Beginning VB.NET (eBook)

Mathew Reynolds After working with Wrox Press on a number ofprojects since 1999, he is now an in-house author for Wrox Presswriting about and working with virtually all aspects of Microsoft.NET. He's also a regular contributor to Wrox's ASPToday andC#Today, and Web Services Architect. He lives and works in NorthLondon and can be reached on matthewr@wrox.com.Richard Blair is Web Application Architect specializingin Microsoft Web Technologies, focusing on emerging technology andits impact on business and development. Key areas that he hashelped clients evaluate include: streamlining the electronicbusiness process, expanding access to vital information, andcreating usable systems. He now works as a Senior Consultant forSEI-Information Technology. Besides his consulting work, he hasalso co-authored Professional ASP XML, Beginning Visual Basic.NET, and Professional VB.NET, all published by WroxPress Ltd.Richard has a dual concentration bachelor's degree from theUniversity of Michigan in English Literature and Theatre, so notonly is he a Web Architect, he could play one on TV. Richardwelcomes qu estions and comments at richblair@hotmail.com.Jonathan Crossland is co-author of ProfessionalWindows DNA, Professional VB.NET, and BeginningVB.NET. He is currently working at Yokogawa ElectricCorporation in the UK, where he is happily involved with thecreation of software for the Batch manufacturing industry. Jonathanhas been working in and out of various software technologies foreight years now, and spends most of his time in C# and ASP.NET.Jonathan also works with VB, VB.NET, and web technologies such asJavaScript, DHTML, XML, ASP, and of course, writing WebServices.Thearon Willis began his career in computers in 1980 as acomputer operator. During the fall of 1980 he took a course inBASIC programming using the Radio Shack TSR-80 computer and hasbeen hooked on programming ever since.After learning the BASIC language, Thearon moved on to learn COBOLand began writing programs to help automate some of his daily tasksas a computer operator. Advancing his career, Thearon became anOperations Analyst and learned several other languages to assist inhis job. In 1989, Thearon moved into Systems Programming andstarted programming in S370 assembler language. He coded batchprograms in assembler language and then moved on to code CICSprograms. The Help Desk and Network Operations used these batch andon-line programs to perform some of their daily tasks, such asmonitoring CICS printers and polling sales. During this time, hestarted working with relational databases on the mainframe andimmediately saw the benefits that relational databases provided.Between the years of 1988 and 1993, Thearon learned several moreprogramming languages, which include QBASIC, Pascal and C++.Thearon decided that he enjoyed programming so much that heswitched his career path and became a developer full time. Thefirst application that Thearon worked on was written in assemblerlanguage and included over 70 assembler programs. To help automatesome of the tasks that were performed by the department that usedthis application, he wrote several programs in Visual Basic. One ofthese programs read and processed data from message queues thatwere populated from the mainframe and performed automatedbalancing. Thearon currently works as a senior consultant anddevelops intranet applications using ASP, DHTML, XML, JavaScript,VBScript, VB COM components, and SQL Server. He lives with his wifeMargie and daughter Stephanie in the Raleigh, North Carolinaarea.

Introduction.Chapter 1: Welcome to Visual Basic .NET.Chapter 2. Writing Software.Chapter 3. Controlling the Flow.Chapter 4. Building Objects.Chapter 5. The Microsoft .NET Framework.Chapter 6. Working with Data Structures.Chapter 7. Building Windows Applications.Chapter 8. Displaying Dialog Boxes.Chapter 9. Creating Menus.Chapter 10. Advanced Object-Oriented Techniques.Chapter 11. Debugging and Error Handling.Chapter 12. Building Class Libraries.Chapter 13. Creating Your Own Custom Controls.Chapter 14. Programming Custom Graphics.Chapter 15. Accessing Databases.Chapter 16. Database Programming with SQL Server andADO.NET.Chapter 17. Web Forms.Chapter 18. Visual Basic .NET and XML.Chapter 19. Web Services.Appendix A. Where to Now?Appendix B. Exercise Answers.Index.