What's New in the .NET Framework 2.0 ?

What's New in the .NET Framework 2.0?

In this tutorial you will learn about new feature in .NET Framework 2.0. Various aspects such as Support for 64 bit platform application development, Access control list support (ACL), ADO.NET, ASP.NET, Authenticated streams,COM Interop Service Enhancements, Console Class Additions, Data Protection API, Detecting changes in Network connectivity, Disjunctive Demands, Distributed Computing, EventLog Enhancements, Expanded Certificate Management, FTP Support, Generics and Generic Collection, I/O Enhancements and several other feature are discussed here below.

The Microsoft.NET framework of Version 2.0 extends the .NET framework of Version 1.1. It was developed under the code name ‘Whidbey”. Whidbey includes the .NET framework, various user interface types such as Windows forms, ASP.NET and the compact framework. It also includes the official languages C#, Visual Basic.NET and J# and the Development environment. In this section we shall focus on the main changes brought into the .NET framework by the 2.0 version.

Support for 64 bit platform application development. These applications can run faster and take advantage of more memory that is available and users can build managed code libraries or easily use unmanaged code libraries on 64.bit machines.

Access control list support (ACL). This is used to grant or revoke permission to use a particular resource on a computer. Several new classes have been added to the .NET Framework to enable manage code to create and modify ACL. Members that use ACL have been added to the I/O, registry and threading classes.

ADO.NET now supports user defined types, asynchronous database operations, XML data types, large value types, snapshot isolation, and has attributes that allow applications to support multiple active result sets(MARS) with SQL Server 2005.

ASP.NET has received most attention. A number of new features have been added to ASP.NET such as new controls for development of dynamic web pages. New Data controls for displaying and editing data that do not require the user to write code add to the ease of application development. The code behind model developed for use in ASP.NET makes it more robust. New caching features such as ability to cache dependency tables in SQL server database have been introduced. The current version allows users customize web pages in a number of ways. Property values for individual user profiles can be automatically tracked. Web parts can be used to allow users customize their pages in the browser. Navigation menus using simple controls can be added. Master pages enables users create layouts for all pages in the site and themes allow him to define a consistent look and feel for the site. The Web site can be precompiled to produce an executable code from source files. The resulting output can be displayed on a production server. ASP.NET enhancements also include new tools and classes which make website management easier and comprehensive. A wide variety of browsers are accommodated in ASP.NET and by default controls render output that is compatible with XHTML 1.1 standards. The device filter can be used to specify different property values for the same control on different browsers.

Authenticated streams is the new class introduced into the .NET Framework to enable users transmit secure information between a client and a server. The System.Net.NegotiateStream and System.Net.SslStream are classes which authenticate the transmission of data. These stream classes support mutual authentication, data encryption and data signing. The System.Net.NegotiateStream class uses security protocol for authentication while the later uses the Secure socket layer for authentication.

COM Interop Service Enhancements include enhancements that have been made to classes and tools that support interoperability with COM. These enhancements are of four kinds.The System.Runtime.InteropServices.SafeHandle and System.Runtime.InteropServices.CriticalHandle classes and the derived classes are designed to provide safe and reliable means of manipulating the operating system handles.Enhancements to interop marchaler has given the user the ability to wrap native function pointers into delegates and to marshal fixed size arrays of structures inside structures. The performance calls between applications in different domains have been fine tuned. Type Library Importer and Type Library export switches have eliminated the dependency on the registry for resolution of type library references.

Console Class Additions of members to the System.Console Class enable the manipulation of dimensions of the console window and screen buffer. This is extremely useful for creation of animations which require moving a rectangular area of the screen buffer. Other new members in this class help control the foreground and background colors of texts, the visibility and size of the cursor and the frequency and duration of the console beep.

Data Protection API has been expanded with the inclusion of four new methods that allow applications encrypt passwords, keys, connection strings and so on. Blocks of memory can also be encrypted if the operating system is Windows Server 2003 or above.

Debugger Display Attributes have been tweaked to give the user control over how the class is displayed in the debugger. The user can now identify the most useful information he needs to display in the debugger and make the required settings for the same.

Debugger Edit and Continue Support is reintroduced into 2.0 .NET Framework to enable users who are debugging applications to make changes to source code while executing in the break mode. The user can now make the changes, resume the execution and observe the effect. This feature is available in all languages.

Detecting changes in Network connectivity is enabled by the use of the System.Net.NetworkInformation.NetworkChange. The user can now receive notification when an Internet Protocol (IP) address of a network Interface changes. This can occur due to disconnected network cable, hardware failure etc.

Disjunctive Demands allows multiple code identities to access a class or method. The new security actions that have been created allow multiple identity permissions to be simultaneously demanded, inheritance demanded or link demanded. The DemandChoice security action now allows the user demand several strong name identities to allow the stack walk to succeed. The InheritanceDemandChoice and LinkDemandChoice are the two other security codes that have been introduced in this version of Visual Studio.NET.