Programming Microsoft Web Forms (Pro Developer)

In addition to the controls described in this chapter, ASP.NET provides several other controls. First, there is the GridView control, which is generally used with databases and will be described in detail in Chapter 5. The older DataGrid control will get brief mention, but it is included in ASP.NET 2.0 only for compatibility. Also in Chapter 5, some additional properties of the ListControl class and its descendents will be described.

Another broad class of controls is Web Parts. Web Parts are new to ASP.NET 2.0, and they are borrowed from Microsoft SharePoint Products and Technologies. Web Parts allow you to create controls that can be added, removed, and modified (for both content and location) in the browser by the user. Web Parts are covered in Chapter 4, "Working with Web Parts."

A popular strategy for entering large amounts of information on a Web Form that cannot reasonably be fit on a single page is to use a wizard. Wizards contain multiple screens that allow you to navigate back and forth among smaller, more manageable steps. In earlier versions of ASP.NET, you had to manually create your own wizard, often using panel controls that were hidden and revealed in a particular order. Fortunately, ASP.NET 2.0 has a new Wizard control that makes creating wizard applications easier. This new control will be covered in Chapter 3. The MultiView control is simpler than the Wizard control, allowing multiple screens, or views, with only one view visible at a time, but without any built-in binding support. The MultiView control will be used in an example in Chapter 5.

Although the controls described in this chapter can handle many of the tasks you might have, there might still be times when a custom control allows you to do things easily that might not be easy or even possible using the standard controls. Chapter 6, "Custom Controls," will show you all you need to know about creating custom controls.

Finally, ASP.NET provides some new controls that allow fairly complete handling of user security. The numerous login-related controls will be covered in Chapter 7, "Security and Administration."