| ASP.NET In A Nutshell Today’s market for web development technology is always expanding and continuously evolving. An example of this is Microsoft’s ASP.NET, which is a highly evolved version of Microsoft’s previous web development technology ASP. Aside from having the same name, these two technologies are incredibly different. For example, ASP.NET allows programmers to code using any of the different programming languages supported by the .NET Framework, such as C#, Visual Basic.NET, or JScript .NET, but also including open-source languages such as Perl and Python. ASP.NET combines the powers of the .NET framework that has programmers drooling over exceptional performance, advanced security capabilities, and increased load times to establish itself as one of the premier technologies in web development. One of the major concerns facing web programmers is performance. Customers are likely to stop using the site if pages are unable to load quickly. ASP.NET addresses this problem by optimizing load times and data exchange rates between the server and the consumer. Most web development technologies, including ASP, are forced to compile each time a client visits the site. ASP.NET, on the other hand, allows pages to be compiled prior to anyone coming to a site. This feature not only improves load speeds, but also allows developers to hide code from customers. The code is executed on the server before sent to the browser because ASP.NET is purely a server-side technology. This means that the code sent back to the browser is pure HTML and not ASP.NET code, thus no one can simply copy and paste from your ASP.NET code. Another major advantage to using ASP.NET over other technologies like ASP is the programmer’s ability to set up pages or areas of pages commonly reused to be cached for a set period of time. This feature significantly improves the performance of web applications by notably decreasing load times. In addition, ASP.NET allows the caching of data from a database so your website is not slowed down by frequent visits to a database when the data does not change much. Lastly, ASP.NET has some added security features proven to be very appealing to small and large businesses. Most important of these features is ASP.NET’s ability to avoid downtime and crashes, a feature not supported by ASP. ASP.NET is designed to automatically recover from memory leaks and errors to make sure that websites are always available to clients. In the event of a memory leak, ASP.NET unloads the AppDomain hosting the problematic application then reloads the application in a new AppDomain. This is extremely important for any business that intends to host an online store or showcase products online. Assessing all of the features you expect to use and all of the technology you will need to have is vital when deciding which technology is best for your web page. Many web development technologies are incapable of handling certain programming routines and complicated scenarios. However, the ASP.NET flexibility has proven that the platform is capable of handling the most difficult problems in a quick and efficient way, making ASP.NET an ideal choice for just about any web development project. - By Tim Cherry of Atak Interactive, Inc.
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