The ASP.NET Component Model

The ASP.NET component model provides various building blocks of ASP.NET pages. Basically it is an object model, which describes:

• Server side counterparts of almost all HTML elements or tags, such as <form> and <input>.
• Server controls, which help in developing complex user-interface. For example, the Calendar control or the Gridview control.

ASP.NET is a technology, which works on the .Net framework that contains all web-related functionalities. The .Net framework is made of an object-oriented hierarchy. An ASP.NET web application is made of pages. When a user requests an ASP.NET page, the IIS delegates the processing of the page to the ASP.NET runtime system.

The ASP.NET runtime transforms the .aspx page into an instance of a class, which inherits from the base class page of the .Net framework. Therefore, each ASP.NET page is an object and all its components i.e., the server-side controls are also objects.

Components of .Net Framework 3.5

Before going to the next session on Visual Studio.Net, let us go through at the various components of the .Net framework 3.5. The following table describes the components of the .Net framework 3.5 and the job they perform:

Components and their Description
(1) Common Language Runtime or CLR It performs memory management, exception handling, debugging, security checking, thread execution, code execution, code safety, verification, and compilation. The code that is directly managed by the CLR is called the managed code. When the managed code is compiled, the compiler converts the source code into a CPU independent intermediate language (IL) code. A Just In Time(JIT) compiler compiles the IL code into native code, which is CPU specific.
(2) .Net Framework Class Library It contains a huge library of reusable types. classes, interfaces, structures, and enumerated values, which are collectively called types.
(3) Common Language Specification It contains the specifications for the .Net supported languages and implementation of language integration.
(4) Common Type System It provides guidelines for declaring, using, and managing types at runtime, and cross-language communication.
(5) Metadata and Assemblies Metadata is the binary information describing the program, which is either stored in a portable executable file (PE) or in the memory. Assembly is a logical unit consisting of the assembly manifest, type metadata, IL code, and a set of resources like image files.
(6) Windows Forms Windows Forms contain the graphical representation of any window displayed in the application.
(7) ASP.NET and ASP.NET AJAX ASP.NET is the web development model and AJAX is an extension of ASP.NET for developing and implementing AJAX functionality. ASP.NET AJAX contains the components that allow the developer to update data on a website without a complete reload of the page.
(8) ADO.NET It is the technology used for working with data and databases. It provides access to data sources like SQL server, OLE DB, XML etc. The ADO.NETallows connection to data sources for retrieving, manipulating, and updating data.
(9) Windows Workflow Foundation (WF) It helps in building workflow-based applications in Windows. It contains activities, workflow runtime, workflow designer, and a rules engine.
(10) Windows Presentation Foundation It provides a separation between the user interface and the business logic. It helps in developing visually stunning interfaces using documents, media, two and three dimensional graphics, animations, and more.
(11) Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) It is the technology used for building and executing connected systems.
(12) Windows CardSpace It provides safety for accessing resources and sharing personal information on the internet.
(13) LINQ It imparts data querying capabilities to .Net languages using a syntax which is similar to the tradition query language SQL.