What are the Differences between ASP.NET 3.5 and ASP.NET 4.0 | What are new features in Asp.net 4.0

Introduction

Here I will explain about differences between Asp.net 3.5 and Asp.net 4.0. 

Description

In previous post I explained differences between asp.net 1.0 and asp.net 2.0 and in another post I explained differences between asp.net 2.0 and asp.net 3.5 . Now I will explain about differences between asp.net 3.5 and asp.net 4.0.

Check below table for Asp.net 3.5 Features

SNo	Feature	Asp.net 3.5
1.	New Features	Asp.net 3.5 includes the following new features        1) Listview Control        2) DataPager Control        3) Nested Master Pages        4) Linq DataSource
2.	Multi Targeting	Asp.net 3.5 supports multi –targeting What is multi – targeting? Check below description
3.	Ajax Support	In Asp.net 3.5, Ajax is integrated in .NET framework, thereby making the process of building intuitive cool user interfaces easier
4.	Silverlight Support	It support for silverlight
5.	JavaScript Debugging	It support for JavaScript debugging
6.	LINQ Support	It supports LINQ

Check below details for Asp.net 4.0 Features

In Asp.net 4.0 many new features has included in the .NET Framework 4 in visual studio 2010.

Web.config File Refactoring

The Web.config file that contains the configuration for a Web application has grown considerably over the past few releases of the .NET Framework as new features have been added, such as Ajax, routing, and integration with IIS 7. This has made it harder to configure or start new Web applications without a tool like Visual Studio. In .the NET Framework 4, the major configuration elements have been moved to the machine.config file, and applications now inherit these settings. This allows the Web.config file in ASP.NET 4 applications either to be empty or to contain just the following lines, which specify for Visual Studio what version of the framework the application is targeting:

<?xml version="1.0"?> <configuration> <system.web> <compilation targetFramework="4.0" /> </system.web> </configuration

Extensible Output Caching 

ASP.NET 4 adds an extensibility point to output caching that enables you to configure one or more custom output-cache providers. Output-cache providers can use any storage mechanism to persist HTML content. This makes it possible to create custom output-cache providers for diverse persistence mechanisms, which can include local or remote disks, cloud storage, and distributed cache engines.

Permanently Redirecting a Page

ASP.NET 4 adds a new RedirectPermanent helper method that makes it easy to issue HTTP 301 Moved Permanently responses, as in the following example:
 
RedirectPermanent("/newpath/foroldcontent.aspx"); 
Search engines and other user agents that recognize permanent redirects will store the new URL 

that is associated with the content, which eliminates the unnecessary round trip made by the 

browser for temporary redirects.

Shrinking Session State

ASP.NET 4 introduces a new compression option for both kinds of out-of-process session-state providers. When the compressionEnabled configuration option shown in the following example is set to true, ASP.NET will compress (and decompress) serialized session state by using the .NET Framework System.IO.Compression.GZipStream class.

<sessionState mode="SqlServer" sqlConnectionString="data source=dbserver;Initial Catalog=aspnetstate" allowCustomSqlDatabase="true" compressionEnabled="true"/>

Multi-Targeting

Asp.net 4 also supports Multi Targeting check this post for multi- targeting

jQuery Included with Web Forms and MVC

The Visual Studio templates for both Web Forms and MVC include the open-source jQuery library. When you create a new website or project, a Scripts folder containing the following 3 files is created:

• jQuery-1.4.1.js – The human-readable, unminified version of the jQuery library.
• jQuery-14.1.min.js – The minified version of the jQuery library.
• jQuery-1.4.1-vsdoc.js – The Intellisense documentation file for the jQuery library.

Include the unminified version of jQuery while developing an application. Include the minified version of jQuery for production applications. 

For example, the following Web Forms page illustrates how you can use jQuery to change the background color of ASP.NET TextBox controls to yellow when they have focus. 

<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> <head id="Head1" runat="server"> <title>Show jQuery</title> </head> <body> <form id="form1" runat="server"> <div> <asp:TextBox ID="txtFirstName" runat="server" /> <br /> <asp:TextBox ID="txtLastName" runat="server" /> </div> </form> <script src="Scripts/jquery-1.4.1.js" type="text/javascript"></script> <script type="text/javascript"> $("input").focus( function() { $(this).css("background-color", "yellow"); }); </script> </body> </html>

Content Delivery Network Support

The Microsoft Ajax Content Delivery Network (CDN) enables you to easily add ASP.NET Ajax and jQuery scripts to your Web applications. For example, you can start using the jQuery library simply by adding a <script> tag to your page that points to Ajax.microsoft.com like this:

<script src="http://ajax.microsoft.com/ajax/jquery/jquery-1.4.2.js" type="text/javascript"></script>

ScriptManager Explicit Scripts

In the past, if you used the ASP.NET ScriptManger then you were required to load the entire monolithic ASP.NET Ajax Library. By taking advantage of the new ScriptManager.AjaxFrameworkMode property, you can control exactly which components of the ASP.NET Ajax Library are loaded and load only the components of the ASP.NET Ajax Library that you need.
The ScriptManager.AjaxFrameworkMode property can be set to the following values:

• Enabled -- Specifies that the ScriptManager control automatically includes the MicrosoftAjax.js script file, which is a combined script file of every core framework script (legacy behavior).
• Disabled -- Specifies that all Microsoft Ajax script features are disabled and that the ScriptManager control does not reference any scripts automatically.
• Explicit -- Specifies that you will explicitly include script references to individual framework core script file that your page requires, and that you will include references to the dependencies that each script file requires.

For example, if you set the AjaxFrameworkMode property to the value Explicit then you can specify the particular ASP.NET Ajax component scripts that you need:

<asp:ScriptManager ID="sm1" AjaxFrameworkMode="Explicit" runat="server"> <Scripts> <asp:ScriptReference Name="MicrosoftAjaxCore.js" /> <asp:ScriptReference Name="MicrosoftAjaxComponentModel.js" /> <asp:ScriptReference Name="MicrosoftAjaxSerialization.js" /> <asp:ScriptReference Name="MicrosoftAjaxNetwork.js" />    </Scripts> </asp:ScriptManager>

Web Forms

Web Forms has been a core feature in ASP.NET since the release of ASP.NET 1.0. Many enhancements have been in this area for ASP.NET 4, including the following:

• The ability to set meta tags.
• More control over view state.
• Easier ways to work with browser capabilities.
• Support for using ASP.NET routing with Web Forms.
• More control over generated IDs.
• The ability to persist selected rows in data controls.
• More control over rendered HTML in the FormView and ListView controls.
• Filtering support for data source controls.

Setting Meta Tags with the Page.MetaKeywords and Page.MetaDescription Properties

ASP.NET 4 adds two properties to the Page class, MetaKeywords and MetaDescription. These two properties represent corresponding meta tags in your page, as shown in the following example:

<head id="Head1" runat="server"> <title>Untitled Page</title> <meta name="keywords" content="These, are, my, keywords" /> <meta name="description" content="This is the description of my page" /> </head>

Enabling View State for Individual Controls

By default, view state is enabled for the page, with the result that each control on the page potentially stores view state even if it is not required for the application. View state data is included in the markup that a page generates and increases the amount of time it takes to send a page to the client and post it back. Storing more view state than is necessary can cause significant performance degradation. In earlier versions of ASP.NET, developers could disable view state for individual controls in order to reduce page size, but had to do so explicitly for individual controls. In ASP.NET 4, Web server controls include a ViewStateMode property that lets you disable view state by default and then enable it only for the controls that require it in the page.

Changes to Browser Capabilities

In ASP.NET 4, browser definition files have been updated to contain information about recently introduced browsers and devices such as Google Chrome, Research in Motion BlackBerry smartphones, and Apple iPhone.

Routing in ASP.NET 4

ASP.NET 4 adds built-in support for using routing with Web Forms. Routing lets you configure an application to accept request URLs that do not map to physical files. Instead, you can use routing to define URLs that are meaningful to users and that can help with search-engine optimization (SEO) for your application. For example, the URL for a page that displays product categories in an existing application might look like the following example:

http://website/products.aspx?categoryid=12 

By using routing, you can configure the application to accept the following URL to render the same information:

http://website/products/software 

Persisting Row Selection in Data Controls

The GridView and ListView controls can let users select a row. In previous versions of ASP.NET, selection has been based on the row index on the page. For example, if you select the third item on page 1 and then move to page 2, the third item on that page is selected.
Persisted selection was initially supported only in Dynamic Data projects in the .NET Framework 3.5 SP1. When this feature is enabled, the current selected item is based on the data key for the item. This means that if you select the third row on page 1 and move to page 2, nothing is selected on page 2. When you move back to page 1, the third row is still selected. Persisted selection is now supported for the GridView and ListView controls in all projects by using the EnablePersistedSelection property, as shown in the following example:

<asp:GridView id="GridView2" runat="server" EnablePersistedSelection="true"> </asp:GridView>

ASP.NET Chart Control

The ASP.NET Chart control expands the data-visualization offerings in the .NET Framework. Using the Chart control, you can create ASP.NET pages that have intuitive and visually compelling charts for complex statistical or financial analysis. The ASP.NET Chart control was introduced as an add-on to the .NET Framework version 3.5 SP1 release and is part of the .NET Framework 4 release.
The control includes the following features:

• 35 distinct chart types.
• An unlimited number of chart areas, titles, legends, and annotations.
• A wide variety of appearance settings for all chart elements.
• 3-D support for most chart types.
• Smart data labels that can automatically fit around data points.
• Strip lines, scale breaks, and logarithmic scaling.
• More than 50 financial and statistical formulas for data analysis and transformation.
• Simple binding and manipulation of chart data.
• Support for common data formats such as dates, times, and currency.
• Support for interactivity and event-driven customization, including client click events using Ajax.
• State management.
• Binary streaming.

ListView Control Enhancements

The ListView control has been made easier to use in ASP.NET 4. The earlier version of the control required that you specify a layout template that contained a server control with a known ID. The following markup shows a typical example of how to use the ListView control in ASP.NET 3.5.

<asp:ListView ID="ListView1" runat="server"> <LayoutTemplate> <asp:PlaceHolder ID="ItemPlaceHolder" runat="server"></asp:PlaceHolder> </LayoutTemplate> <ItemTemplate> <% Eval("LastName")%> </ItemTemplate> </asp:ListView>

In ASP.NET 4, the ListView control does not require a layout template. The markup shown in the previous example can be replaced with the following markup:

<asp:ListView ID="ListView1" runat="server"> <ItemTemplate> <% Eval("LastName")%> </ItemTemplate> </asp:ListView>

Menu Control Improvements

Before ASP.NET 4, the Menu control rendered a series of HTML tables. This made it more difficult to apply CSS styles outside of setting inline properties and was also not compliant with accessibility standards.

In ASP.NET 4, the control now renders HTML using semantic markup that consists of an unordered list and list elements.

Wizard and CreateUserWizard Controls

The ASP.NET Wizard and CreateUserWizard controls support templates that let you define the HTML that they render.
ASP.NET MVC

ASP.NET MVC was introduced as an add-on framework to ASP.NET 3.5 SP1 in March 2009. Visual Studio 2010 includes ASP.NET MVC 2, which includes new features and capabilities.

Dynamic Data

Dynamic Data was introduced in the .NET Framework 3.5 SP1 release in mid-2008. This feature provides many enhancements for creating data-driven applications, including the following:

• A RAD experience for quickly building a data-driven Web site.
• Automatic validation that is based on constraints defined in the data model.
• The ability to easily change the markup that is generated for fields in the GridView and DetailsView controls by using field templates that are part of your Dynamic Data project.

For ASP.NET 4, Dynamic Data has been enhanced to give developers even more power for quickly building data-driven Web sites.

Enabling Dynamic Data for Existing Projects

Dynamic Data features that shipped in the .NET Framework 3.5 SP1 brought new features such as the following:

• Field templates – These provide data-type-based templates for data-bound controls. Field templates provide a simpler way to customize the look of data controls than using template fields for each field.
• Validation – Dynamic Data lets you use attributes on data classes to specify validation for common scenarios like required fields, range checking, type checking, pattern matching using regular expressions, and custom validation. Validation is enforced by the data controls.

Declarative DynamicDataManager Control Syntax

The DynamicDataManager control has been enhanced so that you can configure it declaratively, as with most controls in ASP.NET, instead of only in code. The markup for the DynamicDataManager control looks like the following example:
 

<asp:DynamicDataManager ID="DynamicDataManager1" runat="server" AutoLoadForeignKeys="true"> <DataControls> <asp:DataControlReference ControlID="GridView1" /> </DataControls> </asp:DynamicDataManager> <asp:GridView id="GridView1" runat="server" </asp:GridView>

This markup enables Dynamic Data behavior for the GridView1 control that is referenced in the DataControls section of the DynamicDataManager control.

New Field Templates for URLs and E-mail Addresses

ASP.NET 4 introduces two new built-in field templates, EmailAddress.ascx and Url.ascx. These templates are used for fields that are marked as EmailAddress or Url with the DataType attribute. For EmailAddress objects, the field is displayed as a hyperlink that is created by using the mailto: protocol. When users click the link, it opens the user's e-mail client and creates a skeleton message. Objects typed as Url are displayed as ordinary hyperlinks.
The following example shows how fields would be marked. 
 

[DataType(DataType.EmailAddress)] public object HomeEmail { get; set; } [DataType(DataType.Url)] public object Website { get; set; }

Creating Links with the DynamicHyperLink Control

Dynamic Data uses the new routing feature that was added in the .NET Framework 3.5 SP1 to control the URLs that end users see when they access the Web site. The new DynamicHyperLink control makes it easy to build links to pages in a Dynamic Data site. The following example shows how to use the DynamicHyperLink control:

<asp:DynamicHyperLink ID="ListHyperLink" runat="server" Action="List" TableName="Products"> Show all products </asp:DynamicHyperLink>

This markup creates a link that points to the List page for the Products table based on routes that are defined in the Global.asax file. The control automatically uses the default table name that the Dynamic Data page is based on.

Support for Inheritance in the Data Model

Both the Entity Framework and LINQ to SQL support inheritance in their data models. An example of this might be a database that has an InsurancePolicy table. It might also contain CarPolicy and HousePolicy tables that have the same fields as InsurancePolicy and then add more fields. Dynamic Data has been modified to understand inherited objects in the data model and to support scaffolding for the inherited tables.

Support for Many-to-Many Relationships (Entity Framework Only)

The Entity Framework has rich support for many-to-many relationships between tables, which is implemented by exposing the relationship as a collection on an Entity object. New ManyToMany.ascx and ManyToMany_Edit.ascx field templates have been added to provide support for displaying and editing data that is involved in many-to-many relationships.

Visual Studio 2010 Web Development Improvements

Web development in Visual Studio 2010 has been enhanced for greater CSS compatibility, increased productivity through HTML and ASP.NET markup snippets and new dynamic IntelliSense JavaScript.

Improved CSS Compatibility

The Visual Web Developer designer in Visual Studio 2010 has been updated to improve CSS 2.1 standards compliance. The designer better preserves integrity of the HTML source and is more robust than in previous versions of Visual Studio.

HTML and JavaScript Snippets

Visual Studio 2010 includes over 200 snippets that help you auto-complete common ASP.NET and HTML tags, including required attributes (such as runat="server") and common attributes specific to a tag (such as ID, DataSourceID, ControlToValidate, and Text).

JavaScript IntelliSense Enhancements

In Visual 2010, JavaScript IntelliSense has been redesigned to provide an even richer editing experience.

Web Application Deployment with Visual Studio 2010

When ASP.NET developers deploy a Web application, they often find that they encounter issues such as the following:
Web deployment features in Visual Studio 2010 include the following major areas:

• Web packaging
• Web.config transformation
• Database deployment
• One-click publish for Web applications

The following sections provide details about these features.

Web Packaging

Visual Studio 2010 uses the MSDeploy tool to create a compressed (.zip) file for your application, which is referred to as a Web package. The package file contains metadata about your application plus the following content:

• IIS settings, which includes application pool settings, error page settings, and so on.
• The actual Web content, which includes Web pages, user controls, static content (images and HTML files), and so on.
• SQL Server database schemas and data.
• Security certificates, components to install in the GAC, registry settings, and so on.

Web.config Transformation

For Web application deployment, Visual Studio 2010 introduces XML Document Transform (XDT), which is a feature that lets you transform a Web.config file from development settings to production settings. Transformation settings are specified in transform files named web.debug.config, web.release.config, and so on.
The following example shows a portion of a web.release.config file that might be produced for deployment of your release configuration. The Replace keyword in the example specifies that during deployment the connectionString node in the Web.config file will be replaced with the values that are listed in the example.

<connectionStrings xdt:Transform="Replace"> <add name="BlogDB" connectionString="connection string detail]" /> </connectionStrings>

Database Deployment

A Visual Studio 2010 deployment package can include dependencies on SQL Server databases. As part of the package definition, you provide the connection string for your source database. When you create the Web package, Visual Studio 2010 creates SQL scripts for the database schema and optionally for the data, and then adds these to the package.

One-Click Publish for Web Applications

Visual Studio 2010 also lets you use the IIS remote management service to publish a Web application to a remote server. 

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