Can I use Visual Studio 2008

Kevin7777 · #1 (**permalink**) February 24th, 2009, 09:54 PM

Hi Imar, I am enjoying skimming through this book and was wondering if it's ok to use VS 2008 to follow the examples?

Cheers,

Kevin

Imar · #2 (**permalink**) February 25th, 2009, 03:48 AM

Hi Kevin,

You certainly can. The Visual Web Developer that is part of Visual Studio 2008 is almost identical to the stand-alone VWD Express Edition. Where things are different, I mention that in the book so you know where to look for. It's just minor stuff though; the name of some panels, the name of a menu item and that's about it.

Cheers,

Imar

Kevin7777 · #3 (**permalink**) February 25th, 2009, 10:37 AM

Thanks Imar for the fast reply!...a few more questions.

What is the difference between creating a "Web Site" and "Project".? I do notice that VWD and VS add "My Project" and a "ClassDiagram" file's to the solution.

Also in your opinion, for a newbie, what do you think is easier to learn, C# or VB.net??

Thanks,
Kevin

Kevin7777 · #4 (**permalink**) February 25th, 2009, 10:38 AM

Thanks Imar for the fast reply!...a few more questions.

What is the difference between creating a "Web Site" and "Project".? I do notice that VWD and VS add "My Project" and a "ClassDiagram" file's to the solution when you select "Project".

Also in your opinion, for a newbie, what do you think is easier to learn, C# or VB.net??

Thanks,
Kevin

Imar · #5 (**permalink**) February 25th, 2009, 10:51 AM

Hi Kevin,

Check out page 34 and onwards for a discussion on Web Site Projects versus Web Application Projects. Additionally, check out this blog post by Peter Lanoie (planoie on this forum): http://www.compiledthoughts.com/2008...n-project.html

With regards to learning VB and C#: difficult to say, as it large comes down to preference and prior knowledge. VB.NET tends to look more like plain English, so it may be easier to pick up. Fortunately, the book teaches both so you can choose your favorite one.

Cheers,

Imar

Kevin7777 · #6 (**permalink**) February 26th, 2009, 05:45 PM

Thanks, been a while since I rock'n'rolled with VS!

I will stick with vb.net since it's the first language I learned.

I would like to play around with the northwind db to refresh some "old" memory but when I try to add existing item to the App_Data Folder/northwind.mdf ...i get "Access Denied"

I'm on Vista so maybe i need addmin permissions?

SQLExpress is running fine with pubs db

thanks for any help with this Imar.

kevdog

Imar · #7 (**permalink**) February 26th, 2009, 05:49 PM

Check out Appendix B of the book; it's devoted to SQL Server and security

Cheers,

Imar

nielseno · #8 (**permalink**) March 1st, 2009, 03:28 PM

Imar,

In Ch2 Creating Web Sites with VWD 2008, you explain that in VWD Express, Web Application Projects are not an option, however I just installed VWD Express on my laptop and noticed that of I do the Following: File > New Project, under both VB and C# Web aoptions, there is a ASP.NET Web Application template available. Is this the same Web Application Project that you were describing or something different?

Also,

I have an existing MySQL database that I am trying to use as I go through the examples in Chapters 11+. In chapter 12: Data Source and Data-Bound Controls Working Together, I am at step 7 dragging a table out of my MySQL database and I do not get the automatic generation of a GridView and a SqlDataSource. Is this the type of behavoir I should expect from non-Microsoft databases?

Thank you in advance.

Imar · #9 (**permalink**) March 1st, 2009, 04:26 PM

Microsoft has added the Web Application Project in Service Pack 1 for VWD 2008 Express Edition. This SP1 was released months after the book, so by the time I wrote the book, they weren't supported, but now they are

What do you mean with "automatic generation of a SqlDataSource"? What behavior are you not getting / seeing?

Imar

nielseno · #10 (**permalink**) March 1st, 2009, 04:49 PM

Wow, thanks for the quick reply!

Re: Web Application Project...OK, well, that's good news for us...

Re: MySQL:
Step #7 States:

Quote:

Expand the PlanetWrox.mdf database, then the Tables node, and then drag the Genre table from the Database Explorer and drop it in the cpMainContent area of the Genres page. VWD creates a GridView and a SqlDataSource for you automatically.

So, I dragged one of my tables from my MySQL database into the cpMainContent area and it did not create a GridView and a SqlDataSource for me automatically, in fact as far as I can tell, it didn't do anything at all. To further explain, I was expecting to see something similar to figure 12-4. FYI, I did try the example using your example database and it worked as expected.

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