Getting started in Asp.Net

I recently met a guy who was new to town and had picked up a job doing development for a place that appeared to be moving towards Microsoft focused solutions meaning he was likely to move away from his LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP) background to a .Net/Sql Server environment.

I realised after talking to him that there are a lot of ways you could go wrong coming into the .Net realm from a LAMP/Java/Python/Ruby background and this post, although intend for him, is generic enough that it may save other web developers valuable time to get up and running, and producing valuable software using the M$ stack

Asp.Net

Asp.net is a different beast to the many other frameworks out there and you could spend years (and many have) learning all the ins and outs of the beast.
Dont.
I would highly recommend skipping WebForms all together as IMO it is a dead framework. I have been doing MS MVC for the last year and did MonoRail (an open source ASP MVC framework) on the side prior to that and I have never looked back. Some of the significant benefits are :

• Matches the way the web works (you explicitly work with http verbs)
• clean html
• easy to learn
• pluggable
• testable
• simple
• And finally, IMO, encourages better coding practices, which web forms simply does not.

I will assume you will trust me and accept that MVC is the way forward and I will go ahead and recommend how to start.

Asp.Net MVC in action
First port-of-call is to pick up this book. It will give you the no BS version of the truth and covers some third party tools that will help you along the way. There is a second edition on the way however if you are using VS 2008 then this books is for you anyway. Manning (the publisher) often have good discounts so register for emails or follow them on Twitter to know when promos are running.

TekPub : Build your own blog with MVC
Tekpub is one of my favourite resources at the moment. It is great value for money and video is an efficient way to learn new concepts. I had bought several series and now have the yearly membership and many of my colleagues have done the same. Go check out the BYOB which shows how Rob* built a blog in MVC. There are also MVC 2.0 and various other Asp.net series available. Buy one, buy a bunch or get a month or yearly subscription, go on, you know you want to ;)
*Rob was on the team that actually built Asp.net MVC

Asp.net
Yes the website is a good place to get lots of info too! There are lots of little articles and videos from from smart people who live and breathe this stuff. Just be aware that there is sometimes a very Microsoft slant to the information, not a bad thing but something to be aware of.

Next there is the Database

SQL Server

If you have a background in Oracle or MySql then picking up M$ Sql Server should be pretty easy. The standard practices apply e.g. dont run your web app as System Administrator. Nothing to really say here to be honest.


Joining the web and data world is your data access strategy

Linq2Sql or NHibernate

The 2 standout choices for new commers IMO are the light weight data acess strategy from Microsfot called Linq2Sql (pronounced "Link to Sequel", just dont ever write it like that) or the OpenSource and more heavy weight NHibernate. If you are from a Java background NH may be a good tool, if you are from a Rails background then Castle ActiveRecord (which sits on tope of NH) may even be a good idea. However for most Linq2Sql is probably the best bet when you are getting started and NH is the best if you are building up more complex domains. The caveat with NH is that there is a steep learning curve. If you are new to it then check out SharpArchitecture or one of the abstractions in the NHforge.com to help bootstrap yourself. If you have a simple domain or going to be building from the database up (i.e. create a database table and then the c# code to use it) Linq2Sql is a better fit anyway.

Tools

If you are playing with the M$ stack at home then you will most likely not want to shell out cash for the full blown enterprise versions of Visual studio and Sql Server. For this reason they have the express versions. I have only ever used the SQL express edition (which is great) so have no idea what VsExpress is like. In saying that if i did not have the full version of VS I probably would not be using .Net and just be doing rails/sinatra dev (but thats just me).
Assuming you are working with the full version at work then be sure to invest in the Resharper VS plug-in. Its not super cheap but the time it will save you will mean it will quickly pay for itself.

I terms of source control TFS is the M$ standard, but I personally don’t recommend it. I think tools like Git or even SVN are better tools that integrate better with other platforms/tools and are free. TFS however does more than source control, so if you are using make sure you use all the good ALM bug tracking bits etc

Extra links

Follow the team behind the framework, most importantly Scott Gu (all .net dev should read his blog) and Scott Hansleman. Mr Hanselman also has a good podcast called hanselminutes that is not Asp.Net specific but a good subscription nonetheless.
StackOverflow is a great QnA community place for lots of developer question. The are lots of .Net and Asp.Net people hanging out here so most of your initial question will most likely have already been answered. The site itslef is even built on top of Asp.Net MVC and Linq2Sql so you can see that this combination is a very real world and scalable solution.

If you are in Perth (like this person was) check out the Perth .Net Community of Practice and the Alt.Net lads that have monthly beers and discuss things that may or may not be from the Microsoft mother ship that affect .Net devs.