What are the useful new ASP.NET features in the .NET Framework 3.5?

Question

I've kept up to date with new features in the C# language as it's moved from version 1 through version 3. I haven't done such a good job keeping up to date with ASP.NET. I feel like some of the post version 1 features are not so good (e.g. the AJAX framework) or are just not that useful to me (e.g. the membership framework). Can anyone recommend any new killer ASP.NET features that might have gone unnoticed?

Answer 1

I'm still learning ASP.net so I can't tell you exactly, but if you look through http://www.asp.net/learn/ you'll probably find a few new gems, there's even a 3.5 section.

Answer 2

Check out the MVC framework which is built ontop of 3.5. Big improvement over the traditional webforms model.

Answer 3

Its the MVC framework. Without 3.5, there is no MVC. Without MVC, ASP.NET is a PITA.

Answer 4

I don't think the MVC Framework is quite ready for prime time yet, though I definitely plan to use it sometime next year. I love the clean URLs, clean XHTML (web forms can really spew out some nasty HTML) and the ability to create controller actions with no associated view.

I've been using Master Pages since they were released and they've been a big help. I do really dislike the way the master pages add the nasty prefixes to the control IDs. It makes for some ugly CSS. I think the MVC Framework may eliminate this problem though.

Any other killer features?

Answer 5

ListView and its friend DataPager are probably worth looking at, but they're hardly "Killer" features.

Things outside of ASP.NET specifically (LINQ, for example) are probably more likely to be get the "Killer" commendation.

Answer 6

Master Pages

(of course, these are in there from version 2.0)

Nested master pages are new in 3.5. I haven't used them yet, but I can only imagine they could turn into a hidious nightmare if not used very carefully.

You only have to look at the order in which the events are fired in a page that uses a master page to think 'urgh'.

Answer 7

The split design/code view is pretty cool. It's not perfect yet, but it's pretty cool. Also editing in the design view now edits your css there and then.

Answer 8

I don't think the MVC Framework is quite ready for prime time yet

Just an FYI, this site is built in MVC. I also have 2 apps in production on mvc, I would argue that its definitely ready for prime time.

Answer 9

@IainMH Nested Master Pages were always supported by ASP.NET, just not by the designer.

Answer 10

@Lance - oh I didn't know that. Good catch.

Have you used them? To how many levels? 2? 3? Do they cause more problems than they solve?

Answer 11

As others have said, there's a good list at www.asp.net/learn. I think the biggest ASP.NET specific changes are:

• Official ASP.NET AJAX integration
• ListView (much better than the GridView / DataView in that they let you write out clean HTML)
• Big improvements to the IDE for CSS / HTML editing
• Javascript debugging

Note that ASP.NET MVC is not released yet, and was definitely not included with ASP.NET 3.5.

Answer 12

For ASP.NET, you have a lot of improvements:

• split view (code and design)
• faster switching between code and design view
• embedded master pages (one master page in another)
• javascript debugging

Anyway most of the useful stuff are really in the meat of the language, and for .NET 3.5 the new language features for C# 3.0 will be (and yes, I find ALL of them useful)

• anonymous objects
• automatic properties
• object initializers
• collection initializers (inline initialization for collections)
• implicit typing (var keyword)
• lambda expressions
• LINQ
• Extension methods

I might have forgotten a few, but I think this is about most of the new cool and useful stuff.

Answer 13

Here's a brief list of my favourites:

• LINQ
• Extension Methods
• Lambda Methods

And I don't actually use ASP.NET, but ASP.NET AJAX is now included in 3.5 too and ASP.NET MVC is included in 3.5 SP1.

Answer 14

see Scott Hanselman's post here: http://www.hanselman.com/blog/HiddenGemsNotTheSameOld35SP1Post.aspx

Answer 15

also Dynamic Data have to be consider