In the last two weeks, three friends have approached me asking how they can get into Web development: a university professor who wants to create a virtual community for his students, an owner of a language school who wants to get into e-commerce, and an English teacher looking for a lucrative career move. My advice to all of them was the same: learn XHTML, ASP.NET and database servers.Why XHTML

XHTML is the core of the Web

From the simplest Web site to the most complex e-commerce solution, XHTML is the script that is ultimately sent down to the visitors’ browsers. There is no getting around it: if you want to do Web development, you need to know XHTML. The good thing is that HTML is relatively easy to learn. It is not a programming language so there are no for-next loops, no variables, and nothing about sessions or functions to learn. It is just a mark-up script, which means that you merely surround text with tags which tell the browser to treat that text specially. To see how easy it is, take my Learn HTML by the end of the hour you will have created your first Web site and learned the most important XHTML tags. It’s really that easy.

After you have made your first home page come up in a browser, learn more by getting an XHTML editor such as Dreamweaver or VIsual Studio Web Developer which allows you to create pages in a Word-like environment and then look at the automatically generated XHTML text. Such an editor is one of the best XHTML learning tools that there is - if you want to learn how to create a colored table, then create one and look at the XHTML code. To learn more, change the code a bit and look at the table again. Keep doing this until you get an understanding of how the XHTML code affects the display in the browser. XHTML is simple enough that experimenting in this way will speed-teach most of practical XHTML skills you need.

After you get a sense of the relationship between XHTML tags and their output in the browser, get a good-sized, comprehensive book on XHTML and work through it at quick pace. It’s not important you understand each tag in depth, but it is important that you have an overview of all the XHTML tags so that you can spot them in the code and know what is available to you when you are designing pages. After you have worked through a book like this, you will have a good theoretical basis of XHTML, which is important when you start programming in ASP.NET.

ASP.NET is a powerful server-side script

Only knowing XHTML is limiting because all you can do is create static pages. What if you have a list of students, for example, which you want to sometimes display sorted by last name, sometimes sorted by grade, and sometimes want to show only those who have finished a specific assignment? For this you need to have this information in a database and use ASP.NET to dynamically send only the information you want to your visitors’ browsers.

To develop sites with ASP, you first need to set up the ASP.NET programming environment on your computer, which can be difficult if you have never done it before. The easiest way to do this is to take visual studio 2005 

and sql server 2005  which will enable you to get an ASP.NET developing environment up within the hour, complete with a working ASP.NET page which reads data from an MS SQL database.

Next you need to learn ASP.MET. For most non-programmers this is going to involve a learning curve.  Also, if you have never programmed in a client/server environment, you will go through a paradigm shift trying to understand the five server objects: application, server, session, response and request. The good thing is that you don't have to understand everything about ASP.NET to start making useful ASP.NET applications. My advice is to get a good book on ASP.NET and work through it at your own pace pulling out of it only that which you can use for your own particular Web application project, then keep the book within arm's reach for reference. 

Database connectivity: where the rubber hits the road

ASP.NET applications without database are not much more useful than plain XHTML pages. Hence, you will want to learn database connectivity from the very beginning of your ASP.NET learning. Spend your time learning how to read, write, delete and edit data in databases from your ASP.NET pages. This is where the real power of an ASP.NET application lies.

Although ASP.NET can talk to almost any database, Microsoft SQL 2005 is the best database to use with ASP.NET, and you will need to have a copy installed on your machine before you begin programming database connectivity into ASP.NET. MS SQL 2005 will work, too, of course. You can go to microsoft.com/downloads and there you search this product.

Today, you can get excellent books on database connectivity using ASP.NET, and in our forums have hundreds of code samples for you to try out and learn from.

Hosting your ASP Web site

When it is time to put your ASP.NET Web site on the Internet for others to use, Web hosting services such as aspspider.com will host your database-generated ASP Web site for free.

Not easy, but possible and very powerful

In the final, learning ASP.NET and database connectivity is not as easy as learning how to use other Windows applications. Programming involves another level of involvement and learning which for some is simply not a joy. However, if you are excited about learning basic programming skills and can invest a couple of months learning and experimenting with this technology, you will come out with skills with which you can create robust and useful database-generated Web applications such as virtual classrooms or e-commerce Web sites. You will also be able to market yourself as a highly paid Web developer. More power to you!

Step1: Learn "Hot to work with strings?"

If you are c++ programmer and start with modern languages while Delphi, c# or Java, there have thausands of lines writen for working with strings.

Never not use:

    string result = ""; //instead result = string.Empty.

For this method of initialization of string variable Microsoft are make couple of optimization.

If you want to format same string, don't write:

    result = var1 + " this is " + var2 + " the best " var3 + " ."; //where var 1-3 are string variable

Just use:

    result = String.Format("{0} this is {1} the best {2} ."

If you must concatenated  more that four string, in language exist StringBuilder. I'm make test with 1000 concatanations of strin. For "result += result" this take about twenty 

seconds, instead for StringBuilder is three seconds. 

If you campare strings, don't use equals operator (this is stupid  least). Use String.Compar() or string result = "test", result.Equals("tests")

Step2: Use "Using" block for working with database and file system.

if you open file or database connection just write:

        using(SqlConnection connection = new SqlConnection(connectionString))
        {
             connection.Open()
        } //after programs pass this line, connection is closed

What deliver this functionallity for you?

1. if you forgot to close connection, it's closed.
2. couple of lines code, that you have to write. 

Step4: Use generics  List instead ArrayList. 

ArrayList object make boxing and unboxing in every operation with it, for this reason Microsoft ® release List<T> (generic lists) with .net 2.0. When they are make optimization , we just have to use it.

Never don't write:

    ArrayList customers = new ArrayList();  // List<Customer> customer = new List<Customer>();

    customers.add(new Customer());         // it's same

    Customer temp = customers[i] as Customer; //  Customer temp = customers[i];//without unboxing;

Step5: Don't use ssl on every pages

I'm look person that write e-commerce application and they put ssl on every web pages. This isn't right decision, you must implement you chec-out process with ASP.NET wizard

and put user iteration only on couple of pages. When user browse web site , there no reason to have SSL on every page. If you open sites while amazon i yahoo shopping you will

see,  that use ssl when you buy product and must enter same sensitive information.

For you stay problem to define which pages exatly have need to be put on SSL line, this one will be perfect fix the problem with your ASP.NET perfomance.

Conclusion:

• Working with string is imporatnt for web development.
• Minimazing using of ArrayList, instead use Custom Obgects with Generic List.
• Minimazing using of SSL, this will put down your web server. 

Web 2.0

refers to the usage of the World Wide Web as an interactive medium, inviting users to take part in shaping the content of their favorite websites. A few examples include Wikipedia, Myspace, and Del.icio.us. All these sites allow users to create their own content, which then becomes available for everyone to read. Many magazines and newspapers have done articles stating that web 2.0 is the next evolution of the Internet and the Web, and a conscious person will want to take advantage of Web 2.0 for career development and advancement. So what can you do with Web 2.0 to further your career?

One easy way is to use LinkedIn.com’s networking feature. LinkedIn is similar to Myspace and other social networking sites, which allow the user to create a specialized profile detailing their personality. However, LinkedIn is especially focused towards business use, and being “Linked In” could help enormously when you meet and network with other professionals in your field. It also can help when potential employers use the site to search for relevant candidates for a job search they’re performing.


Another possible way is to self-promote by submitting relevant websites to the various Web 2.0 sites that promote sharing of bookmarks and interesting sites, such as del.icio.us and Digg. These sites allow anyone to post a website, which then becomes publicly viewable by all site viewers. As more and more people submit a link to the same post, it becomes more highly rated and easily viewed by people coming to the site. If you are a photographer, for instance, you could submit a link to an amazing photo you took to all the different bookmarking sites, which would broaden exposure to your photography by putting the image in front of a large set of eyes.


A third popular way is to use Myspace’s networking feature. Myspace is a website which allows people to create profiles unique to themselves or their band. Within a Myspace profile, you can select several different job titles as ones you would like to inform people that you are interested in. In this manner, you can start to network with other people who have profiles on Myspace and are also interested in networking about the same job. Myspace is especially valuable simply because so many millions of people use it everyday. 

A commonality between Web 2.0 sites is that the ability to post content is free, and thus is a great place to market yourself and your skill set while still remaining within a specific budget to handle your personal advertising. This is in contrast to traditional methods of promotion, such as direct mail, that have high costs. Therefore if you run your own business, or feel that your name recognition is important, Web 2.0 sites can be invaluable self-promoting mechanisms, both within your industry and across the web.

In summation, Web 2.0 offers someone looking to further their career many different options for enhancing their visibility within a particular industry. Try and submit great content, across a broad range of Web 2.0 sites, and see where the technology revolution takes you!