites and applications in HTML, ASP and PHP. He is an integral member of the http://www.webpronews.com/?p=30487 Amazingly enough, some webmasters haven’t learned about Google yet, and how easy it is to retrieve pages that have been poorly protected from being viewed.

When the blogger behind the brand new EvolvedLight blog wanted to find out more information regarding an accident at Alton Towers amusement park in Staffordshire, England, the quest for information led to the park’s media page.

“This site is for Media use only. To gain an access password please call 01538 704015,” reads the page. Instead, the blogger turned to the ubiquitous Google to indulge in a little Google hacking.

In looking at the source code, one section revealed that whatever is entered as a password would trigger a redirect to a page named {password}.html. The right password would reveal the press page.

So the blogger sent Google a simple search string: * site:http://press.altontowers.com and guess what was revealed as the third result in the SERPs?

“Welcome to the Alton Towers Press Site,” said the revealed page, called pressxpsa.html. That means the password would be pressxpsa.

And indeed it is. To call this a poorly designed page would be an insult to poorly designed pages everywhere. In the interest of helping out someone in need, here is a Microsoft link on securing ASP pages for the amusement park’s Windows Server 2003 host running IIS 6.

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David Utter is a staff writer for WebProNews covering technology and business.

Atlas serves as an extension to ASP.NET, as the official Microsoft site for the technology explains, and provides developers with the ability to create pages with a rich interface and rapid server communication.

Recently, general manager of the .NET Development Platform Scott Guthrie posted a video demonstrating the development of ASP.NET 2.0 applications using Atlas.

His 18-minute walkthrough first creates a ToDo List with ASP.NET 2.0, then goes back and uses Atlas to add useful client-side features to it.

Accomplishing those development feats requires use of the Atlas Control Toolkit, available for download from the Atlas website.

The site advises that the Toolkit is an early preview version, and developers could “experience some issues” with using it.

Several controls and extenders come with the Toolkit, as one would expect.

The Toolkit contains Helper Classes, and Project and Item Templates for Visual Studio 2005 (Visual Basic and Visual C# users), so developers can build controls and extenders beyond what the Toolkit contains.

The samples that come with the Toolkit may be sampled online. On the Atlas website, visitors can play with DropShadow or ModalPopups to see how they can enhance the user experience.

To prod more Atlas adoption, Microsoft is showing off a Showcase of sites created with Atlas technology.

Websites like Pageflakes and Squeet use Atlas to power their applications, and demonstrate how others might consider using Atlas in their next great project.

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Developers can pay to play, or play for free depending on how they may wish to hone their programming skills. In considering ASP.Net, the coder can find some good resources online, particularly Microsoft’s now-free Visual Studio Express editions.

The 15 Seconds website has been following ASP development for several years. This Jupitermedia web presence has a couple of recently added articles that introduce a four-part look at working hands-on with Visual Studio.

Part one of David Catherman’s tutorial walks through the introduction to a useful project – collecting online resource links to .Net, Visual Studio, and SQL Server information.

Those links will be collected into a database created with the tutorial, and provide a means for others to add links to that collection. In part one, Catherman shows how to design that SQL Server database.

For part two, Catherman focuses on using the Windows Form environment to create the Windows user interface.

Parts three and four should become available in the next two weeks, and will demonstrate how to build the Web interface to the project, and then created the necessary Web services to provide communication between the layers of the application.

For those who want to invest in an online option, Microsoft Learning offers several courses available as one-year subscriptions.

Gaining access to Developing Microsoft ASP.NET Web Applications Using Visual Studio .NET cost $349 for that single year subscription. It is a self-paced course that Microsoft estimates a developer should be able to complete in about 17 hours.

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When scouring the various web hosting reviews in print and on the internet to help find the web host that most addresses your specific and unique needs, you’ll come across many of these “names”, these specialized types of web hosting products.

Many of them you may not need, but the one or two that you do, you may need a lot. Knowing which types of hosting products you require most will help you review web hosting reviews with a keener (and therefore more efficient, effective, and economical) eye.

If the web hosting review mentions ASP Hosting, it’s referring to Active Server Pages, a technology that resolves a problem HTML-users have in getting their web pages to appear exactly as they intend them to appear on every visitor’s computer.

ASP uses something called “server-side scripting” to enable you to create uniform web pages regardless of the web browser your visitors are using.

If the web hosting review mentions Colocation Hosting, it means that you would actually own the hardware the datacenter uses to run your website. With colocation hosting, you physically purchase a server and bring it to the datacenter and install it and maintain it yourself.

For less cost than a dedicated server, you get the benefits of a datacenter (connectivity, environmental regulation, security, uninterruptible power) while maintaining 100% control over what your server does and does not do.

The caveat: anything you want done, you’ve got to do yourself. Colocation hosting is a DIY (do-it-yourself) situation.

If the web hosting review mentions Cold Fusion Hosting, it refers to database software developed by Macromedia, the same team who brought us Flash and Shockwave.

Cold fusion allows web interactivity with your databases, meaning that you can query, index, update, and chart your databases all from your web browser.

If the web hosting review mentions FrontPage Hosting it means you get support and — most importantly — server extensions for using Microsoft FrontPage software to create your website.

FrontPage lets you create dynamic and interactive websites that you can’t achieve with HTML alone.

A FrontPage host (and only a FrontPage host) has FrontPage server extensions enabled, which allows you to bypass using an intermediary FTP client in order to publish your site.

FrontPage server extensions give you the power to include hit counters, forms, discussion forums, and search functionality in your website, as well as empowering you with multi-user authoring, and remote authoring and administration for better managing your site.

Keep in mind: a single web hosting provider may very well offer many of these hosting services, and quite likely many others not mentioned here.

Check the web hosting reviews you read very carefully to find out which hosting services each web host offers.

See Part II of this article to learn about web hosting reviews for Java hosting, MySQL hosting, PHP hosting, SSH hosting, and Windows hosting.

Hosting-Review.com is the premier resource on web hosting reviews. Visit http://www.hosting-review.com for comprehensive reviews and rankings of over 50 web hosting providers, as well as informative articles about everything to do with hosting and the top-rated picks for different types of hosting packages.

In cooperation with other providers, Acuo Technologies has created a completely hosted solution for healthcare IT, including image-information and other management systems. Under this partnership, hospitals, clinics and physicians are able to access the web-based software from Visage PACS locally via Acuo’s peer-aware architecture, or centrally via data center-hosted solutions. Radiologists and clinicians can access the PACS solution at any time via the Internet and retrieve medical imaging data for interpretation, as well as archive image data in the data center. Visage PACS offers comprehensive workflow optimization and supports standards such as IHE and HL 7.

“In the ASP model as well, hospitals enjoy the full functionality of Visage PACS. Data access is on demand via a browser and is in real time,” said Marcelo Lima, Vice President of Commercial Imaging and Visualization at Mercury Computer Systems. “In this way, doctors can store their image data in a distributed or central approach without losing time, and use it for interpretation.”

In addition, hospitals opting for this outsourcing solution can reduce the total cost of ownership. “Users only have to pay a usage fee, per study or monthly, for example. Further investments for IT infrastructure and software licensing are not needed,” emphasized
Shannon Werb, CTO at Acuo Technologies.

“Our provider partners make the necessary infrastructure available in the data processing center and undertake the entire hardware and software maintenance. Thus, the users’ expenditure of time and costs is dramatically reduced. Because data are accessed via VPN, ultimate data protection is ensured.” Ten imaging centers and clinics in the United States have already signed up for the ASP services.

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John Stith is a staff writer for WebProNews covering technology and business.