Using ASP.NET

Summary

As you can see, the ASP.NET technology is a large subject and is the sole topic of numerous books. It’s an extremely powerful feature of Mono and can lead to feature-rich, thin-client applications that are relatively simple to develop but do not suffer from the client-side requirement of typical fat-client applications such as those based on Windows Forms. The chapter provided an overview of ASP.NET concepts and why features such as Web Services are important when dealing with heterogeneous environments. You looked briefly at the architecture behind the ASP.NET runtime and how it uses JIT compilation and caching to achieve good performance. You then looked at obtaining, installing, and configuring the required components, including using some of the leading Web servers on the market. This allowed you to use a Web server to see a number of ASP.NET’s powerful features in action, including the following:

• Securing Web resources

• Creating a login page

• Creating a Web Service

• Writing a dynamic Web page

You now have the foundation necessary to start experimenting and discovering some of the other fantastic features that ASP.NET has to offer.