.

Net Interview Questions and Answers

What is .NET?
.NET is essentially a framework for software development. It is similar in nature to
any other software development framework (J2EE etc) in that it provides a set of
runtime containers/capabilities, and a rich set of pre-built functionality in the form
of class libraries and APIs
The .NET Framework is an environment for building, deploying, and running Web
Services and other applications. It consists of three main parts: the Common
Language Runtime, the Framework classes, and ASP.NET.

How many languages .NET is supporting now?

When .NET was introduced it came with several languages. VB.NET, C#, COBOL
and Perl, etc. The site DotNetLanguages.Net says 44 languages are supported.

How is .NET able to support multiple languages?

A language should comply with the Common Language Runtime standard to
become a .NET language. In .NET, code is compiled to Microsoft Intermediate
Language (MSIL for short). This is called as Managed Code. This Managed code is
run in .NET environment. So after compilation to this IL the language is not a
barrier. A code can call or use a function written in another language.

How ASP .NET different from ASP?

Scripting is separated from the HTML, Code is compiled as a DLL, these DLLs can
be executed on the server.

What is smart navigation?

The cursor position is maintained when the page gets refreshed due to the server
side validation and the page gets refreshed.

What is view state?

The web is stateless. But in ASP.NET, the state of a page is maintained in the in the
page itself automatically. How? The values are encrypted and saved in hidden
controls. this is done automatically by the ASP.NET. This can be switched off / on
for a single control

How do you validate the controls in an ASP .NET page?

Using special validation controls that are meant for this. We have Range Validator,
Email Validator.

Can the validation be done in the server side? Or this can be done only in
the Client side?

Client side is done by default. Server side validation is also possible. We can switch
off the client side and server side can be done.
How to manage pagination in a page?
Using pagination option in DataGrid control. We have to set the number of records
for a page, then it takes care of pagination by itself.

What is ADO .NET and what is difference between ADO and ADO.NET?
ADO.NET is stateless mechanism. I can treat the ADO.Net as a separate in-memory
database where in I can use relationships between the tables and select insert and
updates to the database. I can update the actual database as a batch.

Observations between VB.NET and VC#.NET?

Choosing a programming language depends on your language experience and the
scope of the application you are building. While small applications are often created
using only one language, it is not uncommon to develop large applications using
multiple languages.

For example, if you are extending an application with existing XML Web services,
you might use a scripting language with little or no programming effort. For client-
server applications, you would probably choose the single language you are most
comfortable with for the entire application. For new enterprise applications, where
large teams of developers create components and services for deployment across
multiple remote sites, the best choice might be to use several languages depending
on developer skills and long-term maintenance expectations.

The .NET Platform programming languages - including Visual Basic .NET, Visual
C#, and Visual C++ with managed extensions, and many other programming
languages from various vendors - use .NET Framework services and features
through a common set of unified classes. The .NET unified classes provide a
consistent method of accessing the platform's functionality. If you learn to use the
class library, you will find that all tasks follow the same uniform architecture. You
no longer need to learn and master different API architectures to write your
applications.

In most situations, you can effectively use all of the Microsoft programming
languages. Nevertheless, each programming language has its relative strengths and
you will want to understand the features unique to each language. The following
sections will help you choose the right programming language for your application.

Visual Basic .NET

Visual Basic .NET is the next generation of the Visual Basic language from
Microsoft. With Visual Basic you can build .NET applications, including Web
services and ASP.NET Web applications, quickly and easily. Applications made with
Visual Basic are built on the services of the common language runtime and take
advantage of the .NET Framework.

Visual Basic has many new and improved features such as inheritance, interfaces,
and overloading that make it a powerful object-oriented programming language.
Other new language features include free threading and structured exception
handling. Visual Basic fully integrates the .NET Framework and the common
language runtime, which together provide language interoperability, garbage
collection, enhanced security, and improved versioning support. A Visual Basic
support single inheritance and creates Microsoft intermediate language (MSIL) as
input to native code compilers.

Visual Basic is comparatively easy to learn and use, and Visual Basic has become
the programming language of choice for hundreds of thousands of developers over
the past decade. An understanding of Visual Basic can be leveraged in a variety of
ways, such as writing macros in Visual Studio and providing programmability in
applications such as Microsoft Excel, Access, and Word.

Visual Basic provides prototypes of some common project types, including:

Windows Application.
Class Library.
Windows Control Library.
ASP.NET Web Application.
ASP.NET Web Service.
Web Control Library.
Console Application.
Windows Service.
Windows Service.
Visual C# .NET

Visual C# (pronounced C sharp) is designed to be a fast and easy way to create

.NET applications, including Web services and ASP.NET Web applications.
Applications written in Visual C# are built on the services of the common language
runtime and take full advantage of the .NET Framework.

C# is a simple, elegant, type-safe, object-oriented language recently developed by

Microsoft for building a wide range of applications. Anyone familiar with C and
similar languages will find few problems in adapting to C#. C# is designed to bring
rapid development to the C++ programmer without sacrificing the power and
control that are a hallmark of C and C++. Because of this heritage, C# has a high
degree of fidelity with C and C++, and developers familiar with these languages can
quickly become productive in C#. C# provides intrinsic code trust mechanisms for a
high level of security, garbage collection, and type safety. C# supports single
inheritance and creates Microsoft intermediate language (MSIL) as input to native
code compilers.

C# is fully integrated with the .NET Framework and the common language runtime,
which together provide language interoperability, garbage collection, enhanced
security, and improved versioning support. C# simplifies and modernizes some of
the more complex aspects of C and C++, notably namespaces, classes,
enumerations, overloading, and structured exception handling. C# also eliminates
C and C++ features such as macros, multiple inheritance, and virtual base classes.
For current C++ developers, C# provides a powerful, high-productivity language
alternative.

Visual C# provides prototypes of some common project types, including:

Windows Application.
Class Library.
Windows Control Library.
ASP.NET Web Application.
ASP.NET Web Service.
Web Control Library.
Console Application.
Windows Service.

Advantages of migrating to VB.NET ?

Visual Basic .NET has many new and improved language features such as
inheritance, interfaces, and overloading that make it a powerful object-oriented
programming language. As a Visual Basic developer, you can now create
multithreaded, scalable applications using explicit multithreading. Other new
language features in Visual Basic .NET include structured exception handling,
custom attributes, and common language specification (CLS) compliance.

The CLS is a set of rules that standardizes such things as data types and how
objects are exposed and interoperate. Visual Basic .NET adds several features that
take advantage of the CLS. Any CLS-compliant language can use the classes,
objects, and components you create in Visual Basic .NET. And you, as a Visual
Basic user, can access classes, components, and objects from other CLS-compliant
programming languages without worrying about language-specific differences such
as data types.

CLS features used by Visual Basic .NET programs include assemblies, namespaces,
and attributes.

These are the new features to be stated briefly:

Inheritance
Visual Basic .NET supports inheritance by allowing you to define classes that serve
as the basis for derived classes. Derived classes inherit and can extend the
properties and methods of the base class. They can also override inherited methods
with new implementations. All classes created with Visual Basic .NET are
inheritable by default. Because the forms you design are really classes, you can use
inheritance to define new forms based on existing ones.

Exception Handling
Visual Basic .NET supports structured exception handling, using an enhanced
version of the Try...Catch...Finally syntax supported by other languages such as C+
+.

Structured exception handling combines a modern control structure (similar to

Select Case or While) with exceptions, protected blocks of code, and filters.
Structured exception handling makes it easy to create and maintain programs with
robust, comprehensive error handlers.

Overloading
Overloading is the ability to define properties, methods, or procedures that have the
same name but use different data types. Overloaded procedures allow you to
provide as many implementations as necessary to handle different kinds of data,
while giving the appearance of a single, versatile procedure. Overriding Properties
and Methods The Overrides keyword allows derived objects to override
characteristics inherited from parent objects. Overridden members have the same
arguments as the members inherited from the base class, but different
implementations. A member's new implementation can call the original
implementation in the parent class by preceding the member name with MyBase.

Constructors and Destructors

Constructors are procedures that control initialization of new instances of a class.
Conversely, destructors are methods that free system resources when a class leaves
scope or is set to Nothing. Visual Basic .NET supports constructors and destructors
using the Sub New and Sub Finalize procedures.

Data Types
Visual Basic .NET introduces three new data types. The Char data type is an
unsigned 16-bit quantity used to store Unicode characters. It is equivalent to the
.NET Framework System. Char data type. The Short data type, a signed 16-bit
integer, was named Integer in earlier versions of Visual Basic. The Decimal data
type is a 96-bit signed integer scaled by a variable power of 10. In earlier versions of
Visual Basic, it was available only within a Variant.

Interfaces
Interfaces describe the properties and methods of classes, but unlike classes, do
not provide implementations. The Interface statement allows you to declare
interfaces, while the Implements statement lets you write code that puts the items
described in the interface into practice.

Delegates
Delegates objects that can call the methods of objects on your behalf are sometimes
described as type-safe, object-oriented function pointers. You can use delegates to
let procedures specify an event handler method that runs when an event occurs.
You can also use delegates with multithreaded applications. For details, see
Delegates and the AddressOf Operator.

Shared Members
Shared members are properties, procedures, and fields that are shared by all
instances of a class. Shared data members are useful when multiple objects need to
use information that is common to all. Shared class methods can be used without
first creating an object from a class.

References
References allow you to use objects defined in other assemblies. In Visual Basic
.NET, references point to assemblies instead of type libraries. For details, see
References and the Imports Statement. Namespaces prevent naming conflicts by
organizing classes, interfaces, and methods into hierarchies.

Assemblies
Assemblies replace and extend the capabilities of type libraries by, describing all
the required files for a particular component or application. An assembly can
contain one or more namespaces.

Attributes
Attributes enable you to provide additional information about program elements.
For example, you can use an attribute to specify which methods in a class should
be exposed when the class is used as a XML Web service.

Multithreading
Visual Basic .NET allows you to write applications that can perform multiple tasks
independently. A task that has the potential of holding up other tasks can execute
on a separate thread, a process known as multithreading. By causing complicated
tasks to run on threads that are separate from your user interface, multithreading
makes your applications more responsive to user input.

Using ActiveX Control in .Net

ActiveX control is a special type of COM component that supports a User Interface.
Using ActiveX Control in your .Net Project is even easier than using COM
component. They are bundled usually in .ocx files. Again a proxy assembly is made
by .Net utility AxImp.exe (which we will see shortly) which your application (or
client) uses as if it is a .Net control or assembly.

Making Proxy Assembly For ActiveX Control: First, a proxy assembly is made using
AxImp.exe (acronym for ActiveX Import) by writing following command on Command
Prompt:

C:> AxImp C:MyProjectsMyControl.ocx

This command will make two dlls, e.g., in case of above command

MyControl.dll
AxMyControl.dll
The first file MyControl.dll is a .Net assembly proxy, which allows you to reference
the ActiveX as if it were non-graphical object.

The second file AxMyControl.dll is the Windows Control, which allows u to use the
graphical aspects of activex control and use it in the Windows Form Project.

Adding Reference of ActiveX Proxy Assembly in your Project Settings: To add a

reference of ActiveX Proxy Assembly in our Project, do this:

o Select Project A Add Reference (Select Add Reference from Project Menu).
o This will show you a dialog box, select .Net tab from the top of window.
o Click Browse button on the top right of window.
o Select the dll file for your ActiveX Proxy Assembly (which is MyControl.dll) and
click OK o Your selected component is now shown in the Selected Component List
Box. Click OK again Some More On Using COM or ActiveX in .Net

.Net only provides wrapper class or proxy assembly (Runtime Callable Wrapper or
RCW) for COM or activeX control. In the background, it is actually delegating the
tasks to the original COM, so it does not convert your COM/activeX but just
imports them.

A good thing about .Net is that when it imports a component, it also imports the
components that are publically referenced by that component. So, if your
component, say MyDataAcsess.dll references ADODB.dll then .Net will
automatically import that COM component too!

The Visual Studio.NET does surprise you in a great deal when u see that it is
applying its intellisense (showing methods, classes, interfaces, properties when
placing dot) even on your imported COM components!!!! Isnt it a magic or what?

When accessing thru RCW, .Net client has no knowledge that it is using COM
component, it is presented just as another C# assembly.

U can also import COM component thru command prompt (for reference see
Professional C# by Wrox)

U can also use your .Net components in COM, i.e., export your .net components (for
reference see Professional C# by Wrox)

What is Machine.config?
Machine configuration file: The machine.config file contains settings that apply to
the entire computer. This file is located in the %runtime install path%Config
directory. There is only one machine.config file on a computer. The Machine.Config
file found in the "CONFIG" subfolder of your .NET Framework install directory
(c:WINNTMicrosoft.NETFramework{Version Number} CONFIG on Windows 2000
installations). The machine.config, which can be found in the directory
$WINDIR$Microsoft.NETFrameworkv1.0.3705CONFIG, is an XML-formatted
configuration file that specifies configuration options for the machine. This file
contains, among many other XML elements, a browser Caps element. Inside this
element are a number of other elements that specify parse rules for the various
User-Agents, and what properties each of these parsing supports.

For example, to determine what platform is used, a filter element is used that
specifies how to set the platform property based on what platform name is found in
the User-Agent string. Specifically, the machine.config file contains:

platform=Win95
platform=Win98
platform=WinNT
...

That is, if in the User-Agent string the string "Windows 95" or "Win95" is found, the
platform property is set to Win95. There are a number of filter elements in the
browserCaps element in the machine.config file that define the various properties
for various User-Agent strings.

Hence, when using the Request.Browser property to determine a user's browser

features, the user's agent string is matched up to particular properties in the
machine.config file. The ability for being able to detect a user's browser's
capabilities, then, is based upon the honesty in the browser's sent User-Agent
string. For example, Opera can be easily configured to send a User-Agent string that
makes it appear as if it's IE 5.5. In this case from the Web server's perspective (and,
hence, from your ASP.NET Web page's perspective), the user is visiting using IE 5.5,
even though, in actuality, he is using Opera.

What is Web.config?
In classic ASP all Web site related information was stored in the metadata of IIS.
This had the disadvantage that remote Web developers couldn't easily make Web-
site configuration changes. For example, if you want to add a custom 404 error
page, a setting needs to be made through the IIS admin tool, and you're Web host
will likely charge you a flat fee to do this for you. With ASP.NET, however, these
settings are moved into an XML-formatted text file (Web.config) that resides in the
Web site's root directory. Through Web.config you can specify settings like custom
404 error pages, authentication and authorization settings for the Web
sitempilation options for the ASP.NET Web pages, if tracing should be enabled, etc.
The Web.config file is an XML-formatted file. At the root level is the tag. Inside this
tag you can add a number of other tags, the most common and useful one being
the system.web tag, where you will specify most of the Web site configuration
parameters. However, to specify application-wide settings you use the tag.
For example, if we wanted to add a database connection string parameter we could
have a Web.config file like so.

What is the difference between ADO and ADO.NET?

ADO uses Recordsets and cursors to access and modify data. Because of its
inherent design, Recordset can impact performance on the server side by tying up
valuable resources. In addition, COM marshalling - an expensive data conversion
process - is needed to transmit a Recordset. ADO.NET addresses three important
needs that ADO doesn't address:

1. Providing a comprehensive disconnected data-access model, which is crucial to

the Web environment
2. Providing tight integration with XML, and
3. Providing seamless integration with the .NET Framework (e.g., compatibility with
the base class library's type system). From an ADO.NET implementation
perspective, the Recordset object in ADO is eliminated in the .NET architecture. In
its place, ADO.NET has several dedicated objects led by the DataSet object and
including the DataAdapter, and DataReader objects to perform specific tasks. In
addition, ADO.NET DataSets operate in disconnected state whereas the ADO
RecordSet objects operated in a fully connected state.

In ADO, the in-memory representation of data is the RecordSet. In ADO.NET, it is

the dataset. A RecordSet looks like a single table. If a RecordSet is to contain data
from multiple database tables, it must use a JOIN query, which assembles the data
from the various database tables into a single result table. In contrast, a dataset is
a collection of one or more tables. The tables within a dataset are called data tables;
specifically, they are DataTable objects. If a dataset contains data from multiple
database tables, it will typically contain multiple DataTable objects. That is, each
DataTable object typically corresponds to a single database table or view. In this
way, a dataset can mimic the structure of the underlying database.

In ADO you scan sequentially through the rows of the RecordSet using the ADO
MoveNext method. In ADO.NET, rows are represented as collections, so you can
loop through a table as you would through any collection, or access particular rows
via ordinal or primary key index. A cursor is a database element that controls
record navigation, the ability to update data, and the visibility of changes made to
the database by other users. ADO.NET does not have an inherent cursor object, but
instead includes data classes that provide the functionality of a traditional cursor.
For example, the functionality of a forward-only, read-only cursor is available in the
ADO.NET DataReader object.

There is one significant difference between disconnected processing in ADO and

ADO.NET. In ADO you communicate with the database by making calls to an OLE
DB provider. In ADO.NET you communicate with the database through a data
adapter (an OleDbDataAdapter, SqlDataAdapter, OdbcDataAdapter, or
OracleDataAdapter object), which makes calls to an OLE DB provider or the APIs
provided by the underlying data source.

What is the difference between VB and VB.NET?

Now VB.NET is object-oriented language. The following are some of the differences:

Data Type Changes

The .NET platform provides Common Type System to all the supported languages.
This means that all the languages must support the same data types as enforced by
common language runtime. This eliminates data type incompatibilities between
various languages. For example on the 32-bit Windows platform, the integer data
type takes 4 bytes in languages like C++ whereas in VB it takes 2 bytes. Following
are the main changes related to data types in VB.NET:

. Under .NET the integer data type in VB.NET is also 4 bytes in size.
. VB.NET has no currency data type. Instead it provides decimal as a replacement.
. VB.NET introduces a new data type called Char. The char data type takes 2 bytes
and can store Unicode characters.
. VB.NET do not have Variant data type. To achieve a result similar to variant type
you can use Object data type. (Since every thing in .NET including primitive data
types is an object, a variable of object type can point to any data type).
. In VB.NET there is no concept of fixed length strings.
. In VB6 we used the Type keyword to declare our user-defined structures. VB.NET
introduces the structure keyword for the same purpose.
Declaring Variables
Consider this simple example in VB6:
Dim x,y as integer

In this example VB6 will consider x as variant and y as integer, which is somewhat
odd behavior. VB.NET corrects this problem, creating both x and y as integers.

Furthermore, VB.NET allows you to assign initial values to the variables in the
declaration statement itself:
br> Dim str1 as string = Hello

VB.NET also introduces Read-Only variables. Unlike constants Read-Only variables

can be declared without initialization but once you assign a value to it, it cannot be
changes.

Initialization here
Dim readonly x as integer
In later code
X=100
Now x cant be changed
X=200 *********** Error **********
Property Syntax
In VB.NET, we anymore don't have separate declarations for Get and Set/Let. Now,
everything is done in a single property declaration. This can be better explained by
the following example.
Public [ReadOnly | WriteOnly] Property PropertyName as Datatype
Get
Return m_var
End Get
Set
M_var = value
End Set
End Property
Example:
Private _message as String
Public Property Message As String
Get
Return _message
End Get
Set
_message = Value
End Set
End Property

ByVal is the default - This is a crucial difference betwen VB 6.0 and VB.NET, where
the default in VB 6.0 was by reference. But objects are still passed by reference.

Invoking Subroutines In previous versions of VB, only functions required the use of
parentheses around the parameter list. But in VB.NET all function or subroutine
calls require parentheses around the parameter list. This also applies, even though
the parameter list is empty.

User-Defined Types - VB.NET does away with the keyword Type and replaces it with
the keyword Structure
Public Structure Student
Dim strName as String
Dim strAge as Short
End Structure
Procedures and Functions

In VB6 all the procedure parameters are passed by reference (ByRef) by default. In
VB.NET they are passed by value (ByVal) by default. Parantheses are required for
calling procedures and functions whether they accept any parameters or not. In
VB6 functions returned values using syntax like: FuntionName = return_value. In
VB.NET you can use the Return keyword (Return return_value) to return values or
you can continue to use the older syntax, which is still valid.
Scoping VB.NET now supports block-level scoping of variables. If your programs
declare all of the variables at the beginning of the function or subroutine, this will
not be a problem. However, the following VB 6.0 will cause an issue while upgrading
to VB .NET

Do While objRs.Eof
Dim J as Integer
J=0
If objRs("flag")="Y" then
J=1
End If
objRs.MoveNext
Wend
If J Then
Msgbox "Flag is Y"
End If

In the above example the variable J will become out of scope just after the loop,
since J was declared inside the While loop.

Exception Handling

The most wanted feature in earlier versions of VB was its error handling
mechanism. The older versions relied on error handlers such as "On Error GoTo
and On Error Resume Next. VB.NET provides us with a more stuructured
approach. The new block structure allows us to track the exact error at the right
time. The new error handling mechanism is refered to as
Try...Throw...Catch...Finally. The following example will explain this new feature.

Sub myOpenFile()
Try
Open "myFile" For Output As #1
Write #1, myOutput
Catch
Kill "myFile"
Finally
Close #1
End try
End Sub

The keyword SET is gone - Since everything in VB.NET is an object. So the keyword
SET is not at all used to differentiate between a simple variable assignment and an
object assignment. So, if you have the following statement in VB 6.0

Set ObjConn = Nothing

Should be replaced as
ObjConn = Nothing.
Constructor and Destructor

The constructor procedure is one of the many new object-oriented features of

VB.NET. The constructor in VB.NET replaces the Class_Initialize in VB 6.0. All
occurance of Class_Initialize in previous versions of VB should now be placed in a
class constructor. In VB.NET, a constructor is added to a class by adding a
procedure called New. We can also create a class destructor, which is equivalent to
Class_Terminate event in VB 6.0, by adding a sub-procedure called Finalize to our
class. Usage of Return In VB.NET, we can use the keyword return to return a value
from any function. In previous versions, we used to assign the value back with the
help of the function name itself. The following example explains this:

Public Function Sum (intNum1 as Integer, intNum2 as Integer) as Integer

Dim intSum as Integer
intSum = intNum1 + intNum2
Return intSum
End Function
Static Methods

VB.NET now allows you to create static methods in your classes. Static methods are
methods that can be called without requiring the developer to create instance of the
class. For example, if you had a class named Foo with the non-static method
NonStatic() and the static method Static(), you could call the Static() method like so:

Foo.Static()

However, non-static methods require than an instance of the class be created, like
so:

Create an instance of the Foo class

Dim objFoo as New Foo()
Execute the NonStatic() method
ObjFoo.NonStatic()

To create a static method in a VB.NET, simply prefix the method definition with the
keyword Shared.

What is a Strong Name?

A strong name consists of the assembly's identity its simple text name, version
number, and culture information (if provided) plus a public key and a digital
signature. It is generated from an assembly file (the file that contains the assembly
manifest, which in turn contains the names and hashes of all the files that make
up the assembly), using the corresponding private key. Assemblies with the same
strong name are expected to be identical.

Strong names guarantee name uniqueness by relying on unique key pairs. No one
can generate the same assembly name that you can, because an assembly
generated with one private key has a different name than an assembly generated
with another private key.

When you reference a strong-named assembly, you expect to get certain benefits,
such as versioning and naming protection. If the strong-named assembly then
references an assembly with a simple name, which does not have these benefits,
you lose the benefits you would derive from using a strong-named assembly and
revert to DLL conflicts. Therefore, strong-named assemblies can only reference
other strong-named assemblies.

There are two ways to sign an assembly with a strong name:

1. Using the Assembly Linker (Al.exe) provided by the .NET Framework SDK.
2. Using assembly attributes to insert the strong name information in your code.
You can use either the AssemblyKeyFileAttribute or the
AssemblyKeyNameAttribute, depending on where the key file to be used is located.

To create and sign an assembly with a strong name using the Assembly Linker, at
the command prompt, type the following command:
al /out: /keyfile:

In this command, assembly name is the name of the assembly to sign with a strong
name, module name is the name of the code module used to create the assembly,
and file name is the name of the container or file that contains the key pair.

The following example signs the assembly MyAssembly.dll with a strong name using
the key file sgKey.snk.

al /out:MyAssembly.dll MyModule.netmodule /keyfile:sgKey.snk

To sign an assembly with a strong name using attributes

In a code module, add the AssemblyKeyFileAttribute or the

AssemblyKeyNameAttribute, specifying the name of the file or container that
contains the key pair to use when signing the assembly with a strong name. The
following code example uses the AssemblyKeyFileAttribute with a key file called
sgKey.snk.

[Visual Basic]
[C#]
[assembly:AssemblyKeyFileAttribute(@"....sgKey.snk")]
What is a Manifest?
An assembly manifest contains all the metadata needed to specify the assembly's
version requirements and security identity, and all metadata needed to define the
scope of the assembly and resolve references to resources and classes. The
assembly manifest can be stored in either a PE (Portable Executable) file (an .exe
or .dll) with Microsoft intermediate language (MSIL) code or in a standalone PE
(Portable Executable) file that contains only assembly manifest information. The
following table shows the information contained in the assembly manifest. The first
four items the assembly name, version number, culture, and strong name
information make up the assembly's identity.

Assembly name: A text string specifying the assembly's name.

Version number: A major and minor version number, and a revision and build
number. The common language runtime uses these numbers to enforce version
policy.

Culture: Information on the culture or language the assembly supports. This

information should be used only to designate an assembly as a satellite assembly
containing culture- or language-specific information. (An assembly with culture
information is automatically assumed to be a satellite assembly.) Strong name
information: The public key from the publisher if the assembly has been given a
strong name. List of all files in the assembly:

A hash of each file contained in the assembly and a file name. Note that all files
that make up the assembly must be in the same directory as the file containing the
assembly manifest.

Type reference information: Information used by the runtime to map a type

reference to the file that contains its declaration and implementation. This is used
for types that are exported from the assembly.

Information on referenced assemblies: A list of other assemblies that are statically

referenced by the assembly. Each reference includes the dependent assembly's
name, assembly metadata (version, culture, operating system, and so on), and
public key, if the assembly is strong named.

Creating a Key Pair?

You can create a key pair using the Strong Name tool (Sn.exe). Key pair files usually
have an .snk extension. To create a key pair At the command prompt, type the
following command:

sn k

In this command, file name is the name of the output file containing the key pair.
The following example creates a key pair called sgKey.snk.
sn -k sgKey.snk

What is the difference between "using System.Data;" and directly adding

the reference from "Add References Dialog Box"?
When u compile a program using command line, u add the references using /r
switch. When you compile a program using Visual Studio, it adds those references
to our assembly, which are added using "Add Reference" dialog box. While "using"
statement facilitates us to use classes without using their fully qualified names.

For example: if u have added a reference to "System.Data.SqlClient" using "Add

Reference" dialog box then u can use SqlConnection class like this:

System.Data.SqlClient.SqlConnection

But if u add a "using System.Data.SqlClient" statement at the start of ur code then

u can directly use SqlConnection class.
On the other hand if u add a reference using "using System.Data.SqlClient"
statement, but don't add it using "Add Reference" dialog box, Visual Studio will give
error message while we compile the program.

What is GAC?
The global assembly cache stores assemblies specifically designated to be shared by
several applications on the computer. You should share assemblies by installing
them into the global assembly cache only when you need to. Assemblies deployed in
the global assembly cache must have a strong name. When an assembly is added to
the global assembly cache, integrity checks are performed on all files that make up
the assembly. The cache performs these integrity checks to ensure that an
assembly has not been tampered with, for example, when a file has changed but the
manifest does not reflect the change. Use a developer tool called the Global
Assembly Cache tool (Gacutil.exe), provided by the .NET Framework SDK or Use
Windows Explorer to drag assemblies into the cache. To install a strong-named
assembly into the global assembly cache At the command prompt, type the
following command:

gacutil I

In this command, assembly name is the name of the assembly to install in the
global assembly cache.

What is a Metadata?
Metadata is information about a PE. In COM, metadata is communicated through
non-standardized type libraries.

In .NET, this data is contained in the header portion of a COFF-compliant PE and

follows certain guidelines;
it contains information such as the assemblys name, version, language (spoken,
not computera.k.a., culture), what external types are referenced, what internal
types are exposed, methods, properties, classes, and much more.

The CLR uses metadata for a number of specific purposes. Security is managed
through a public key in the PEs header.

Information about classes, modules, and so forth allows the CLR to know in
advance what structures are necessary. The class loader component of the CLR
uses metadata to locate specific classes within assemblies, either locally or across
networks.

Just-in-time (JIT) compilers use the metadata to turn IL into executable code.

Other programs take advantage of metadata as well.

A common example is placing a Microsoft Word document on a Windows 2000

desktop. If the document file has completed comments, author, title, or other
Properties metadata, the text is displayed as a tool tip when a user hovers the
mouse over the document on the desktop. You can use the Ildasm.exe utility to view
the metadata in a PE. Literally, this tool is an IL disassembler.

What is managed code and managed data?

Managed code is code that is written to target the services of the Common
Language Runtime.
In order to target these services, the code must provide a minimum level of
information (metadata) to the runtime.
All C#, Visual Basic .NET, and JScript .NET code is managed by default.
Visual Studio .NET C++ code is not managed by default, but the compiler can
produce managed code by specifying a command-line switch (/CLR).
Closely related to managed code is managed data--data that is allocated and de-
allocated by the Common Language Runtime's garbage collector. C#, Visual Basic,
and JScript .NET data is managed by default.
C# data can, however, be marked as unmanaged through the use of special
keywords.
Visual Studio .NET C++ data is unmanaged by default (even when using the /CLR
switch), but when using Managed Extensions for C++, a class can be marked as
managed using the __gc keyword. As the name suggests, this means that the
memory for instances of the class is managed by the garbage collector.
In addition, the class becomes a full participating member of the .NET Framework
community, with the benefits and restrictions that it brings. An example of a benefit
is proper interoperability with classes written in other languages (for example, a
managed C++ class can inherit from a Visual Basic class).
An example of a restriction is that a managed class can only inherit from one base
class.
What is .NET / .NET Framework?
It is a Framework in which Windows applications may be developed and run. The
Microsoft .NET Framework is a platform for building, deploying, and running Web
Services and applications. It provides a highly productive, standards-based, multi-
language environment for integrating existing investments with next-generation
applications and services as well as the agility to solve the challenges of deployment
and operation of Internet-scale applications. The .NET Framework consists of three
main parts: the common language runtime, a hierarchical set of unified class
libraries, and a componentized version of Active Server Pages called ASP.NET.
The .NET Framework provides a new programming model and rich set of classes
designed to simplify application development for Windows, the Web, and mobile
devices. It provides full support for XML Web services, contains robust security
features, and delivers new levels of programming power. The .NET Framework is
used by all Microsoft languages including Visual C#, Visual J#, and Visual C++.

What is Reflection?
It extends the benefits of metadata by allowing developers to inspect and use it at
runtime. For example, dynamically determine all the classes contained in a given
assembly and invoke their methods. Reflection provides objects that encapsulate
assemblies, modules, and types. You can use reflection to dynamically create an
instance of a type, bind the type to an existing object, or get the type from an
existing object. You can then invoke the type's methods or access its fields and
properties. Namespace: System.Reflection

What is "Common Type System" (CTS)?

CTS defines all of the basic types that can be used in the .NET Framework and the
operations performed on those type.
All this time we have been talking about language interoperability, and .NET Class
Framework. None of this is possible without all the language sharing the same data
types. What this means is that an int should mean the same in VB, VC++, C# and
all other .NET compliant languages. This is achieved through introduction of
Common Type System (CTS).

What is "Common Language Specification" (CLS)?

CLS is the collection of the rules and constraints that every language (that seeks to
achieve .NET compatibility) must follow. It is a subsection of CTS and it specifies
how it shares and extends one another libraries.

What is "Common Language Runtime" (CLR)?

CLR is .NET equivalent of Java Virtual Machine (JVM). It is the runtime that
converts a MSIL code into the host machine language code, which is then executed
appropriately. The CLR is the execution engine for .NET Framework applications. It
provides a number of services, including:

- Code management (loading and execution)

- Application memory isolation
- Verification of type safety
- Conversion of IL to native code.
- Access to metadata (enhanced type information)
- Managing memory for managed objects
- Enforcement of code access security
- Exception handling, including cross-language exceptions
- Interoperation between managed code, COM objects, and pre-existing DLL's
(unmanaged code and data)
- Automation of object layout
- Support for developer services (profiling, debugging, and so on).

What are Attributes?

Attributes are declarative tags in code that insert additional metadata into an
assembly. There exist two types of attributes in the .NET Framework: Predefined
attributes such as AssemblyVersion, which already exist and are accessed through
the Runtime Classes; and custom attributes, which you write yourself by extending
the System.Attribute class.

What are the Types of Assemblies?

Assemblies are of two types:
1. Private Assemblies
2. Shared Assemblies
Private Assemblies: The assembly is intended only for one application. The files of
that assembly must be placed in the same folder as the application or in a sub
folder. No other application will be able to make a call to this assembly. The
advantage of having a private assembly is that, it makes naming the assembly very
easy, since the developer need not worry about name clashes with other assemblies.
As long as the assembly has a unique name within the concerned application, there
won't be any problems.
Shared Assemblies: If the assembly is to be made into a Shared Assembly, then the
naming conventions are very strict since it has to be unique across the entire
system. The naming conventions should also take care of newer versions of the
component being shipped. These are accomplished by giving the assembly a Shared
Name. Then the assembly is placed in the global assembly cache, which is a folder
in the file system reserved for shared assemblies.

What is an Intermediate language?

Assemblies are made up of IL code modules and the metadata that describes them.
Although programs may be compiled via an IDE or the command line, in fact, they
are simply translated into IL, not machine code. The actual machine code is not
generated until the function that requires it is called. This is the just-in-time, or
JIT, compilation feature of .NET. JIT compilation happens at runtime for a variety of
reasons, one of the most ambitious being Microsoft's desire for cross-platform .NET
adoption. If a CLR is built for another operating system (UNIX or Mac), the same
assemblies will run in addition to the Microsoft platforms. The hope is that .NET
assemblies are write-once-run-anywhere applications. This is a .NET feature that
works behind-the-scenes, ensuring that developers are not limited to writing
applications for one single line of products. No one has demonstrated whether or
not this promise will ever truly materialize.

CTS/CLS

The MSIL Instruction Set Specification is included with the .NET SDK, along with
the IL Assembly Language Programmers Reference. If a developer wants to write
custom .NET programming languages, these are the necessary specifications and
syntax. The CTS and CLS define the types and syntaxes that every .NET language
needs to embrace. An application may not expose these features, but it must
consider them when communicating through IL.

ASP.NET Authentication Providers and IIS Security

ASP.NET implements authentication using authentication providers, which are code

modules that verify credentials and implement other security functionality such as
cookie generation. ASP.NET supports the following three authentication providers:

Forms Authentication: Using this provider causes unauthenticated requests to be

redirected to a specified HTML form using client side redirection. The user can then
supply logon credentials, and post the form back to the server. If the application
authenticates the request (using application-specific logic), ASP.NET issues a cookie
that contains the credentials or a key for reacquiring the client identity. Subsequent
requests are issued with the cookie in the request headers, which means that
subsequent authentications are unnecessary.

Passport Authentication: This is a centralized authentication service provided by

Microsoft that offers a single logon facility and membership services for
participating sites. ASP.NET, in conjunction with the Microsoft Passport software
development kit (SDK), provides similar functionality as Forms Authentication to
Passport users.

Windows Authentication: This provider utilizes the authentication capabilities of

IIS. After IIS completes its authentication, ASP.NET uses the authenticated
identity's token to authorize access.

To enable a specified authentication provider for an ASP.NET application, you must

create an entry in the application's configuration file as follows:
// web.config file

What is the difference between ASP and ASP.NET?

ASP is interpreted. ASP.NET Compiled event base programming.
Control events for text button can be handled at client javascript only. Since we
have server controls events can handle at server side.
More error handling.
ASP .NET has better language support, a large set of new controls and XML based
components, and better user authentication.

ASP .NET provides increased performance by running compiled code.

ASP .NET code is not fully backward compatible with ASP.

ASP .NET also contains a new set of object oriented input controls, like
programmable list boxes, validation controls. A new data grid control supports
sorting, data paging, and everything you expect from a dataset control. The first
request for an ASP.NET page on the server will compile the ASP .NET code and keep
a cached copy in memory. The result of this is greatly increased performance.

ASP .NET is not fully compatible with earlier versions of ASP, so most of the old ASP
code will need some changes to run under ASP .NET. To overcome this problem,

ASP .NET uses a new file extension ".aspx". This will make ASP .NET applications
able to run side by side with standard ASP applications on the same server.

Using COM Component in .Net ?

As most of you know that .Net does not encourage the development of COM
components and provides a different solution to making reusable components
through Assemblies. But, there are a lot of COM components present which our
.Net application might need to use. Fortunately, .Net provides an extremely simple
approach to achieve this. This is achieved by using Wrapper Classes and Proxy
Components. .Net wraps the COM component into .Net assembly technically called
Runtime Callable Wrapper or RCW. Then u can call and use your COM component
just as a .Net (or C#, if u are using C#) Assembly.

What is an assembly?
An assembly is the primary building block of a .NET Framework application. It is a
collection of functionality that is built, versioned, and deployed as a single
implementation unit (as one or more files). All managed types and resources are
marked either as accessible only within their implementation unit, or as accessible
by code outside that unit. .NET Assembly contains all the metadata about the
modules, types, and other elements it contains in the form of a manifest. The CLR
loves assemblies because differing programming languages are just perfect for
creating certain kinds of applications. For example, COBOL stands for Common
Business-Oriented Language because its tailor-made for creating business apps.
However, its not much good for creating drafting programs. Regardless of what
language you used to create your modules, they can all work together within one
Portable Executable Assembly. Theres a hierarchy to the structure of .NET code.
That hierarchy is Assembly - > Module -> Type -> Method." Assemblies can be static
or dynamic. Static assemblies can include .NET Framework types (interfaces and
classes), as well as resources for the assembly (bitmaps, JPEG files, resource files,
and so on). Static assemblies are stored on disk in portable executable (PE) files.
You can also use the .NET Framework to create dynamic assemblies, which are run
directly from memory and are not saved to disk before execution. You can save
dynamic assemblies to disk after they have executed.

What is a Web Service?

A web service is a software component that exposes itself through the open
communication channels of the Internet. Applications running on remote machines,
on potentially different platforms, can access these components in a language and
platform-independent manner. A Web Service is a group of functions, packaged
together for use in a common framework throughout a network.

webFarm Vs webGardens
A web farm is a multi-server scenario. So we may have a server in each state of US.
If the load on one server is in excess then the other servers step in to bear the
brunt.
How they bear it is based on various models.
1. RoundRobin. (All servers share load equally)
2. NLB (economical)
3. HLB (expensive but can scale up to 8192 servers)
4. Hybrid (of 2 and 3).
5. CLB (Component load balancer).
A web garden is a multi-processor setup. i.e., a single server (not like the multi
server above).
How to implement webfarms in .Net:
Go to web.config and Here for mode = you have 4 options.
a) Say mode=inproc (non web farm but fast when you have very few customers).
b) Say mode=StateServer (for webfarm)
c) Say mode=SqlServer (for webfarm)
Whether to use option b or c depends on situation. StateServer is faster but
SqlServer is more reliable and used for mission critical applications.
How to use webgardens in .Net:
Go to web.config and Change the false to true. You have one more attribute that is
related to webgarden in the same tag called cpuMask.

What is the difference between a namespace and assembly name?

A namespace is a logical naming scheme for types in which a simple type name,
such as MyType, is preceded with a dot-separated hierarchical name. Such a
naming scheme is completely under control of the developer. For example, types
MyCompany.FileAccess.A and MyCompany.FileAccess.B might be logically expected
to have functionally related to file access. The .NET Framework uses a hierarchical
naming scheme for grouping types into logical categories of related functionality,
such as the ASP.NET application framework, or remoting functionality. Design tools
can make use of namespaces to make it easier for developers to browse and
reference types in their code. The concept of a namespace is not related to that of
an assembly. A single assembly may contain types whose hierarchical names have
different namespace roots, and a logical namespace root may span multiple
assemblies. In the .NET Framework, a namespace is a logical design-time naming
convenience, whereas an assembly establishes the name scope for types at run
time.

Whats a Windows process?

Its an application thats running and had been allocated memory.

Whats typical about a Windows process in regards to memory allocation?

Each process is allocated its own block of available RAM space, no process can
access another process code or data. If the process crashes, it dies alone without
taking the entire OS or a bunch of other applications down.

Explain what relationship is between a Process, Application Domain, and

Application?
Each process is allocated its own block of available RAM space, no process can
access another process code or data. If the process crashes, it dies alone without
taking the entire OS or a bunch of other applications down.
A process is an instance of a running application. An application is an executable
on the hard drive or network. There can be numerous processes launched of the
same application (5 copies of Word running), but 1 process can run just 1
application.

What are possible implementations of distributed applications in .NET?

.NET Remoting and ASP.NET Web Services. If we talk about the Framework Class
Library, noteworthy classes are in System.Runtime.Remoting and
System.Web.Services.

What are the consideration in deciding to use .NET Remoting or ASP.NET

Web Services?
Remoting is a more efficient communication exchange when you can control both
ends of the application involved in the communication process. Web Services
provide an open-protocol-based exchange of information. Web Services are best
when you need to communicate with an external organization or another
(non-.NET) technology.

Whats a proxy of the server object in .NET Remoting?

Its a fake copy of the server object that resides on the client side and behaves as if
it was the server. It handles the communication between real server object and the
client object. This process is also known as marshaling.

What are remotable objects in .NET Remoting?

Remotable objects are the objects that can be marshaled across the application
domains. You can marshal by value, where a deep copy of the object is created and
then passed to the receiver. You can also marshal by reference, where just a
reference to an existing object is passed.
What are channels in .NET Remoting?
Channels represent the objects that transfer the other serialized objects from one
application domain to another and from one computer to another, as well as one
process to another on the same box. A channel must exist before an object can be
transferred.

What security measures exist for .NET Remoting in

System.Runtime.Remoting?
None. Security should be taken care of at the application level. Cryptography and
other security techniques can be applied at application or server level.

What is a formatter?
A formatter is an object that is responsible for encoding and serializing data into
messages on one end, and deserializing and decoding messages into data on the
other end.

Choosing between HTTP and TCP for protocols and Binary and SOAP for
formatters, what are the trade-offs?
Binary over TCP is the most effiecient, SOAP over HTTP is the most interoperable.

Whats SingleCall activation mode used for?

If the server object is instantiated for responding to just one single request, the
request should be made in SingleCall mode.

Whats Singleton activation mode?

A single object is instantiated regardless of the number of clients accessing it.
Lifetime of this object is determined by lifetime lease.

How do you define the lease of the object?

By implementing ILease interface when writing the class code.

Can you configure a .NET Remoting object via XML file?

Yes, via machine.config and application level .config file (or web.config in ASP.NET).
Application-level XML settings take precedence over machine.config.

How can you automatically generate interface for the remotable object in
.NET with Microsoft tools?
Use the Soapsuds tool.

What is Delegation?
A delegate acts like a strongly type function pointer. Delegates can invoke the
methods that they reference without making explicit calls to those methods.
Delegate is an entity that is entrusted with the task of representation, assign or
passing on information. In code sense, it means a Delegate is entrusted with a
Method to report information back to it when a certain task (which the Method
expects) is accomplished outside the Method's class.
What is "Microsoft Intermediate Language" (MSIL)?
A .NET programming language (C#, VB.NET, J# etc.) does not compile into
executable code; instead it compiles into an intermediate code called Microsoft
Intermediate Language (MSIL). As a programmer one need not worry about the
syntax of MSIL - since our source code in automatically converted to MSIL. The
MSIL code is then send to the CLR (Common Language Runtime) that converts the
code to machine language, which is, then run on the host machine. MSIL is similar
to Java Byte code. MSIL is the CPU-independent instruction set into which .NET
Framework programs are compiled. It contains instructions for loading, storing,
initializing, and calling methods on objects. Combined with metadata and the
common type system, MSIL allows for true cross- language integration Prior to
execution, MSIL is converted to machine code. It is not interpreted.

Differences between Datagrid, Datalist and Repeater?

1. Datagrid has paging while Datalist doesnt.
2. Datalist has a property called repeat. Direction = vertical/horizontal. (This is of
great help in designing layouts). This is not there in Datagrid.
3. A repeater is used when more intimate control over html generation is required.
4. When only checkboxes/radiobuttons are repeatedly served then a checkboxlist or
radiobuttonlist are used as they involve fewer overheads than a Datagrid.
The Repeater repeats a chunk of HTML you write, it has the least functionality of
the three. DataList is the next step up from a Repeater; accept you have very little
control over the HTML that the control renders. DataList is the first of the three
controls that allow you Repeat-Columns horizontally or vertically. Finally, the
DataGrid is the motherload. However, instead of working on a row-by-row basis,
youre working on a column-by-column basis. DataGrid caters to sorting and has
basic paging for your disposal. Again you have little contro, over the HTML. NOTE:
DataList and DataGrid both render as HTML tables by default. Out of the 3
controls, I use the Repeater the most due to its flexibility w/ HTML. Creating a
Pagination scheme isn't that hard, so I rarely if ever use a DataGrid.
Occasionally I like using a DataList because it allows me to easily list out my
records in rows of three for instance.

I am constantly writing the drawing procedures with

System.Drawing.Graphics, but having to use the try and dispose blocks is
too time-consuming with Graphics objects. Can I automate this?
Yes, the code

System.Drawing.Graphics canvas = new System.Drawing.Graphics();

try
{
//some code
}
finally
canvas.Dispose();
is functionally equivalent to

using (System.Drawing.Graphics canvas = new System.Drawing.Graphics())

{
//some code
} //canvas.Dispose() gets called automatically

How do you trigger the Paint event in System.Drawing?

Invalidate the current form, the OS will take care of repainting. The Update method
forces the repaint.

With these events, why wouldnt Microsoft combine Invalidate and Paint, so
that you wouldnt have to tell it to repaint, and then to force it to repaint?
Painting is the slowest thing the OS does, so usually telling it to repaint, but not
forcing it allows for the process to take place in the background.

How can you assign an RGB color to a System.Drawing.Color object?

Call the static method FromArgb of this class and pass it the RGB values.

What class does Icon derive from? Isnt it just a Bitmap with a wrapper
name around it?
No, Icon lives in System.Drawing namespace. Its not a Bitmap by default, and is
treated separately by .NET. However, you can use ToBitmap method to get a valid
Bitmap object from a valid Icon object.

Before in my VB app I would just load the icons from DLL. How can I load
the icons provided by .NET dynamically?
By using System.Drawing.SystemIcons class, for example
System.Drawing.SystemIcons.Warning produces an Icon with a warning sign in it.

When displaying fonts, whats the difference between pixels, points and
ems?
A pixel is the lowest-resolution dot the computer monitor supports. Its size depends
on users settings and monitor size. A point is always 1/72 of an inch. An em is the
number of pixels that it takes to display the letter M.

What is the difference between VB 6 and VB.NET?

Answer1
VB

1,Object-based Language
2,Doesnot support Threading
3,Not powerful Exception handling mechanism
4,Doesnot having support for the console based applications
5,Cannot use more than one version of com objects in vb application called DLL
error
6,Doesnot support for the Disconnected data source.
VB.Net

1,Object-oriented Language
2,supports Threading
3,powerful Exception handling mechanism
4,having support for the console based applications
5,More than one version of dll is supported
6,supports the Disconnected data source by using Dataset class

Answer2
VB:
1. Object-based language
2. Does not support inheritance
3. ADO.Net does not give support for disconnected data architecture
4. No interoperability function
5. No support for threading

VB.Net
1. Object-Oriented Programming lanugage
2. ADO.Net gives support for disconnected data architecture
3. It provides interoperability
4. It uses managed code
5. supports threading
6. provides access to third-party controls like COM, DCOM

Answer2
1.The concept of the complete flow of execution of a program from start to finish:
Visual Basic hides this aspect of programs from you, so that the only elements of a
Visual Basic program you code are the event handlers and any methods in class
modules. C# makes the complete program available to you as source code. The
reason for this has to do with the fact that C# can be seen, philosophically, as next-
generation C++. The roots of C++ go back to the 1960s and predate windowed user
interfaces and sophisticated operating systems. C++ evolved as a low-level, closeto-
the-machine, all-purpose language. To write GUI applications with C++ meant that
you had to invoke the system calls to create and interact with the windowed forms.
C# has been designed to build on this tradition while simplifying and modernizing
C++, to combine the low-level performance benefits of C++ with the ease of coding
in Visual Basic. Visual Basic, on the other hand, is designed specifically for rapid
application development of Windows GUI applications. For this reason, in Visual
Basic all the GUI boilerplate code is hidden, and all the Visual Basic programmer
implements are the event handlers. In C# on the other hand, this boilerplate code is
exposed as part of your source code.
2. Classes and inheritance: C# is a genuine object-oriented language, unlike Visual
Basic, requiring all code to be a part of a class. It also includes extensive support
for implementation inheritance. Indeed, most well-designed C# programs will be
very much designed around this form of inheritance, which is completely absent in
Visual Basic.

What are the authentication methods in .NET?

There are 4 types of authentications.
1.WINDOWS AUTHENTICATION
2.FORMS AUTHENTICATION
3.PASSPORT AUTHENTICATION
4.NONE/CUSTOM AUTHENTICATION

The authentication option for the ASP.NET application is specified by using the tag
in the Web.config file, as shown below:
other authentication options
1. WINDOWS AUTHENTICATION Schemes
I. Integrated Windows authentication
II. Basic and basic with SSL authentication
III. Digest authentication
IV. Client Certificate authentication

2. FORMS AUTHENTICATION
You, as a Web application developer, are supposed to develop the Web page and
authenticate the user by checking the provided user ID and password against some
user database

3.PASSPORT AUTHENTICATION
A centralized service provided by Microsoft, offers a single logon point for clients.
Unauthenticated users are redirected to the Passport site

4 NONE/CUSTOM AUTHENTICATION:
If we dont want ASP.NET to perform any authentication, we can set the
authentication mode to none. The reason behind this decision could be: We dont
want to authenticate our users, and our Web site is open for all to use. We want to
provide our own custom authentication

What is Serialization in .NET?

Anwer1
The serialization is the process of converting the objects into stream of bytes.
they or used for transport the objects(via remoting) and persist objects(via files and
databases)

Answer2
When developing smaller applications that do not have a database (or other formal
storage mechanism) or data that doesnt need to be stored in a database (such as
the state of a web application), you often still would like to save the data for later
retrieval. There are many ways to do this, but many of them are subject to a lot of
extra code (work) and extra time spent debugging. With .NET, there is now an easy
way to add this functionality to your code with only a few lines of easily tested code.
This easy way is called serialization.

Serialization is the process of storing an object, including all of its public and
private fields, to a stream. Deserialization is the opposite restoring an objects field
values from a stream. The stream is generally in the form of a FileStream, but does
not have to be. It could be a memory stream or any other object that is of type
IO.Stream. The format can be anything from XML to binary to SOAP.

Whats the use of System.Diagnostics.Process class?

By using System.Diagnostics.Process class, we can provide access to the files which
are presented in the local and remote system.
Example: System.Diagnostics.Process(c:\mlaks\example.txt) local file
System.Diagnostics.Process(http://www.mlaks.com\example.txt) remote file

What are the authentication methods in .NET?

Abstract class: This class has abstract methods (no body). This class cannot be
instantiated. One needs to provide the implementation of the methods by overriding
them in the derived class. No Multiple Inheritance.
Interfaces: Interface class contains all abstract methods which are public by
default. All of these methods must be implemented in the derived class. One can
inherit from from more than one interface thus provides for Multiple Inheritance.

re-clarification of object based:

VB6 DOES support polymorphism and interface inheritance. It also supports the
Implements keyword. What is not supported in vb6 is implementation inheritance.

Also, from above, vb6 DOES provides access to third-party controls like COM,
DCOM That is not anything new in .NET.

How to achieve Polymorphism in VB.Net?

We can achieve polymarphism in .Net i.e Compile time polymarphism and Runtime
polymarphism. Compiletime Polymarphism achieved by method overloading.
Runtime polymarphism achieved by Early Binding or Late Binding. Provide the
function pointer to the object at compile time called as Early Binding.
provide the function pointer to the object at runtime called as Late Binding
class emp having the method display()
class dept having the method display()

create objects as in the main function

// Early binding
dim obj as new emp
dim ob as new dept

obj.display()-to call the display method of emp class

ob.display-to call the display method of the dept class
// Late binding

create object in the main class as

object obj
obj=new emp
obj.display()-to call the display of emp class
obj=new dept
obj.display()-to call the display of dept class

Difference between Class And Interface

Class is logical representation of object. It is collection of data and related sub
procedures with defination.
Interface is also a class containg methods which is not having any definations.
Class does not support multiple inheritance. But interface can support.

What doesu mean by .NET framework?

The .NET Framework is an environment for building, deploying, and running Web
Services and other applications. It consists of three main parts: the Common
Language Runtime, the Framework classes, and ASP.NET

What is assembly?
It is a single deployable unit that contains all the information abt the
implimentation of classes , stuctures and interfaces

What is namespaces?
It is a logical group of related classes and interfaces and that can be used byany
language targeting the .net framework.

.NET framework programming interview questions

.NET framework overview
1. Has own class libraries. System is the main namespace and all other
namespaces are subsets of this.
2. It has CLR(Common language runtime, Common type system, common language
specification)
3. All the types are part of CTS and Object is the base class for all the types.
4. If a language said to be .net complaint, it should be compatible with CTS and
CLS.
5. All the code compiled into an intermediate language by the .Net language
compiler, which is nothing but an assembly.
6. During runtime, JIT of CLR picks the IL code and converts into PE machine code
and from there it processes the request.
7. CTS, CLS, CLR
8. Garbage Collection
9. Dispose, finalize, suppress finalize, Idispose interface
10. Assemblies, Namespace: Assembly is a collection of class/namespaces. An
assembly contains Manifest, Metadata, Resource files, IL code
11. Com interoperability, adding references, web references
12. Database connectivity and providers

Application Domain
1. Class modifiers: public, private, friend, protected, protected friend, mustinherit,
NotInheritable
2. Method modifiers: public, private
3. Overridable
4. Shadows
5. Overloadable
6. Overrides
7. Overloads
8. Set/Get Property
9. IIF
10. Inheritance
11. Polymorphism
12. Delegates
13. Events
14. Reflection
15. Boxing
16. UnBoxing

ASP.Net
1. Web Controls: Data grid (templates, sorting, paging, bound columns, unbound
columns, data binding), Data list, repeater controls
2. HTML Controls
3. Code behind pages, system.web.ui.page base class
4. Web.config: App settings, identity (impersonate), authentication (windows, forms,
anonymous, passport), authorization
5. Databind.eval
6. Trace, Debug
7. Output cache
8. Session management
9. Application, Session
10. Global.asax httpapplication
11. User controls, custom controls, custom rendered controls (postback event,
postdatachanged event) usercontrol is the base class
12. Directives

ADO.Net
1. Command object (ExecuteNonquery, ExecuteReader, ExecuteXMLReader,
ExecuteScalar)
2. DataAdapter object (Fill)
3. Dataset (collection of tables)
4. CommandBuiler object
5. Transaction Object
6. Isolation levels

What is the base class of .NET?

Base class provides a base set of methods that all derived classes can use

Explain assemblies.
Answer 1:
Assemblies are similar to dll files. Both has the reusable pieces of code in the form
of classes/ functions. Dll needs to be registered but assemblies have its own
metadata.

Answer 2:
Assembly is a single deployable unit that contains information about the
implementation of classes, structures and interfaces. it also stores the information
about itself called metadata and includes name and verison of the assembly,
security information, information about the dependencies and the list of files that
constitute the assembly.
Assembly also contains namespaces. In the .Net Framework, applications are
deployed in the form of assemblies.

Answer 3:
An assembly is a single deployable unit that contains all the information about the
implementation of :
- classes
- structures and
- interfaces

An assembly stores all the information about itself. This information is called
METADATA and include the name and the verison number of the assembly,
security information, information about the dependencies and a lost of files that
constitute the assembly.
All the application developed using the .NET framework are made up of assemblies.
Namespaces are also stored in assemblies

Answer 4:
In the Microsoft .NET framework an assembly is a partially compiled code library
for use in deployment, versioning and security. In the Microsoft Windows
implementation of .NET, an assembly is a PE (portable executable) file. There are
two types, process assemblies (EXE) and library assemblies (DLL). A process
assembly represents a process which will use classes defined in library assemblies.
In version 1.1 of the CLR classes can only be exported from library assemblies; in
version 2.0 this restriction is relaxed. The compiler will have a switch to determine if
the assembly is a process or library and will set a flag in the PE file. .NET does not
use the extension to determine if the file is a process or library. This means that a
library may have either .dll or .exe as its extension.

The code in an assembly is partially compiled into CIL, which is then fully compiled
into machine language at runtime by the CLR.

An assembly can consist of one or more files. Code files are called modules. An
assembly can contain more than one code module and since it is possible to use
different languages to create code modules this means that it is technically possible
to use several different languages to create an assembly. In practice this rarely
happens, principally because Visual Studio only allows developers to create
assemblies that consist of a single code module.

Name some of the languages .NET support?

Some of the languages that are supported by .NET
1. Visual Basic.NET
2. Visual C#
3. Visual C++

ADO.NET features? Benefits? Drawbacks?

Answer 1:
1. Data will be retrieved through Datasets
2. Scalability

Answer 2:
1. Disconnected Data Architecture
2. Data cached in Datasets
3. Data transfer in XML format
4. Interaction with the database is done through data commands

How many types of exception handlers are there in .NET?

Answer 1:
From
MSDN>gt; How the Runtime Manages Exceptions
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-
us/cpguide/html/cpconexceptionsoverview.asp
The exception information table represents four types of exception handlers for
protected blocks:
A finally handler that executes whenever the block exits, whether that occurs by
normal control flow or by an unhandled exception.
A fault handler that must execute if an exception occurs, but does not execute on
completion of normal control flow.
A type-filtered handler that handles any exception of a specified class or any of its
derived classes.
A user-filtered handler that runs user-specified code to determine whether the
exception should be handled by the associated handler or should be passed to the
next protected block.

Answer 2:
1. Unstructured Exception Handling
2. Structured Exception Handling

Difference between Panel and GroupBox classes?

Answer 1:
Panel and Group box both can used as container for other controls like radio
buttons and check box.
the difference in panel and group box are Panel
1) In case of panel captions cannot be displayed
2) Can have scroll bars.

Group box
1) Captions can be displayed.
2) Cannot have a scroll bar

Answer 2:
Panel is scrollable. In panel you cant set caption like Group box.

What is the base class of Button control?

Listing from visual studio .net > Button Class
System.Object
System.MarshalByRefObject
System.ComponentModel.Component
System.Windows.Forms.Control
System.Windows.Forms.ButtonBase
System.Windows.Forms.Button

What is Response object? How is it related to ASPs Response object?

Response object allows the server to communicate with the client(browser). It is
useful for displaying information to the user (or) redirecting the client.
Eg: Response.Write(Hello World)

hat is IIS? Have you used it?

IIS - Internet Information Server
IIS is used to access the ASP.Net web applications
Yes, I used in ASP.NET web applications.
Main differences between ASP and ASP.NET.
Answer 1:
1. ASP: Code is Interpreted
ASP.NET: Code is Compiled

2. ASP: Business Logic and Presentation Logic are in a single file

ASP.NET: Business Logic and Presentation Logic are in separate files (.cs or .vb) and
(.aspx) respectively.
3. ASP: No Web Server Controls
ASP.NET: Web Server Controls supported by strong .NET Framework
4. ASP: No RAD in Classic ASP
ASP.NET: Supports RAD

Answer 2:
1.Asp is interpreted
Asp.net is compiled which is faster than asp.
2 Asp.net maintains its own CLR and is managed as it runs by CLR
Where as asp is unmanaged
3 We can mainatin sessions in state server and sql server which is Outproc,
where in asp sessions will be last if we restart webserver or make changes.
4 In asp.net we can configure each application using web.config file which is
availble in application itself and we have machine.config wherer we can configure all
applications.
In asp we cannot configure single aplication
5 Asp.net we have autopostback event which is not in asp
6 In asp.net we have global.asax where can hadle some global things which is not in
asp.
7 We have well built GUI to work in asp.net
8 We have ado.net and as well as disconnected architecture in asp.net
9 We have Xcopy deployment in asp.net
10. We can work with any language as code behind technique in asp.net that
supports .net frame work

Answer 3:
a) asp.net is compiled but ASP is a interpretor or script only.
b) asp.net is supported more control then the asp.
c) asp.net is more supported even control then the asp.
d) In asp.net if update any component then no need to shutdown the computer but
in asp if loaded any component then need tobe shutdown the computer.
d) So lastly an asp.net is faster then asp .

What are the advantages and drawbacks of using ADO.NET?

Pros
====
ADO.NET is rich with plenty of features that are bound to impress even the most
skeptical of programmers. If this werent the case, Microsoft wouldnt even be able
to get anyone to use the Beta. What weve done here is come up with a short list of
some of the more outstanding benefits to using the ADO.NET architecture and the
System.Data namespace.

* Performance there is no doubt that ADO.NET is extremely fast. The actual

figures vary depending on who performed the test and which benchmark was being
used, but ADO.NET performs much, much faster at the same tasks than its
predecessor, ADO. Some of the reasons why ADO.NET is faster than ADO are
discussed in the ADO versus ADO.NET section later in this chapter.

* Optimized SQL Provider in addition to performing well under general

circumstances, ADO.NET includes a SQL Server Data Provider that is highly
optimized for interaction with SQL Server. It uses SQL Servers own TDS (Tabular
Data Stream) format for exchanging information. Without question, your SQL
Server 7 and above data access operations will run blazingly fast utilizing this
optimized Data Provider.

* XML Support (and Reliance) everything you do in ADO.NET at some point will
boil down to the use of XML. In fact, many of the classes in ADO.NET, such as the
DataSet, are so intertwined with XML that they simply cannot exist or function
without utilizing the technology. Youll see later when we compare and contrast the
old and the new why the reliance on XML for internal storage provides many,
many advantages, both to the framework and to the programmer utilizing the class
library.

* Disconnected Operation Model the core ADO.NET class, the DataSet, operates in
an entirely disconnected fashion. This may be new to some programmers, but it is a
remarkably efficient and scalable architecture. Because the disconnected model
allows for the DataSet class to be unaware of the origin of its data, an unlimited
number of supported data sources can be plugged into code without any hassle in
the future.

* Rich Object Model the entire ADO.NET architecture is built on a hierarchy of

class inheritance and interface implementation. Once you start looking for things
you need within this namespace, youll find that the logical inheritance of features
and base class support makes the entire system extremely easy to use, and very
customizable to suit your own needs. It is just another example of how everything
in the .NET framework is pushing toward a trend of strong application design and
strong OOP implementations.

Cons
====
Hard as it may be to believe, there are a couple of drawbacks or disadvantages to
using the ADO.NET architecture. Im sure others can find many more faults than
we list here, but we decided to stick with a short list of some of the more obvious
and important shortcomings of the technology.
* Managed-Only Access for a few obvious reasons, and some far more technical,
you cannot utilize the ADO.NET architecture from anything but managed code. This
means that there is no COM interoperability allowed for ADO.NET. Therefore, in
order to take advantage of the advanced SQL Server Data Provider and any other
feature like DataSets, XML internal data storage, etc, your code must be running
under the CLR.

* Only Three Managed Data Providers (so far) unfortunately, if you need to access
any data that requires a driver that cannot be used through either an OLEDB
provider or the SQL Server Data Provider, then you may be out of luck. However,
the good news is that the OLEDB provider for ODBC is available for download from
Microsoft. At that point the down-side becomes one of performance, in which you
are invoking multiple layers of abstraction as well as crossing the COM InterOp gap,
incurring some initial overhead as well.

* Learning Curve despite the misleading name, ADO.NET is not simply a new
version of ADO, nor should it even be considered a direct successor. ADO.NET
should be thought of more as the data access class library for use with the .NET
framework. The difficulty in learning to use ADO.NET to its fullest is that a lot of it
does seem familiar. It is this that causes some common pitfalls. Programmers need
to learn that even though some syntax may appear the same, there is actually a
considerable amount of difference in the internal workings of many classes. For
example (this will be discussed in far more detail later), an ADO.NET DataSet is
nothing at all like a disconnected ADO RecordSet. Some may consider a learning
curve a drawback, but I consider learning curves more like scheduling issues.
Theres a learning curve in learning anything new; its just up to you to schedule
that curve into your time so that you can learn the new technology at a pace that
fits your schedule.

Why The JavaScript Validation Not Run on the Asp.Net Button But Run
SuccessFully On The HTML Button
The Asp.Net Button Is post backed on the server & not yet Submit & when It goes to
the server its states is lost So if we r using javascript in our application so we
always use the Input Button in the asp Button

what is the difference between user control an custom control?

advantages/disadvantages?
Web user controls Vs Web custom controls
Easier to create Vs Harder to create
Limited support for consumers who use a visual design tool Vs Full visual design
tool support for consumers
A separate copy of the control is required in each application Vs Only a single copy
of the control is required, in the global assembly cache
Cannot be added to the Toolbox in Visual Studio Vs Can be added to the Toolbox in
Visual Studio
Good for static layout Vs Good for dynamic layout

Whats the difference between Response.Write()

andResponse.Output.Write()?
Response.Output.Write() allows you to write formatted output

What is the use of ErrorProvider Control?

The ErrorProvider control is used to indicate invalid data on a data entry form.
Using this control, you can attach error messages that display next to the control
when the data is invalid, as seen in the following image. A red circle with an
exclamation point blinks, and when the user mouses over the icon, the error
message is displayed as a tooltip.

What is CLR?
Answer 1:
CLR(Common Language Runtime) is the main resource of .Net Framework. it is
collection of services like garbage collector, exception handler, jit compilers etc. with
the CLR cross language integration is possible.

Answer 2:
The .NET Framework provides a runtime environment which runs the code and
provides services that make the development process easier. This runtime
environment in .NET Framework is known as Common Language Runtime (CLR).
The CLR sits at the very heart of managed code. Common Language Runtime is the
generalized multi-language, reflective execution engine on which code originally
written in various languages runs. At a higher level, CLR is simply an engine that
takes in Intermediate Language (IL) instructions, translates them into machine
instructions, and executes them. Although the common language runtime provides
many standard runtime services, managed code is never interpreted. A feature
called just-in-time (JIT) compiling enables all managed code to run in the native
machine language of the system on which it is executing. The CLR shares much in
common with a traditional operating system.

Quote:
Managed code is the term used for any code that is running on .NET Framework.

The CLR provides the infrastructure that enables managed code to execute as well
provides variety of services during execution. When a method, for which IL has
been generated, is called for the first time the CLR compiles the IL into native code
that is specific to the processor the Environment it is running on (This process is
known as Just in Time Compilation or JIT). If the same method is called next time,
the existing JIT compiled code is reused. During execution managed code receives
variety of services from the runtime environment.

Quote:
When compiling to managed code, the compiler translates your source code into
Microsoft intermediate language (MSIL), which is a CPU-independent set of
instructions that can be efficiently converted to native code. Intermediate Language
is a binary assembly language that is compiled at runtime down to whatever
machine language is appropriate for the host CPU. This runtime compilation is
called Just-In-Time Compiling or JIT-compiling.

Advantages of Managed Execution Environments

In unmanaged environments the compiler and linker directly compile the source
code in to native instructions that are targeted at a specific processor. The
disadvantage of this process is that each time you want to run your executable on a
different platform you will have to re-compile the code using a compiler and linker
that will compile the code that is targeted at the specific hardware. This means that
each time you want your application to run on a different platform, you will have to
ship the compiled instructions again and again. As this leads to compiling and
maintaining multiple versions of the same application, the companies try to create
a more generalized compiled version in order to target most of the environments.
This process is known as the Lowest Common Denominator approach. This leads to
a more generalized program which is not optimized properly and does not take
advantages of the underlying hardware infrastructure (processor, cache, etc).
Because the CLR supplies one or more Just in Time Compiler for each computer
architecture it supports, the same set of MSIL can be JIT-compiled and run on any
supported architecture. This

CLR provides the following benefits for developers:

Vastly simplified development.
Seamless integration of code written in various languages.
Evidence-based security with code identity.
Assembly-based deployment that eliminates DLL Hell.
Side-by-side versioning of reusable components.
Code reuse through implementation inheritance.
Automatic object lifetime management.
Code access security.
Cross Language Integration.
Self describing objects.

The CLR automatically handles object layout and manages references to objects,
releasing them when they are no longer being used. This automatic memory
management resolves the two most common application errors, memory leaks and
invalid memory references. This process is known as Garbage Collection. The CLR
also manages thread execution, code execution, code safety verification,
compilation, and other system services.

The CLR is designed for the software of the future, and it also supports software of
today and yesterday. Interoperability between managed and unmanaged code
provided by CLR helps developers continue to use necessary COM components and
DLLs.

What is Delegate and what is it used for ?

Delegate is kinda like a pointer to a function in C++ or like an event handler in Java

You can use it to multicast which means running multiple functions in different
instances of object already created.
This is useful when you want your objects to register to an event raised by another
object.
The way it works is the object you are registered to listen to recieves the delegate of
the function it is supposed to run in your object, the delegate is then run from it. (if
you switch the word delegate for pointer, this would be much simpler)

How is meant by DLL ?

A DLL (Dynamic Link Library) is a file that can be loaded and executed by programs
dynamically. Basically its an external code repository for programs. Since usually
several different programs reuse the same DLL instead of having that code in their
own file, this dramatically reduces required storage space. A synonym for a DLL
would be library.

Which DLL translate XML to SQL in IIS?

Sqlisapi.dll

Can anyone tell me about Secure Socket Layer? How to make use of the
technology?
Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) and Transport Layer Security (TLS), its successor, are
cryptographic protocols which provide secure communications on the Internet.
There are slight differences between SSL 3.0 and TLS 1.0, but the protocol remains
substantially the same. The term SSL as used here applies to both protocols
unless clarified by context.

What is the Differnce Between Response.write & response.output.Write

In ASP.NET the Response object is of type HttpResponse and when you say
Response.Write youre really saying (basically) HttpContext.Current.Response.Write
and calling one of the many overloaded Write methods of HttpResponse.
Response.Write then calls .Write() on its internal TextWriter object:
public void Write(object obj){ this._writer.Write(obj);}
HttpResponse also has a Property called Output that is of type, yes, TextWriter, so:
public TextWriter get_Output(){ return this._writer; }
Which means you can to the Response whatever a TextWriter will let you. Now,
TextWriters support a Write() method ala String.Format, so you can do this:
Response.Output.Write(Scott is {0} at {1:d}, cool,DateTime.Now);
But internally, of course, this this is happening:
public virtual void Write(string format, params object[] arg)
{
this.Write(string.Format(format, arg));
}

Which dll is required to translate XML to SQL in IIS ?

Microsoft.data.sqlxml.dll

What is an interface and what is an abstract class? Please, expand by

examples of using both. Explain why.
Answers1:
In a interface class, all methods are abstract without implementation where as in
an abstract class some methods we can define concrete. In interface, no
accessibility modifiers are allowed. An abstract class may have accessibility
modifiers. Interface and abstract class are basically a set of rules which u have to
follow in case u r using them(inheriting them).

Answers2:
Abstract classes are closely related to interfaces. They are classes that cannot be
instantiated, and are frequently either partially implemented, or not at all
implemented. One key difference between abstract classes and interfaces is that a
class may implement an unlimited number of interfaces, but may inherit from only
one abstract (or any other kind of) class. A class that is derived from an abstract
class may still implement interfaces. Abstract classes are useful when creating
components because they allow you specify an invariant level of functionality in
some methods, but leave the implementation of other methods until a specific
implementation of that class is needed. They also version well, because if additional
functionality is needed in derived classes, it can be added to the base class without
breaking code.

Answers3:
Abstract Classes
An abstract class is the one that is not used to create objects. An abstract class is
designed to act as a base class (to be inherited by other classes). Abstract class is a
design concept in program development and provides a base upon which other
classes are built. Abstract classes are similar to interfaces. After declaring an
abstract class, it cannot be instantiated on its own, it must be inherited. Like
interfaces, abstract classes can specify members that must be implemented in
inheriting classes. Unlike interfaces, a class can inherit only one abstract class.
Abstract classes can only specify members that should be implemented by all
inheriting classes.

Answers4:
An interface looks like a class, but has no implementation. Theyre great for putting
together plug-n-play like architectures where components can be interchanged at
will. Think Firefox Plug-in extension implementation. If you need to change your
design, make it an interface. However, you may have abstract classes that provide
some default behavior. Abstract classes are excellent candidates inside of
application frameworks.

Answers5:
One additional key difference between interfaces and abstract classes (possibly the
most important one) is that multiple interfaces can be implemented by a class, but
only one abstract class can be inherited by any single class.
Some background on this: C++ supports multiple inheritance, but C# does not.
Multiple inheritance in C++ has always be controversial, because the resolution of
multiple inherited implementations of the same method from different base classes
is hard to control and anticipate. C# decided to avoid this problem by allowing a
class to implement multiple interfaces, which do not contain method
implementations, but restricting a class to have at most a single parent class.
Although this can result in redundant implementations of the same method when
different classes implement the same interface, it is still an excellent compromise.
Another difference between interfaces and abstract classes is that an interface can
be implemented by an abstract class, but no class, abstract or otherwise, can be
inherited by an interface.

Answers6:
What is an Abstract class?
An abstract class is a special kind of class that cannot be instantiated. So the
question is why we need a class that cannot be instantiated? An abstract class is
only to be sub-classed (inherited from). In other words, it only allows other classes
to inherit from it but cannot be instantiated. The advantage is that it enforces
certain hierarchies for all the subclasses. In simple words, it is a kind of contract
that forces all the subclasses to carry on the same hierarchies or standards.
What is an Interface?
An interface is not a class. It is an entity that is defined by the word Interface. An
interface has no implementation; it only has the signature or in other words, just
the definition of the methods without the body. As one of the similarities to Abstract
class, it is a contract that is used to define hierarchies for all subclasses or it
defines specific set of methods and their arguments. The main difference between
them is that a class can implement more than one interface but can only inherit
from one abstract class. Since C# doesnt support multiple inheritance, interfaces
are used to implement multiple inheritance.

What is serialization, how it works in .NET?

Serialization is when you persist the state of an object to a storage medium so an
exact copy can be re-created at a later stage.
Serialization is used to save session state in ASP.NET.
Serialization is to copy objects to the Clipboard in Windows Forms
Serialization is used by remoting to pass objects by value from one application
domain to another

What should one do to make class serializable?

Answers1:
To make a class serializable is to mark it with the Serializable attribute as follows.
[Serializable]
public class MyObject {
public int n1 = 0;
public int n2 = 0;
public String str = null;
}

What exactly is being serialized when you perform serialization?

The objects state (values)

How does output caching work in ASP.NET?

Output caching is a powerful technique that increases request/response
throughput by caching the content generated from dynamic pages. Output caching
is enabled by default, but output from any given response is not cached unless
explicit action is taken to make the response cacheable.
To make a response eligible for output caching, it must have a valid
expiration/validation policy and public cache visibility. This can be done using
either the low-level OutputCache API or the high-level @ OutputCache directive.
When output caching is enabled, an output cache entry is created on the first GET
request to the page. Subsequent GET or HEAD requests are served from the output
cache entry until the cached request expires.
The output cache also supports variations of cached GET or POST name/value
pairs.
The output cache respects the expiration and validation policies for pages. If a page
is in the output cache and has been marked with an expiration policy that indicates
that the page expires 60 minutes from the time it is cached, the page is removed
from the output cache after 60 minutes. If another request is received after that
time, the page code is executed and the page can be cached again. This type of
expiration policy is called absolute expiration - a page is valid until a certain time.

What is connection pooling and how do you make your application use it?
Opening database connection is a time consuming operation.
Connection pooling increases the performance of the applications by reusing the
active database connections instead of create new connection for every request.
Connection pooling Behaviour is controlled by the connection string parameters.
Follwing the the 4 parameters that control most of the connection pooling
behaviour.
1. Connect Timeout
2. Max Pool Size
3. Min Pool Size
4. Pooling

What are different methods of session maintenance in ASP.NET?

3 types:
In-process storage.
Session State Service.
Microsoft SQL Server.

In-Process Storage
The default location for session state storage is in the ASP.NET process itself.

Session State Service

As an alternative to using in-process storage for session state, ASP.NET provides the
ASP.NET State Service. The State Service gives you an out-of-process alternative for
storing session state that is not tied quite so closely to ASP. Net's own process.

To use the State Service, you need to edit the sessionState element in your ASP.NET
applications web.config file:
Youll also need to start the ASP.NET State Service on the computer that you
specified in the stateConnectionString attribute. The .NET Framework installs this
service, but by default its set to manual startup. If youre going to depend on it for
storing session state, youll want to change that to automatic startup by using the
Services MMC plug-in in the Administrative Tools group.

If you make these changes, and then repeat the previous set of steps, youll see
slightly different behavior: session state persists even if you recycle the ASP.NET
process.

There are two main advantages to using the State Service. First, it is not running in
the same process as ASP.NET, so a crash of ASP.NET will not destroy session
information. Second, the stateConnectionString thats used to locate the State
Service includes the TCP/IP address of the service, which need not be running on
the same computer as ASP.NET. This allows you to share state information across a
web garden (multiple processors on the same computer) or even across a web farm
(multiple servers running the application). With the default in-process storage, you
cant share state information between multiple instances of your application.

The major disadvantage of using the State Service is that its an external process,
rather than part of ASP.NET. That means that reading and writing session state is
slower than it would be if you kept the state in-process. And, of course, its one
more process that you need to manage. As an example of the extra effort that this
can entail, there is a bug in the initial release of the State Service that allows a
determined attacker to crash the ASP.NET process remotely. If youre using the
State Service to store session state, you should install the patch from Microsoft
Security Bulletin MS02-66, or install SP2 for the .NET Framework.

Microsoft SQL Server

The final choice for storing state information is to save it in a Microsoft SQL Server
database. To use SQL Server for storing session state, you need to perform several
setup steps:
Run the InstallSqlState.sql script on the Microsoft SQL Server where you intend to
store session state. This script will create the necessary database and database
objects. The .NET Framework installs this script in the same folder as its compilers
and other toolsfor example, C:\WINNT\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v1.0.3705 on a
Windows 2000 computer with the 1.0 version of the Framework. Edit the
sessionState element in the web.config file for your ASP.NET application as follows:

Supply the server name, user name, and password for a SQL Server account that
has access to the session state database in the sqlConnectionString attribute.
Like the State Service, SQL Server lets you share session state among the
processors in a web garden or the servers in a web farm. But you also get the
additional benefit of persistent storage. Even if the computer hosting SQL Server
crashes and is restarted, the session state information will still be present in the
database, and will be available as soon as the database is running again. Thats
because SQL Server, being an industrial-strength database, is designed to log its
operations and protect your data at (almost) all costs. If youre willing to invest in
SQL Server clustering, you can keep the session state data available transparently
to ASP.NET even if the primary SQL Server computer crashes.

Like the State Service, SQL Server is slower than keeping session state in process.
You also need to pay additional licensing fees to use SQL Server for session state in
a production application. And, of course, you need to worry about SQL Server-
specific threats such as the Slammer worm.

What is Viewstate?
A server controls view state is the accumulation of all its property values. In order
to preserve these values across HTTP requests, ASP.NET server controls use this
property, which is an instance of the StateBag class, to store the property values.

Can any object be stored in a Viewstate?

An object that either is serializable or has a TypeConverter defined for it can be
persisted in ViewState

What should you do to store an object in a Viewstate?

Do serialization of convert the object to string

Explain how Viewstate is being formed and how its stored on client.
The type of ViewState is System.Web.UI.StateBag, which is a dictionary that stores
name/value pairs. ViewState is persisted to a string variable by the ASP.NET page
framework and sent to the client and back as a hidden variable. Upon postback, the
page framework parses the input string from the hidden variable and populates the
ViewState property of each control. If a control uses ViewState for property data
instead of a private field, that property automatically will be persisted across round
trips to the client. (If a property is not persisted in ViewState, it is good practice to
return its default value on postback.)
What do you know about ADO.NETs objects and methods?
ADO.NET provides consistent access to data sources such as Microsoft SQL Server,
as well as data sources exposed through OLE DB and XML.
Data-sharing consumer applications can use ADO.NET to connect to these different
data sources and retrieve, manipulate, and update data.
ADO.NET provides first-class support for the disconnected, n-tier programming
environment for which many new applications are written.

Explain DataSet.AcceptChanges and DataAdapter.Update methods.

DataAdapter.Update method Calls the respective INSERT, UPDATE, or DELETE
statements for each inserted, updated, or deleted row in the DataSet.
DataSet.AcceptChanges method Commits all the changes made to this row since
the last time AcceptChanges was called.

When we go for html server controls and when we go for web server
controls?
Server controls are a part of ASP.net. When a server control is used there will be an
extra overhead on the server to create the control at runtime and accordingly set
the values. HTML controls are static controls and are easy to use. They are
supported is ASP.net.
As a rule, if there is a corresponding HTML control available instead of the server
control, you should always go for the HTML control as it enhances the server
performance and ensures faster response. Server controls should be used when it is
found that the available HTML controls are not sufficient to achieve the task.

.Net and Asp .Net Interview Questions and Answers

How many languages .NET is supporting now?

When .NET was introduced it came with several languages. VB.NET, C#, COBOL
and Perl, etc. 44 languages are supported.

How is .NET able to support multiple languages?

A language should comply with the Common Language Runtime standard to
become a .NET language. In .NET, code is compiled to Microsoft Intermediate
Language (MSIL for short). This is called as Managed Code. This Managed code is
run in .NET environment. So after compilation to this IL the language is not a
barrier. A code can call or use a function written in another language.

How ASP .NET different from ASP?

Scripting is separated from the HTML, Code is compiled as a DLL, these DLLs can
be executed on the server.

What is smart navigation?

The cursor position is maintained when the page gets refreshed due to the server
side validation and the page gets refreshed.
What is view state?
The web is stateless. But in ASP.NET, the state of a page is maintained in the in the
page itself automatically. How? The values are encrypted and saved in hidden
controls. this is done automatically by the ASP.NET. This can be switched off / on
for a single control

How do you validate the controls in an ASP .NET page?

Using special validation controls that are meant for this. We have Range Validator,
Email Validator.

Can the validation be done in the server side? Or this can be done only in
the Client side?
Client side is done by default. Server side validation is also possible. We can switch
off the client side and server side can be done.

How to manage pagination in a page?

Using pagination option in DataGrid control. We have to set the number of records
for a page, then it takes care of pagination by itself.

What is ADO .NET and what is difference between ADO and ADO.NET?
ADO.NET is stateless mechanism. I can treat the ADO.Net as a separate in-memory
database where in I can use relationships between the tables and select insert and
updates to the database. I can update the actual database as a batch.

Explain the differences between Server-side and Client-side code?

Server side scripting means that all the script will be executed by the server and
interpreted as needed. ASP doesnt have some of the functionality like sockets,
uploading, etc. For these you have to make a custom components usually in VB or
VC++. Client side scripting means that the script will be executed immediately in
the browser such as form field validation, clock, email validation, etc. Client side
scripting is usually done in VBScript or JavaScript. Download time, browser
compatibility, and visible code - since JavaScript and VBScript code is included in
the HTML page, then anyone can see the code by viewing the page source. Also a
possible security hazards for the client computer.

What type of code (server or client) is found in a Code-Behind class?

C#

Should validation (did the user enter a real date) occur server-side or client-
side? Why?
Client-side validation because there is no need to request a server side date when
you could obtain a date from the client machine.
What does the "EnableViewState" property do? Why would I want it on or
off?
Enable ViewState turns on the automatic state management feature that enables
server controls to re-populate their values on a round trip without requiring you to
write any code. This feature is not free however, since the state of a control is
passed to and from the server in a hidden form field. You should be aware of when
ViewState is helping you and when it is not. For example, if you are binding a
control to data on every round trip (as in the datagrid example in tip #4), then you
do not need the control to maintain its view state, since you will wipe out any re-
populated data in any case. ViewState is enabled for all server controls by default.
To disable it, set the EnableViewState property of the control to false.

What is the difference between Server.Transfer and Response.Redirect?

Why would I choose one over the other? Server.Transfer() : client is shown as it is on
the requesting page only, but the all the content is of the requested page. Data can
be persist across the pages using Context.Item collection, which is one of the best
way to transfer data from one page to another keeping the page state alive.
Response.Dedirect() :client know the physical location (page name and query string
as well). Context.Items loses the persistence when navigate to destination page. In
earlier versions of IIS, if we wanted to send a user to a new Web page, the only
option we had was Response.Redirect. While this method does accomplish our goal,
it has several important drawbacks. The biggest problem is that this method causes
each page to be treated as a separate transaction. Besides making it difficult to
maintain your transactional integrity, Response.Redirect introduces some
additional headaches. First, it prevents good encapsulation of code. Second, you
lose access to all of the properties in the Request object. Sure, there are
workarounds, but theyre difficult. Finally, Response.Redirect necessitates a round
trip to the client, which, on high-volume sites, causes scalability problems. As you
might suspect, Server.Transfer fixes all of these problems. It does this by
performing the transfer on the server without requiring a roundtrip to the client.

Can you give an example of when it would be appropriate to use a web

service as opposed to a non-serviced .NET component?
When to Use Web Services:
* Communicating through a Firewall When building a distributed application with
100s/1000s of users spread over multiple locations, there is always the problem of
communicating between client and server because of firewalls and proxy servers.
Exposing your middle tier components as Web Services and invoking the directly
from a Windows UI is a very valid option.

* Application Integration When integrating applications written in various

languages and running on disparate systems. Or even applications running on the
same platform that have been written by separate vendors.

* Business-to-Business Integration This is an enabler for B2B integration which

allows one to expose vital business processes to authorized supplier and customers.
An example would be exposing electronic ordering and invoicing, allowing
customers to send you purchase orders and suppliers to send you invoices
electronically.

* Software Reuse This takes place at multiple levels. Code Reuse at the Source code
level or binary component-based reuse. The limiting factor here is that you can
reuse the code but not the data behind it. Webservice overcome this limitation. A
scenario could be when you are building an app that aggregates the functionality of
several other Applications. Each of these functions could be performed by
individual apps, but there is value in perhaps combining the multiple apps to
present a unified view in a Portal or Intranet.

* When not to use Web Services: Single machine Applications When the apps are
running on the same machine and need to communicate with each other use a
native API. You also have the options of using component technologies such as COM
or .NET Components as there is very little overhead.

* Homogeneous Applications on a LAN If you have Win32 or Winforms apps that

want to communicate to their server counterpart. It is much more efficient to use
DCOM in the case of Win32 apps and .NET Remoting in the case of .NET Apps.

Can you explain the difference between an ADO.NET Dataset and an ADO
Recordset?
In ADO, the in-memory representation of data is the RecordSet. In ADO.NET, it is
the dataset. There are important differences between them.

* A RecordSet looks like a single table. If a recordset is to contain data from

multiple database tables, it must use a JOIN query, which assembles the data from
the various database tables into a single result table. In contrast, a dataset is a
collection of one or more tables. The tables within a dataset are called data tables;
specifically, they are DataTable objects. If a dataset contains data from multiple
database tables, it will typically contain multiple DataTable objects. That is, each
DataTable object typically corresponds to a single database table or view. In this
way, a dataset can mimic the structure of the underlying database. A dataset
usually also contains relationships. A relationship within a dataset is analogous to
a foreign-key relationship in a database that is, it associates rows of the tables
with each other. For example, if a dataset contains a table about investors and
another table about each investors stock purchases, it could also contain a
relationship connecting each row of the investor table with the corresponding rows
of the purchase table. Because the dataset can hold multiple, separate tables and
maintain information about relationships between them, it can hold much richer
data structures than a recordset, including self-relating tables and tables with
many-to-many relationships.

* In ADO you scan sequentially through the rows of the recordset using the ADO
MoveNext method. In ADO.NET, rows are represented as collections, so you can
loop through a table as you would through any collection, or access particular rows
via ordinal or primary key index. DataRelation objects maintain information about
master and detail records and provide a method that allows you to get records
related to the one you are working with. For example, starting from the row of the
Investor table for "Nate Sun," you can navigate to the set of rows of the Purchase
table describing his purchases. A cursor is a database element that controls record
navigation, the ability to update data, and the visibility of changes made to the
database by other users. ADO.NET does not have an inherent cursor object, but
instead includes data classes that provide the functionality of a traditional cursor.
For example, the functionality of a forward-only, read-only cursor is available in the
ADO.NET DataReader object. For more information about cursor functionality, see
Data Access Technologies.

* Minimized Open Connections: In ADO.NET you open connections only long

enough to perform a database operation, such as a Select or Update. You can read
rows into a dataset and then work with them without staying connected to the data
source. In ADO the recordset can provide disconnected access, but ADO is designed
primarily for connected access. There is one significant difference between
disconnected processing in ADO and ADO.NET. In ADO you communicate with the
database by making calls to an OLE DB provider. In ADO.NET you communicate
with the database through a data adapter (an OleDbDataAdapter, SqlDataAdapter,
OdbcDataAdapter, or OracleDataAdapter object), which makes calls to an OLE DB
provider or the APIs provided by the underlying data source. The important
difference is that in ADO.NET the data adapter allows you to control how the
changes to the dataset are transmitted to the database by optimizing for
performance, performing data validation checks, or adding any other extra
processing. Data adapters, data connections, data commands, and data readers are
the components that make up a .NET Framework data provider. Microsoft and
third-party providers can make available other .NET Framework data providers that
can be integrated into Visual Studio.

* Sharing Data Between Applications. Transmitting an ADO.NET dataset between

applications is much easier than transmitting an ADO disconnected recordset. To
transmit an ADO disconnected recordset from one component to another, you use
COM marshalling. To transmit data in ADO.NET, you use a dataset, which can
transmit an XML stream.

* Richer data types.COM marshalling provides a limited set of data types those
defined by the COM standard. Because the transmission of datasets in ADO.NET is
based on an XML format, there is no restriction on data types. Thus, the
components sharing the dataset can use whatever rich set of data types they would
ordinarily use.

* Performance. Transmitting a large ADO recordset or a large ADO.NET dataset can

consume network resources; as the amount of data grows, the stress placed on the
network also rises. Both ADO and ADO.NET let you minimize which data is
transmitted. But ADO.NET offers another performance advantage, in that ADO.NET
does not require data-type conversions. ADO, which requires COM marshalling to
transmit records sets among components, does require that ADO data types be
converted to COM data types.

* Penetrating Firewalls.A firewall can interfere with two components trying to

transmit disconnected ADO recordsets. Remember, firewalls are typically configured
to allow HTML text to pass, but to prevent system-level requests (such as COM
marshalling) from passing.

Can you give an example of what might be best suited to place in the
Application_Start and Session_Start subroutines?
The Application_Start event is guaranteed to occur only once throughout the
lifetime of the application. Its a good place to initialize global variables. For
example, you might want to retrieve a list of products from a database table and
place the list in application state or the Cache object. SessionStateModule exposes
both Session_Start and Session_End events.

If Im developing an application that must accomodate multiple security levels

though secure login and my ASP.NET web appplication is spanned across three
web-servers (using round-robbin load balancing) what would be the best approach
to maintain login-in state for the users?

What are ASP.NET Web Forms? How is this technology different than what
is available though ASP?

Web Forms are the heart and soul of ASP.NET. Web Forms are the User Interface
(UI) elements that give your Web applications their look and feel. Web Forms are
similar to Windows Forms in that they provide properties, methods, and events for
the controls that are placed onto them. However, these UI elements render
themselves in the appropriate markup language required by the request, e.g. HTML.
If you use Microsoft Visual Studio .NET, you will also get the familiar drag-and-drop
interface used to create your UI for your Web application.

How does VB.NET/C# achieve polymorphism?

By using Abstract classes/functions.

Can you explain what inheritance is and an example of when you might use
it?
Inheritance is a fundamental feature of an object oriented system and it is simply
the ability to inherit data and functionality from a parent object. Rather than
developing new objects from scratch, new code can be based on the work of other
programmers, adding only new features that are needed.
How would you implement inheritance using VB.NET/C#?
When we set out to implement a class using inheritance, we must first start with an
existing class from which we will derive our new subclass. This existing class, or
base class, may be part of the .NET system class library framework, it may be part
of some other application or .NET assembly, or we may create it as part of our
existing application. Once we have a base class, we can then implement one or
more subclasses based on that base class. Each of our subclasses will
automatically have all of the methods, properties, and events of that base class ?
including the implementation behind each method, property, and event. Our
subclass can add new methods, properties, and events of its own - extending the
original interface with new functionality. Additionally, a subclass can replace the
methods and properties of the base class with its own new implementation -
effectively overriding the original behavior and replacing it with new behaviors.
Essentially inheritance is a way of merging functionality from an existing class into
our new subclass. Inheritance also defines rules for how these methods, properties,
and events can be merged.

What's an assembly?
Assemblies are the building blocks of .NET Framework applications; they form the
fundamental unit of deployment, version control, reuse, activation scoping, and
security permissions. An assembly is a collection of types and resources that are
built to work together and form a logical unit of functionality. An assembly provides
the common language runtime with the information it needs to be aware of type
implementations. To the runtime, a type does not exist outside the context of an
assembly.

Describe the difference between inline and code behind - which is best in a
loosely coupled solution?
ASP.NET supports two modes of page development: Page logic code that is written
inside <script runat=server> blocks within an .aspx file and dynamically compiled
the first time the page is requested on the server. Page logic code that is written
within an external class that is compiled prior to deployment on a server and linked
"behind" the .aspx file at run time.

Explain what a diffgram is, and a good use for one?

A DiffGram is an XML format that is used to identify current and original versions
of data elements. The DataSet uses the DiffGram format to load and persist its
contents, and to serialize its contents for transport across a network connection.
When a DataSet is written as a DiffGram, it populates the DiffGram with all the
necessary information to accurately recreate the contents, though not the schema,
of the DataSet, including column values from both the Original and Current row
versions, row error information, and row order.

Where would you use an iHTTPModule, and what are the limitations of
anyapproach you might take in implementing one?
One of ASP.NETs most useful features is the extensibility of the HTTP pipeline, the
path that data takes between client and server. You can use them to extend your
ASP.NET applications by adding pre- and post-processing to each HTTP request
coming into your application. For example, if you wanted custom authentication
facilities for your application, the best technique would be to intercept the request
when it comes in and process the request in a custom HTTP module.

In what order do the events of an ASPX page execute. As a developer is it

important to understand these events?
Every Page object (which your .aspx page is) has nine events, most of which you will
not have to worry about in your day to day dealings with ASP.NET. The three that
you will deal with the most are: Page_Init, Page_Load, Page_PreRender.

Which method do you invoke on the DataAdapter control to load your

generated dataset with data?
System.Data.Common.DataAdapter.Fill(System.Data.DataSet);
If my DataAdapter is sqlDataAdapter and my DataSet is dsUsers then it is called
this way:
sqlDataAdapter.Fill(dsUsers);

Which template must you provide, in order to display data in a Repeater

control?
ItemTemplate

How can you provide an alternating color scheme in a Repeater control?

AlternatingItemTemplate Like the ItemTemplate element, but rendered for every
other row (alternating items) in the Repeater control. You can specify a different
appearance for the AlternatingItemTemplate element by setting its style properties.

What property must you set, and what method must you call in your code, in
order to bind the data from some data source to the Repeater control?
You must set the DataMember property which Gets or sets the specific table in the
DataSource to bind to the control and the DataBind method to bind data from a
source to a server control. This method is commonly used after retrieving a data set
through a database query.

What base class do all Web Forms inherit from?

System.Web.UI.Page

What method do you use to explicitly kill a users session?

The Abandon method destroys all the objects stored in a Session object and
releases their resources.
If you do not call the Abandon method explicitly, the server destroys these objects
when the session times out.
Syntax: Session.Abandon

How do you turn off cookies for one page in your site?
Use the Cookie.Discard Property which Gets or sets the discard flag set by the
server. When true, this property instructs the client application not to save the
Cookie on the users hard disk when a session ends.

Which two properties are on every validation control?

ControlToValidate & ErrorMessage properties

How do you create a permanent cookie?

Setting the Expires property to MinValue means that the Cookie never expires.

Which method do you use to redirect the user to another page without
performing a round trip to the client?
Server.transfer()

.Net and Asp .Net Interview Questions and Answers

What is the transport protocol you use to call a Web service?

Answer1:
SOAP. Transport Protocols: It is essential for the acceptance of Web Services that
they are based on established Internet infrastructure. This in fact imposes the
usage of of the HTTP, SMTP and FTP protocols based on the TCP/IP family of
transports. Messaging Protocol: The format of messages exchanged between Web
Services clients and Web Services should be vendor neutral and should not carry
details about the technology used to implement the service. Also, the message
format should allow for extensions and different bindings to specific transport
protocols. SOAP and ebXML Transport are specifications which fulfill these
requirements. We expect that the W3C XML Protocol Working Group defines a
successor standard.

Answer2:
SOAP is not the transport protocol. SOAP is the data encapsulation protocol that is
used but the transport protocol is fairly unlimited. Generally HTTP is the most
common transport protocol used though you could conceivanly use things like
SMTP or any others. SOAP is not dependant on any single transport protocol or OS,
it is a syntactical and logical definition, not a transport protocol.

True or False: A Web service can only be written in .NET.?

False.

What does WSDL stand for?

Web Services Description Language

Where on the Internet would you look for Web services?

UDDI repositaries like uddi.microsoft.com, IBM UDDI node, UDDI Registries in
Google Directory, enthusiast sites like XMethods.net.
What tags do you need to add within the asp:datagrid tags to bind columns
manually?
Column tag and an ASP:databound tag.

How is a property designated as read-only?

In VB.NET:
Public ReadOnly Property PropertyName As ReturnType
Get Your Property Implementation goes in here
End Get
End Property

in C#
public returntype PropertyName
{
get{
//property implementation goes here
}
// Do not write the set implementation
}

Which control would you use if you needed to make sure the values in two
different controls matched?
Use the CompareValidator control to compare the values of 2 different controls.

True or False: To test a Web service you must create a windows application
or Web application to consume this service?
False.

How many classes can a single .NET DLL contain?

Unlimited.

Describe session handling in a webfarm, how does it work and what are the
limits?
Set the sessionState mode in the web.config file to StateServer.
StateServer mode uses an out-of-process Windows NT Server to store state
information.
It solves the session state loss problem in InProc mode.
Allows a webfarm to store session on a central server.
It provides a Single point of failure at the State Server.

Follow these simple steps:

- In a web farm, make sure you have the same in all your web servers.
- Also, make sure your objects are serializable.
- For session state to be maintained across different web servers in the web farm,
the Application Path of the website in the IIS Metabase should be identical in all the
web servers in the web farm.
What are the disadvantages of viewstate/what are the benefits?
Answer1:
Disadvantage of viewstate is that additional data is sent to the browser. The
benefits are that you do not have to manually manage refreshing the page fields
after a submit, (when re-displaying the same page).

Answer2:
Automatic view-state management is a feature of server controls that enables them
to repopulate their property values on a round trip (without you having to write any
code). This feature does impact performance, however, since a server controls view
state is passed to and from the server in a hidden form field. You should be aware
of when view state helps you and when it hinders your pages performance.

What tags do you need to add within the asp:datagrid tags to bind columns
manually?
Answer1:
Set AutoGenerateColumns Property to false on the datagrid tag

Answer2:
tag and either or tags (with appropriate attributes of course)

What is State Management in .Net and how many ways are there to
maintain a state in .Net? What is view state?
Web pages are recreated each time the page is posted to the server. In traditional
Web programming, this would ordinarily mean that all information associated with
the page and the controls on the page would be lost with each round trip.
To overcome this inherent limitation of traditional Web programming, the ASP.NET
page framework includes various options to help you preserve changes that is,
for managing state. The page framework includes a facility called view state that
automatically preserves property values of the page and all the controls on it
between round trips.
However, you will probably also have application-specific values that you want to
preserve. To do so, you can use one of the state management options.
Client-Based State Management Options:
View State
Hidden Form Fields
Cookies
Query Strings
Server-Based State Management Options
Application State
Session State
Database Support

What tag do you use to add a hyperlink column to the DataGrid?

Depends on whos definition of hyperlink your using. Manually a std html anchor
tag (a) will work or you can use the micro-magical tag
What is the standard you use to wrap up a call to a Web service?
Several possible answers depending on your interpretation of the quesiton, but I
think you were aiming for SOAP (with the caveat that this is MSs version of SOAP)

What is the difference between boxing and unboxing ?

Boxing allows us to convert value types to reference types. Basically, the runtime
creates a temporary reference-type box for the object on heap.
Eg:
int i=20;
object o=i;

Describe the difference between a Thread and a Process?

Answer1:
Thread - is used to execute more than one program at a time.
process - executes single program

Answer2:
A thread is a path of execution that run on CPU, a proccess is a collection of
threads that share the same virtual memory. A process have at least one thread of
execution, and a thread always run in a process context.

Answer3:
The operating system creates a process for the purpose of running a program. Each
process executes a single program. Processes own resources allocated by the
operating system. Resources include memory, file handles, sockets, device handles,
and windows. Processes do not share address spaces or file resources except
through explicit methods such as inheriting file handles or shared memory
segments, or mapping the same file in a shared way.
Threads allow a program to do multiple things concurrently. At least one thread
exists within each process. If multiple threads can exist within a process, then they
share the same memory and file resources.

Answer4:
Thread is a light weight process, which is initialized itself by a process. Light weigt
processes does not loads resources required by it itself, these are loaded by its
parent process which has generated it.

What is a Windows Service and how does its lifecycle differ from a
standard EXE?
Windows Service applications are long-running applications that are ideal for use in
server environments. The applications do not have a user interface or produce any
visual output; it is instead used by other programs or the system to perform
operations. Any user messages are typically written to the Windows Event Log.
Services can be automatically started when the computer is booted. This makes
services ideal for use on a server or whenever you need long-running functionality
that does not interfere with other users who are working on the same computer.
They do not require a logged in user in order to execute and can run under the
context of any user including the system. Windows Services are controlled through
the Service Control Manager where they can be stopped, paused, and started as
needed.

.Net and Asp .Net Interview Questions and Answers

What is the difference between an EXE and a DLL?

An EXE can run independently, whereas DLL will run within an EXE. DLL is an in-
process file and EXE is an out-process file

What is strong-typing versus weak-typing? Which is preferred? Why?

Strong type is checking the types of variables as soon as possible, usually at
compile time. While weak typing is delaying checking the types of the system as late
as possible, usually to run-time. Which is preferred depends on what you want. For
scripts & quick stuff youll usually want weak typing, because you want to write as
much less code as possible. In big programs, strong typing can reduce errors at
compile time.

What are PDBs? Where must they be located for debugging to work?
Answer1:
To debug precompiled components such as business objects and code-behind
modules, you need to generate debug symbols. To do this, compile the components
with the debug flags by using either Visual Studio .NET or a command line compiler
such as Csc.exe (for Microsoft Visual C# .NET) or Vbc.exe (for Microsoft Visual Basic
.NET).

Using Visual Studio .NET

1. Open the ASP.NET Web Application project in Visual Studio .NET.
2. Right-click the project in the Solution Explorer and click Properties.
3. In the Properties dialog box, click the Configuration Properties folder.
4. In the left pane, select Build.
5. Set Generate Debugging Information to true.
6. Close the Properties dialog box.
7. Right-click the project and click Build to compile the project and generate
symbols (.pdb files).

Answer2:
A program database (PDB) file holds debugging and project state information that
allows incremental linking of a Debug configuration of your program.
The linker creates project.PDB, which contains debug information for the projects
EXE file. The project.PDB contains full debug information, including function
prototypes, not just the type information found in VCx0.PDB. Both PDB files allow
incremental updates.
They should be located at bin\Debug directory

What is cyclomatic complexity and why is it important?

Cyclomatic complexity is a computer science metric (measurement) developed by
Thomas McCabe used to generally measure the complexity of a program. It directly
measures the number of linearly independent paths through a programs source
code.

The concept, although not the method, is somewhat similar to that of general text
complexity measured by the Flesch-Kincaid Readability Test.

Cyclomatic complexity is computed using a graph that describes the control flow of
the program. The nodes of the graph correspond to the commands of a program. A
directed edge connects two nodes, if the second command might be executed
immediately after the first command. By definition,

CC = E - N + P

where
CC = cyclomatic complexity
E = the number of edges of the graph
N = the number of nodes of the graph
P = the number of connected components.

What is FullTrust? Do GACed assemblies have FullTrust?

Your code is allowed to do anything in the framework, meaning that all (.Net)
permissions are granted. The GAC has FullTrust because its on the local HD, and
that has FullTrust by default, you can change that using caspol

What does this do? gacutil /l | find /i about

Answer1:
This command is used to install strong typed assembly in GAC

Answer2:
gacutil.exe is used to install strong typed assembly in GAC. gacutil.exe /l is used to
lists the contents of the global assembly cache. |(pipe) symbol is used to filter the
output with another command. find /i about is to find the text about on gacutil
output. If any lines contains the text about then that line will get displayed on
console window.

Contrast OOP and SOA. What are tenets of each

Service Oriented Architecture. In SOA you create an abstract layer that your
applications use to access various services and can aggregate the services. These
services could be databases, web services, message queues or other sources. The
Service Layer provides a way to access these services that the applications do not
need to know how the access is done. For example, to get a full customer record, I
might need to get data from a SGL Server database, a web service and a message
queue. The Service layer hides this from the calling application. All the application
knows is that it asked for a full customer record. It doesnt know what system or
systems it came from or how it was retrieved.

How does the XmlSerializer work? What ACL permissions does a process
using it require?
XmlSerializer requires write permission to the systems TEMP directory.

Why is catch(Exception) almost always a bad idea?

Well, if at that point you know that an error has occurred, then why not write the
proper code to handle that error instead of passing a new Exception object to the
catch block? Throwing your own exceptions signifies some design flaws in the
project.

What is the difference between Debug. Write and Trace. Write? When
should each be used?
Answer1:
The Debug. Write call wont be compiled when the DEBUG symbol is not defined
(when doing a release build). Trace. Write calls will be compiled. Debug. Write is for
information you want only in debug builds, Trace. Write is for when you want it in
release build as well. And in any case, you should use something like log4net
because that is both faster and better

Answer2:
Debug. Write & Trace. write - both works in Debug mode, while in Release
Mode,Trace.write only will work .Try changing the Active Config property of Solution
in Property page nd find the difference. Debug.write is used while debugging a
project and Trace.write is used in Released version of Applications.

What is the difference between a Debug and Release build? Is there a

significant speed difference? Why or why not?
Debug build contain debug symbols and can be debugged while release build
doesnt contain debug symbols, doesnt have [Conational(DEBUG)] methods calls
compiled, cant be debugged (easily, that is), less checking, etc. There should be a
speed difference, because of disabling debug methods, reducing code size etc but
that is not a guarantee (at least not a significant one)

Contrast the use of an abstract base class against an interface?

Answer1:
In the interface all methods must be abstract, in the abstract class some methods
can be concrete. In the interface no accessibility modifiers are allowed, which is ok
in abstract classes

Answer2:
Whether to Choose VB.NET/C#.
Both the languages are using same classes and namespaces. Once it compile and
generates MSIL, there is no meaning of which language it was written. If you are
Java/C++ programmer better to choose C# for same coding style otherwise you can
choose VB.net.

What is the difference between a.Equals(b) and a == b?

Answer1:
a=b is used for assigning the values (rather then comparison) and a==b is for
comparison.

Answer2:
a == b is used to compare the references of two objects
a.Equals(b) is used to compare two objects

Answer3:
A equals b -> copies contents of b to a
a == b -> checks if a is equal to b

Answer4:
Equals method compares both type and value of the variable, while == compares
value.
int a = 0;
bool b = 0

if(a.Equals(b))

Answer5:
a.Equals(b) checks whether the Type of a is equal to b or not! Put it in another way,
Dim a As Integer = 1
Dim b As Single = 1

a.Equals(b) returns false. The Equals method returns a boolean value.

a == b is a simple assignment statement.

Answer6:
a.equals(b) will check whether the b has same type as a has and also has the
same data as a has.
a==b will do the same thing.
if you have done this in c++ under operator overloading than you guys must be
aware of this sytaxts. they are doing the same thing there is only sytaxtical
difference.
let me explain it in different manner.
a==b : means compare b with a. always left hand side expression evaluated first
so here in this case a (considered an object) will call the overloaded operator =
which defines Equals(object) method in its class. thus, ultimately a.equals(b)
goanna called.
so the answer is: both will perform the same task. they are different by syntaxt

Answer7:
Difference b/w a==b,a.Equals(b)
a.Equals(b):
The default implementation of Equals supports reference equality only, but derived
classes can override this method to support value equality.

For reference types, equality is defined as object equality; that is, whether the
references refer to the same object. For value types, equality is defined as bitwise
equality
== :
For predefined value types, the equality operator (==) returns true if the values of its
operands are equal, false otherwise. For reference types other than string, ==
returns true if its two operands refer to the same object. For the string type, ==
compares the values of the strings.

How would one do a deep copy in .NET?

Answer1:
System.Array.CopyTo() - Deep copies an Array

Answer2:
How would one do a deep copy in .NET?
The First Approach.
1.Create a new instance.
2.Copy the properties from source instance to newly created instance.
[Use reflection if you want to write a common method to achive this]

The Second Approach.

1. Serialize the object and deserialize the output.
: Use binary serialization if you want private variables to be copied.
: Use xml Serialization if you dont want private variable to be copied.

What is boxing?
Boxing is an implicit conversion of a value type to the type object
int i = 123; // A value type
Object box = i // Boxing
Unboxing is an explicit conversion from the type object to a value type
int i = 123; // A value type object box = i; // Boxing
int j = (int)box; // Unboxing

Is string a value type or a reference type?

Answer1:
String is Reference Type.
Value type - bool, byte, chat, decimal, double, enum , float, int, long, sbyte,
short,strut, uint, ulong, ushort
Value types are stored in the Stack
Reference type - class, delegate, interface, object, string
Reference types are stored in the Heap

Answer2:
Yes String is reference type. C# gives two types of variable reference and value type.
string and object are reference type.

How does the lifecycle of Windows services differ from Standard EXE?
Windows services lifecycle is managed by Service Control Manager which is
responsible for starting and stopping the service and the applications do not have a
user interface or produce any visual output, but Standard executable doesnt
require Control Manager and is directly related to the visual output

Whats wrong with a line like this? DateTime.Parse(myString)

the result returned by this function is not assigned to anything, should be
something like varx = DateTime.Parse(myString)

NET is Compile Time OR RunTime Environment?

.Nets framework has CLS,CTS and CLR.CTS checks declartion of types at the time
when u write code and CLS defines some rules and restrictions.and CLR comile
everything at runtime with following benefits: Vastly simplified development
Seamless integration of code written in various languages Evidence-based security
with code identity Assembly-based deployment that eliminates DLL Hell Side-by-
side versioning of reusable components Code reuse through implementation
inheritance Automatic object lifetime management Self describing objects

Describe the role of inetinfo.exe, aspnet_isapi.dll andaspnet_wp.exe in the

page loading process.
inetinfo.exe is theMicrosoft IIS server running, handling ASP.NET requests among
other things.When an ASP.NET request is received (usually a file with .aspx
extension),the ISAPI filter aspnet_isapi.dll takes care of it by passing the request
tothe actual worker process aspnet_wp.exe.

Whats the difference between Response.Write()

andResponse.Output.Write()?
The latter one allows you to write formattedoutput.

What methods are fired during the page load?

Init() - when the pageis
instantiated, Load() - when the page is loaded into server memory,PreRender()
- the brief moment before the page is displayed to the user asHTML, Unload()
- when page finishes loading.

Where does the Web page belong in the .NET Framework class hierarchy?
System.Web.UI.Page
Where do you store the information about the users locale?
System.Web.UI.Page.Culture

Whats the difference between Codebehind="MyCode.aspx.cs"

andSrc="MyCode.aspx.cs"?
CodeBehind is relevant to Visual Studio.NET only.

Whats a bubbled event?

When you have a complex control, like DataGrid, writing an event processing
routine for each object (cell, button, row, etc.) is quite tedious. The controls can
bubble up their event handlers, allowing the main DataGrid event handler to take
care of its constituents.

Suppose you want a certain ASP.NET function executed on MouseOver overa

certain button. Where do you add an event handler?
Its the Attributesproperty,
the Add function inside that property. So

btnSubmit.Attributes.Add("onMouseOver","someClientCode();")

A simpleJavascript:ClientCode(); in the button control of the .aspx page will attach

the handler (javascript function)to the onmouseover event.

What data type does the RangeValidator control support?

Integer,String and Date.

.Net Database Interview Questions and Answers

To test a Web Service you must create a windows application or web
application to consume this service? It is True/False?
FALSE

How many classes can a single.NET DLL contain?

Answer1:
As many

Answer2:
One or more

What are good ADO.NET object(s) to replace the ADO Recordset object?
The differences includes
In ADO, the in-memory representation of data is the Recordset.
In ADO.net, it is the dataset

A recordset looks like a single table in ADO

In contrast, a dataset is a collection of one or more tables in ADO.net
ADO is designed primarily for connected access
ADO.net the disconnected access to the database is used

In ADO you communicate with the database by making calls to an OLE DB

provider.
In ADO.NET you communicate with the database through a data adapter (an
OleDbDataAdapter, SqlDataAdapter, OdbcDataAdapter, or OracleDataAdapter
object), which makes calls to an OLE DB provider or the APIs provided by the
underlying data source.

In ADO you cant update the database from the recordset. ADO.NET the data
adapter allows you to control how the changes to the dataset are transmitted to the
database.

On order to get assembly info which namespace we should import?

System.Reflection Namespace

How do you declare a static variable and what is its lifetime? Give an
example.
Answer1
static int MyintThe life time is during the entire application.
br> Answer2
The static modifier is used to declare a static member, which belongs to the type
itself rather than to a specific object. The static modifier can be used with fields,
methods, properties, operators, events and constructors, but cannot be used with
indexers, destructors, or types. In C#, the static keyword indicates a class variable.
In VB, the equivalent keyword is Shared. Its scoped to the class in which it occurs.

Example
a. Static int var //in c#.net
b. static void Time( ) //in c#.net

How do you get records number from 5 to 15 in a dataset of 100 records?

Write code.
Answer1
DataSet ds1=new DataSet(); String strCon=data source=IBM-6BC8A0DACEF;initial
catalog=pubs;integrated security=SSPI;persist + security info=False;user
id=sa;workstation id=IBM-6BC8A0DACEF;packet size=4096?;

String strCom1=SELECT * FROM employee;

SqlDataAdapter sqlDa1=new SqlDataAdapter(strCom1,strCon);
ds1.Tables.Add(employee);
sqlDa1.Fill(ds1,40,50,ds1.Tables[employee].TableName);
DataGrid dg1.DataSource=ds1.Tables[employee].DefaultView;
dg1.DataBind();

Answer2
OleDbConnection1.Open()
OleDbDataAdapter1.Fill(DataSet21, 5, 15, tab)
This will fill the dataset with the records starting at 5 to 15

How do you call and execute a Stored Procedure in .NET? Give an example.
Answer1
ds1=new DataSet();

sqlCon1=new SqlConnection(connectionstring);

String strCom1=byroyalty;

sqlCom1=new SqlCommand(strCom1,sqlCon1);
sqlCom1.CommandType=CommandType.StoredProcedure;
sqlDa1=new SqlDataAdapter(sqlCom1);
SqlParameter myPar=new SqlParameter(@percentage,SqlDbType.Int);
sqlCom1.Parameters.Add (myPar);
myPar.Value=40;
sqlDa1.Fill(ds1);
dg1.DataSource=ds1;
dg1.DataBind();

Answer2
Yes

Dim cn as new OleDbConnection ( Provider=Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0;+ _

Data Source=C:\Documents and Settings\User\My Documents\Visual Studio
Projects\1209\db1.mdb+ _
User ID=Admin;+ _
Password=;);
Dim cmd As New OleDbCommand(Products, cn)
cmd.CommandType = CommandType.StoredProcedure

Dim da As New OleDataAdapter(cmd)

Dim ds As New DataSet()
da.Fill(ds, Products)
DataGrid1.DataSource = ds.Tables(Products)

What is the maximum length of a varchar in SQL Server?

Answer1
VARCHAR[(n)]
Null-terminated Unicode character string of length n,
with a maximum of 255 characters. If n is not supplied, then 1 is assumed.

Answer2
8000

Answer3
The business logic is the aspx.cs or the aspx.vb where the code is being written.
The presentation logic is done with .aspx extention.

How do you define an integer in SQL Server?

We define integer in Sql server as
var_name int

How do you separate business logic while creating an ASP.NET application?

There are two level of asp.net debugging
1. Page level debugging
For this we have to edit the page level debugging enable the trace to true in the line
in the html format of the page.

%@ Page Language=vb trace=trueAutoEventWireup=false

Codebehind=WebForm1.aspx.vb Inherits=WebApplication2.WebForm1?>

2. You can enable the debugging in the application level for this
Edit the following trace value in web.config file

Enable trace enabled=true.

If there is a calendar control to be included in each page of your application,

and and we do not intend to use the Microsoft-provided calendar control,
how do you develop it? Do you copy and paste the code into each and every
page of your application?
Create the Calendar User Control
The control we will create will contain a calendar control and a label which has the
corresponding date and time written
Steps are:-

Creating a CalenderControl
1) To begin, open Visual Studio .NET and begin a new C# Windows Control Library.
2) You may name it whatever you like, for this sample the project name will be
CalenderControl

Using the Calender Control in a Windows Application

Its just like adding any other control like a button or a label.
1) First, create a new Windows Application project named: CustomControl.
2) Add a reference to the Calender Control DLL named: CalenderControl.dll.
3) Now you a can customize the Toolbox:
Right-Click the Toolbox> .NET Framework Components> Browse> select the
CalenderControl.dll.
4)The Calender Control is now added to the Toolbox and can be inserted in
Windows Form as any other control. The control itself will take care of the date
display

.Net Database Interview Questions and Answers

How can you deploy an asp.net application ?
You can deploy an ASP.NET Web application using any one of the following three
deployment options.
a) Deployment using VS.NET installer
b) Using the Copy Project option in VS .NET
c) XCOPY Deployment

Explain similarities and differences between Java and .NET?

Comparing Java and .NET is comparing apples and oranges. Either the question
needs to be to compare Java and C# or J2EE and .NET.

What are the XML files that are important in developing an ASP.NET
application?
The XML file necessary for the for developing an asp.net application is Web.config

Specify the best ways to store variables so that we can access them in
various pages of ASP.NET application?
Declare the variables in Global.aspx

How many objects are there in ASP?

Answer1
8 objects, they are request,response, server,application,session,file, dictionary,
textstream.

Answer2
There are 6 objects in ASP.net
a) Server
b) Session
c) Application
d) ObjectContext
e) Response
f) Request

Which DLL file is needed to be registered for ASP?

The dll needed for the ASP.net is SYSTEM.WEB.dll

Is there any inbuilt paging (for example shoping cart, which will show next 10
records without refreshing) in ASP? How will you do pating?
Use DataGrid control which has in-built paging features for the purpose.

What does Server.MapPath do?

Answer1
srver.mappath() maps the path given in the argument to the servers physical path.

Answer2
It returns the complete(absolute) path of the file used in parameter.

Answer3
It returns a string containing the physical path in the servers file system that
corresponds to the virtual or relative path specified by the Path argument.

Name atleast three methods of response object other than Redirect.

Answer1
a) Response.Clear( )
Clears the content of the current output stream.
b) Response.Close( )
Closes the network socket for the current response.
c) Response.End( )
Stops processing the current request and sends all buffered content to the client
immediately.

Answer2
methods of Response is Redirect a. Transfer

Name atleast two methods of response object other than Transfer.

a) Response.ClearContent( )
Clears the content of the current output stream.
b) Response.ClearHeaders( )
Clears the HTTP headers from the current output stream.

What is State?
It is the property of the web forms.
ASP.NET provides four types of state:
Application state
Session state
Cookie state
View state.

Explain differences between ADO and DAO.

dao- can access only access database
ado- can access any databases

How many types of cookies are there?

2 types, persistant and impersistant.

How many types of cookies are there?

Answer1
Two type of cookeies.
a) single valued eg request.cookies(UserName).value=Mahesh
b)Multivalued cookies. These are used in the way collections are used.
e.g.
request.cookies(CookiName)(UserName)=Mahesh
request.cookies(CookiName)(UserID)=ABC003?

rember no value method in multivalued cookie

Answer2
There are two types of cookies:
Session cookies
Persistent cookies

Tell few steps for optimizing (for speed and resource) ASP
page/application.
Avoid mixing html code with asp code

Which command using Query Analyzer will give you the version of SQL
Server and Operating System?
@@VERSION
Returns version, processor architecture, build date, and operating system for the
current installation of SQL Server.

How to find the SQL server version from Query Analyzer ?

Answer1
To determine which version of Microsoft SQL Server 2005 is running, connect to
SQL Server 2005 by using SQL Server Management Studio, and then run the
following Transact-SQL statement:
SELECT SERVERPROPERTY(productversion), SERVERPROPERTY (productlevel),
SERVERPROPERTY (edition)
The results are:
The product version (for example, 9.00.1399.06?)
. The product level (for example, RTM).
The edition (for example, Enterprise Edition).
For example, the result looks similar to:
9.00.1399.06 RTM Enterprise Edition
How to determine which version of SQL Server 2000 is running
To determine which version of SQL Server 2000 is running, connect to SQL Server
2000 by using Query Analyzer, and then run the following code:
SELECT SERVERPROPERTY(productversion), SERVERPROPERTY (productlevel),
SERVERPROPERTY (edition)
The results are:
The product version (for example, 8.00.534).
The product level (for example, RTM or SP2?).
The edition (for example, Standard Edition). For example, the result looks
similar to
:
8.00.534 RTM Standard Edition

Answer2
One can also use SELECT @@Version where the result would look like
Microsoft SQL Server 2005 - 9.00.1399.06 (Intel X86)
Oct 14 2005 00:33:37
Copyright (c) 1988-2005 Microsoft Corporation
Express Edition on Windows NT 5.1 (Build 2600: Service Pack 2)

Using query analyzer, name 3 ways you can get an accurate count of the
number of records in a table.
Answer1.
a. Select count(*) from table1
b. SELECT object_name(id) ,rowcnt FROM sysindexes WHERE indid IN (1,0) AND
OBJECTPROPERTY(id, IsUserTable) = 1
c. exec sp_table_validation @table = authors

Answer2.
SELECT count( * ) as totalrecords FROM employee
This will display total records under the name totalrecords in the table employee

use COUNT_BIG
Returns the number of items in a group.

@@ROWCOUNT
Returns the number of rows affected by the last statement.
Use this statement after an SQL select * statement, to retrieve the total number of
rows in the table

What is the purpose of using COLLATE in a query?

Answer1.
Collation refers to a set of rules that determine how data is sorted and compared.
Character data is sorted using rules that define the correct character sequence,
with options for specifying case-sensitivity, accent marks, kana character types and
character width.

Answer2.
COLLATE is a clause that can be applied to a database definition or a column
definition to define the collation, or to a character string expression to apply a
collation cast.

What is one of the first things you would do to increase performance of a

query? For example, a boss tells you that a query that ran yesterday took
30 seconds, but today it takes 6 minutes?
Answer1.
Use Storedprocedure for any optimized result, because it is an compiled code.

Answer2.
One of the best ways to increase query performance is to use indexes.

What is an execution plan? When would you use it? How would you view the
execution plan?
The Query Analyzer has a feature called Show Execution Plan. This option allows
you to view the execution plan used by SQL Servers Query Optimizer to actually
execute the query. This option is available from the Query menu on the main menu
of Query Analyzer, and must be turned on before the query is executed. Once the
query is executed, the results of the execution plan are displayed in graphical
format in a separate window, available from a tab that appears below the query
results window on the screen.

What is the STUFF function and how does it differ from the REPLACE
function? Answer1:
stuff-> inserts into it without removing any thing. Replace->replace the given text
with the new one.

Answer2:
STUFF - it deletes a specified length of characters and inserts another set of
characters at a specified starting point. REPLACE -Replaces all occurrences of a
specified string value with another string value.

What does it mean to have quoted_identifier on? What are the implications
of having it off?
SET QUOTED_IDENTIFIER ON- Causes SQL Server to follow the SQL-92 rules
regarding quotation mark delimiting identifiers and literal strings. Identifiers
delimited by double quotation marks can be either Transact-SQL reserved keywords
or can contain characters not usually allowed by the Transact-SQL syntax rules for
identifiers.

What is the difference between a Local temporary table and a Global

temporary table? How is each one used?
Answer1:
Local templrary table will have a single # (#tablename) appended with the table
name.Global templrary table will have Double # (##tablename) appended with the
table name.
Ex:create table #table1
local temp. table will be available until the session who created it logs out, but
global temp. table is available till the last session gets close in SQLServer.

Answer1:
Local temporary tables are visible only in the current session; global temporary
tables are visible to all sessions.Prefix local temporary table names with single
number sign (#table_name), and prefix global temporary table names with a double
number sign (##table_name).

What are cursors? Name four type of cursors and when each one would be
applied?
Opening a cursor on a result set allows processing the result set one row at a time.
The four API server cursor types supported by SQL Server are:
a) Static cursors
b) Dynamic cursors
c) Forward-only cursors
d) Keyset-driven cursors

What is the purpose of UPDATE STATISTICS?

UPDATE STATISTICS- it updates information about the distribution of key values
for one or more statistics groups (collections) in the specified table or indexed view.

How do you use DBCC statements to monitor various ASPects of a SQL

Server installation?
Database Consistency Checker (DBCC) - Is a statement used to check the logical
and physical consistency of a database, check memory usage, decrease the size of a
database, check performance statistics, and so on. Database consistency checker
(DBCC) ensures the physical and logical consistency of a database, but is not
corrective. DBCC can help in repairing or checking the installation in case of any
failure.

What is referential integrity and how can we achieve it?

Referential integrity preserves the defined relationships between tables when
records are entered or deleted. In SQL Server, referential integrity is based on
relationships between foreign keys and primary keys or between foreign keys and
unique keys. Referential integrity ensures that key values are consistent across
tables. Such consistency requires that there be no references to nonexistent values
and that if a key value changes, all references to it change consistently throughout
the database.
We can achieve this by using foreign key.

What is indexing?
If we give proper indexes on a table so that any queries written against this table
can run efficiently. As your data sets grow over time, SQL Server will continue to
rebuild indexes and move data around as efficiently as possible. This property is
known as Indexing.

Explain differences between Server.Transfer and server.execute method?

Answer1:
server.transfer-> transfers the servers control to the requested page given in the
parameter.
server.Execute-> executes the requested page from the current page itself, with no
change in the address bar. after execution the next line of code is executed in the
current page.

Answer2.
Execute method returns control to the page in which it is called once the page
specified in the Execute method finishes processing, the Transfer method does not
return control to the calling page.

What is de-normalization? When do you do it and how?

De-normalization is the process of attempting to optimize the performance of a
database by adding redundant data. Its used To introduce redundancy into a table
in order to incorporate data from a related table. The related table can then be
eliminated. De-normalization can improve efficiency and performance by reducing
complexity in a data warehouse schema.

Explain features of SQL Server like Scalability , Availability, Integration

with Internet.
Scalability - The same Microsoft SQL Server 2000 database engine operates on
Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional, Microsoft Windows 2000 Server, Microsoft
Windows 2000 Advanced Server, Windows 98, and Windows Millennium Edition. It
also runs on all editions of Microsoft Windows NT version 4.0. The database engine
is a robust server that can manage terabyte-sized databases accessed by thousands
of users. Availability - SQL Server 2000 can maintain the extremely high levels of
availability required by large Web sites and enterprise systems. Integration -The
SQL Server 2000 TCP/IP Sockets communications support can be integrated with
Microsoft Proxy Server to implement secure Internet and intranet communications.

What is DataWarehousing?
A data warehouse is a collection of data gathered and organized so that it can easily
by analyzed, extracted, synthesized, and otherwise be used for the purposes of
further understanding the data.

What is OLAP?
OLAP is an acronym for On Line Analytical Processing. It is an approach to quickly
provide the answer to analytical queries that are dimensional in nature.

How do we upgrade SQL Server 7.0 to 2000?

Run the installation of the SQL Server 2000
In the Existing Installation dialog box, click Upgrade your existing installation, and
then click Next.
In the Upgrade dialog box, you are prompted as to whether you want to proceed
with the requested upgrade. Click Yes, upgrade my to start the upgrade process,
and then click Next. The upgrade runs until finished.
In the Connect to Server dialog box, select an authentication mode, and then click
Next.
If you are not sure which mode to use, accept the default: The Windows account
information I use to log on to my computer with (Windows). In Start Copying Files
dialog box, click Next.
Now your Sql Server would be upgraded.

What is job?
It can be defined as a task performed by a computer system. For example, printing
a file is a job. Jobs can be performed by a single program or by a collection of
programs.

What is Task?
Whenever you execute a program, the operating system creates a new task for it.
The task is like an envelope for the program: it identifies the program with a task
number and attaches other bookkeeping information to it.

How do you find the error, how can you know the number of rows affected
by last SQL Statement?
Answer1
@@errors->give the last error occurred in the current DB.
Ans. select @@rowcount

Answer2.
Use @@ERROR which returns the error number for the last Transact-SQL
statement executed fro knowing the error.
Use @@ROWCOUNT which returns the number of rows affected by the last
statement for finding the no of rows affected.

What are the advantages/disadvantages of viewstate?

Disadvantages - Because the view state for a given page must be kept on the server,
it is possible for the current state to be out of synchronization with the current
page of the browser, if the user uses the Back feature on the browser to go back in
the history. Advantages - On ordinary Web Forms pages, their view state is sent by
the server as a hidden variable in a form, as part of every response to the client,
and is returned to the server by the client as part of a postback. However, to reduce
bandwidth demand when using mobile controls, ASP.NET does not send a pages
view state to the client. Instead, the view state is saved as part of a users session
on the server. Where there is a view state, a hidden field that identifies this pages
view state is sent by the server as part of every response to the client, and is
returned to the server by the client as part of the next request.
.Net Database Interview Questions and Answers
Describe session handling in webform. How does it work and what are the
limits?
Session management in ASP.NET can be done in two ways:
Using Cookies
Encoding of URLs with Session ID

Explain differences between framework 1.0 and framework 1.1?

1. Native Support for Developing Mobile Web Applications
2. Unified Programming Model for Smart Client Application Development
3. Enable Code Access Security for ASP.NET Applications
4. Native Support for Communicating with ODBC and Oracle Databases
5. Supports for IPv6

If we write any code for dataGrid methods, what is the access specifier used
for that methods in the code behind file and why and how? Give an example.

We use Friends Modifer for the dataGrid methods. Friend WithEvents DataGrid1 As
System.Windows.Forms.DataGrid

What is the use of trace utility?

Tracing is a very important monitoring and debugging tool for distributed, multitier
applications. Such applications often contain problems that can only be observed
when the application is under a heavy load and the inherent randomness of a real-
life environment. Trace utility allows developers and administrators to monitor the
health of applications running in real-life settings.

What are the differences between User control and Web control and Custom
control?
Answer1:
Usercontrol-> control that is created as u wish.
Web Control-> any control placed in web page (web application page)
Custom Control-> same as user control with some difference.

user control custome control

1.easy to create difficult
2.no full suport for customers using
Visual studio tools Full support
3. Seperate copy of the control in each
assembly only one copy in global assembly.
4. best for static layout best for dynamic layout.

Answer2
User control
1) Reusability web page
2) We cant add to toolbox
3) Just drag and drop from solution explorer to page (aspx)
4) Good for static layout
5) Easier to create
6) Not complied into DLL

Custom controls
1) Reusability of control (or extend functionalities of existing control)
2) We can add toolbox
3) Just drag and drop from toolbox
4) You can register user control to. Aspx page by Register tag
5) A single copy of the control is required in each application
6) Good for dynamic layout
7) Hard to create
8) Compiled in to dll

Custom controls
1) Reusability of control
2) Pre defined Control
3) Just drag and drop from toolbox

If I have more than one version of one assemblies, then how will I use old
version in my application? Give an example.
Change the assembly version number in the AssemblyInfo.vb file

How does you handle this COM components developed in other

programming languages in .NET?
Answer1:
add the component in add reference window, click .NETCOM tab.

Answer1:
While adding the refferences we can handle the COM components in other .Net
programming languages.

How will you register COM+ services?

Through X-Copy Deployment.

How do u call and execute a stored procedure in .NET?

system.Data;
system.Data.SqlClient;

SqlConnection sqCon = new SqlConnection(connection string);

SqlCommand sqCmd = new SqCmd();
sqCmd.Connection = sqCon;
sqCmd.CommandText = procedure_name;
sqCmd.CommandType = CommandType.StoredProcedure;
sqComd.ExecuteReader();

What are the different types of replication? How are they used?
Replication is used for distributing data and the execution of stored procedures
across an enterprise. The replication technology allows you to make duplicate
copies of your data, move those copies to different locations, and synchronize the
data automatically so that all copies have the same data values.
The different types of replications are
a) transactional replication
b) merge replication

How do SQL Server 2000 and XML linked? What is SQL Server agent?
Every Request or the Response to or from SQL Server is converted into XML format.
Its purpose is to ease the implementation of tasks for the DBA, with its full-
function scheduling engine, which allows you to schedule your own jobs and
scripts.

How do you create thread in .NET?

1) Import System.Threading
2) Create a new thread using new Thread() and assign the address of the method
3) Use Thread.Start method to start the execution

using System;
using System.Threading;

public class Test

{
static void Main()
{
ThreadStart job = new ThreadStart(ThreadJob);
Thread thread = new Thread(job);
thread.Start();

for (int i=0; i

.Net Web Interview Questions and Answers

Which of the following languages is NOT included in the default .NET
Framework installation?
* C#
* VB.NET
* JScript.NET
* VBScript.NET

VBScript.NET
What are the different types of serialization supported in .NET Framework
* XmlSerializer
* SoapFormatter
* XPathNavigator
* HttpFormatter

xmlserializer

The CLR uses which format for assembly version numbers

* Major:Minor:Revision:Build
* Major:Build:Minor:Revision
* Major:Revision:Minor:Build
* Major:Minor:Build:Revision

Major:Minor:Build:Revision

What tool is used to manage the GAC?

* GacMgr.exe
* GacSvr32.exe
* GacUtil.exe
* RegSvr.exe

GacUtil.exe

State True or False: A single .NET dll can contain unlimited classes
* True
* False

True

State True or False: ASP.NET can currently run only on Windows Platform
* True
* False

True

Which one of the following best describes Type-Safe

* It ensures that the data type are safely handled
* It ensures that types are not mismatched when they are called so uses a
typecasting before referencing any data object
* It ensures that an object only references memory locations that its allowed
to, preventing data corruption and the accidental misuse of object types
* All of the above
All of the above

The number of objects in ASP.NET is

* 6
* 7
* 9
* 10

Answer1:
7

Answer2:
10

The code used to turn off buffering is

* Buffering = false
* OutputBuffer = false
* BufferOutput = false
* Buffer = Off

Answer1:
Buffer=true

Answer2:
Buffer=false

Can you have two applications on the same machine one which is using .NET
Framework 1.1 and the other using 2.0 ?
* Yes
* No
* Depends on System configuration

Yes

Which of the following DOT.NET tools manages certificates, certificate trust

lists (CTLs), and certificate revocation lists (CRLs)?
* sn.exe
* certnet.exe
* certmgr.exe
* gacutil.exe

certmgr.exe
You need to generate a public/private key pair for using in creating a
shared assembly. Given the above scenario, which .NET SDK utility should
be used?
* certmgr.exe
* gacutil.exe
* sn.exe
* resgen.exe

sn.exe

The object that contains all the properties and methods for every ASP.NET
page, that is built is
* Page Object
* HTTPPage Object
* WebPage Object
* System.Web.UI.Page

Page Object

In C#, which character is used to indicate a verbatim string literal?

* @
* !
* "
* #

Which of the following operators has the highest precedence?

* Pre Increment (++x)
* Shift bits left: <<
* Bitwise Or: |
* Post Increment (x++)

Shift bits left

The uniqueId that gets generated at the start of the Session is stored in
* Client computer as a cookie
* Server machine
* Passed to and fro on each and every request and response
* Both a and b are correct

Both a and b are correct

State True or False: C# supports multiple-inheritance

* True
* False

False

Bitwise AND operator in C# is

* &
* &&
* AND
* XAND

Answer1:
&&

Answer2:
&

Bitwise OR operator in C# is
* OR
* ||
* |
* XOR

Answer1:
||

Answer2:
|

Whats the .NET datatype that allows the retrieval of data by a unique key?
* Primary
* Integer
* Unique Identifier
* HashTable

HashTable

The keyword int maps to one of the following .NET types

* System.Int16
* System.Int32
* System.Int64
* System.Int128
System.Int32

What can be achieved in IL which is not possible in C# ?

* Creation of an ArrayList
* Creation of a Dictionary
* Creation of a two dimensional array
* Creation of a non-zero based array

Answer1:
Creation of a dictionary

Answer2:
Creation of a non-zero based array

Which of the following is the correct code for setting a Session timeout of
30 minutes
* Session.Timeout = 108000
* Session.Timeout = 1800
* Session.Timeout = 300
* Session.Timeout = 30

Answer1:
Session.Timeout = 1800

Answer2:
Session.Timeout = 30

The process that ASP.NET uses to keep track of Sessions without cookies is
* Cookie Munging
* Cookie Monking
* Cookie Mocking
* Cookie Munching

Cookie munging

The method that transfers ASP.NET execution to another page, but returns
to the original page when it is done is
* Server.Transfer()
* Server.Redirect()
* Server.Execute()
* Server.Return()

Answer1:
Server.Redirect()
Answer2:
Server.Execute()

A structure in C# can be derived from one or more

* class
* interface
* both
* none

interface.

State True or False: Static method cannot be overridden

* True
* False

True

The Equivalent HTML Control for the <input type=button> tag is

* HtmlInput
* HtmlButton
* HtmlPushButton
* HtmlInputButton

HtmlInputButton

The Equivalent Html Control for the <input type=checkbox> tag is

* HtmlCheckBox
* HtmlInputChkBox
* HtmlInputCheckBox
* HtmlInputTypeChkBox

HtmlInputCheckBox

Which operator is used for connecting a event with a procedure in C#?

* +=
* =
* both
* none

+=

The Equivalent Html Control for the <select> tag is

* <HtmlSelectInput>
* <HtmlSelect>
* <HtmlInputSelect>
* <HtmlSelectControl>

<HtmlSelect>

State True or False: Events in Web forms are processed before the Page
Load event
* True
* False

True

What namespaces are necessary to create a localized application?

* System.Globalization
* System.Globalization and System.Resources.
* System.Resources.
* System.Array

System.Resources

A new server-side control can be created by implementing the class

* System.Web.WebControl
* System.Web.UI.WebControl
* System.Web.UI.WebControls.WebControl
* Any one of the above

System.Web.UI.WebControls.WebControl

The parameter clienttarget = downlevel does one of the following

* Adds aliases for specific user agents to an internal collection of user agent
aliases
* Indicates the useragents level of validating the controls
* Disables all DHTML events(including Validation controls)
* None of the above

None of the above

The methods in C# can be overloaded in which of the following ways

* By having the same method name
parameters
* By giving different method names
* By having the same method name
parameters
* By giving different method names
and specifying different number of
and same number of parameters
and specifying different types of
and same types of parameters
By having the same method name and specifying different types of parameters

The RangeValidator control supports the following datatype

* Integer and String
* Integer, Float, String, XMLDatatypes
* Integer, String and Date
* Integer, Boolean, Short, String and Date

Integer, String and Date

What is the difference between Convert.ToInt32 and int.Parse?

* Both are same and both can handle null value.
* Convert.ToInt32 can handle null value but int.Parse throws
ArgumentNullException error.
* int.Parse can handle null value but Convert.ToInt32 throws
ArgumentNullException error.
* Both Convert.ToInt32 and int.Parse cannot handle null value.

Convert.ToInt32 can handle null value but int.Parse throws ArgumentNullException

error.

State True or False: Any ODBC-compliant database can be accessed through

ASP.NET
* True
* False

True

You need to select a .NET language that has auto-documenting features

built into the source code and compiler. Given the scenario above what
language compiler should be selected?
* vbc.exe
* cl.exe
* ilasm.exe
* cs.exe

cs.exe

A set of tables are maintained in a Dataset as

* TablesCollection object
* DataTableCollection object
* DataRowsCollection object
* TableRowCollection object
TablesCollection object

The namespaces needed to use data mechanisms in ASP.NET pages are

* System.Data, System.Data.OleDb or System.Data.SQL
* System.Data, System.Data.ODBC
* System.Data, System.Data.DataRow
* System.Data.DataRowCollection, System.Data.DbType

System.Data, System.Data.OleDb or System.Data.SQL

What are the different methods to access Database in .NET ?

* OleDB,ODBC,SQLClient
* OleDB, JDBC, SQLServer
* ODBC-JDBC, DataSet, SQLClient
* Datasource, DataSet, DSN

OleDB,ODBC,SQLClient

The two properties of a DataGrid that has to be specified to turn on sorting

and paging respectively are
* EnableSorting = true and EnablePaging = true
* DisableSorting = false and DisablePaging = false
* AllowSorting = true and AllowPaging = true
* Sorting = true and Paging = true

AllowSorting = true and AllowPaging = true

Which one of the following objects is used to create a foreign key between
two DataTables?
* DataRelation
* DataRelationship
* DataConstraint
* DataKey

DataRelation

The Syntax for data-binding expressions is

* <%# property or collection %>
* <%# property or collection #%>
* <%$ property or collection %>
* <%@ property or collection %>

<%# property or collection #%>

The method that need to be invoked on the DataAdapter control to load the
generated dataset with data is
* Bind()
* Fill()
* FillData()
* SetData()

Fill()

Which of the following operations can you NOT perform on an ADO.NET

DataSet?
* A DataSet can be synchronised with the database.
* A DataSet can be synchronised with a RecordSet.
* A DataSet can be converted to XML.
* You can infer the schema from a DataSet

A DataSet can be synchronised with a RecordSet.

Which is the correct statement to set the alias name for namespace in C#?
* using System Data.OracleClient = aliasName;
* using aliasName = System.Data.OracleClient;
* string aliasName = using.System.Data.OracleClient;
* Both a & b

using aliasName = System.Data.OracleClient;

The property that indicates whether existing database constraints should be

observed when performing updates
* EnforceConstraints
* Constraints
* GetConstraints
* ConstraintsEnforce

EnforceConstraints

State True or False: If you set AutoGenerateColumns=True and still provide

custom column definitions, the DataGrid will render both
* True
* False

False.

The data from an XSL Transform with XmlReader can be returned in one of
the following ways
* objReader = objXslT.Transform(objNav, nothing)
* objXslT.Transform(objNav, nothing)
* objReader = objXslT.Transform(objNav, nothing, objWriter)
* objXslT.Transform(objNav, nothing, objWriter)

objXslT.Transform(objNav, nothing)

Pick the command line that would result in the C# compiler generating an
XML documentation file
* csc /doc:NewHome.xml NewHome.cs
* c /doc /docfile: NewHome.xml NewHome.cs
* csc /doc /out: NewHome.xml NewHome.cs
* csc /xml NewHome.cs

csc /doc:NewHome.xml NewHome.cs

What is the comment syntax for C#s XML-based documentation? * /** and
**/ * //# * /// * //*

///

When creating a C# Class Library project, what is the name of the

supplementary file that Visual Studio.NET creates that contains General
Information about the assembly?
* AssemblyInfo.xml
* AssemblyInfo.cs
* AssemblyInformation.cs
* AssemblyAttributes.cs

AssemblyInfo.cs

Which of the following is the C# escape character for Null?

* \n
* \0
* \f
* \v

\0

What is the exception that is thrown when there is an attempt to

dynamically access a method that does not exist?
* MissingMethodException
* TypeLoadException
* MethodLoadException
* MethodAccessException
MissingMethodException

What method(s) must be used with the Application object to ensure that
only one process accesses a variable at a time?
* Synchronize()
* Lock() and UnLock()
* Lock()
* Asynchroize()

Lock()

After capturing the SelectedIndexChanged event for a ListBox control, you

find that the event handler doesnt execute. What could the problem be?
* The AutoEventWireup attribute is set to False
* The AutomaticPostBack attribute is set to False
* The codebehind module is not properly compiled
* The ListBox must be defined WithEvents

AutoPostBack attribute is set to False

What method must be overridden in a custom control?

* The Paint() method
* The Control_Build() method
* The Render() method
* The default constructor

The Render() method

What is used to validate complex string patterns like an e-mail address?

* Extended expressions
* Regular expressions
* Irregular expressions
* Basic expressions

Regular Expression.

The following is a valid statement in ASP.NET<%@ Page Language="C" %>

* True
* False

False

A valid comment block in ASP.NET is

* <!- - - Comment - - - >
* <!- - Comment - - >
* <% - - Comment - - %>
* <% ! - - Comment - - >

<% - - Comment - - %>

The event handlers that can be included in the Global.asax file are
* Application Start and
Session Start event handlers only
* Application End and
Session End event handlers only
* Per-request and Non-deterministic event handlers only
* Application Start and End ,

Application Start and End

A Few of the Namespaces that get imported by default in an ASPX file are
* System, System.Data, System.Drawing,
System.Globalization
* System,
System.IO, System.Management, System.Globalization
* System, System.Collections,
System.Text, System.Web
* System,
System.NET,
System.Reflection, System.Web

System, System.Collections, System.Text, System.Web

The Assemblies that can be referenced in an ASPX file without using

@Assembly Directive is
* System.dll, System.Data.dll,
System.Web.dll, System.Xml.dll,
* System.dll,
System.Collections.dll, System.IO.dll
* System.dll, System.Reflection.dll,
System.Globalization.dll,
* System.Drawing.dll, System.Assembly.dll,
System.Text.dll

System.dll, System.Data.dll, System.Web.dll, System.Xml.dll

An .ASHX file contains the following

* Code-behind that are used in the code
* Server Controls that can be called from a code-behind file
* HTTP handlers-software modules that handle raw HTTP requests received by
ASP.NET
* Contains normal ASP.NET code and can be used as an include file

HTTP handlers-software modules that handle raw HTTP requests received by

ASP.NET

What is the output for the following code snippet:

public class testClass
{
public static void Main(string[] args)
{
System.Console.WriteLine(args[1]);
}//end Main
}//end class testClass

* Compiler Error
* Runtime Error
* Hello C# world
* None of the above

Runtime Error

One of the possible way of writing an ASP.NET handler that works like an
ISAPI filter- that is, that sees requests and responses and modifies them
also, is by,
* writing a module that extends FormsAuthenticatonModule and using it
* writing a component class that extends HttpModuleCollection and using it
* writing an HTTP module-a Class that implements IhttpModule and
registering it in Web.Config
* All of the above

writing an HTTP module-a Class that implements IhttpModule and registering it in

Web.Config

The ASP.NET directive that lets you cache different versions of a page based
on varying input parameters, HTTP headers and browser type is
* @OutputCache
* @CacheOutput
* @PageCache
* @CacheAll

@ OutputCache
If we develop an application that must accommodate multiple security
levels through secure login and ASP.NET web application is spanned across
three web-servers (using round-robin load balancing) what would be the
best approach to maintain login-in state for the users?
* <SessionState mode="InProc"stateConnectionString="
tcpip=127.0.0.1:42424" sqlConnectionString=" data source=127.0.0.1;user
id=sa;password="cookieless="false" timeout="30" />
* <SessionState mode="OutProc"
stateConnectionString="tcpip=127.0.0.1:42424" sqlConnectionString="data
source=127.0.0.1;user id=sa;password=" cookieless="false" timeout="30" />
* <SessionState mode="stateserver"
stateConnectionString="tcpip=127.0.0.1:42424" sqlConnectionString="data
source=127.0.0.1;user id=sa;password=" cookieless="false" timeout="30" />

SessionState mode=stateserver stateConnectionString=tcpip=127.0.0.1:42424?

sqlConnectionString=data source=127.0.0.1;user id=sa;password=
cookieless=false timeout=30?

What is the output for the below mentioned compilation command>csc

/addmodule:A.Exe B.Cs
* A.exe
* B.exe
* A.dll
* B.dll

B.exe

How can be the web application get configured with the following
authorization rules
* Anonymous users must not be allowed to access the application.
* All persons except David and John must be allowed to access the
application.
o <authorization><allow roles ="*"><deny roles = "?"><</authorization>
o <authorization><deny users = "applicationname\David;
applicationname\John" ><deny users = "*"></authorization>
o <authorization><deny users = "applicationname\David,
applicationname\John" ><deny users = "?"><allow users ="*"></authorization>
o <authorization><allow users ="*"><deny users = "applicationname\David,
applicationname\John" ></authorization>

authorization deny users = applicationname\David, applicationname\John deny

users = ? allow users =* /authorization

What will be the output of the following code snippet?

using System;
class MainClass
{
static void Main( )
{
new MainClass().Display( 3.56 );
}

private void Display( float anArg )

{
Console.Write( {0} {1}, anArg.GetType(), anArg );
}

double Display( double anArg )

{
Console.Write( {0} {1}, anArg.GetType(), anArg );
return anArg;
}

public decimal Display( decimal anArg )

{
Console.Write( {0} {1}, anArg.GetType(), anArg ); return anArg;
}
}

* System.Single 3.56
* System.Float 3.56
* System.Double 3.56
* System.Decimal 3.56

System.Double 3.56

What will be output for the given code?

Dim I as integer = 5
Do
I=I+2
Response.Write (I & " ")
Loop Until I > 10

* 58
* 579
* 7 9 11
* Errors out
7 9 11 (if corrected)

.Net Deployment Interview Questions and Answers

What do you know about .NET assemblies?
Assemblies are the smallest units of versioning and deployment in the .NET
application. Assemblies are also the building blocks for programs such as Web
services, Windows services, serviced components, and .NET Remoting applications.

Whats the difference between private and shared assembly?

Private assembly is used inside an application only and does not have to be
identified by a strong name. Shared assembly can be used by multiple applications
and has to have a strong name.

Whats a strong name?

A strong name includes the name of the assembly, version number, culture identity,
and a public key token.

How can you tell the application to look for assemblies at the locations
other than its own install?
Use the
directive in the XML .config file for a given application.

<probing privatePath=c:\mylibs; bin\debug />

should do the trick. Or you can add additional search paths in the Properties box of
the deployed application.

How can you debug failed assembly binds?

Use the Assembly Binding Log Viewer (fuslogvw.exe) to find out the paths searched.

Where are shared assemblies stored?

Global assembly cache.

How can you create a strong name for a .NET assembly?

With the help of Strong Name tool (sn.exe).

Wheres global assembly cache located on the system?

Usually C:\winnt\assembly or C:\windows\assembly.

Can you have two files with the same file name in GAC?
Yes, remember that GAC is a very special folder, and while normally you would not
be able to place two files with the same name into a Windows folder, GAC
differentiates by version number as well, so its possible for MyApp.dll and
MyApp.dll to co-exist in GAC if the first one is version 1.0.0.0 and the second one is
1.1.0.0.

So lets say I have an application that uses MyApp.dll assembly, version

1.0.0.0. There is a security bug in that assembly, and I publish the patch,
issuing it under name MyApp.dll 1.1.0.0. How do I tell the client applications
that are already installed to start using this new MyApp.dll?
Use publisher policy. To configure a publisher policy, use the publisher policy
configuration file, which uses a format similar app .config file. But unlike the app
.config file, a publisher policy file needs to be compiled into an assembly and placed
in the GAC.

What is delay signing?

Delay signing allows you to place a shared assembly in the GAC by signing the
assembly with just the public key. This allows the assembly to be signed with the
private key at a later stage, when the development process is complete and the
component or assembly is ready to be deployed. This process enables developers to
work with shared assemblies as if they were strongly named, and it secures the
private key of the signature from being accessed at different stages of development.

.Net and Com Interop Interview Questions and Answers

Describe the advantages of writing a managed code application instead of

unmanaged one. Whats involved in certain piece of code being managed?
The advantages include automatic garbage collection, memory management,
support for versioning and security. These advantages are provided through .NET
FCL and CLR, while with the unmanaged code similar capabilities had to be
implemented through third-party libraries or as a part of the application itself.

Are COM objects managed or unmanaged?

Since COM objects were written before .NET, apparently they are unmanaged.
Any code not written in the Microsoft .NET framework environment is
UNMANAGED. So naturally COM+ is unmanaged because it is written in Visual
Basic 6.

So can a COM object talk to a .NET object?

Yes, through Runtime Callable Wrapper (RCW) or PInvoke.

How do you generate an RCW from a COM object?

Use the Type Library Import utility shipped with SDK. tlbimp COMobject.dll
/out:.NETobject.dll or reference the COM library from Visual Studio in your project.

I cant import the COM object that I have on my machine. Did you write that
object?
You can only import your own objects. If you need to use a COM component from
another developer, you should obtain a Primary Interop Assembly (PIA) from
whoever authored the original object.

The answer to (5) is only partially correct. You *can* import COM objects, even if
they are not your own. It is recommended that you obtain the Primary Interop from
the vendor, but not required. The most common problem importing a COM DLL is
that it exposes objects that form part of a separate COM DLL. You can generate
interops for these additional DLLs, and then refer to them when importing the
problem DLL.

How do you call unmanaged methods from your .NET code through
PInvoke?
Supply a DllImport attribute. Declare the methods in your .NET code as static
extern. Do not implement the methods as they are implemented in your unmanaged
code, youre just providing declarations for method signatures.

Can you retrieve complex data types like structs from the PInvoke calls?
Yes, just make sure you re-declare that struct, so that managed code knows what to
do with it.

I want to expose my .NET objects to COM objects. Is that possible?

Yes, but few things should be considered first. Classes should implement interfaces
explicitly. Managed types must be public. Methods, properties, fields, and events
that are exposed to COM must be public. Types must have a public default
constructor with no arguments to be activated from COM. Types cannot be abstract.

Can you inherit a COM class in a .NET application?

The .NET Framework extends the COM model for reusability by adding
implementation inheritance. Managed types can derive directly or indirectly from a
COM coclass; more specifically, they can derive from the runtime callable wrapper
generated by the runtime. The derived type can expose all the method and
properties of the COM object as well as methods and properties implemented in
managed code. The resulting object is partly implemented in managed code and
partly implemented in unmanaged code.

Suppose I call a COM object from a .NET application, but COM object throws
an error. What happens on the .NET end?
COM methods report errors by returning HRESULTs; .NET methods report them by
throwing exceptions. The runtime handles the transition between the two. Each
exception class in the .NET Framework maps to an HRESULT.

Data Structures Interview Questions and Answers

What is data structure?
A data structure is a way of organizing data that considers not only the items
stored, but also their relationship to each other. Advance knowledge about the
relationship between data items allows designing of efficient algorithms for the
manipulation of data.

List out the areas in which data structures are applied extensively?
Compiler Design, Operating System, Database Management System, Statistical
analysis package, Numerical Analysis, Graphics, Artificial Intelligence, Simulation

If you are using C language to implement the heterogeneous linked list,

what pointer type will you use?
The heterogeneous linked list contains different data types in its nodes and we need
a link, pointer to connect them. It is not possible to use ordinary pointers for this.
So we go for void pointer. Void pointer is capable of storing pointer to any type as it
is a generic pointer type.

What is the data structures used to perform recursion?

Stack. Because of its LIFO (Last In First Out) property it remembers its caller, so
knows whom to return when the function has to return. Recursion makes use of
system stack for storing the return addresses of the function calls. Every recursive
function has its equivalent iterative (non-recursive) function. Even when such
equivalent iterative procedures are written, explicit stack is to be used.

What are the methods available in storing sequential files ?

Straight merging, Natural merging, Polyphase sort, Distribution of Initial runs.

List out few of the Application of tree data-structure?

The manipulation of Arithmetic expression, Symbol Table construction, Syntax
analysis.

In RDBMS, what is the efficient data structure used in the internal storage
representation?
B+ tree. Because in B+ tree, all the data is stored only in leaf nodes, that makes
searching easier. This corresponds to the records that shall be stored in leaf nodes.

What is a spanning Tree?

A spanning tree is a tree associated with a network. All the nodes of the graph
appear on the tree once. A minimum spanning tree is a spanning tree organized so
that the total edge weight between nodes is minimized.

Does the minimum spanning tree of a graph give the shortest distance
between any 2 specified nodes?
Minimal spanning tree assures that the total weight of the tree is kept at its
minimum. But it doesn't mean that the distance between any two nodes involved in
the minimum-spanning tree is minimum.

Whether Linked List is linear or Non-linear data structure?

According to Access strategies Linked list is a linear one. According to Storage
Linked List is a Non-linear one.
What is the quickest sorting method to use?
The answer depends on what you mean by quickest. For most sorting problems, it
just doesn't matter how quick the sort is because it is done infrequently or other
operations take significantly more time anyway. Even in cases in which sorting
speed is of the essence, there is no one answer. It depends on not only the size and
nature of the data, but also the likely order. No algorithm is best in all cases. There
are three sorting methods in this author's toolbox that are all very fast and that are
useful in different situations. Those methods are quick sort, merge sort, and radix
sort.

The Quick Sort

The quick sort algorithm is of the divide and conquer type. That means it works by
reducing a sorting problem into several easier sorting problems and solving each of
them. A dividing value is chosen from the input data, and the data is partitioned
into three sets: elements that belong before the dividing value, the value itself, and
elements that come after the dividing value. The partitioning is performed by
exchanging elements that are in the first set but belong in the third with elements
that are in the third set but belong in the first Elements that are equal to the
dividing element can be put in any of the three sets the algorithm will still work
properly.

The Merge Sort

The merge sort is a divide and conquer sort as well. It works by considering the
data to be sorted as a sequence of already-sorted lists (in the worst case, each list is
one element long). Adjacent sorted lists are merged into larger sorted lists until
there is a single sorted list containing all the elements. The merge sort is good at
sorting lists and other data structures that are not in arrays, and it can be used to
sort things that don't fit into memory. It also can be implemented as a stable sort.

The Radix Sort

The radix sort takes a list of integers and puts each element on a smaller list,
depending on the value of its least significant byte. Then the small lists are
concatenated, and the process is repeated for each more significant byte until the
list is sorted. The radix sort is simpler to implement on fixed-length data such as
ints.

How can I search for data in a linked list?

Unfortunately, the only way to search a linked list is with a linear search, because
the only way a linked list's members can be accessed is sequentially. Sometimes it
is quicker to take the data from a linked list and store it in a different data
structure so that searches can be more efficient.

What is the heap?

The heap is where malloc(), calloc(), and realloc() get memory.

Getting memory from the heap is much slower than getting it from the stack. On
the other hand, the heap is much more flexible than the stack. Memory can be
allocated at any time and deallocated in any order. Such memory isn't deallocated
automatically; you have to call free().
Recursive data structures are almost always implemented with memory from the
heap. Strings often come from there too, especially strings that could be very long
at runtime. If you can keep data in a local variable (and allocate it from the stack),
your code will run faster than if you put the data on the heap. Sometimes you can
use a better algorithm if you use the heap faster, or more robust, or more flexible.
Its a tradeoff.
If memory is allocated from the heap, its available until the program ends. That's
great if you remember to deallocate it when you're done. If you forget, it's a problem.
A memory leak is some allocated memory that's no longer needed but isn't
deallocated. If you have a memory leak inside a loop, you can use up all the
memory on the heap and not be able to get any more. (When that happens, the
allocation functions return a null pointer.) In some environments, if a program
doesn't deallocate everything it allocated, memory stays unavailable even after the
program ends.

What is the easiest sorting method to use?

The answer is the standard library function qsort(). It's the easiest sort by far for
several reasons:
It is already written.
It is already debugged.
It has been optimized as much as possible (usually).
Void qsort(void *buf, size_t num, size_t size, int (*comp)(const void *ele1, const void
*ele2));

What is the bucket size, when the overlapping and collision occur at same
time?
One. If there is only one entry possible in the bucket, when the collision occurs,
there is no way to accommodate the colliding value. This results in the overlapping
of values.

In an AVL tree, at what condition the balancing is to be done?

If the pivotal value (or the Height factor) is greater than 1 or less than 1.

Minimum number of queues needed to implement the priority queue?

Two. One queue is used for actual storing of data and another for storing priorities.

How many different trees are possible with 10 nodes ?

1014 - For example, consider a tree with 3 nodes(n=3), it will have the maximum
combination of 5 different (ie, 23 - 3 =? 5) trees.

What is a node class?

A node class is a class that, relies on the base class for services and
implementation, provides a wider interface to users than its base class, relies
primarily on virtual functions in its public interface depends on all its direct and
indirect base class can be understood only in the context of the base class can be
used as base for further derivation
can be used to create objects. A node class is a class that has added new services
or functionality beyond the services inherited from its base class.

When can you tell that a memory leak will occur?

A memory leak occurs when a program loses the ability to free a block of
dynamically allocated memory.

What is placement new?

When you want to call a constructor directly, you use the placement new.
Sometimes you have some raw memory thats already been allocated, and you need
to construct an object in the memory you have. Operator news special version
placement new allows you to do it.
class Widget
{
public :
Widget(int widgetsize);

Widget* Construct_widget_int_buffer(void *buffer,int widgetsize)

{
return new(buffer) Widget(widgetsize);
}
};
This function returns a pointer to a Widget object thats constructed within the
buffer passed to the function. Such a function might be useful for applications
using shared memory or memory-mapped I/O, because objects in such
applications must be placed at specific addresses or in memory allocated by special
routines.

List out the areas in which data structures are applied extensively ?
Compiler Design, Operating System, Database Management System, Statistical
analysis package, Numerical Analysis, Graphics, Artificial Intelligence, Simulation

If you are using C language to implement the heterogeneous linked list,

what pointer type will you use?
The heterogeneous linked list contains different data types in its nodes and we need
a link, pointer to connect them. It is not possible to use ordinary pointers for this.
So we go for void pointer. Void pointer is capable of storing pointer to any type as it
is a generic pointer type.

What is the data structures used to perform recursion?

Stack. Because of its LIFO (Last In First Out) property it remembers its caller so
knows whom to return when the function has to return. Recursion makes use of
system stack for storing the return addresses of the function calls. Every recursive
function has its equivalent iterative (non-recursive) function. Even when such
equivalent iterative procedures are written, explicit stack is to be used.

Whether Linked List is linear or Non-linear data structure?

According to Access strategies Linked list is a linear one.

According to Storage Linked List is a Non-linear one

Tell how to check whether a linked list is circular ?

Create two pointers, each set to the start of the list. Update each as follows:

while (pointer1)

{
pointer1 = pointer1->next;
pointer2 = pointer2->next; if (pointer2) pointer2=pointer2->next;
if (pointer1 == pointer2)

??????{
print (\circular\n\);
}
}

What is the difference between ARRAY and STACK?

STACK follows LIFO. Thus the item that is first entered would be the last removed.

In array the items can be entered or removed in any order. Basically each member
access is done using index. No strict order is to be followed here to remove a
particular element.

What is the difference between NULL AND VOID pointer?

NULL can be value for pointer type variables.
VOID is a type identifier which has not size.
NULL and void are not same. Example: void* ptr = NULL;

What is precision?
Precision refers the accuracy of the decimal portion of a value. Precision is the
number of digits allowed after the decimal point.

What is impact of signed numbers on the memory?

Sign of the number is the first bit of the storage allocated for that number. So you
get one bit less for storing the number. For example if you are storing an 8-bit
number, without sign, the range is 0-255. If you decide to store sign you get 7 bits
for the number plus one bit for the sign. So the range is -128 to +127.

How memory is reserved using a declaration statement ?

Memory is reserved using data type in the variable declaration. A programming
language implementation has predefined sizes for its data types.

For example, in C# the declaration int i; will reserve 32 bits for variable i.

A pointer declaration reserves memory for the address or the pointer variable, but
not for the data that it will point to. The memory for the data pointed by a pointer
has to be allocated at runtime.

The memory reserved by the compiler for simple variables and for storing pointer
address is allocated on the stack, while the memory allocated for pointer referenced
data at runtime is allocated on the heap.

How many parts are there in a declaration statement?

There are two main parts, variable identifier and data type and the third type is
optional which is type qualifier like signed/unsigned.

Is Pointer a variable?
Yes, a pointer is a variable and can be used as an element of a structure and as an
attribute of a class in some programming languages such as C++, but not Java.
However, the contents of a pointer is a memory address of another location of
memory, which is usually the memory address of another variable, element of a
structure, or attribute of a class.

What is Data Structure?

A data structure is a group of data elements grouped together under one name.
These data elements, known as members, can have different types and different
lengths. Some are used to store the data of same type and some are used to store
different types of data.

What is significance of * ?
The symbol * tells the computer that you are declaring a pointer.
Actually it depends on context.
In a statement like int *ptr; the * tells that you are declaring a pointer.
In a statement like int i = *ptr; it tells that you want to assign value pointed to by
ptr to variable i.

The symbol * is also called as Indirection Operator/ Dereferencing Operator.

Why do we Use a Multidimensional Array?

A multidimensional array can be useful to organize subgroups of data within an
array. In addition to organizing data stored in elements of an array, a
multidimensional array can store memory addresses of data in a pointer array and
an array of pointers.

Multidimensional arrays are used to store information in a matrix form.

e.g. a railway timetable, schedule cannot be stored as a single dimensional array.
One can use a 3-D array for storing height, width and length of each room on each
floor of a building.

How do you assign an address to an element of a pointer array ?

We can assign a memory address to an element of a pointer array by using the
address operator, which is the ampersand (&), in an assignment statement such as
ptemployee[0] = &projects[2];

Run Time Memory Allocation is known as ?

Allocating memory at runtime is called a dynamically allocating memory. In this,
you dynamically allocate memory by using the new operator when declaring the
array, for example : int grades[] = new int[10];

What method is used to place a value onto the top of a stack?

push() method, Push is the direction that data is being added to the stack. push()
member method places a value onto the top of a stack.

What method removes the value from the top of a stack?

The pop() member method removes the value from the top of a stack, which is then
returned by the pop() member method to the statement that calls the pop() member
method.

What does isEmpty() member method determines?

isEmpty() checks if the stack has at least one element. This method is called by
Pop() before retrieving and returning the top element.

What is a queue ?
A Queue is a sequential organization of data. A queue is a first in first out type of
data structure. An element is inserted at the last position and an element is always
taken out from the first position.

What is the relationship between a queue and its underlying array?

Data stored in a queue is actually stored in an array. Two indexes, front and end
will be used to identify the start and end of the queue.

When an element is removed front will be incremented by 1. In case it reaches past

the last index available it will be reset to 0. Then it will be checked with end. If it is
greater than end queue is empty.

When an element is added end will be incremented by 1. In case it reaches past the
last index available it will be reset to 0. After incrementing it will be checked with
front. If they are equal queue is full.

Which process places data at the back of the queue?

Enqueue is the process that places data at the back of the queue.
Why is the isEmpty() member method called?
The isEmpty() member method is called within the dequeue process to determine if
there is an item in the queue to be removed i.e. isEmpty() is called to decide
whether the queue has at least one element. This method is called by the dequeue()
method before returning the front element.

How is the front of the queue calculated ?

The front of the queue is calculated by front = (front+1) % size.

What does each entry in the Link List called?

Each entry in a linked list is called a node. Think of a node as an entry that has
three sub entries. One sub entry contains the data, which may be one attribute or
many attributes. Another points to the previous node, and the last points to the
next node. When you enter a new item on a linked list, you allocate the new node
and then set the pointers to previous and next nodes.

What is Linked List ?

Linked List is one of the fundamental data structures. It consists of a sequence of?
nodes, each containing arbitrary data fields and one or two (links) pointing to the
next and/or previous nodes. A linked list is a self-referential datatype because it
contains a pointer or link to another data of the same type. Linked lists permit
insertion and removal of nodes at any point in the list in constant time, but do not
allow random access.

What member function places a new node at the end of the linked list?
The appendNode() member function places a new node at the end of the linked list.
The appendNode() requires an integer representing the current data of the node.

How is any Data Structure application is classified among files?

A linked list application can be organized into a header file, source file and main
application file. The first file is the header file that contains the definition of the
NODE structure and the LinkedList class definition. The second file is a source
code file containing the implementation of member functions of the LinkedList
class. The last file is the application file that contains code that creates and uses
the LinkedList class.

Which file contains the definition of member functions?

Definitions of member functions for the Linked List class are contained in the
LinkedList.cpp file.

What are the major data structures used in the following areas : RDBMS,
Network data model & Hierarchical data model.
1. RDBMS Array (i.e. Array of structures)
2. Network data model Graph
3. Hierarchical data model Trees.
Difference between calloc and malloc ?
malloc: allocate n bytes
calloc: allocate m times n bytes initialized to 0

Ajax Interview Questions and Answers

What's AJAX ?
AJAX (Asynchronous JavaScript and XML) is a newly coined term for two powerful
browser features that have been around for years, but were overlooked by many web
developers until recently when applications such as Gmail, Google Suggest, and
Google Maps hit the streets.

Asynchronous JavaScript and XML, or Ajax (pronounced "Aye-Jacks"), is a web

development technique for creating interactive web applications using a
combination of XHTML (or HTML) and CSS for marking up and styling information.
(XML is commonly used, although any format will work, including preformatted
HTML, plain text, JSON and even EBML).
The Document Object Model manipulated through JavaScript to dynamically
display and interact with the information presented
The XMLHttpRequest object to exchange data asynchronously with the web server.
In some Ajax frameworks and in some situations, an IFrame object is used instead
of the XMLHttpRequest object to exchange data with the web server.
Like DHTML, LAMP, or SPA, Ajax is not a technology in itself, but a term that refers
to the use of a group of technologies together. In fact, derivative/composite
technologies based substantially upon Ajax, such as AFLAX, are already appearing.
Ajax applications are mostly executed on the user's computer; they can perform a
number of tasks without their performance being limited by the network. This
permits the development of interactive applications, in particular reactive and rich
graphic user interfaces.
Ajax applications target a well-documented platform, implemented by all major
browsers on most existing platforms. While it is uncertain that this compatibility
will resist the advent of the next generations of browsers (in particular, Firefox), at
the moment, Ajax applications are effectively cross-platform.
While the Ajax platform is more restricted than the Java platform, current Ajax
applications effectively fill part of the one-time niche of Java applets: extending the
browser with portable, lightweight mini-applications.

Ajax isnt a technology. Its really several technologies, each flourishing in its own
right, coming together in powerful new ways. Ajax incorporates:
* standards-based presentation using XHTML and CSS;
* dynamic display and interaction using the Document Object Model;
* data interchange and manipulation using XML and XSLT; * asynchronous data
retrieval using XMLHttpRequest;
* and JavaScript binding everything together.

Whos Using Ajax ?

Google is making a huge investment in developing the Ajax approach. All of the
major products Google has introduced over the last year Orkut, Gmail, the latest
beta version of Google Groups, Google Suggest, and Google Maps are Ajax
applications. (For more on the technical nuts and bolts of these Ajax
implementations, check out these excellent analyses of Gmail, Google Suggest, and
Google Maps.) Others are following suit: many of the features that people love in
Flickr depend on Ajax, and Amazons A9.com search engine applies similar
techniques.
These projects demonstrate that Ajax is not only technically sound, but also
practical for real-world applications. This isnt another technology that only works
in a laboratory. And Ajax applications can be any size, from the very simple, single-
function Google Suggest to the very complex and sophisticated Google Maps.

At Adaptive Path, weve been doing our own work with Ajax over the last several
months, and were realizing weve only scratched the surface of the rich interaction
and responsiveness that Ajax applications can provide. Ajax is an important
development for Web applications, and its importance is only going to grow. And
because there are so many developers out there who already know how to use these
technologies, we expect to see many more organizations following Googles lead in
reaping the competitive advantage Ajax provides.
Moving Forward

The biggest challenges in creating Ajax applications are not technical. The core Ajax
technologies are mature, stable, and well understood. Instead, the challenges are
for the designers of these applications: to forget what we think we know about the
limitations of the Web, and begin to imagine a wider, richer range of possibilities

Should I consider AJAX?

AJAX definitely has the buzz right now, but it might not be the right thing for you.
AJAX is limited to the latest browsers, exposes browser compatibility issues, and
requires new skill-sets for many. There is a good blog entry by Alex Bosworth on
AJAX Mistakes which is a good read before you jump full force into AJAX.
On the other hand you can achieve highly interactive rich web applications that are
responsive and appear really fast. While it is debatable as to whether an AJAX
based application is really faster, the user feels a sense of immediacy because they
are given active feedback while data is exchanged in the background. If you are an
early adopter and can handle the browser compatibility issues, and are willing to
learn some more skills, then AJAX is for you. It may be prudent to start off AJAX-
ifying a small portion or component of your application first. We all love technology,
but just remember the purpose of AJAX is to enhance your user's experience and
not hinder it.

Does AJAX work with Java?

Absolutely. Java is a great fit for AJAX! You can use Java Enterprise Edition servers
to generate AJAX client pages and to serve incoming AJAX requests, manage server
side state for AJAX clients, and connect AJAX clients to your enterprise resources.
The JavaServer Faces component model is a great fit for defining and using AJAX
components.

Won't my server-side framework provide me with AJAX?

You may be benefiting from AJAX already. Many existing Java based frameworks
already have some level of AJAX interactions and new frameworks and component
libraries are being developed to provide better AJAX support. I won't list all the Java
frameworks that use AJAX here, out of fear of missing someone, but you can find a
good list at www.ajaxpatterns.org/Java_Ajax_Frameworks.
If you have not chosen a framework yet it is recommended you consider using
JavaServer Faces or a JavaServer Faces based framework. JavaServer Faces
components can be created and used to abstract many of the details of generating
JavaScript, AJAX interactions, and DHTML processing and thus enable simple
AJAX used by JSF application developer and as plug-ins in JSF compatible IDE's,
such as Sun Java Studio Creator.

Where should I start?

Assuming the framework you are using does not suffice your use cases and you
would like to develop your own AJAX components or functionality I suggest you
start with the article Asynchronous JavaScript Technology and XML (AJAX) With
Java 2 Platform, Enterprise Edition.
If you would like to see a very basic example that includes source code you can
check out the tech tip Using AJAX with Java Technology. For a more complete list of
AJAX resources the Blueprints AJAX home page.
Next, I would recommend spending some time investigating AJAX libraries and
frameworks. If you choose to write your own AJAX clients-side script you are much
better off not re-inventing the wheel.
AJAX in Action by Dave Crane and Eric Pascarello with Darren James is good
resource. This book is helpful for the Java developer in that in contains an
appendix for learning JavaScript for the Java developer.

Did Adaptive Path invent Ajax? Did Google? Did Adaptive Path help build
Googles Ajax applications?
Neither Adaptive Path nor Google invented Ajax. Googles recent products are simply
the highest-profile examples of Ajax applications. Adaptive Path was not involved in
the development of Googles Ajax applications, but we have been doing Ajax work for
some of our other clients.
Is it possible to set session variables from javascript?
It's not possible to set any session variables directly from javascript as it is purely a
client side technology. You can use AJAX though to asyncronously...

Cannot parse XML generated by JSP I am generating an XML using JSP, when i run
the JSP in IE it shows the XML as per DOM, but when i try to parse it using
Javascript , the command xmldoc.documentElement...

This is working code I am using, it might help you. if (!isIE) xmldoc =

req.responseXML; else { //IE does not take the responseXML as...

What do I need to know to create my own AJAX functionality?

If you plan not to reuse and existing AJAX component here are some of the things
you will need to know.
Plan to learn Dynamic HTML (DHTML), the technology that is the foundation for
AJAX. DHTML enables browser-base real time interaction between a user and a web
page. DHTML is the combination of JavaScript, the Document Object Model (DOM)
and Cascading Style Sheets (CSS).
* JavaScript - JavaScript is a loosely typed object based scripting language
supported by all major browsers and essential for AJAX interactions. JavaScript in
a page is called when an event in a page occurs such as a page load, a mouse click,
or a key press in a form element.
* DOM - An API for accessing and manipulating structured documents. In most
cases DOM represent the structure of XML and HTML documents.
* CSS - Allows you to define the presentation of a page such as fonts, colors, sizes,
and positioning. CSS allow for a clear separation of the presentation from the
content and may be changed programmatically by JavaScript.
Understanding the basic request/response nature of HTTP is also important. Many
subtle bugs can result if you ignore the differences between the GET and OIst
methods when configuring an XMLHttpRequest and HTTP response codes when
processing callbacks.
JavaScript is the client-side glue, in a sense. JavaScript is used to create the
XMLHttpRequest Object and trigger the asynchronous call. JavaScript is used to
parse the returned content. JavaScript is used to analyze the returned data and
process returned messages. JavaScript is used to inject the new content into the
HTML using the DOM API and to modify the CSS.

Do I really need to learn JavaScript?

Basically yes if you plan to develop new AJAX functionality for your web application.

On the other hand, JSF components and component libraries can abstract the
details of JavaScript, DOM and CSS. These components can generate the necessary
artifacts to make AJAX interactions possible. Visual tools such as Java Studio
Creator may also use AJAX enabled JSF components to create applications,
shielding the tool developer from many of the details of
 AJAX. If you plan to develop your own JSF components or wire the events of
components together in a tool it is important that you have a basic understanding
of JavaScript. There are client-side JavaScript libraries (discussed below) that you
can call from your in page JavaScript that abstract browser differences. Object
Hierarchy and Inheritance in JavaScript is a great resource for a Java developer to
learn about JavaScript objects.

Do Ajax applications always deliver a better experience than traditional web

applications?
Not necessarily. Ajax gives interaction designers more flexibility. However, the more
power we have, the more caution we must use in exercising it. We must be careful
to use Ajax to enhance the user experience of our applications, not degrade it.

What JavaScript libraries and frameworks are available?

There are many libraries/frameworks out there (and many more emerging) that will
help abstract such things as all the nasty browser differences. Three good libraries
are The Dojo Toolkit, Prototype, and DWR.

* The Dojo Toolkit contains APIs and widgets to support the development of rich
web applications. Dojo contains an intelligent packaging system, UI effects, drag
and drop APIs, widget APIs, event abstraction, client storage APIs, and AJAX
interaction APIs. Dojo solves common usability issues such as support for dealing
with the navigation such as the ability to detect the browser back button, the ability
to support changes to the URL in the URL bar for bookmarking, and the ability to
gracefully degrade when AJAX/JavaScript is not fully support on the client. Dojo is
the Swiss Army Knife of JavaScript libraries. It provides the widest range of options
in a single library and it does a very good job supporting new and older browsers.
* Prototype focuses on AJAX interactions including a JavaScript AJAX object that
contains a few objects to do basic tasks such as make a request, update a portion
of a document, insert content into a document, and update a portion of a document
periodically. Prototype JavaScript library contains a set of JavaScript objects for
representing AJAX requests and contains utility functions for accessing in page
components and DOM manipulations. Script.aculo.us and Rico are built on top of
Prototype and provide UI effects, support for drag and drop, and include common
JavaScript centric widgets. If you are just looking to support AJAX interactions and
a few basic tasks Prototype is great. If you are looking for UI effects Rico and
Script.aculo.us are good options.
* Yahoo UI Library is a utility library and set of widgets using the APIs to support
rich clients. The utility library includes support for cross-browser AJAX
interactions, animation, DOM scriptging support, drag and drop, and cross browser
event support. The Yahoo UI Library is well documnented and contains many
examples.
* DWR (Dynamic Web Remoting) is a client-side and server-side framework that
focuses on allowing a developer to do RPC calls from client-side JavaScript to plain
old Java objects in a Java Enterprise Edition web container. On the server side
DWR uses a Servlet to interact with the Java objects and returns object
representations of the Java objects or XML documents. DWR will be easy to get up
and running and plays well with other Java technologies. If you are looking for a
client-side and server-side framework that integrates well use DWR.
* Google Web Toolkit (GWT) is client/server framework provided by Google that
allows a developer to write an AJAX application in pure Java. The GWT takes care
of the details of generating all the client-side code using a Java-to-JavaScript
compiler. One of the key benefits of the GWT Software Developer Kit (SDK) is that it
allows you to debug your applications in what is known as GWT hosted mode using
an embedded browser (IE on Windows and Mozilla/Gecko on Linux) that is tied to
the toolkit. In GWT hosted mode you setup through the code and debug it as it is
running on both the client and server. The GWT contains a default set of widgets
and widget containers. An application is built by coding a set of widgets and
containers together much like would be done in a Swing application. The GWT
Software Developer Kit (SDK) is limited to Linux and Windows XP/2000 though the
web applications it generates are compatible with the latest generation of the
mainstream browsers.

There are many new and emerging libraries for JavaScript and this list only reviews
some of the more common libraries. When making a choice choose the library
which suites your needs the best. While it might be better to choose one, there is
nothing stopping you from using more than one framework. For a more extensive
list of client-side frameworks see: Survey of AJAX/JavaScript Libraries.

What is the difference between proxied and proxyless calls?

Proxied calls are made through stub objects that mimic your PHP classes on the
JavaScript side. E.g., the helloworld class from the Hello World example.
Proxyless calls are made using utility javascript functions like HTML_AJAX.replace()
and HTML_AJAX.append().

Should I use XML or text, JavaScript, or HTML as a return type?

It depends. Clearly the 'X' in AJAX stands for XML, but several AJAX proponents
are quick to point out that nothing in AJAX, per se, precludes using other types of
payload, such as, JavaScript, HTML, or plain text.

* XML - Web Services and AJAX seem made for one another. You can use client-side
API's for downloading and parsing the XML content from RESTful Web Services.
(However be mindful with some SOAP based Web Services architectures the
payloads can get quite large and complex, and therefore may be inappropriate with
AJAX techniqes.)
* Plain Text - In this case server-generated text may be injected into a document or
evaluated by client-side logic.
* JavaScript - This is an extension to the plain text case with the exception that a
server-side component passes a fragment of JavaScript including JavaScript object
declarations. Using the JavaScript eval() function you can then create the objects
on the client. JavaScript Object Notation (JSON), which is a JavaScript object based
data exchange specification, relies on this technique.
* HTML - Injecting server-generated HTML fragments directly into a document is
generally a very effective AJAX technique. However, it can be complicated keeping
the server-side component in sync with what is displayed on the client.

Mashup is a popular term for creating a completely new web application by

combining the content from disparate Web Services and other online API's. A good
example of a mashup is housingmaps.com which graphically combines housing
want-ads from craiglist.org and maps from maps.google.com.

Are there Usability Issues with AJAX?

The nature of updating a page dynamically using data retrieved via AJAX
interactions and DHTML may result in drastically changing the appearance and
state of a page. A user might choose to use the browser's back or forward buttons,
bookmark a page, copy the URL from the URL bar and share it with a friend via an
email or chat client, or print a page at any given time. When designing an AJAX
based application you need to consider what the expected behavior would be in the
case of navigation, bookmarking, printing, and browser support as described below.

* Navigation - What would be the expected behavior of the back, forward, refresh,
and bookmark browser buttons in your application design. While you could
implement history manipulation manually it may be easer to use a JavaScript
frameworks such as Dojo that provides API's history manipulation and navigation
control.
* Bookmarking and URL sharing - Many users want to bookmark or cut and paste
the URL from the browser bar. Dojo provides client-side for bookmarking and URL
manipulation.
* Printing - In some cases printing dynamically rendered pages can be problematic.
Other considerations as a developer when using AJAX are:
* Browser Support - Not all AJAX/DHTML features are supported on all browsers or
all versions of a browser. See quirksmode.org for a list of browser support and
possible workarounds.
* JavaScript disabled - You should also consider what happens if the user disables
JavaScript. Additionally, there are several legitimate reasons why JavaScript and
CSS support may be unavailable on a user's web browser.
* Latency - Keep in mind latency in your design. A running application will be much
more responsive than when it is deployed.
Latency problems: myth or reality?
* Accessibility - Guaranteeing your site is accessible to people with disabilities is
not only a noble goal, it is also requited by law in many markets. Some marvelous
enabling technology is available to help people use the Web in spite of disabilities
including visual, auditory, physical, speech, cognitive, and neurological disabilities.
With a little forethought, and comprehension of some well documented best
practices, you can assure that your application is compatible with that enabling
technology.
Degradability is the term used to describe techniques used by web applications to
adapt to the wide range of web browser capabilities. Many AJAX libraries have
automatic degradability built in. But if you are coding your own custom AJAX
functionality, simply taking some care to follow the best practices promoted by
standards bodies like the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), and grass root
movements like the Web Standards community and many others, your application
can run usefully on browsers that are incapable of AJAX behaviors. Granted, your
application may loose some of the "wow factor" on these less capable browsers, but
your application will still be usable.
Remember to not design with AJAX just for the sake of coolness. The reason you
built your application is so people will use it. And people will not use your
application if your application is not compatible with their web browser.

Are there any frameworks available to help speedup development with

AJAX?
There are several browser-side frameworks available, each with their own
uniqueness...

Is Adaptive Path selling Ajax components or trademarking the name? Where

can I download it?
Ajax isnt something you can download. Its an approach a way of thinking about
the architecture of web applications using certain technologies. Neither the Ajax
name nor the approach are proprietary to Adaptive Path.

Should I use an HTTP GET or POST for my AJAX calls?

AJAX requests should use an HTTP GET request when retrieving data where the
data will not change for a given request URL. An HTTP POST should be used when
state is updated on the server. This is in line with HTTP idempotency
recommendations and is highly recommended for a consistent web application
architecture.

How do I debug JavaScript?

There are not that many tools out there that will support both client-side and
server-side debugging. I am certain this will change as AJAX applications
proliferate. I currently do my client-side and server-side debugging separately.
Below is some information on the client-side debuggers on some of the commonly
used browsers.

* Firefox/Mozilla/Netscape - Have a built in debugger Venkman which can be

helpful but there is a Firefox add on known as FireBug which provides all the
information and AJAX developer would ever need including the ability to inspect the
browser DOM, console access to the JavaScript runtime in the browser, and the
ability to see the HTTP requests and responses (including those made by an
XMLHttpRequest). I tend to develop my applications initially on Firefox using
Firebug then venture out to the other browsers.
* Safari - Has a debugger which needs to be enabled. See the Safari FAQ for details.
* Internet Explorer - There is MSDN Documentation on debugging JavaScript. A
developer toolbar for Internet Explorer may also be helpful.

While debuggers help a common technique knowing as "Alert Debugging" may be

used. In this case you place "alert()" function calls inline much like you would a
System.out.println. While a little primitive it works for most basic cases. Some
frameworks such as Dojo provide APIs for tracking debug statements.

How do I provide internationalized AJAX interactions?

Just because you are using XML does not mean you can properly send and receive
localized content using AJAX requests. To provide internationalized AJAX
components you need to do the following:

* Set the charset of the page to an encoding that is supported by your target
languages. I tend to use UTF-8 because it covers the most languages. The following
meta declaration in a HTML/JSP page will set the content type:

<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8">

* In the page JavaScript make sure to encode any parameters sent to the server.
JavaScript provides the escape() function which returns Unicode escape strings in
which localized text will appear in hexadecimal format. For more details on
JavaScript encoding see Comparing escape(), encodeURI(), and
encodeURIComponent().
* On the server-side component set the character encoding using the
HttpServletRequest.setCharacterEncoding() method. Before you access the localized
parameter using the HttpServletRequest.getParameter() call. In the case of UTF this
would be request.setCharactherEncoding("UTF-8");.
A server-side component returning AJAX responses needs to set the encoding of the
response to the same encoding used in the page.
response.setContentType("text/xml;charset=;UTF-8");
response.getWriter().write(" <response>invalid </response>");

For more information on using AJAX with Java Enterprise Edition technologies see
AJAX and Internationalization and for developing multi-lingual applications see
Developing Multilingual Web Applications Using JavaServer Pages Technology.

Some of the Google examples you cite dont use XML at all. Do I have to use
XML and/or XSLT in an Ajax application?
No. XML is the most fully-developed means of getting data in and out of an Ajax
client, but theres no reason you couldnt accomplish the same effects using a
technology like JavaScript Object Notation or any similar means of structuring data
for interchange.

Are Ajax applications easier to develop than traditional web applications?

Not necessarily. Ajax applications inevitably involve running complex JavaScript
code on the client. Making that complex code efficient and bug-free is not a task to
be taken lightly, and better development tools and frameworks will be needed to
help us meet that challenge.

When do I use a synchronous versus a asynchronous request?

Good question. They don't call it AJAX for nothing! A synchronous request would
block in page event processing and I don't see many use cases where a synchronous
request is preferable.

How do I handle concurrent AJAX requests?

With JavaScript you can have more than one AJAX request processing at a single
time. In order to insure the proper post processing of code it is recommended that
you use JavaScript Closures. The example below shows an XMLHttpRequest object
abstracted by a JavaScript object called AJAXInteraction. As arguments you pass in
the URL to call and the function to call when the processing is done.
function AJAXInteraction(url, callback) {

var req = init();

req.onreadystatechange = processRequest;

function init() {
if (window.XMLHttpRequest) {
return new XMLHttpRequest();
} else if (window.ActiveXObject) {
return new ActiveXObject("Microsoft.XMLHTTP");
}
}

function processRequest () {
if (req.readyState == 4) {
if (req.status == 200) {
if (callback) callback(req.responseXML);
}
}
}

this.doGet = function() {
req.open("GET", url, true);
req.send(null);
}

this.doPost = function(body) {
req.open("POST", url, true);
req.setRequestHeader("Content-Type", "
application/x-www-form-urlencoded");
req.send(body);
}
}

function makeRequest() {
var ai = new AJAXInteraction("processme",
function() { alert("Doing Post Process");});
ai.doGet();
}

The function makeRequest() in the example above creates an AJAXInteraction with

a URL to of "processme" and an inline function that will show an alert dialog with
the message "Doing Post Process". When ai.doGet() is called the AJAX interaction is
initiated and when server-side component mapped to the URL "processme" returns
a document which is passed to the callback function that was specified when the
AJAXInteraction was created.
Using this closures insures that the proper callback function associated with a
specific AJAX interaction is called. Caution should still be taken when creating
multiple closure objects in that make XmlHttpRequests as to there is a limited
number of sockets that are used to make requests at any given time. Because there
are limited number of requests that can be made concurrently. Internet Explorer for
example only allows for two concurrent AJAX requests at any given time. Other
browsers may allow more but it is generally between three and five requests. You
may choose to use pool of AJAXInteraction objects.
One thing to note when making multiple AJAX calls from the client is that the calls
are not guaranteed to return in any given order. Having closures within the callback
of a closure object can be used to ensure dependencies are processed correctly.
There is a discussion titled Ajaxian Fire and Forget Pattern that is helpful.

What do I do on the server to interact with an AJAX client?

The "Content-Type" header needs to be set to"text/xml". In servlets this may be
done using the HttpServletResponse.setContentType()should be set to "text/xml"
when the return type is XML. Many XMLHttpRequest implementations will result in
an error if the "Content-Type" header is set The code below shows how to set the
"Content-Type".

response.setContentType("text/xml");
response.getWriter().write("<response>invalid</response>");

You may also want to set whether or not to set the caches header for cases such as
autocomplete where you may want to notify proxy servers/and browsers not to
cache the results.

response.setContentType("text/xml");
response.setHeader("Cache-Control", "no-cache");
response.getWriter().write("<response>invalid</response>");

Note to the developer: Internet Explorer will automatically use a cached result of
any AJAX response from a HTTP GET if this header is not set which can make
things difficult for a developer. During development mode you may want set this
header. Where do I store state with an AJAX client

As with other browser based web applications you have a few options which
include:
* On the client in cookies - The size is limited (generally around 4KB X 20 cookies
per domain so a total of 80KB) and the content may not be secure unless encrypted
which is difficult but not impossible using JavaScript.
* On the client in the page - This can be done securely but can be problematic and
difficult to work with. See my blog entry on Storing State on the Client for more
details on this topic.
* On the client file system - This can be done if the client grants access to the
browser to write to the local file system. Depending on your uses cases this may be
necessary but caution is advised.
* On the Server - This is closer to the traditional model where the client view is of
the state on the server. Keeping the data in sync can be a bit problematic and thus
we have a solution Refreshing Data on this. As more information processing and
control moves to the client where state is stored will need to be re-evaluated.

Whats with the -alpha in the install instructions?

HTML_AJAX hasn't had a stable release yet and the pear installer doesn't install
non stable packages by default unless you specify a version.

How do I submit a form or a part of a form without a page refresh?

When creating a form make sure that the "form" element "onSubmit" attribute is set
to a JavaScript function that returns false.
<form onSubmit="doAJAXSubmit();return false;" >
<input type="text" id="tf1" />
<input type="submit" id="submit1" value="Update"/>
</>

You can also submit data by associating a function with a form button in a similar
way.

<form onSubmit="doAJAXSubmit();return false;" >

<input type="text" id="tf1" />
<input type="button" id="button1" onClick="doAJAXSubmit()" value="Update"/>
</>

Note that the form "onSubmit" attribute is still set. If the user hits the enter key in
the text field the form will be submitted so you still need to handle that case.
When updating the page it is recommend you wait to make sure that the AJAX
update of the form data was successful before updating the data in the page.
Otherwise, the data may not properly update and the user may not know. I like to
provide an informative message when doing a partial update and upon a successful
AJAX interaction I will then update the page.

How do I test my AJAX code?

There is a port of JUnit for client-side JavaScript called JsUnit

What exactly is the W3C DOM?

The W3C Document Object Model (DOM) is defined by the W3C as the following:
The Document Object Model is a platform- and language-neutral interface...

When will HTML_AJAX have a stable release?

Once all the major features are complete and the API has been tested, the roadmap
gives an idea of whats left to be done.

What parts of the HTML_AJAX API are stable?

We don't have a list right now, but most of the API is stable as of 0.3.0. There
should be no major changes at this point, though there will be lots of new
additions.

What Browsers does HTML_AJAX work with?

As of 0.3.0, all the examples that ship with HTML_AJAX have been verified to work
with
* Firefox 1.0+
* Internet Explorer 5.5+ (5.0 should work but it hasn't been tested)
Most things work with
* Safari 2+
* Opera 8.5+

Is the server or the client in control?

It depends. With AJAX the answer is more in between. Control can be more
centralized in a server-side component or as a mix of client-side and server-side
controllers.

* Centralized server-side controller - When having a more centralized controller the

key is to make sure the data in client-side page is in sync with that of the server.
Some applications may keep all the state on the server and push all updates to
client DOM via a simple JavaScript controller.
* Client and server-side controllers - This architecture would use JavaScript to do
all presentation related control, event processing, page manipulation, and rendering
of model data on the client. The server-side would be responsible for things such as
business logic and pushing updated model data to the client. In this case the server
would not have intimate knowledge of the presentation short of the initial page that
would be sent to the client page request.

There are some use cases where an entire AJAX application can be written in a
single page. Keep in mind if you choose this type of architecture that navigation and
bookmarking should be considered.
Both methods are viable depending on what you are trying to accomplish. I tend to
prefer spreading the control across the client and server.

Is Ajax just another name for XMLHttpRequest?

No. XMLHttpRequest is only part of the Ajax equation. XMLHttpRequest is the
technical component that makes the asynchronous server communication possible;
Ajax is our name for the overall approach described in the article, which relies not
only on XMLHttpRequest, but on CSS, DOM, and other technologies.

How do I abort the current XMLHttpRequest?

Just call the abort() method on the request.

What is the minimum version of PHP that needs to be running in order to

use HTML_AJAX?
The oldest PHP version i've fully tested HTML_AJAX is 4.3.11, but it should run on
4.2.0 without any problems. (Testing reports from PHP versions older then 4.3.11
would be appreciated.)

Why does HTML_AJAX hang on some server installs

If you run into an HTML_AJAX problem only on some servers, chances are your
running into a problem with output compression. If the output compression is
handled in the PHP config we detect that and do the right thing, but if its done from
an apache extension we have no way of knowing its going to compress the body.
Some times setting HTML_AJAX::sendContentLength to false fixes the problem, but
in other cases you'll need to disabled the extension for the AJAX pages.
I've also seen problems caused by debugging extensions like XDebug, disabling the
extension on the server page usually fixes that. Questions dealing with Using
HTML_AJAX, and general JavaScript development

How do I get the XMLHttpRequest object?

Depending upon the browser... if (window.ActiveXObject) { // Internet Explorer
http_request = new ActiveXObject("Microsoft.XMLHTTP"); } else if...

Are there any security issues with AJAX?

JavaScript is in plain view to the user with by selecting view source of the page.
JavaScript can not access the local filesystem without the user's permission. An
AJAX interaction can only be made with the servers-side component from which the
page was loaded. A proxy pattern could be used for AJAX interactions with external
services.
You need to be careful not to expose your application model in such as way that
your server-side components are at risk if a nefarious user to reverse engineer your
application. As with any other web application, consider using HTTPS to secure the
connection when confidential information is being exchanged.

What about applets and plugins ?

Don't be too quick to dump your plugin or applet based portions of your
application. While AJAX and DHTML can do drag and drop and other advanced
user interfaces there still limitations especially when it comes to browser support.
Plugins and applets have been around for a while and have been able to make AJAX
like requests for years. Applets provide a great set of UI components and APIs that
provide developers literally anything.
Many people disregard applets or plugins because there is a startup time to
initialize the plugin and there is no guarantee that the needed version of a plugin of
JVM is installed. Plugins and applets may not be as capable of manipulating the
page DOM. If you are in a uniform environment or can depend on a specific JVM or
plugin version being available (such as in a corporate environment) a plugin or
applet solution is great.
One thing to consider is a mix of AJAX and applets or plugins. Flickr uses a
combination of AJAX interactions/DHTML for labeling pictures and user interaction
and a plugin for manipulating photos and photo sets to provide a great user
experience. If you design your server-side components well they can talk to both
types of clients.

Why did you feel the need to give this a name?

I needed something shorter than Asynchronous
JavaScript+CSS+DOM+XMLHttpRequest to use when discussing this approach
with clients.

Is AJAX code cross browser compatible?

Not totally. Most browsers offer a native XMLHttpRequest JavaScript object, while
another one (Internet Explorer) require you to get it as an ActiveX object....

Techniques for asynchronous server communication have been around for

years. What makes Ajax a new approach?
Whats new is the prominent use of these techniques in real-world applications to
change the fundamental interaction model of the Web. Ajax is taking hold now
because these technologies and the industrys understanding of how to deploy them
most effectively have taken time to develop.

Is Ajax a technology platform or is it an architectural style?

Its both. Ajax is a set of technologies being used together in a particular way.

How do I handle the back and forward buttons?

While you could go out and create a custom solution that tracks the current state
on your application I recommend you leave this to the experts. Dojo addresses the
navigation in a browser neutral way as can be seen in the JavaScript example
below.
function updateOnServer(oldId, oldValue,
itemId, itemValue) {
var bindArgs = {
url: "faces/ajax-dlabel-update",
method: "post",
content: {"component-id": itemId, "component-value":
itemValue},
mimetype: "text/xml",
load: function(type, data) {
processUpdateResponse(data);
},
backButton: function() {
alert("old itemid was " + oldId);
},
forwardButton: function(){
alert("forward we must go!");
}
};
dojo.io.bind(bindArgs);
}

The example above will update a value on the server using dojo.io.bind() with a
function as a property that is responsible for dealing with the browser back button
event. As a developer you are capable of restoring the value to the oldValue or
taking any other action that you see fit. The underlying details of how the how the
browser button event are detected are hidden from the developer by Dojo.
AJAX: How to Handle Bookmarks and Back Buttons details this problem and
provides a JavaScript library Really Simple History framework (RSH) that focuses
just on the back and forward issue.

How does HTML_AJAX compare with the XAJAX project at Sourceforge?

XAJAX uses XML as a transport for data between the webpage and server, and you
don't write your own javascript data handlers to manipulate the data received from
the server. Instead you use a php class and built in javascript methods, a
combination that works very similiar to the HTML_AJAX_Action class and
haSerializer combo. XAJAX is designed for simplicity and ease of use.
HTML_AJAX allows for multiple transmission types for your ajax data - such as
urlencoding, json, phpserialized, plain text, with others planned, and has a system
you can use to write your own serializers to meet your specific needs. HTML_AJAX
has a class to help generate javascript (HTML_AJAX_Helper) similiar to ruby on
rail's javascript helper (although it isn't complete), and an action system similiar to
XAJAX's "action pump" that allows you to avoid writing javascript data handlers if
you desire.
But it also has the ability to write your own data handling routines, automatically
register classes and methods using a server "proxy" script, do different types of
callbacks including grabbing remote urls, choose between sync and async requests,
has iframe xmlhttprequest emulation fallback capabilities for users with old
browsers or disabled activeX, and is in active development with more features
planned (see the Road Map for details)
HTML_AJAX has additional features such as client pooling and priority queues for
more advanced users, and even a javascript utility class. Although you can use
HTML_AJAX the same way you use XAJAX, the additional features make it more
robust, extensible and flexible. And it is a pear package, you can use the pear
installer to both install and keep it up to date.
If you're asking which is "better" - as with most php scripts it's a matter of taste and
need. Do you need a quick, simple ajax solution? Or do you want something that's
flexible, extensible, and looking to incorporate even more great features? It depends
on the project, you as a writer, and your future plans.

What browsers support AJAX?

Internet Explorer 5.0 and up, Opera 7.6 and up, Netscape 7.1 and up, Firefox 1.0
and up, Safari 1.2 and up, among others.

How do I send an image using AJAX?

While it may appear that images are being sent when using AJAX with an
application like Google Maps what is really happening is that the URLs of images
are being send as the response of an AJAX request and those URLs are being set
using DHTML.
In this example an XML document is returned from an AJAX interaction and the
category bar is populated.

<categories>
<category>
<cat-id>1</cat-id>
<name>Books</name>
<description>Fun to read</description>
<image-url>books_icon.gif</image-url>
</category>
<category>
<cat-id>2</cat-id>
<name>Electronics</name>
<description>Must have gadgets</description>
<image-url>electronics.gif</image-url>
</category>
</categories>

Notice that the image-url element contains the location of the URL for the image
representing a category. The callback method of an AJAX interaction will parse the
response XML document and call the addCategory function for each category
included in the response XML document. The addCategory function looks up a
table row element "categoryTable" in body of the page and adds a row to the element
which contains the image.

<scrip type="text/javascript" >

...
function addCategory(id, name, imageSrc) {

var categoryTable = document.getElementById("categoryTable");

var row = document.createElement("tr");
var catCell = document.createElement("td");
var img = document.createElement("img");
img.src = ("images\\" + imageSrc);
var link = document.createElement("a");
link.className ="category";
link.appendChild(document.createTextNode(name));
link.setAttribute("onclick", "catalog?command=category&catid=" + id);
catCell.appendChild(img);
catCell.appendChild(link);
row.appendChild(catCell);
categoryTable.appendChild(row);
}
</script>

...

<table>
<tr>
<td width="300" bgoclor="lightGray">
<table id="categoryTable" border="0" cellpadding="0"></table>
</td>
<td id="body" width="100%">Body Here</td>
</tr>
</table>

Note that the source of the image is set to the image source. The image is loaded by
a subsequent HTTP request for the image at the URL "images/books_icon.gif" or
"images/electronic_icon.gif" that occurs when the img element is added to the
categoryTable.

Will HTML_AJAX integrate with other Javascript AJAX libraries such as

scriptaculous ? How would this integration look like?
HTML_AJAX doesn't have specific plans to integrate with other JavaScript libraries.
Part of this is because external dependencies make for a more complicated
installation process. It might make sense to offer some optional dependencies on a
library like scriptaculous automatically using its visual effects for the loading box
or something, but there isn't a lot to gain from making default visuals like that
flashier since they are designed to be easily replaceable.

Most integration would take place in higher level components. Its unclear whether
higher level components like that should be part of HTML_AJAX delivered through
PEAR or if they should just be supported by HTML_AJAX and made available from
http://htmlajax.org or some other site. If your interested in building widgets or
components based on HTML_AJAX please let me know.

HTML_AJAX does however offer the ability to use its library loading mechanism
with any JavaScript library. I use scriptaculous in conjunction with HTML_AJAX
and I load both libraries through the server.

To do this you just need to register the library with your server and load add its flag
to your include line.

<?php
$this->server->registerJSLibrary('scriptaculous',
array('prototype.js','scriptaculous.js','builder.js','effects.js','dragdrop.js','controls.js','s
lider.js'), '/pathto/scriptaculous/');?>
<script type="text/javascrpt" src="server.php?client=scriptaculous"></script>

When should I use an Java applet instead of AJAX?

Applets provide a rich experience on the client side and there are many things they
can do that an AJAX application cannot do, such as custom data streaming,
graphic manipulation, threading, and advanced GUIs. While DHTML with the use of
AJAX has been able to push the boundaries on what you can do on the client, there
are some things that it just cannot do. The reason AJAX is so popular is that it only
requires functionality built into the browser (namely DHTML and AJAX
capabilities). The user does not need to download and/or configure plugins. It is
easy to incrementally update functionality and know that that functionality will
readily available, and there are not any complicated deployment issues. That said,
AJAX-based functionality does need to take browser differences into consideration.
This is why we recommend using a JavaScript library such as Dojo which abstracts
browser differences. So the "bottom line" is: If you are creating advanced UIs where
you need more advanced features on the client where you want UI accuracy down to
the pixel, to do complex computations on the client, use specialized networking
techniques, and where you know that the applet plugin is available for your target
audience, applets are the way to go. AJAX/DHTML works well for applications
where you know the users are using the latest generation of browsers, where
DHTML/AJAX "good enough" for you, and where your developers have
JavaScript/DHTML/AJAX skills. Many amazing things can be done with
AJAX/DHTML but there are limitations. AJAX and applets can be used together in
the same UIs with AJAX providing the basic structure and applets providing more
advanced functionality. The Java can communicate to JavaScript using the Live-
Connect APIs. The question should not be should framed as do I use AJAX or
applets, but rather which technology makes the best sense for what you are doing.
AJAX and applets do not have to be mutually exclusive.
What kinds of applications is Ajax best suited for?
We dont know yet. Because this is a relatively new approach, our understanding of
where Ajax can best be applied is still in its infancy. Sometimes the traditional web
application model is the most appropriate solution to a problem.

Does this mean Adaptive Path is anti-Flash?

Not at all. Macromedia is an Adaptive Path client, and weve long been supporters of
Flash technology. As Ajax matures, we expect that sometimes Ajax will be the better
solution to a particular problem, and sometimes Flash will be the better solution.
Were also interested in exploring ways the technologies can be mixed (as in the
case of Flickr, which uses both).

Where can I find examples of AJAX?

While components of AJAX have been around for some time (for instance, 1999 for
XMLHttpRequest), it really didn't become that popular until Google took...

What is the XMLHttpRequest object?

It offers a non-blocking way for JavaScript to communicate back to the web server
to update only part of the web page.

Does Ajax have significant accessibility or browser compatibility

limitations? Do Ajax applications break the back button? Is Ajax compatible
with REST? Are there security considerations with Ajax development? Can
Ajax applications be made to work for users who have JavaScript turned
off?
The answer to all of these questions is maybe. Many developers are already
working on ways to address these concerns. We think theres more work to be done
to determine all the limitations of Ajax, and we expect the Ajax development
community to uncover more issues like these along the way.

How do I access data from other domains to create a mashup with Java?
From your JavaScript clients you can access data in other domains if the return
data is provide in JSON format. In essence you can create a JavaScript client that
runs operates using data from a different server. This technique is know as JSON
with Padding or JSONP. There are questions as to whether this method is secure as
you are retrieving data from outside your domain and allowing it to be excuted in
the context of your domain. Not all data from third parties is accessible as JSON
and in some cases you may want an extra level of protection. With Java you can
provide a proxy to third party services using a web component such as a servlet.
This proxy can manage the communication with a third party service and provide
the data to your clients in a format of your choosing. You can also cache data at
your proxy and reduce trips to service. For more on using a Java proxy to create
mashups see The XmlHttpProxy Client for Java.

Does Java have support for Comet style server-side push?

Current AJAX applications use polling to communicate changes data between the
server and client. Some applications, such as chat applications, stock tickers, or
score boards require more immediate notifications of updates to the client. Comet is
an event based low latency server side push for AJAX applications. Comet
communication keeps one of the two connections available to the browser open to
continously communicate events from the server to the client. A Java based
solution for Comet is being developed for Glassfish on top of the Grizzly HTTP
connector. See Enabling Grizzly by Jean-Francois Arcand for more details.

How do I create a thread to do AJAX polling?

JavaScript does not have threads. JavaScript functions are called when an event
happens in a page such as the page is loaded, a mouse click, or a form element
gains focus. You can create a timer using the setTimeout which takes a function
name and time in milliseconds as arguments. You can then loop by calling the
same function as can be seen in the JavaScript example below.

function checkForMessage() {
// start AJAX interaction with processCallback as the callback function
}

// callback for the request

function processCallback() {

// do post processing
setTimeout("checkForMessage()", 10000);
}

Notice that the checkForMessage will continue to loop indefinitely. You may want to
vary the increment the interval based on activity in the page or your use cases. You
may also choose to have logic that would break out of the loop based on some AJAX
response processing condition.

Is the XMLHttpRequest object part of a W3C standard?

No. Or not yet. It is part of the DOM Level 3 Load and Save Specification proposal.