Professional VB 2005

1100 Pages·2006·23.626 MB·English

by  Bill Evjen, Billy Hollis, Rockford Lhotka, Tim McCarthy, Rama Ramachandran, Kent Sharkey, Bill Sheldon

TEAM LinG
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Professional VB 2005
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Professional VB 2005
Bill Evjen, Billy Hollis, Rockford Lhotka,
Tim McCarthy, Rama Ramachandran,
Kent Sharkey, Bill Sheldon
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Professional VB 2005
Published by
Wiley Publishing, Inc.
10475 Crosspoint Boulevard
Indianapolis, IN 46256
www.wiley.com
Copyright © 2006 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana
Published simultaneously in Canada
ISBN-13: 978-0-7645-7536-5
ISBN-10: 0-7645-7536-8
Manufactured in the United States of America
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
1B/SW/RQ/QV/IN
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data:
Professional Visual Basic 2005 / Bill Evjen ... [et al.].
p. cm.
Includes index.
ISBN-13: 978-0-7645-7536-5 (paper/website)
ISBN-10: 0-7645-7536-8 (paper/website)
1. Microsoft Visual BASIC. 2. BASIC (Computer program language) 3. Microsoft .NET.
I. Evjen, Bill.
QA76.73.B3P7485 2005
005.2’768—dc22
2005012585
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About the Authors
Bill Evjen is an active proponent of .NET technologies and community-based learning initiatives for
.NET. He has been actively involved with .NET since the first bits were released in 2000. In the same
year, Bill founded the St. Louis .NET User Group (www.stlnet.org), one of the world’s first .NET user
groups. Bill is also the founder and the executive director of the International .NET Association (INETA–
www.ineta.org), which represents more than 375,000 members worldwide.
Based in St. Louis, Missouri, Bill is an acclaimed author and speaker on ASP.NET and XMLWeb Services.
He has written or coauthored more than 10 books, including Professional C# 2005and Professional ASP.NET
2.0(Wrox), XMLWeb Services for ASP.NET, ASP.NET Professional Secrets(Wiley), and more.
Bill is a technical director for Reuters, the international news and financial services company, and he
travels the world speaking to major financial institutions about the future of the IT industry. He gradu-
ated from Western Washington University in Bellingham, Washington, with a Russian language degree.
When he isn’t tinkering on the computer, he can usually be found at his summer house in Toivakka,
Finland. You can reach Bill at [email protected].
To Kalle – Welcome to the family!
Billy Hollisis coauthor of the first book ever published on Visual Basic .NET, VB.NET Programmingon
the Public Beta(Wrox Press) as well as numerous other books and articles on .NET. Billy is a Microsoft
regional director and an MVP, and he was selected as one of the original .NET “Software Legends.” He
writes a monthly column for MSDN Online and is heavily involved in training, consultation, and soft-
ware development on the Microsoft .NET platform, focusing on smart-client development and commer-
cial packages. He frequently speaks at industry conferences such as Microsoft’s Professional Developer
Conference, TechEd, and COMDES. Billy is a member of the INETAspeakers’ bureau and speaks at user
group meetings all over the United States.
Rockford Lhotkais the principal technology evangelist for Magenic Technologies (www.magenic.com),
a company focused on delivering business value through applied technology and one of the nation’s
premiere Microsoft Gold Certified Partners. Rockford is the author of several books, including Expert
Visual Basic .NETand C# Business Objects. He is a Microsoft Software Legend, regional director, MVP, and
INETAspeaker. He is a columnist for MSDN Online and contributing author for Visual Studio Magazine,
and he regularly presents at major conferences around the world—including Microsoft PDC, Tech Ed,
VS Live! and VS Connections. For more information go to www.lhotka.net.
For my Mom and Dad, whose love and guidance have been invaluable in my life. Thank you!
Tim McCarthyis a principal engineer at InterKnowlogy, where he architects and builds highly scalable
n-tier web and smart-client applications utilizing the latest Microsoft platforms and technologies. Tim’s
expertise covers a wide range of Microsoft technologies, including, but not limited to: .NET Framework
(ASP.NET/Smart Clients/Web Services), Active Directory, UDDI, SQLServer, Windows SharePoint
Services/SharePoint Portal Server 2003, and Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) applications. Tim has
worked as a project technical lead/member as well as in a technical consulting role for several Fortune
500 companies. He has held the Microsoft Certified Solution Developer (MCSD) and Microsoft Certified
Trainer (MCT) certifications for several years and was one of the first wave of developers to earn the
Microsoft Certified Application Developer (MCAD) for .NET and MCSD for .NET certifications. He also
holds the Microsoft Certified Database Administrator certification for SQLServer 2000.
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Tim has been an author and technical reviewer for several books from Wrox Press and most recently was
a lead author on Professional VB.NET 2003. His other books include Professional Commerce Server 2000,
and Professional ADO 2.5 Programming. Tim is currently working as a lead author on the next edition of
Professional VB.NET. Tim has written numerous articles for the Developer .NET Updatenewsletter, devel-
oped packaged presentations for MSDN, and has written a whitepaper for Microsoft on using COM+
services in .NET. He has also written articles for SQLServer Magazineand Windows & .NET Magazine.
Tim has spoken at technical conferences around the world and several San Diego area user groups (includ-
ing both .NET and SQLServer groups) and he has been a regular speaker at the Microsoft Developer Days
conference in San Diego for the last several years. Tim has also delivered MSDN webcasts, many of which
were repeat requests from Microsoft. Tim also teaches custom .NET classes to companies in need of expert
.NET mentoring and training.
Tim holds a B.B.A. in marketing from the Illinois Institute of Technology as well as an M.B.A. in market-
ing from National University. Before becoming an application developer, Tim was an officer in the United
States Marine Corps. Tim’s passion for .NET is only surpassed by his passion for Notre Dame athletics.
I dedicate this book to everybody in my family who supports me. Jasmine, some day you will be writing
books, too!
Rama Ramachandranis a software architect at DKR Capital, a major hedge fund company in Stamford,
Connecticut. He is a Microsoft Certified Solutions Developer and Site-Builder and has excelled in
designing and developing WinForms and Web applications using .NET, ASP.NET, Visual Basic and SQL
Server. Rama has more than 15 years’ experience with all facets of the software development lifecycle
and has cowritten Introducing .NET, Professional ASP Data Access, Professional Visual InterDev Programming
(all Wrox Press), and four books on classic Visual Basic.
Rama is also the “ASPPro” at Devx.com, where he maintains ASP-related columns. He teaches .NET
Development and Web Development for Fairfield University’s master’s degree in software engineering,
and at the University of Connecticut. You can reach Rama at [email protected].
This book is dedicated to my wife, Beena, and our children, Ashish and Amit. They make my life whole.
I’m great at writing about technology but get tongue-tied trying to say how much I love and care about
the three of you. I am grateful to our prayer-answering God for your laughing, mischievous, adoring
lives. Thanks for being there, Beens. I love you.
Kent Sharkey.Born in an igloo and raised by wolves in a strange realm called “Manitoba,” Kent
Sharkey wandered the wilderness until found by a group of kind technical evangelists and migrated to
Redmond. He now is content strategist (yeah, he doesn’t know what he’s supposed to do either) for
ASP.NET content on MSDN. When not answering email he dreams of sleeping, complains to everyone
around (come to think of it, he does that while answering email as well), and attempts to keep his house-
mates (Babi, Cica, and Squirrel) happy.
As with all else, to Margaret. Thank you.
Bill Sheldonis a software architect and engineer originally from Baltimore, Maryland. Holding a degree
in Computer Science from the Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT) and a Microsoft Certified Solution
Developer (MCSD) qualification, Bill has been employed as an engineer since resigning his commission
with the U.S. Navy following the first Gulf War. Bill is involved with the San Diego .NET User Group
and writes for Windows and .NET magazines, including the twice monthly Developer .NET Updateemail
newsletter. He is also a frequent online presenter for MSDN and speaks at live events such as Microsoft
Developer Days. He lives with his wife, Tracie, in Southern California, where he is employed as a princi-
pal engineer with InterKnowlogy. You can reach Bill at [email protected].
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Credits
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Proofreading
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Indexing
Vice President and Publisher Broccoli Information Management
Joseph B. Wikert
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Contents
Introduction xxv
Chapter 1: What Is Microsoft .NET? 1
What Is .NET? 1
A Broad and Deep Platform for the Future 2
What’s Wrong with DNA and COM? 2
An Overview of the .NET Framework 3
The Common Language Runtime 4
Key Design Goals 5
Metadata 7
Multiple-Language Integration and Support 7
A Common Type System 8
Namespaces 8
The Next Layer—The .NET Class Framework 8
What Is in the .NET Class Framework? 9
User and Program Interfaces 10
Windows Forms 11
Web Forms 11
Console Applications 12
Web Services 12
XML as the .NET Metalanguage 12
The Role of COM 13
No Internal Use of COM 13
Some Things Never Change . . . 13
.NET Drives Changes in Visual Basic 14
How .NET Affects You 14
A Spectrum of Programming Models 14
Reducing Barriers to Internet Development 15
Libraries of Prewritten Functionality 15
Easier Deployment 15
The Future of .NET 16
Major Differences in .NET 2.0 16
Summary 17