Accessing Data with ASP.NET

ASP.NET includes features that enable you to add data access to your ASP.NET Web pages with little or no code. You can connect to databases, XML data and files, and business objects as data sources. You can then display data by using a variety of controls that provide great flexibility in how you present data on the page. We suggest the following progression of documentation to help you navigate through the related topics.

Getting started	ASP.NET Data Access Overview Provides general information about ASP.NET Web server controls for connecting to data sources and for displaying and editing data in Web pages. Using SQL Server Express with ASP.NET Provides information about how to configure, manage, connect to, and deploy SQL Server Express Edition databases. Data Source Controls Overview Provides information about the controls in ASP.NET that enable you to make data available to other controls. ASP.NET Data-Bound Web Server Controls Overview Provides information about the controls that enable you to display data in a Web page.
Using Dynamic Data	ASP.NET Dynamic Data Overview Provides an overview of ASP.NET Dynamic Data. ASP.NET Dynamic Data Infrastructure Provides information about files and directory structure, configuration, and about registering a data model. ASP.NET Dynamic Data Scaffolding and Page Templates Overview Describes the scaffolding mechanism that creates pages based on the underlying database. These pages are built automatically by using default templates both for pages and data fields. ASP.NET Dynamic Data Field Templates Overview Describes field templates, which are ASP.NET user controls that define how to display UI for data types in the data model.
Using LINQ	Language-Integrated Query (LINQ) Provides an overview of LINQ. Using LINQ with ASP.NET Provides information about how to use LINQ in an ASP.NET Web application. LinqDataSource Web Server Control Overview Provides information about the control that exposes LINQ to Web developers through the ASP.NET data-source control architecture.
Securing Data	Securing Data Access Provides information about security issues associated with data access in Web sites. How To: Secure Connection Strings when Using Data Source Controls Provides instructions for encrypting connection strings in the Web.config file. Accessing SQL Server from a Web Application Provides strategies for passing credentials from a Web application to a SQL Server.
Binding to data	Binding to Databases Provides information about how to connect to databases such as Microsoft SQL Server, Microsoft Access, and others. Binding to Business Objects Provides information about how to connect to middle-tier data access components. Binding to Hierarchical Data Provides information about how to connect to data, such as XML, that is not tabular. Data-Binding Expressions Overview Provides information about how to specify data binding programmatically in page markup.

See Also

Other Resources

Programming Visual Basic 2008: Build .NET 3.5 Applications with Microsoft's RAD Tool for Business

Learning ASP.NET 3.5, Second Edition: Build Web Applications with ASP.NET 3.5, AJAX, LINQ, and More

Programming ASP.NET 3.5, Fourth Edition

ADO.NET 3.5 Cookbook, Second Edition

Programming Entity Framework: Building Data Centric Apps with the ADO.NET Entity Framework