4250. Web Services Using Visual Basic and ASP.NET

4250.� Web Services Using Visual Basic and ASP.NET

Rev. 3.0

This course provides a realistic, hands-on, comprehensive coverage of developing Web services using ASP.NET and Visual Basic. Web services are an evolving series of standards that enable programs on various computers to communicate with other programs on similar or disparate computers transparently over the Internet. This course teaches in detail the skills needed to program Web services using ASP.NET. It also examines the fundamentals of SOAP and WSDL essential for creating interoperable Web services. The course is current to .NET 3.5 and Visual Studio 2008, with coverage of newer features such as the WS-I Basic Profile 1.1, SOAP 1.2, event pattern for calling Web services asynchronously, and more. It also includes an introduction to Windows Communication Foundation (WCF), Microsoft�s modern unified framework for creating distributed applications.

The first chapter introduces Web services and Service Oriented Architecture (SOA). The baseline Web service specifications of XML, SOAP, WSDL and UDDI are outlined.

Chapter 2 covers the fundamentals of SOAP and WSDL. Web services are developed using the .NET Framework SDK. Chapter 3 covers the details of how to create and debug ASP.NET Web services using Visual Studio 2008.

Chapter 4 shows how to create clients for Web services using an SDK tool and using Visual Studio 2008. Sophisticated topics, such as state management, caching and transactions in Web services are covered in Chapter 5. The next three chapters discuss important technologies at the foundation of ASP.NET Web services, including XML serialization, SOAP and WSDL.

Chapter 9 provides a practical discussion of data access using Web services. The course concludes with an introduction to Windows Communication Foundation.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

� Gain a comprehensive understanding of the philosophy and architecture of Web services and Service Oriented Architecture

� Acquire a working knowledge of creating and consuming Web services using the .NET Framework 3.5 and Visual Studio 2008

� Attain a detailed knowledge of the building blocks of Web services, including XML, SOAP and WSDL

� Understand issues in the ASP.NET programming model, such as caching, data handling and state management

� Implement Web services and clients using WCF.

� Understand the issues of interoperability between Web services created using ASP.NET and those created using WCF.

Course Duration: 4 days

Prerequisites: Knowledge of the .NET Framework using Visual Basic and an understanding of the fundamentals of XML. Some experience in ASP.NET is advantageous.

1. What Are Web Services?

Introduction to Distributed Computing

Network Latency

Object State and Scalability

Interoperability

SOAP

WSDL

UDDI

Web Service Business Models

Service Oriented Architecture (SOA)

ASP.NET Web Services

Web Service Enhancements (WSE)

Windows Communications Framework (WCF)

2. Web Services Fundamentals

Creating a Web Service Using ASP.NET

Deploying a Web Service Using IIS

Testing a Web Service

HTTP

XML

SOAP 1.1 and SOAP 1.2

Web Service Clients

WSDL

3. Developing ASP.NET Web Services

Using Visual Studio 2008 to Develop Web Services

Visual Web Developer

Using ASP.NET Development Server

An Overview of the Web Services Namespaces

Deriving from the WebService Class

@Webservice Attribute

WebService Class

Adding a WebMethod to Web Services

Debugging Web Services

WS-I Basic Profile

ASP.NET Configuration

4. Web Service Clients

Web Service Proxies

Web Services Description Language Tool (Wsdl.exe)

Understanding the Proxy Code

Creating a Proxy with Visual Studio 2008

Returning Complex User-Defined Data Types

5. ASP.NET Web Services Programming Model

Asynchronous Programming in Web Services

Asynchronous Events in .NET 2.0

Managing State in ASP.NET Web Services

Transactions in ASP.NET Web Services

Caching in ASP.NET Web Services

6. XML Serialization

XmlSerializer

What Is Not Serialized

Writing and Reading XML

Customizing XML Serialization

XML Schema and XSD

Creating Classes from Schemas

XML Serialization and Web Services

7. More about SOAP

The Structure of SOAP Messages

Using SOAP Headers

SOAP Faults

Document and RPC Style Messaging

Literal and Encoded Use

Customizing SOAP with Attributes

Using SOAP 1.2

8. More about WSDL

The Need for Service Description

An IDL for Web Services

WSDL Namespaces

The WSDL Description Model

WSDL Descriptors as Schema

Message Description

Messaging Scenarios

Operations: Input, Output, and Fault

Messages

Service Description

Extending WSDL

.NET WSDL Classes

WSDL First!

9. Data Access with Web Services

Multiple-Project Solutions in Visual Studio

Multiple-Tier Data Access

Data Access Using ADO.NET 3.5

A Data Access Web Service

Data Binding with Windows Forms

Using Typed DataSets

Binding to a Web Service

10. Introduction to WCF

What is WCF?

Address, Binding and Contract

WCF Services and Clients

IIS Hosting

Interoperability with ASMX Web Services

Data Contracts

Appendix A. Learning Resources

Appendix B. Configuring IIS for ASP.NET

System Requirements

Required software is Visual Studio 2008, Standard Edition or higher. The recommended operating system is Windows XP with at least Service Pack 2. Internet Information Services should be installed. Service Pack 1 for Visual Studio 2008 is recommended. See the course Setup Notes for details.

A good minimal hardware profile for this course would have a 2 GHz or better CPU, 512 MB of RAM, and at least 4 GB of free disk space for tools installation and courseware. The installation of Visual Studio 2008 Service Pack 1 requires 5.5 GB of free disk space on the partition on which the operating system is installed.