FOREWORD

ASP.NET has continued to evolve over the years as the web has changed. When it was first released, Web Forms was a revolutionary model for bringing object-oriented programming to the web by using rich controls to encapsulate web behavior. Next when Ajax was starting to be a common term, ASP.NET evolved to contain a rich Ajax Library and an UpdatePanel control that simplified Ajax programming. Then as the Model-View-Controller pattern started becoming popular, we shipped ASP.NET MVC which provided a framework for building ASP.NET applications using the MVC pattern. And then ASP.NET went back to its original roots with ASP.NET Web Pages, which provided a simple PHP style of programming to help people learn to program for the web. As connected devices such as smartphones and tablets started appearing, programmers needed a way to build APIs that can be called from devices, and ASP.NET Web API was born. The latest addition is ASP.NET SignalR, which provides a programming model for applications that need to have real time events showing live updates of data, such as stock quotes.

Each time the web has changed, ASP.NET has changed with it, and we will continue to keep each ASP.NET framework in sync with the latest developments in the future. With ASP.NET 4.5, one of our goals was to make sure that Web Forms remained up to date with the advancements in the other frameworks listed above. Features like Model Binding, Unobtrusive JavaScript, and NuGet Libraries were added to Web Forms so Web Forms developers had access to the new features that were created in the newer frameworks. Tooling was added so ASP.NET Web APIs can be added to any ASP.NET project. You are witnessing the evolution of One ASP.NET which will enable all of our frameworks and features to work together.

Enjoy the beginning of One ASP.NET and ASP.NET.NET 4.5 with Professional ASP.NET 4.5 in C# and VB!

—Scott Hunter

Principal Program Manager, Web Platform Team, Microsoft