Dot Net Questions and Answers

Dot Net Questions and Answers:
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1 :: How many languages .NET is supporting now?
When .NET was introduced it came with several languages.
VB.NET,
C#,
COBOL
and
Perl, etc.
The site DotNetLanguages.Net says 44 languages are supported by .NET
2 :: How is .NET able to support multiple languages?
A language should comply with the Common Language Runtime standard to become a .NET
language. In .NET, code is compiled to Microsoft Intermediate Language (MSIL for short). This
is called as Managed Code. This Managed code is run in .NET environment. So after
compilation to this IL the language is not a barrier. A code can call or use a function written in
another language.
3 :: How ASP .NET different from ASP?
Scripting is separated from the HTML, Code is compiled as a DLL, these DLLs can be executed
on the server.
4 :: What is smart navigation in .NET?
The cursor position is maintained when the page gets refreshed due to the server side validation
and the page gets refreshed.
5 :: What is view state in .NET?
The web is stateless. But in ASP.NET, the state of a page is maintained in the in the page itself
automatically. How? The values are encrypted and saved in hidden controls. this is done
automatically by the ASP.NET. This can be switched off / on for a single control
6 :: How do you validate the controls in an ASP .NET page?
Using special validation controls that are meant for validation of any controle.
We have Range Validator, Email Validator in .NET to validate any control.
7 :: Can the validation be done in the server side? Or this can be done only in the
Client side?
Client side is done by default. Server side validation is also possible in .NET. We can switch off
the client side and server side can be done only in .NET
8 :: How to manage pagination in a page using .NET?
Using pagination option in DataGrid control is available in .NET. We have to set the number of
records for a page, then it takes care of pagination by itself automatically.
9 :: What is ADO .NET and what is difference between ADO and ADO.NET?
ADO.NET is stateless mechanism. I can treat the ADO.Net as a separate in-memory database
where in I can use relationships between the tables and select insert and updates to the
database. I can update the actual database as a batch
10 :: Observations between VB.NET and VC#.NET?
Choosing a programming language depends on your language experience and the scope of the
application you are building. While small applications are often created using only one language,
it is not uncommon to develop large applications using multiple languages.
For example, if you are extending an application with existing XML Web services, you might use
a scripting language with little or no programming effort. For client-server applications, you
would probably choose the single language you are most comfortable with for the entire
application. For new enterprise applications, where large teams of developers create
components and services for deployment across multiple remote sites, the best choice might be
to use several languages depending on developer skills and long-term maintenance
expectations.
The .NET Platform programming languages - including Visual Basic .NET, Visual C#, and Visual
C++ with managed extensions, and many other programming languages from various vendors -
use .NET Framework services and features through a common set of unified classes. The .NET
unified classes provide a consistent method of accessing the platform's functionality. If you learn
to use the class library, you will find that all tasks follow the same uniform architecture. You no
longer need to learn and master different API architectures to write your applications.
11 :: Advantages of migrating to VB.NET?
Visual Basic .NET has many new and improved language features — such as inheritance,
interfaces, and overloading that make it a powerful object-oriented programming language. As a
Visual Basic developer, you can now create multithreaded, scalable applications using explicit
multithreading. Other new language features in Visual Basic .NET include structured exception
handling, custom attributes, and common language specification (CLS) compliance.
The CLS is a set of rules that standardizes such things as data types and how objects are
exposed and interoperate. Visual Basic .NET adds several features that take advantage of the
CLS. Any CLS-compliant language can use the classes, objects, and components you create in
Visual Basic .NET. And you, as a Visual Basic user, can access classes, components, and
objects from other CLS-compliant programming languages without worrying about languagespecific
differences such as data types.
CLS features used by Visual Basic .NET programs include assemblies, namespaces, and
attributes.
12 :: Advantages of VB.NET?
1. First of all, VB.NET provides managed code execution that runs under the Common
Language Runtime (CLR), resulting in robust, stable and secure applications. All features of
the .NET framework are readily available in VB.NET.
2. VB.NET is totally object oriented. This is a major addition that VB6 and other earlier releases
didn't have.
3. The .NET framework comes with ADO.NET, which follows the disconnected paradigm, i.e.
once the required records are fetched the connection no longer exists. It also retrieves the
records that are expected to be accessed in the immediate future. This enhances Scalability of
the application to a great extent.
4. VB.NET uses XML to transfer data between the various layers in the DNA Architecture i.e.
data are passed as simple text strings.
5. Error handling has changed in VB.NET. A new Try-Catch-Finally block has been introduced to
handle errors and exceptions as a unit, allowing appropriate action to be taken at the place the
error occurred thus discouraging the use of ON ERROR GOTO statement. This again credits to
the maintainability of the code.
13 :: Using ActiveX Control in .Net?
ActiveX control is a special type of COM component that supports a User Interface. Using
ActiveX Control in your .Net Project is even easier than using COM component. They are
bundled usually in .ocx files. Again a proxy assembly is made by .Net utility AxImp.exe (which
we will see shortly) which your application (or client) uses as if it is a .Net control or assembly.
Making Proxy Assembly For ActiveX Control: First, a proxy assembly is made using AxImp.exe
(acronym for ActiveX Import) by writing following command on Command Prompt:
C:> AxImp C:MyProjectsMyControl.ocx
This command will make two dlls, e.g., in case of above command
MyControl.dll
AxMyControl.dll
The first file MyControl.dll is a .Net assembly proxy, which allows you to reference the ActiveX
as if it were non-graphical object.
The second file AxMyControl.dll is the Windows Control, which allows u to use the graphical
aspects of activex control and use it in the Windows Form Project.
Adding Reference of ActiveX Proxy Assembly in your Project Settings: To add a reference of
ActiveX Proxy Assembly in our Project, do this:
14 :: What is Machine.config in .NET?
Machine configuration file: The machine.config file contains settings that apply to the entire
computer. This file is located in the %runtime install path%Config directory. There is only one
machine.config file on a computer. The Machine.Config file found in the "CONFIG" subfolder of
your .NET Framework install directory (c:WINNTMicrosoft.NETFramework{Version
Number}CONFIG on Windows 2000 installations). The machine.config, which can be found in
the directory $WINDIR$Microsoft.NETFrameworkv1.0.3705CONFIG, is an XML-formatted
configuration file that specifies configuration options for the machine. This file contains, among
many other XML elements, a browserCaps element. Inside this element are a number of other
elements that specify parse rules for the various User-Agents, and what properties each of these
parsings supports.
For example, to determine what platform is used, a filter element is used that specifies how to
set the platform property based on what platform name is found in the User-Agent string.
Specifically, the machine.config file contains:
platform=Win95
platform=Win98
platform=WinNT
...
15 :: What is Web.config in .NET?
In classic ASP all Web site related information was stored in the metadata of IIS. This had the
disadvantage that remote Web developers couldn't easily make Web-site configuration changes.
For example, if you want to add a custom 404 error page, a setting needs to be made through
the IIS admin tool, and you're Web host will likely charge you a flat fee to do this for you. With
ASP.NET, however, these settings are moved into an XML-formatted text file (Web.config) that
resides in the Web site's root directory. Through Web.config you can specify settings like custom
404 error pages, authentication and authorization settings for the Web sitempilation options for
the ASP.NET Web pages, if tracing should be enabled, etc. The Web.config file is an XMLformatted
file. At the root level is the tag. Inside this tag you can add a number of other tags, the
most common and useful one being the system.web tag, where you will specify most of the Web
site configuration parameters. However, to specify application-wide settings you use the tag.
For example, if we wanted to add a database connection string parameter we could have a
Web.config file like so.
16 :: What is the difference between ADO and ADO.NET?
ADO uses Recordsets and cursors to access and modify data. Because of its inherent design,
Recordset can impact performance on the server side by tying up valuable resources. In
addition, COM marshalling - an expensive data conversion process - is needed to transmit a
Recordset. ADO.NET addresses three important needs that ADO doesn't address:
1. Providing a comprehensive disconnected data-access model, which is crucial to the Web
environment
2. Providing tight integration with XML, and
3. Providing seamless integration with the .NET Framework (e.g., compatibility with the base
class library's type system). From an ADO.NET implementation perspective, the Recordset
object in ADO is eliminated in the .NET architecture. In its place, ADO.NET has several
dedicated objects led by the DataSet object and including the DataAdapter, and DataReader
objects to perform specific tasks. In addition, ADO.NET DataSets operate in disconnected state
whereas the ADO RecordSet objects operated in a fully connected state.
In ADO, the in-memory representation of data is the recordset. In ADO.NET, it is the dataset. A
recordset looks like a single table. If a recordset is to contain data from multiple database tables,
it must use a JOIN query, which assembles the data from the various database tables into a
single result table. In contrast, a dataset is a collection of one or more tables.
17 :: What is the difference between VB and VB.NET?
Now VB.NET is object-oriented language. The following are some of the differences:
Data Type Changes
The .NET platform provides Common Type System to all the supported languages. This means
that all the languages must support the same data types as enforced by common language
runtime. This eliminates data type incompatibilities between various languages. For example on
the 32-bit Windows platform, the integer data type takes 4 bytes in languages like C++ whereas
in VB it takes 2 bytes. Following are the main changes related to data types in VB.NET:
. Under .NET the integer data type in VB.NET is also 4 bytes in size.
. VB.NET has no currency data type. Instead it provides decimal as a replacement.
. VB.NET introduces a new data type called Char. The char data type takes 2 bytes and can
store Unicode characters.
. VB.NET do not have Variant data type. To achieve a result similar to variant type you can use
Object data type. (Since every thing in .NET including primitive data types is an object, a
variable of object type can point to any data type).
. In VB.NET there is no concept of fixed length strings.
. In VB6 we used the Type keyword to declare our user-defined structures. VB.NET introduces
the structure keyword for the same purpose.
Declaring Variables
Consider this simple example in VB6:
Dim x,y as integer
18 :: What is a Strong Name in .NET?
A strong name consists of the assembly's identity its simple text name, version number, and
culture information (if provided) plus a public key and a digital signature. It is generated from an
assembly file (the file that contains the assembly manifest, which in turn contains the names and
hashes of all the files that make up the assembly), using the corresponding private key.
Assemblies with the same strong name are expected to be identical.
Strong names guarantee name uniqueness by relying on unique key pairs. No one can generate
the same assembly name that you can, because an assembly generated with one private key
has a different name than an assembly generated with another private key.
When you reference a strong-named assembly, you expect to get certain benefits, such as
versioning and naming protection. If the strong-named assembly then references an assembly
with a simple name, which does not have these benefits, you lose the benefits you would derive
from using a strong-named assembly and revert to DLL conflicts. Therefore, strong-named
assemblies can only reference other strong-named assemblies.
There are two ways to sign an assembly with a strong name:
1. Using the Assembly Linker (Al.exe) provided by the .NET Framework SDK.
2. Using assembly attributes to insert the strong name information in your code. You can use
either the AssemblyKeyFileAttribute or the AssemblyKeyNameAttribute, depending
19 :: What is a Manifest in .NET?
An assembly manifest contains all the metadata needed to specify the assembly's version
requirements and security identity, and all metadata needed to define the scope of the assembly
and resolve references to resources and classes. The assembly manifest can be stored in either
a PE (Portable Executable) file (an .exe or .dll) with Microsoft intermediate language (MSIL)
code or in a standalone PE (Portable Executable) file that contains only assembly manifest
information. The following table shows the information contained in the assembly manifest. The
first four items the assembly name, version number, culture, and strong name information make
up the assembly's identity.
Assembly name: A text string specifying the assembly's name.
Version number: A major and minor version number, and a revision and build number. The
common language runtime uses these numbers to enforce version policy.
Culture: Information on the culture or language the assembly supports. This information should
be used only to designate an assembly as a satellite assembly containing culture- or languagespecific
information. (An assembly with culture information is automatically assumed to be a
satellite assembly.) Strong name information: The public key from the publisher if the assembly
has been given a strong name. List of all files in the assembly:
20 :: Creating a Key Pair in .NET?
You can create a key pair using the Strong Name tool (Sn.exe). Key pair files usually have an
.snk extension. To create a key pair At the command prompt, type the following command:
sn k
In this command, file name is the name of the output file containing the key pair. The following
example creates a key pair called sgKey.snk.
sn -k sgKey.snk
25 :: What is .NET and .NET Framework?
It is a Framework in which Windows applications may be developed and run. The Microsoft .NET
Framework is a platform for building, deploying, and running Web Services and applications. It
provides a highly productive, standards-based, multi-language environment for integrating
existing investments with next-generation applications and services as well as the agility to solve
the challenges of deployment and operation of Internet-scale applications. The .NET Framework
consists of three main parts: the common language runtime, a hierarchical set of unified class
libraries, and a componentized version of Active Server Pages called ASP.NET. The .NET
Framework provides a new programming model and rich set of classes designed to simplify
application development for Windows, the Web, and mobile devices. It provides full support for
XML Web services, contains robust security features, and delivers new levels of programming
power. The .NET Framework is used by all Microsoft languages including Visual C#, Visual J#,
and Visual C++.
29 :: What is "Common Language Runtime" (CLR) in .NET?
CLR is .NET equivalent of Java Virtual Machine (JVM). It is the runtime that converts a MSIL
code into the host machine language code, which is then executed appropriately. The CLR is the
execution engine for .NET Framework applications. It provides a number of services, including:
- Code management (loading and execution)
- Application memory isolation
- Verification of type safety
- Conversion of IL to native code.
- Access to metadata (enhanced type information)
- Managing memory for managed objects
- Enforcement of code access security
- Exception handling, including cross-language exceptions
- Interoperation between managed code, COM objects, and pre-existing DLL's (unmanaged
code and data)
- Automation of object layout
- Support for developer services (profiling, debugging, and so on)
30 :: What are Attributes in .NET?
Attributes are declarative tags in code that insert additional metadata into an assembly. There
exist two types of attributes in the .NET Framework: Predefined attributes such as Assembly
Version, which already exist and are accessed through the Runtime Classes; and custom
attributes, which you write yourself by extending the System.Attribute class.
34 :: What is the difference between ASP and ASP.NET?
ASP is interpreted. ASP.NET Compiled event base programming.
Control events for text button can be handled at client javascript only. Since we have server
controls events can handle at server side.
More error handling.
ASP .NET has better language support, a large set of new controls and XML based
components, and better user authentication.
ASP .NET provides increased performance by running compiled code.
ASP .NET code is not fully backward compatible with ASP.
ASP .NET also contains a new set of object oriented input controls, like programmable list
boxes, validation controls. A new data grid control supports sorting, data paging, and everything
you expect from a dataset control. The first request for an ASP.NET page on the server will
compile the ASP .NET code and keep a cached copy in memory. The result of this is greatly
increased performance.
ASP .NET is not fully compatible with earlier versions of ASP, so most of the old ASP code will
need some changes to run under ASP .NET. To overcome this problem,
ASP .NET uses a new file extension ".aspx". This will make ASP .NET applications able to run
side by side with standard ASP applications on the same server.