ASP.NET

ASP.NET Definition:
ASP.NET is a web application framework developed and marketed by Microsoft to allow programmers to build dynamic websites, web application and web services. It was first released in January 2002 with version 1.0 of the .NET Framework, and is the successor of Microsoft's Active Server Pages (ASP) technology, ASP.NET is built in the Common Language Runtime (CLR), allowing programmers to write ASP.NET code using any support .NET Language.

History:
After the release of Internet Information Services 4.0 in 1997, Microsoft began researching possibilities for a new web application model that would solve common complaints about ASP, especially with regards to separation of presentation and content and being able to write "clean" code. Mark Anders, a manager on the IIS team, and Scott Guthrie, who had joined Microsoft in1997 after graduating from Duke University, were tasked with determining what that model would look like. The initial design was developed over the course of two months and by Anders and Guthrie, and Guthrie coded the initial prototypes during the Christmas holidays in 1997.
The initial prototype was called "XSP"; Guthrie explained in a 2007 interview that "people who always asked what X stood for. At the time it really didn't stand for anything. XML started with that; XSLT started with that. Everything seemed to start with an X, so that's what we originally named it".
The initial prototype of XSP was done using Java but soon it was decided to build on a new platform on top of the CLR, as it offered an Object Oriented Programming environment, garbage collection and other features that were seen as desirable features that Microsoft's Component Object Model platform didn’t support. Guthrie described this decision as a “huge risk”, as the success of their new web development platform would be tied to the success of the CLR, which, like XSP, was still in the early stages of development, so much so that the XSP was the first team at Microsoft to target the CLR. With the move to the CLR, XSP was re-implemented in C# (known internally as “Project Cool” but kept a secret from the public), and renamed to ASP+, as by this point the new platform was seen as being the successor to Active Server Pages, and the intention was to provide an easy migration path for ASP developers.
Mark Anders first demonstrated ASP+ at the ASP Connections Conference in Phoenix, Arizona on May 2, 2000. Demonstrations to the wide public and initial beta release of ASP+ (and the rest of the .NET Framework) came at the 2000 Professional Developers Conference on July 11,2000 in Orlando, Florida. During Bill Gates’ keynote presentation, Fujitsu demonstrated ASP+ being used in conjunction with COBOL, and support for a variety of other languages was announced, including Microsoft’s new Visual Basic .NET and C# languages, as well as Python and Perl support by the way of interoperability tools created by ActiveState.
Once the .NET branding was decided in the second half of 2000, it was decided to rename ASP+ to ASP.NET. Mark Anders explained an appearance on The MSDN Show the year that, “The .NET initiative is really about a number of factors, it’s about delivering software as a service, it’s about XML and web services and really enhancing the internet in terms of what it can do … we really wanted to bring more in line with the rest of the platform pieces that make up the .NET framework”.
After four years of development, and a series of beta releases in 2000 and 2001, ASP.NET 1.0 was released on Jan 5, 2002 as part of version 1.0 of the .NET Framework.

Features of ASP.NET 3.5
ASP.NET 3.5 and Visual Studio 2008 bring great new functionality around Web development that makes building standards based , next generation web sites easier than ever. From the inclusion of ASP.NET AJAX into the runtime, to new controls, the new LINQ data capabilities, to improved support for CSS Javascript and others, Web development has taken a significant step forward.
1. ASP.NET AJAX
With ASP.NET AJAX developers can quickly create pages with sophisticated, responsive user interfaces and more efficient client – server communication by simply adding a few server controls to their page. Previously an extension to the ASP.NET runtime, ASP.NET AJAX is now built into the platform and makes the complicated task of building cross – platform, standards based AJAX applications easy.
2. New ListView and DataPager Controls
The new list view control gives you unprecedented flexibility in how you display your data, by allowing you to have complete control over the HTML markup generated. ListView is template approach to representing data is designed to easily work with CSS styles, which come in handy with the new Visual Studio 2008 designer view. In addition, you can use the DataPager control to handle all the work of allowing your users to page through large numbers of records.
3. LINQ and other .NET Framework 3.5 Improvements
With the addition of the Language integrated Query (LINQ) in .NET Framework 3.5, the process of building SQL Queried using error – prone string manipulation is a thing of the past. LINQ makes your relational data queries a first class language construct in C# and Visual Basic, complete with compiler and intellisense support. For Web applications, the ASP.NET LinqDataSource control allows you to easily use LINQ to filter, order and group data that can then be bound to any of the data visualization controls like the ListView and GridView controls. In addition, all the other improvements to .NET Framework 3.5, including the new HashSet collection, DateTime offset support, diagnostics, garbage collection, better thread lock support, and more, are all available to you in your ASP.NET applications.
4. WCF Support for RSS, JSON, POX and Partial Trust With .NET Framework 3.5 Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) now supports building Web Services that can be exposed using any number of the Internet Standard protocols, such as SOAP, RSS, JSON, POX and more. Whether you are building an AJAX application that uses JSON, providing syndication of your data via RSS, or building a standard SOAP Web service, CF makes it easy to create your endpoints, and now, with .NET Framework 3.5, supports building Web services in partial-trust situations like a typical shares hosting environment.
5. New Web Design Interface
Visual Studio 2008 has incorporated a new web designer that uses the design engine from Expression Web. Moving between design and Source view is faster than ever and the new split view compatibility means you can edit the HTML source and simultaneously see the results on the page. Support for style sheets in separate files has been added as well as a CSS properties pane which clarifies the sometimes – complex hierarchy of cascading styles, so that it is easy to understand why an element looks the way it does. In addition Visual Studio 2008 has full WYSIWYG support for building and using ASP.NET Nested Master Pages which greatly improves the ability to build a web Site with a consistent look and feel.
6. JavaScript Debugging And Intellisense
In Visual Studio 2008, Client-Side JavaScript has now become a first class citizen in regards to its debugging and Intellisense support. Not only the Intellisense give standard JavaScript keyword support, but it will automatically infer variable types and provide method, property and event support from any number of included script files. Similarly, the JavaScript debugging support now allows the deep Watch and locals support In JavaScript that you are accustoms to having in other Visual Studio. And despite the dynamic nature of a lot of JavaScript, you will always be able to visualize and step into the JavaScript code, no matter where it is generated from. This is especially convenient when building ASP.Net AJAX applications.
7. Multi- targeting Support
In previous version of Visual Studio, you could only build projects that targeted a single version of the .NET Framework. With Visual Studio 2008, we have introduced the concept of Multi-targeting. Through a simple drop-down, you can decide if you want a project to target .NET Framework 2.0, 3.0 or 3.5. The builds, the Intellisense, the toolbox, etc will all adjust to the feature set of the specific version of the .NET Framework which you choose. This allows you to take advantage of the new features in Visual Studio 2008, like the Web design interface, and the improved JavaScript support, and still build your projects for their current runtime version.

What is ASP.NET?

ASP.NET is a server side scripting technology that enables scripts (embedded in web pages) to be executed by an Internet server.
ASP.NET is a Microsoft Technology
ASP stands for Active Server Pages
ASP.NET is a program that runs inside IIS
IIS (Internet Information Services) is Microsoft's Internet server
IIS comes as a free component with Windows servers
IIS is also a part of Windows 2000 and XP Professional