Custom controls, user controls, and Web Parts can make you more productive in many ways. You can create re-usable components for your WebForms, package a piece of your user interface and re-use it across several Web sites, and create exactly the ASP.NET controls you want. Web Parts, new with ASP.NET 2.0, allow you to create user interfaces with the user's involvement, making you more productive than ever before.

This book teaches you how to create controls using Visual Studio® 2005. Packed with business-related applications, it explains the costs and benefits of different ways to accomplish a goal, offers scenarios illustrating the use of each technique, and helps you make informed choices as you develop controls specifically geared to your business purposes.

What you will learn from this book

• The role of user controls, custom controls, and Web Parts in solving specific problems
• Methods for setting up your custom control project in Visual Studio 2005
• How to create a Web Part and extend the framework by adding functions
• New features in ASP.NET 2.0 that help you manage state in your controls
• How to add client-side code to custom controls, build your own validator control, and create a databinding control

Who this book is for

This book is for professional Web developers who already know how to create a WebForm and want to begin creating their own controls. Some experience with creating objects is helpful, but advanced skill as an object developer is not necessary.

Wrox Professional guides are planned and written by working programmers to meet the real-world needs of programmers, developers, and IT professionals. Focused and relevant, they address the issues technology professionals face every day. They provide examples, practical solutions, and expert education in new technologies, all designed to help programmers do a better job.

About the Author
Peter Vogel (MBA, MCSD) is a principal in PH&V Information Services. PH&V provides consulting services in client/server and Web development. Its clients include Volvo, Christie Digital, the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, the Government of Ontario, and Microsoft. Peter’s white papers appeared in the Visual Studio .NET and Office 2003 release package. Peter is the editor of the Smart Access newsletter from Pinnacle Publishing, and wrote The Visual Basic Object and Component Handbook, which has been called “The definitive guide to ‘thinking with objects.’” Peter was the founding editor of the XML Developer newsletter. In addition to teaching for Learning Tree International, Peter wrote their ASP.NET 1.1, ASP.NET 2.0, and Technical Writing courses. His articles have appeared in every major magazine devoted to VB-based development and can be found in the Microsoft Developer Network libraries.