We've put together a series of articles from the community to help you get a grip on the vast world of ASP.NET.

What is ASP.NET?

ASP.NET is a server-side technology for building web applications using the Microsoft .NET stack. These links will give you a general appreciation of the technology, and how it differs from other web technologies.

• Beginners Introduction to ASP.NET by sudhirmangla
  An article giving basic introduction to ASP.NET ,Underlying technologies and Advantages of ASP.NET over ASP.
• Beginner's Guide: Exploring IIS 6.0 With ASP.NET by Abhijit Jana
  This article describes details of IIS configuration, Virtual Directory creation, Application Pool creation, Application Pool settings, IIS request processing for ASP.NET, etc.
• Understanding ASP.NET Application and Page Life Cycle - A Beginner's Tutorial by Rahul Rajat Singh
  This article talks about the ASP.NET application life cycle and Page life cycle.

WebForms vs. MVC

One of the fundamental choices when working with ASP.NET is the way the application will be set up. The two main choices are Web Forms and MVC. This section describes the differences, and how to choose between the two. The rest of this guide assumes Web Forms. For MVC, see the ASP.NET MVC Learning Guide (coming soon).

• WebForms vs. MVC by Marla Sukesh
  Is ASP.NET MVC replacement for Web Forms? No, Both have there pros and cons. Lets take a look at same.

Basic Syntax

This section describes some of the fundamental knowledge needed for working with ASP.NET.

• A Beginner's Guide to ASP.NET Application Folders by Abhijit Jana
  This article explains about ASP.NET application folders like App_Code, App_Theme and App_Data.
• Documenting the Life Cycle of an ASP Page by Gregory Gadow
  A simple framework for documenting the events of master and child pages and web controls.
• Behind the scenes of ASPX files by Natty Gur
  Describes what goes with ASPX files and how ASPX files affect the page life cycle.
• Beginners Introduction to State Management Techniques in ASP.NET by N a v a n e e t h
  This article discusses the state management techniques used in ASP.NET. We discuss: QueryString, Cookie, Session, Profile, Static Variables and Application state.
• Debugging, Tracing and Instrumentation in .NET and ASP.NET by Shivprasad koirala
  Diagnosing a software application is an art and this art has to be more skillful when you go on production.
• Error Handling in ASP.NET by Rakesh Rajan
  Starts with user redirection settings with customErrors section; then moves to exception handling in different scopes. Explains how to prevent recursive loops, hande parser errors, base class error handling with internals as appropriate. Source code demonstrates the concepts illustrated.

Working with Controls

Controls are the common tool used in ASP.NET Web Forms to display content. This section contains articles about creating, and working with, ASP.NET controls.

• User controls in ASP .NET by Chris Maunder
  An introduction to writing User Controls in ASP .NET
• Exploring ASP.NET Validators by Brij
  This article digs deep into ASP.NET validators and discusses a few case studies which may be a boon for any project
• A Beginner's Guide for Understanding and Implementing ASP.NET Themes by Rahul Rajat Singh
  This article talks about ASP.NET themes. When do we need to have themes in our application. How can we implement themes and let the user change themes.

Working with Data

Data is a common component of web applications, and ASP.NET makes retrieving, displaying, and editing data relatively easy. This section describes some of the ways of working with data in your ASP.NET applications.

• Using ADO.NET for beginners by Huseyin Altindag
  ADO.NET for beginners.
• Enterprise Library 5.0 Data Access Application Block: Fun with IDataReader by Tomz_KV
  Explore the behaviors of IDataReader in the Enterprise Library 5.0 data access application block.
• Mastering ASP.NET DataBinding by Karl Seguin
  The goal of this tutorial is to shed light on some of the more common and frequently asked questions about the capabilities of databinding.

Authentication / Authorization / Personalization

This section describes securing your ASP.NET applications. This includes controlling who can access your web application, as well as how to avoid common security errors. In addition, it covers articles about personalizing your web application for the authenticated (and non-authenticated) users.

• Beginner's Guide to Authentication and Authorization by koolprasad2003
  This article explains different types of Authorization and Authentication that exist in ASP.NET and how it works in WebApplication.
• Understanding and Implementing ASP.NET Custom Forms Authentication by Rahul Rajat Singh
  Understanding and implementing ASP.NET custom Forms Authentication.
• Examining Request Validation with ASP.NET 4.5 by Brij
  In this article, we’ll discuss the Request Validation changes in ASP.NET 4.5. Also we’ll dig it more with few examples.
• An Absolute Beginner's Tutorial on Cross Site Scripting(XSS) Prevention in ASP.NET by Rahul Rajat Singh
  In this article we will try to see what is Cross Site Scripting(XSS).

Globalization

As web applications may be accessed from anywhere, you will likely need to ensure your application is localized, and global-aware. These articles describe the globalization capabilities of ASP.NET.

• Globalization and localization demystified in ASP.NET 2.0 by Vivek Thakur
  This article explains how to globalize an ASP.NET 2.0 website, step by step, with a practical example.

Configuration

Describes some of the configuration options for ASP.NET applications.

• Configuration Overview: ASP.NET by Brij
  This article is all about configuration of an ASP.NET application and also securing it.

Deploying

These articles show you how to get your ASP.NET applications working on your web server.

• Deployment of a Website on IIS by Brij
  This article tries to dig into IIS and explore it.
• Debug your ASP.NET Application while Hosted on IIS by Abhijit Jana
  This article describes how to debug a web application which is hosted on IIS. It also describes how to select the correct process to attach to when multiple worker processes are running.

Other Useful Topics

Other useful ASP.NET topics not covered elsewhere.

• Introduction to ASP.NET Web API by Ranjan.D
  Introduction to WebAPI. We shall see what it is with two sample real world implementation.