Visual Basic 2005: A Developer's Notebook

Description:

When Microsoft introduced the Visual Basic .NET programming language, as part of its move to the .NET Framework two years ago, many developers willingly made the switch. Millions of others, however, continued to stick with Visual Basic 6. They weren't ready for such a radical change, which included an object-oriented environment similar to Java. They liked the old Visual Basic just fine.

In an effort to win over those diehard VB6 developers, the company has included a new version of VB.NET in its upcoming next generation release of the Visual Studio .NET development platform. Visual Basic 2005 comes with innovative language constructs, new compiler features, dramatically enhanced productivity and an improved debugging experience. The language's new version is now available in beta release, and Microsoft is encouraging developers to give it a test drive.

Visual Basic 2005: A Developer's Notebook provides the ideal test track. With nearly 50 hands-on projects, this practical introduction to VB 2005 will bring you up to speed on all the new features of this language by allowing you to work with them directly. The book summarizes the changes that VB 2005 brings, and tells you how to acquire, install and configure the beta version of VB 2005 SDK. Each project or experiment explores a different feature, with emphasis on changes that can increase productivity, simplify programming tasks, and help you add new functionality to your applications.

This one-of-a-kind book also offers suggestions for further experimentation, links to on-line documentation and other sources of information, and practical notes and warnings from the author.

The new Developer's Notebooks series from O'Reilly offers an in-depth first look at important new tools for software developers. Emphasizing example over explanation and practice over theory, they focus on learning by doing you'll get the goods straight from the masters, in an informal and code-intensive style. For those who want to get up speed with VB 2005 right away, this is the perfect all lab, no lecture guide.

 

 

Table of Contents:

The Developer's Notebook Series

Preface

Chapter 1. Visual Studio

     Getting Started with Visual Studio 2005

     Code, Debug, and Continue Without Restarting Your Application

     Look Inside an Object While Debugging

     Diagnose and Correct Errors on the Fly

     Rename All Instances of Any Program Element

     Use IntelliSense Filtering and AutoCorrect

     Edit Control Properties in Place

     Call Methods at Design Time

     Insert Boilerplate Code Using Snippets

     Create XML Documentation for Your Code

Chapter 2. The Visual Basic Language

     Use the My Objects to Program Common Tasks

     Get Application Information

     Use Strongly Typed Resources

     Use Strongly Typed Configuration Settings

     Build Typesafe Generic Classes

     Make Simple Data Types Nullable

     Use Operators with Custom Objects

     Split a Class into Multiple Files

     Extend the My Namespace

     Skip to the Next Iteration of a Loop

     Dispose of Objects Automatically

     Safeguard Properties with Split Accessibility

     Evaluate Conditions Separately with Short-Circuit Logic

Chapter 3. Windows Applications

     Use Office-Style Toolbars

     Add Any Control to a ToolStrip

     Add Icons to Your Menu

     Put the Web in a Window

     Validate Input While the User Types

     Create Text Boxes that Auto-Complete

     Play a Windows System Sound

     Play Simple WAV Audio

     Create a Windows Explorer-like Split Window

     Take Control of Window Layout

     Control When Your Application Shuts Down

     Prevent Your Application from Starting Twice

     Communicate Between Forms

     Improve Redraw Speeds for GDI+

     Handle Asynchronous Tasks Safely

     Use a Better Data-Bound Grid

     Format the DataGridView

     Add Images and Controls to the DataGridView

Chapter 4. Web Applications

     Create a Web Application in Visual Studio 2005

     Administer a Web Application

     Bind to Data Without Writing Code

     Bind Web Controls to a Custom Class

     Display Interactive Tables Without Writing Code

     Display Records One at a Time

     Achieve a Consistent Look and Feel with Master Pages

     Add Navigation to Your Site

     Easily Authenticate Users

     Determine How Many People Are Currently UsingYour Web Site

     Use Role-Based Authorization

     Store Personalized Information

Chapter 5. Files, Databases, and XML

     Get Drive Information

     Get File and Directory Information

     Copy, Move, and Delete Files

     Read and Write Files

     Compress and Decompress Data

     Collect Statistics on Your Data Connections

     Batch DataAdapter Commands for Better Performance

     Bulk-Copy Rows from One Table to Another

     Write Database-Agnostic Code

     Use the New XPathDocument and XPathNavigator

     Edit an XML Document with XPathNavigator

Chapter 6. .NET 2.0 Platform Services

     Easily Log Events

     Ping Another Computer

     Get Information About a Network Connection

     Upload and Download Files with FTP

     Test Group Membership of the Current User

     Encrypt Secrets for the Current User

     Unleash the Console

     Time Your Code

     Deploy Your Application with ClickOnce

Index