Sams Teach Yourself .Net in 21 Days

By Jason Beres

• Table of Contents
  • Copyright
  • About the Author
  • About the Technical Editor
  • Acknowledgments
  • We Want to Hear from You
  • Introduction
  • Week 1: At a Glance
  • Day 1. Introduction to the Microsoft .NET Framework
  • Day 2. Introduction to Visual Studio .NET
  • Day 3. Writing Windows Forms Applications
    • Hello .NET!
    • Understanding Windows Forms
    • Working with Controls Dynamically in Code
    • Using Menus and MDI Forms
    • Using Inheritance in Windows Forms
    • Using Common Dialog Controls
    • More About Controls
    • Making Your Forms Look Pretty
    • Advanced Windows Forms
    • Summary
    • Q&A
    • Quiz
    • Exercises
  • Day 4. Deploying Windows Forms Applications
  • Day 5. Writing ASP.NET Applications
  • Day 6. Deploying ASP.NET Applications
  • Day 7. Exceptions, Debugging, and Tracing
  • Week 1. In Review
  • Week 2: At a Glance
  • Day 8. Core Language Concepts in Visual Basic .NET and C#
  • Day 9. Using Namespaces in .NET
  • Day 10. Accessing Data with ADO.NET
  • Day 11. Understanding Visual Database Tools
  • Day 12. Accessing XML in .NET
  • Day 13. XML Web Services in .NET
  • Day 14. Components and .NET
  • Week 2. In Review
  • Week 3: At a Glance
  • Day 15. Writing International Applications
  • Day 16. Using Macros in Visual Studio .NET
  • Day 17. Automating Visual Studio .NET
  • Day 18. Using Crystal Reports
  • Day 19. Understanding Microsoft Application Center Test
  • Day 20. Using Visual SourceSafe
  • Day 21. Object Role Modeling with Visio
  • Week 3. In Review

Advanced Windows Forms

There are two advanced features in Windows Forms that are beyond the scope of this book, but are worth noting. The first is shaped forms. In Windows Forms, a form can take on any shape that you specify. Using the power of GDI+, you can specify point structures and clip regions that determine how a form should look. Figure 3.18 demonstrates a shaped form at runtime.

Figure 3.18 A shaped Windows Form.

The second and most revolutionary aspect of Windows Forms is the ability to write Windows Forms applications that load dynamically through HTTP. Similar to a Web Form, a properly designed Windows Forms application can trickle down to the client machine. There are a few ways to accomplish this, but the fact that you can write a robust Windows Forms application and have it load over the Internet like an ASP.NET application is outstanding.

In addition to the Downloads section for today, I've included a demo of how this can be achieved. For more information, see the resources in the "Q&A" section at the end of the day.

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