What's the fastest track to learning to build enterprise ASP.NET v3.5 apps?

Question

Having not done ASP.NET since v1.1, and now blitzing through the Wrox Pro ASP.NET v3.5 book, what other resources are available to get me developing enterprise ASP.NET apps the fastest?

I've been developing in DotNet since Beta and have been doing Winform & middle-layer architecture/design/dev for 3.5 years now (as this has been my client's desires). But I'm finding my falling behind has hurt me concerning a new client. :(

I'd appreciate any advice on moving forward as fast as possible. I'm looking for anything RAD related or even just great books on the subject that you recommend. Right now, I'm having fun consuming the Wrox book though. Thanx much!

Answer 1

Take a look to the ASP.NET Dynamic Data Scaffolding Framework (included in the .NET Framework 3.5 SP1), it allows you to build really quickly data driven web applications. Here you can find more good videos and resources about this RAD feature.

Answer 2

I'd start with the QuickStart tutorials. That'll get you into the code, get you some exposure to the programming, architecture, controls, data access, and so on. You can also watch videos of how to accomplish various tasks in ASP.NET at the ASP.NET web site.

Assuming you already have substantial VB.NET or C# experience, you should get deep into ASP.NET fairly quickly.

Answer 3

Not that easy, since "enterprise" is a word that can encompass lots of things. First off, I would suggest just getting to know which new frameworks are available, both out-of-the-box and not. And there's been a lot of those since .NET 1.1.

WCF, for example. Dynamic Data, as mentioned in another comment. ASP.NET MVC. LINQ, ADO.NET EF, WF.

I'm not suggesting you learn all of them, at least not all at once. Rather, be at least familiar with what they are and what they bring to the table. Browse through the base class library reference and familiarize yourself with the available namespaces. This will help you know what's there and what you will have to write. Try your hand at the bits that interest you.

After you're a bit more well-versed with the .NET framework, it's time to take a look at the other stuff you'll need for enterprise development. Frameworks such as CSLA and NHibernate. Testing stuff like TypeMock. As before just knowing what's out there, even without knowing the details, can help quite a lot.

Write code. Nothing quite like writing code if you want to learn quickly. Choose one of the apps you wrote back in the 1.1 days, and try to write a shorter, cleaner and/or more maintainable version with the new tools at your disposal.

And don't forget to have fun. If you're not enjoying what you're doing, you won't really be learning much. Good luck!

Answer 4

You probably shouldn't mix "enterprise" with "rad" as the two generally have extreme connotations on opposite ends of the spectrum.

Enterprise typically draws up ideas of, large, line-of-business applications, large complexity, large configuration, (and some would probably relate to pain, nightmares, etc..)

RAD typically refers to the drag & drop garbage that you see in awesome conference demos, but then you go back home and try to build and maintain and app built with dragging and dropping controls & data acccess components on your UI and you quickly see that it breaks down.

Pick a good balance of tools & techniques that make you productive, but at the same time don't sacrifice maintainability.

You'll find no shortage of opinions of "how you should work" here on Stack Overflow, but the best advice I can give you is to be pragmatic, read as much as you can stand, and code-code-code. I code on the bus, at home, at work, on a plane, in a hotel room, etc. Try out different tools/frameworks, see what their communities say, try building a simple todo-list app, etc. Get your feel for what's out there.

You're on the right path by reaching out to the community.