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• ASP.NET Dynamic Data Preview Available

  A few months ago we released an ASP.NET 3.5 Extensions Preview that contained a bunch of new features that will be shipping later this year (including ASP.NET AJAX Improvements, ASP.NET MVC, ASP.NET Silverlight Support, and ASP.NET Dynamic Data). The ASP.NET Dynamic Data support within that preview provided a first look at a cool new feature that enables you to quickly build data driven web-sites that work against a LINQ to SQL or LINQ to Entities object model.  ASP.NET Dynamic Data allows you to automatically render fully functional data entry and reporting pages that are dynamically constructed from your ORM data model meta-data.  In addition to supporting a dynamic rendering mode, it also allows you to optionally override and customize any of the view templates using any HTML or code you want (given you full control of the experience). ASP.NET Dynamic Data Preview Today we released an updated ASP.NET Dynamic Data Preview.  You can learn more about it and download it here . This new dynamic data preview now works with the standard built-in ASP.NET data controls (GridView, ListView, FormView, DetailsView, etc).  The dynamic data support enables these controls to automatically handle foreign-key relationships.  For example, on a gridview you'll now get automatic friendly name display of foreign key column values and automatic drop-down list selection support of these values when in edit mode: The new dynamic data support also provides automatic UI validation support (both client-side and server-side) based on the constraints you set on your data model classes.  For example, if a column in the database is limited to 50 characters in size, and is marked as non-nullable, appropriate UI control validators will automatically be applied by ASP.NET dynamic data to enforce this constraint in the UI pages as well.  If you change the constraints within your LINQ to SQL or LINQ to Entities data model classes, the UI will automatically pick up these changes and enforce the new constraints on the next web request. In addition to standard data model metadata, you can also declare custom metadata to further control validation and the default display of UI of objects.  You will be able to use all of the above features with both LINQ to SQL and LINQ to Entities. Visual Studio Dynamic Data Project Wizard In addition to the core ASP.NET dynamic data runtime support, the VS web tools team today also shipped a first preview of a new dynamic... Posted Apr 10 2008, 12:44 AM by ScottGu's Blog Filed under: ASP.NET, .NET, LINQ, Data

• New ASP.NET Dynamic Data Support

  The ASP.NET 3.5 Extensions CTP we shipped this past weekend contains a bunch of great new features. One of the cool new features is something we call "ASP.NET Dynamic Data Support".  In a nutshell this enables you to really quickly build data driven web-sites that work against a LINQ to SQL (and in the future LINQ to Entities) object model - and optionally allows you to-do this without having to build any pages manually. The best way to see this in action is to watch David Ebbo's awesome 17 minute screen-cast : You can also follow the steps below to easily get started and use the dynamic data support: Step 1: Create a ASP.NET Dynamic Data Site: Once you have the ASP.NET 3.5 Extensions CTP release installed, you can use VS 2008 or the free Visual Web Developer 2008 Express to create a new Web Site or Web Application Project that has the ASP.NET dynamic data support enabled: This will create a new web-site you can use that has some default template files in them, along with CSS style-sheets you can use to customize the look and feel of them: Step 2: Add a LINQ to SQL Data Model to Your Site LINQ to SQL is an O/RM (object relational mapper) that ships in .NET 3.5, and which allows you to model a relational database using .NET classes.  You can then query the database using LINQ, as well as update/insert/delete data from it.  LINQ to SQL fully supports transactions, views, and stored procedures.  It also provides an easy way to integrate data validation and business logic rules into your data model. The easiest way to get started with an ASP.NET Dynamic Data site is to add a new LINQ to SQL data model to your project (right-click->add new item->LINQ to SQL Classes item).  This will bring up the LINQ to SQL class designer.  Drag database tables from your server explorer to define a set of classes (with relationships) for your database schema: Step 3: Enable Dynamic Templates in Your Project: By default ASP.NET Dynamic Data projects provide built-in support for creating automatic "scaffolding" views of your LINQ to SQL and LINQ to Entities data models.  Dynamic Data projects include template pages and user controls that can automatically create built-in data browsing/editing/selection/deleting UI that is dynamically constructed at runtime based on the LINQ to SQL or LINQ to Entities data model you've added to your project. To enable this auto-scaffolding support, open the web.config file of your... Posted Dec 14 2007, 12:41 AM by ScottGu's Blog Filed under: ASP.NET, .NET, LINQ, Data