Using Access Data on an ASP.NET Web Page
06/21/2009
You can now use the database in a Web page. This part of the walkthrough uses an AccessDataSource control and a DataList control.
To add AccessDataSource and DataList controls to the page
- Open the Default.aspx page (or another page that you want to use) and switch to Design view.
- From the Data group in the toolbox, drag an AccessDataSource control onto the page.
Note If the Access Data Source Tasks menu does not appear, right-click the control and then click Show Smart Tag.
- On the Access Data Source Tasks shortcut menu, click Configure Data Source. The Configure Data Source wizard is displayed.
- On the Choose a database page, in the Microsoft Access Data file box, type ~/App_Data/Northwind.mdb or use the Browse button to select the .mdb file.
- Click Next to open the Configure Select Statement page, and then click Specify columns from a table or view.
- In the Name list, click Categories.
- Select the CategoryName and Description check boxes and then click Next.
- Optionally, click Test Query to test your query.
- Click Finish.
- From the Data group in the toolbox, drag a DataList control onto the page.
- On the DataList Tasks menu, in the Choose Data Source box, click AccessDataSource1.
- Click Ctrl+F5 to run the page with the default layout.
- Close the browser.
Databinding with Dynamic Languages for ASP.NET
06/21/2009
Prerequisites
In order to complete this walkthrough, you will need the following:
- Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 or Visual Web Developer 2008 Express Edition.
- A copy of the website included in the ASP.NET Dynamic Language Support download. There is currently no project template, so it is necessary to copy the website in order to start with a blank ASP.NET Dynamic Language website.
- The Northwind.mdb file that contains the Access version of the sample Northwind database. This file is included in the ASP.NET Quickstarts. If you installed the ASP.NET Quickstarts with Visual Studio, the file is located in the QuickStart\aspnet\samples\data\App_Data folder. Alternatively, you can use another database and adjust the steps in the walkthrough to match the database and tables that you are using.
Creating the Web Site and Page
If you have already created a Web site in Visual Studio (for example, by working with the companion walkthrough Using Dynamic Languages with ASP.NET), you can use that Web site and go to the next part of the walkthrough, where you add an Access database to the project. Otherwise, create a new Web site and page by following these steps.
To create a Web site with a default ASP.NET Web page
- Copy the files from the ASP.NET Dynamic Language Support project into an empty directory.
- In Visual Studio (or Visual Web Developer), in the File menu, click Open Web Site. The Open Web Site dialog box is displayed.
- Select the directory in which you copied the files in step 1. Make sure that FileSystem is selected in the left panel of the dialog.
Note: You can use statically compiled languages in the same Web application by creating pages and components in different programming languages.
- Click Open. Visual Studio opens the folder as a website and displays the files in the Solution Explorer.
Next you will add the Northwind.mdb Access database or your own database to the Web application project.
To add an Access database to the project
- If the Web site does not already contain an App_Data folder, in Solution Explorer, right-click the name of your Web site, click Add ASP.NET Folder, and then click App_Data.
- In Visual Studio, in Solution Explorer, right-click the App_Data folder, and then click Add Existing Item.
- In the Add Existing Item dialog box, browse to the Northwind.mdb file, and then click Add.
ASP.NET Dynamic Language Support
06/11/2009
Introduction
Dynamic Languages are a class of high-level programming languages that do not rely on static typing. Many decisions that are made at compile time by a statically typed language are instead made at run time by a dynamic language. For example, many dynamic languages use dynamic typing, where an object’s type is determined at run time instead of at compile time. These languages make a trade-off between compile-time type-checking in favor of increased flexibility at run time.There are many good static languages, such as C#, and many good dynamic languages, such as IronPython. The choice of what type of language to use comes down to personal preference and to the nature of the project you’re working on.
Giving ASP.NET users the choice of languages was part of the design since our first version of ASP.NET, and this Dynamic Language Support is just another step in that direction. Unlike other Web platforms that support only one language, the ASP.NET team wants to enable users to choose the language that fits them best.
This Release
This release is compatible with IronPython 2.6 Beta 1. Currently it does not include Language Services Support and project templates. To create a new IronPython ASP.NET WebForms project, simply copy the “examples\hello-webforms” to a new directory and rename the directory to your liking. A redistributed copy of IronPython 2.6 Beta 1 can be found in the “bin” directory; all files except Microsoft.Web.Scripting.dll, the IronPython ASP.NET integration, are from the IronPython 2.6 Beta 1 release.Included in this release are two WebForms examples that are written in IronPython: “hello-webforms” and “album-handler”, which can be found in the “examples” directory. “hello-webforms” is a simple web application that shows PostBack handling, and “album-handler” is a larger web application that creates a photo album from a directory of images and generates thumbnails for them on the fly.
Current Limitations
There are some tooling limitations with this release:- Limited support for designers
- No IntelliSense support.
- No support for ASP.NET MVC. This is planned in the future by extending the IronRuby ASP.NET MVC support: http://github.com/jschementi/ironrubymvc.