Newbie - Please be Nice

Hey everyone..

I've read a few posts in here, and none of them actually answered my question... I am a complete newbie to .NET ... I code XHTML & CSS for a large company and have some knowledge of ASP & SQL.

My question is where shall I start? What should be the first thing I learn and where should I get the info... I have just ordered ASP.NET 2 For Dummies and also VB.NET for Dummies... I have downloaded Visual Web Developer Express Edition and am VERY keen to start.

I hope I don't annoy too many of you with stupid questions once I get going...

Hi, There is always a start point!!

There is a nice book ASP.NET 1.1 Unleashed and now a new version ASP.NET Unleashed 2.0. Both books are best recommended.

There is also a good startng point:Learn ASP.NET

You should start with VWD, install it and start with it as soon as possible.

Feel free always to ask whatever you want. I am sure all are ready to help!

Regards

Actually I'm going to jump into this question and ask as well, I am new to asp, sql, and vb as well.

I basically was given a project that required all three so I have been learning as I go, do you (or anyone with the experience) recommend an order (I have asp.net 2.0 unleashed it is a good book)such as learning vb.net first then moving onto asp, or can you learn both at the same time. I have been working on this project so I have not had the luxury of time to really learn, I've just had to do, and while I have learned some (I know more now than I did when I started), after this project gets done, I plan on actually going back and learning the language(s). Any particular order in learning or can you learn them both concurrently and have it worked out, I'll admit more than once I have gotten lost in code trying to figure out which part was asp and which part was vb, not to mention there are to many commands I parrot without actually understanding what they actually do. I have been using notepad, and dreamweaver (in code mode) because that is the best way for me to learn something (I learn HTML and CSS before I learn dreamweaver )

Thats a good question... I wondered whether to learn VB.NET first and then move on - But I am creating web applications so really I should learn ASP.NET first and try to integrate VB.NET as I go.. Luckily I do know a very small bit of VBScript from using it with ASP which I hope will help me in the long run (hehehe.. I hope :-) ...

Are there any video tutorials for absolute beginners?? As I started watching the first beginners tutorial and even that says VWD Tutorial for VB programmers or something like that ... .. If I could find some video tutorials for people who don't know VB script first then that'd be cool ... If not I'll struggle by...

Still are there things I should make a point of getting my head round in .NET?? For example in ASP VBScript the pre-built functions are something you HAVE to know about if you want to suceed?? Any advice...

(Thanks for the home page link too...)
Anyone... Surely you clever lot could give us a bit more info as to maybe where you guys n gals started??

Hi,

You might find this link (including video tutorials) helpful:

http://weblogs.asp.net/scottgu/archive/2006/02/26/Great-ASP.NET-2.0-Tutorial-Videos-Online.aspx

Also, I started with Professional C# by Wrox publication and learnt the language first and then came to Web programming. You can do both simultaneously, no issues. Just keep the fire inside you burning !

Regards,

Vivek

You guys should delve into VB a little bit, learn about its structure, functions, classes, Import etc. I think AT MOST a week should be enough (and that's a lot of time to learn it), and then you can start playing with ASP .Net!

Smiles.

ok... So VB 2005 or VB.NET?

VB 2005 means VB.NET ( visual studio 2005 ) on .NET framework 2.0.

-Vivek

Thanks for that...

dotnet_lee:

Anyone... Surely you clever lot could give us a bit more info as to maybe where you guys n gals started??

Assembler on a DEC PDP-11. From there, Bally Basic, Z-80 assembler, GW Basic, 8086/88 assembler, Basic-A, LISP, LOGO, a bit of Pascal, Cobol and Fortran, C, Visual Basic, C+, VBA, Perl, HTML, C++, Javascript, VBscript, how to do "Hello World!" in Jscript, VB.NET, CSS, a week of hating Python, C#, TSQL, one Java applet and a bunch of macro or scripting technologies along the way. And I still can't program my way out of a paper bag. :)

To get started you need to learn programming structure. You'll also need some basic OOP background to understand classes and inheritance. Learning those will take some kind of language, since you can't easily learn a pre-test or post-test loop without a language to program a loop in. Start with VB or C, and stick with that until you can do everything. Then translate that into the other one.

Get a copy of Visual Web Developer and never use drag and drop. Write the code. Let VWD mark up your improper syntax, even prompt you with Intellisense, but don't let a wizard do anything and forget any control properties except the main window in Source view. Once you've written a decent learning app, start a new one and drag and drop to create the same app. You'll see where to edit code by hand, what properties you can default and what parts of the IDE will make life easier instead of hiding the innards you're trying to learn.

Forget a week. Plan on a lifetime of learning and relearning. Take a class every year or two, buy a few books each year on new technologies or techniques and twice a year take a week to design and code an app you've never done before. Do it for your church, school or local charity. Sit with the users and watch where they screw up your carefully crafted app. Fix it so they can't screw up. Then make it pretty. Document it fully so that in a year or two you can go back and update it for them. If it's really good and widely useful, release it as open source and see waht people who you've never met will do to improve your code. And learn from them.

Above all, ask questions. Whenever you need to. Research the topic first so you don't ask dumb questions, and try to solve the problem yourself, but don't stay stuck on something when there is someone you can ask.

Good luck.

Jeff

dotnet_lee:

Anyone... Surely you clever lot could give us a bit more info as to maybe where you guys n gals started??

The videos in the links below covers most of what you need to know because you already know web application. Then get a comprehensive book like Asp.net 2.0 Unleashed and you are ready. It is not rocket science.

http://weblogs.asp.net/scottgu/search.aspx?q=Video+tutorials&p=1

http://www.asp.net/learn/withpss/default.aspx?tabid=63

http://www.asp.net/learn/videos/default.aspx?tabid=63

Read the tutorials at the end of the first link below for OOAD(object Oriented analysis and design), while you wait for the Video version of Craig Larman's also very comprehensive OOAD book which you can order from the second link.

http://www.objectsbydesign.com/tools/certification.html#resources
http://www.phptr.com/bookstore/product.asp?isbn=0130479500&aid=686ef932-f921-4820-99b0-fe6a0ad6f082&rl=1

Hope this helps and happy coding.

Hi there.

Being quite new to .NET and from the same background as you i do understand what you need!
I started at the learning zone here, and at the VWD learning site here:http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/express/vwd/learning/default.aspx

A set of really neat instructionsvideos for C# and VB lead you the way to a finished product while describing most of the essentials.. Could it be better that that?

Happy coding!

Newbie ASP.NET Testing probles

OK I'm a complete beginner, and I've hit a snag.
I'm using Dreamweaver to create my ASP.NET pages, and i'm testing on my pc.
I have
XP Pro (Service Pack 2)
.NET Framework 1.1
IIS
and I'm using VB as my language
The problem is when i create my pages (that are stored in the wwwroot folder in inetpub) they do not run the ASP.NET VB code. I do not get errors it just shows some of the text but not the bits that should be generated by the VB and when I view the source code it says exactly what i have typed in my page. Not the HTML page that should be created with ASP.NET VB?, hiding the code you have written.
An example of this is this page.
<%@dotnet.itags.org.Page Language="VB" Debug="True" Explicit="True" %>
<html>
<head>
<title>Date</title>
</head>
<body>
<%
Dim CurrentDate As String
CurrentDate = Today
%>
The Current Date is <%=CurrentDate %>.<br>
</body>
</html>
Which produces the following result
The Current Date is .
My preview page in Dreamweaver says.
The Current Date is {text}.
Has anyone got any ideas please. Do I need to tweak the settings of IIS or do I need to install something into my inetpub?
Any help would be great guys thanks.

I don't use the inline method, which you're trying to use here...but itappears you're missing <script> tags. You should have alook at the tutorials on this site.
http://asp.net/Tutorials/quickstart.aspx

To get into the ASP.NET swing of things, try your page like this:
<%@. Page Language="VB" %>
<script runat="server">
Sub Page_Load (s As Object, e As EventArgs)
lblDate.text = DateTime.Now.ToString("d")
End Sub
</script>
<html>
<head>
<title>Date</title>
</head>
<body>
<form runat="server">
The Current Date is <asp:Label id="lblDate" runat="server"/>
</form>
</body>
</html>

As Frank said, definitely work through the tutorials, and strongly consider picking up a copy ofASP.NET Unleashed, Second Edition. Make that, DEFINITELY pick up a copy of that book! Every new ASP.NET developer should have it.

Cheers Tmorton
I've bought ASP.NET unleashed, Second Edition. Excellent recommendation.
I've got the code to work now. I've stopped using dreamweaver for testing. I create my site and ASPX pages in dreamweaver then open the file in web matrix to insert my code and test the pages.
To follow on from your previous post.
Having used ASP.NET unleashed and looked at the tutorials on the site; I can't find samples of what I am trying to do. After covering adding the date and calendar sections as ways of adding real time data into pages, which technique would be best to add these to multiple pages with the view to making altering the modification properties easiest to change i.e. font type and color without having to change every page on the site?
Should I use Global.asax or the config file in the bin? Or is there another way.
Sorry for the long winded description but I am new to this so I need to explain what I am trying to do.
Any links or tutorial references will be great
Cheers
RDG01

RDG01 wrote:

I've bought ASP.NET unleashed, Second Edition. Excellent recommendation.

Yes, that book is highly recommended across the board. I am glad you are finding it helpful.

RDG01 wrote:

After covering addingthe date and calendar sections as ways of adding real time data intopages, which technique would be best to add these to multiple pageswith the view to making altering the modification properties easiest tochange i.e. font type and color without having to change every page onthe site?

This sounds like a job for a user control. Check out chapter 5 ofthe ASP.NET Unleashed book you have in your hands - Creating CustomControls with User Controls.