Visual Basic .NET Programming

This is a 4-day course covering the application development in VB.NET.
It is a hands-on course with many practical examples of using VB.NET to produce useful applications and emphasises good style for producing robust, maintainable code. It covers general application development using VB.NET and moves on to see how the .NET framework is used, especially the use of ADO.NET to exploit databases.


Prerequisites
Delegates should be familiar with the use of Windows and the
fundamental concepts of programming. An accelerated version of this course can be provided for programmers already familiar with previous versions of Visual Basic. We also have a separate course for Visual Basic version 6.


Course Content
Windows & .NET
- The .NET platform
- The Common Language Runtime
(CLR)
- and Intermediate Language
- Visual Basic applications and
variations

Creating a VB.NET Application
- The Visual Basic Environment
- Introducing object orientation
- Good practice

Forms, Controls & Properties
- Beginning an application
- Windows Forms and Properties
- Forms and controls as classes
and objects
- Good practice

Events
- Handling user input
- Control interaction and focus
- Special events

Controls & Methods
- Designing and implementing
menus
- The standard control set
- Validation techniques
- Dialogs
- Producing an elegant and
foolproof user interface

The VB.NET Programming Language
- Variable Types, Scope and
Lifetime
- Arrays and collections
- Control flow; If, For Next, Do
While/Until, For Each, Select Case
- Other Language Features

Timers, Dates, Times & Formatting
- The Timer Control - its
importance, limitations and the
Tick event
- Using, manipulating and
displaying dates and times
- Date/Time Pickers

Subs, Functions & Error Handling
- Subroutines and functions
- Argument passing mechanisms,
named and optional arguments
- Public, Private and the use of
modules
- The Errr object and 'traditional'
error handling
- Exception handling - try, catch
and finally
MDI Applications
- The use of Multiple Document
Interface for single and
multiple document types
- Dynamic forms and controls

Graphics & Printing
- Simple output
- The System.Drawing
Namespace
- Printing techniques

Object Oriented Programming
- Designing classes and using
objects
- Encapsulation, inheritance
and polymorphism
- Namespaces and assemblies
- Interfaces

.NET
- Interoperability
- What .NET provides
- Networking and SOAP
- Introducing the web

Advanced Features
- Multithreading
- Calling the Windows API
- Using COM and ActiveX

Using Databases
- ADO.NET
- The DataForm Wizard
- Data binding to controls
- SQL and XML
- Data Commands, DataReaders
and DataSets

Database Enhancements
- The DataGrid
- Generating reports
- Improving performance and
scalability