.NET - Network Enabled Technologies

Hello guys, in my previous post I have given some tips on how to crack MCTS 70-515. That was little bit advanced. In this post I am taking you people to pure basics of .NET.

I am going to walk you through the following objectives. 
    1. What is .NET?
    2. Why .NET?
    3. What is .NET Framework and what’s the history of it?
    4. What all platforms does .NET support?
    5. Introduction to Web Applications

If you want to develop a application using .NET then you should know what .NET is all about, rather coding or further stuffs.

What is .NET?

I have seen many people wondering what ‘.NET’ is.? When I let them know that I am working on .NET technologies. Some people think that .NET is just another coding language just like as we have JAVA. But that’s not the case; .NET is not a coding language.

“.NET is a software development platform/an integral part developed by Microsoft. It runs on Microsoft Windows OS and provides tools and libraries that allow developers to develop secured applications and services easily"

It’s bit confusing, yet it’s simple once you understand it. Here is the basic diagram how you might picture it.

Why .NET?

1. It supports 48 programming languages like as C++, C#, J#, VB etc. You can do programming in any programming language in which you feel comfortable.
2. Today, .NET is the best platform for delivering better, faster, cheaper, and more secure Windows applications and services.
3. For developers, the .NET provides a comprehensive and consistent programming model for building applications that have visually stunning user experiences and seamless and secure communication.

What is .NET Framework and what’s the history of it?

The .NET Framework is a runtime execution environment that manages applications. It consists of the common language runtime (CLR), which provides memory management and other system services, and an extensive class library, which enables programmers to take advantage of robust, reliable code for all major areas of application development.
If you want to put in an informal way, here is how it would be:"A framework is just a bunch of code that the programmer can call without having to write it explicitly."

.Net is a Framework can be used in the development of following applications:

·         Desktop Application

·         Web Application

·         Mobile Application

 Microsoft has released series of .NET Framework versions. Here is the brief history.

Generation	Version number	Release date	Development tool
1	1.0.3705.0	2/13/2002	Visual Studio .NET
1.1	1.1.4322.573	4/24/2003	Visual Studio .NET 2003
2	2.0.50727.42	11/7/2005	Visual Studio 2005
3	3.0.4506.30	11/6/2006	Expression Blend
3.5	3.5.21022.8	11/19/2007	Visual Studio 2008
4	4.0.30319.1	4/12/2010	Visual Studio 2010
4.5	4.5.50709.17929	8/15/2012	Visual Studio 2012
4.5.1	4.5.50938.18408	10/17/2013	Visual Studio 2013

    
What all platforms does .NET support?

.Net framework runs on Window XP, Window 2000, NT4, ME/98, SP6a, Vista, Window 7 & 8, Window Server    2003, 2008 & 2012.

Introduction to Web Applications: 
We are very familiar with internet, we have been using lot many websites in our day to day life. As a user it feels good to browse the websites, all you need to do is connect to the internet and hit the URL. But when you are given to develop the website, as developer you should how to get the colorful, organized and optimized webpage on browser on hitting the URL.

If you are from non IT background and you join a company, where you get to work on Web Application which you have never worked. I am sure it's difficult but you have no other option than facing it. I suggest you two things: get the broader idea about the technology that you will be working on and let me tell you this Google is your best friend if you are allowed to use Google. So learn googling. .!!

Tools and Language:
To develop a website you can use any technology (ASP.NET, JAVA. PHP etc), I am using ASP.NET.
Tool: Visual studio ( download the latest version 2013)
Language: Deciding a coding language is up to you, you can select any language (VB.NET, C#, Visual C++, etc).

Storing data: You might have heard people say that I work on back end, it is just that they are working on data base. When you are developing the website you need to store data provided by user somewhere. You can use SQL Server, Oracle, My sql to serve the purpose.

Hosting:  Once you develop the website you need to put it somewhere so that everyone can access it via internet, there it comes the term Hosting. In simple words, you convert your entire code into small packages (DLL- Dynamic Link Library) and then put those on a server with some settings.

Web application flow: 

Web Application is divided into three sections.Web tire(Presentation layer), App Tier (Business layer) and Data layer (Data Base). It is also called as 3 - tier architecture. 

Here is the basic flow which you could think of web application. If you know the flow, you can learn the coding.

This is just a basic flow diagram.

To understand 3 - tier architecture in depth click me.!

ASP.NET has three different development models for developing web application:

  1. Web Pages (Single Pages Model) 
  2. MVC (Model View Controller)
  3. Web Forms (Event Driven Model)

Using any of these models you can develop web application easily. The best way to understand the things about .NET and its concepts is practicing, feel free to write the code and try new things.  

I will be covering some of the other concepts in my upcoming posts. 
Hope this helps..! Happy Coding.


Thanks,
Ram