Explore Visual Basic 2012 and .NET 4.5 with this fully updated resource

After a quick review of the of introductory topics of Visual Basic 2012 and .NET 4.5, this book moves quickly into advanced topics such as data access with ADO.NET, security, ASP.NET web programming with Visual Basic, Windows workflow, and threading. You'll explore the essential Visual Basic 2012 functions you need, including .NET features such as LINQ, WCF, and more. Plus, you'll examine exception handling and debugging, Visual Studio features, and deployment.

• Puts the new Async keyword and Iterators to work
• Explores new options and interfaces presented by Windows 8 development and WinRT
• Continues strong coverage of core language elements and tools and creating componentized applications

This updated version of Professional Visual Basic 2012 and .NET 4.5 retains its expert author team, including one of the best-known and respected Microsoft Visual Basic MVPs, Bill Sheldon, and Microsoft Regional Director "Software Legend" Billy Hollis.

Bill Sheldon, Visual Basic MVP for 8 years, is the Vice President of Information Technology for Rubio's Restaurants. He can be found at @NerdNotes.

Billy Hollis, MVP, is a developer and UX designer at Next Version Systems. He is also a well-known and prolific speaker and trainer.

Rob Windsor, MVP, is Lead SharePoint Consultant with Portal Solutions-a Microsoft Gold Partner.

David McCarter, MVP, is a principal software engineer/architect and editor-in-chief of dotNetTips.com.

Gaston C. Hillar, MVP, is tech leader and architect at Bootsoft Inc. He contributes to Dr. Dobbs and blogs for Intel Software Network.

Todd Herman is a senior software engineer at Apx Labs focused on developing a library to support the XMPP standard.

After a quick review of the of introductory topics of Visual Basic 2012 and .NET 4.5, this book moves quickly into advanced topics such as data access with ADO.NET, security, ASP.NET web programming with Visual Basic, Windows workflow, and threading. You'll explore the essential Visual Basic 2012 functions you need, including .NET features such as LINQ, WCF, and more. Plus, you'll examine exception handling and debugging, Visual Studio features, and deployment.

• Puts the new Async keyword and Iterators to work
• Explores new options and interfaces presented by Windows 8 development and WinRT
• Continues strong coverage of core language elements and tools and creating componentized applications

This updated version of Professional Visual Basic 2012 and .NET 4.5 retains its expert author team, including one of the best-known and respected Microsoft Visual Basic MVPs, Bill Sheldon, and Microsoft Regional Director Software Legend Billy Hollis.

INTRODUCTION xxxi

PART I: LANGUAGE CONSTRUCTS AND ENVIRONMENT

CHAPTER 1: VISUAL STUDIO 2012 3

Visual Studio 2012 4

Visual Basic Keywords and Syntax 5

Console Applications 10

Creating a Project from a Project Template 11

The Solution Explorer 14

Project Properties 15

Assembly Information Screen 16

Compiler Settings 18

Debug Properties 21

References 23

Resources 24

Settings 26

Other Project Property Tabs 27

Project ProVB_VS2012 28

Enhancing a Sample Application 31

Customizing the Code 33

Building Applications 44

Running an Application in the Debugger 45

Reusing Your First Windows Form 52

Useful Features of Visual Studio 2012 52

The Task List 52

Server Explorer 53

Class Diagrams 54

Summary 56

CHAPTER 2: THE COMMON LANGUAGE RUNTIME 57

Framework Profi les and Platforms 58

Client and Full Framework Profi les 59

Framework for Metro 59

Silverlight, Windows Phone, and Others 60

.NET 4.5 Portable Class Library 60

Elements of a .NET Application 61

Types 61

Modules 62

Assemblies 63

Cross-Language Integration 65

The Common Type System 65

Metadata 66

The Reflection API 69

IL Disassembler 70

Memory Management 71

Traditional Garbage Collection 72

Faster Memory Allocation for Objects 77

Garbage Collector Optimizations 79

Namespaces 81

What Is a Namespace? 81

Namespaces and References 84

Common Namespaces 86

Importing and Aliasing Namespaces 86

Aliasing Namespaces 89

Referencing Namespaces in ASP.NET 89

Creating Your Own Namespaces 90

The My Keyword 93

My.Application 94

My.Computer 97

My.Resources 99

My.User 99

Extending the My Namespace 100

Summary 102

CHAPTER 3: OBJECTS AND VISUAL BASIC 103

Object-Oriented Terminology 105

Objects, Classes, and Instances 105

Composition of an Object 105

System.Object 108

Working With Visual Basic Types 109

Value and Reference Types 109

Primitive Types 112

Commands: Conditional 114

If Then 114

Comparison Operators 115

Select Case 117

Value Types (Structures) 117

Boolean 118

Integer Types 119

Unsigned Types 120

Decimal Types 121

Char and Byte 123

DateTime 124

Reference Types (Classes) 125

The Object Class 125

The String Class 126

The DBNull Class and IsDBNull Function 130

Parameter Passing 131

ParamArray 132

Variable Scope 133

Working with Objects 134

Objects Declaration and Instantiation 134

Object References 135

Early Binding versus Late Binding 136

Data Type Conversions 137

Performing Explicit Conversions 138

Creating Classes 143

Basic Classes 143

Handling Events 152

Handling Multiple Events 153

The WithEvents Keyword 154

Raising Events 154

Declaring and Raising Custom Events 155

Receiving Events with WithEvents 156

Receiving Events with AddHandler 158

Constructor Methods 160

Object-Oriented Concepts 161

Overloading Methods 161

Overloading Constructor Methods 164

Shared Methods, Variables, and Events 165

Operator Overloading 169

Delegates 172

Summary 176

CHAPTER 4: CUSTOM OBJECTS 179

Inheritance 180

When to Use Inheritance 181

Implementing Inheritance 183

Interacting with the Base Class, Yourself, and Your Class 202

Constructors 206

Object Scope 209

Events and Inheritance 211

Shared Methods 213

Creating an Abstract Base Class 213

Multiple Interfaces 216

Object Interfaces 216

Abstract Interfaces 217

Abstraction 225

Encapsulation 228

Polymorphism 228

Method Signatures 228

Implementing Polymorphism 229

Summary 235

CHAPTER 5: ADVANCED LANGUAGE CONSTRUCTS 237

Preparing the Sample Application 238

Lambda Expressions 240

Creating a Lambda Expression Subroutine 241

Creating a Lambda Expression Function 242

Using Lambda Expressions 243

Handling Events with Lambdas 244

LINQ with Lambdas 245

Async and Await 247

The Core Concept 248

Using Async and Await 252

Iterators 256

The Core Concept 256

Using Iterators 259

Summary 261

CHAPTER 6: EXCEPTION HANDLING AND DEBUGGING 263

System.Exception 264

Handling Exceptions 265

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