How should you learn ASP.NET after life as a ColdFusion developer?

Question

As someone who spent about 10 years programming web applications with Adobe ColdFusion, I decided to add ASP.NET as a string to my bow.

For those who have spent so long with CF and basic Java, ASP.NET seems a little alien to me. How should I go to speed up with ASP.NET so that I can be really dangerous with it? Do I need to know C # for any large amount of detail?

I want to be in a position where I can quickly build basic web applications so that I can learn more about complex things.

Answer 1

I can only follow the same path for six months, but here are some thoughts from my experience:

The C # language should not cause a lot of problems if you have extensive experience with Java in general (or even CFScript). As a reference, however, when I started, I found csharp-station a good tutorial on the basics of the language. This will not help you as far as the ASP.NET side is concerned; but this is good for syntax. You will also learn about .NET libraries. An IDE can actually be a huge help here.

Here are the three biggest differences that I found making the transition:

• ASP.NET Server Controls In ColdFusion, you really have direct control over HTML; You work very closely with the page. This is not the case with ASP.NET. Server controls to ease you a lot of boredom, but for the price maybe direct control. As a CF programmer, I really like what gets actually output to the browser; and also at first ASP.NET disappointed me because it spills out a lot of extra code. However, the controls are really powerful, and it pays to get to know them. Form control and validation, especially, will save you from many boredom in CF mail processing back and validation. W3Schools actually has a decent list of website server controls .
• Page Model - ColdFusion is pretty aggressive in terms of page flow. ASP.NET is very post-spin oriented, and very event driven. If you're not using a framework with CF (like Model Glue), then this may be you ..NET takes care of a lot of reverse behavior for you. Also, not to mention that ColdFusion may not be an object and function due to the good use of CFC, but ASP.NET is really trying to push the button down the OO path to CF in my experience.
• Access to the database . Using ASP.NET really made me appreciate how Really powerful cfquery is. csharp-station also has a good tutorial on working with native .NET db Tools. I did not work Enough projects to start looking for database access extensions; I'm pretty sure that Jeff recommended what they used to create this site so you can check it out. Otherwise, I really suggest getting familiar with the DataSet. This is somewhat similar to the query object in CF and allows you to run query queries, etc. Queries in CF are very common, but not many in ASP.NET because of data binding.

Answer 2

Microsoft has a video called ASP.NET for ColdFusion developers that might interest you.

Edit, here is another

Answer 3

ADO.NET is a basic concept, and I would recommend taking a course on it. The presence of a qualified instructor explains what differences between a DataSet, DataReader (etc. - there is a lot for different types of data access objects) is invaluable . Not to mention that you better understand the right time and place to use them; and you can ask questions and get immediate answers in class.

I took the ADO.NET class (one night a week, about 8 weeks) at a local university for about $ 400. Even if my company didn’t pay for it, I would be happy, and I can highly recommend everyone who is trying to learn .NET to do the same.