New to ASP .net and I have some questions

[EFileTahi-A]

Just started with ASP .NET this Saturday and it was the most frustrating experience I ever had. I went to bed Saturday, completely demoralized with the feeling that I had never coded on my life. Really frustrating...

 

Anyway, after 2 full days of bumping the head I managed to setup the website's main structure, I'm now struggling on how to achieve these basic things (well I guess point 3 is not that basic):

 

1 - How can I make the DIV's height fill the browser's available space? I know that setting the DIV to 100% means it will re-size of the div based on the controls within it. So, do I need to code it? How can I get the webpage's height to compute the DIV's height? Will I also need to create an event for that?

 

2 - I need to maintain selected a menu item in the ASP Menu Navigation control when the user opens a new page through it. I need to do this with CSS since I learned that this option: 'IncludeStyleBlock = false' should be set to true. Unfortunately if I set it to true I will loose the 'special' format that the CSS sets it to work with, because I need an extra horizontal space so that text don't get too close for each menu item.

 

3 - To handle a login / session on an ASP website do I need to use a database to handle all users? I don't have a clue how the login works in ASP so, if someone can point me to a good example I will really appreciate it.

 

Web developing is really strange. Seriously, it is a mess, chunks of code in multi languages with most control settings requiring being done in CSS. So much for "visual development". I haven't still figured it out how C# will actually do anything in ASP .NET. I hope to get there soon, once I set up the website's skeleton.

Edited November 26, 2012 by EFileTahi-A

[Adam_C]

Yes, ASP.NET is a little bit hard and confusing. I am also learning it. Come on!

[EFileTahi-A]

Oh, I thought it was just me. I'm glad to know I'm not the only one thinking likewise. Don't give up Adam! Please tell me the same! lol

[betty]

Yes, ASP.NET is a little bit hard and confusing. I am also learning it. Come on!

 

If you want to learn and are interested in it, you can learn it well. It is not that difficult. Google is very helpful when you have a problem

[EFileTahi-A]

If you want to learn and are interested in it, you can learn it well. It is not that difficult. Google is very helpful when you have a problem

 

And proof of that is that my ASP .NET sessions consist of 85% Googling and 15% actually coding. I just wish it could be the opposite.

[mandelbrot]

I have to say that one major major MAJOR tip here is:

 

DO NOT USE THE DATASET DESIGNER, EVEN IF YOUR LIFE DEPENDS ON IT!

 

If you do choose to use it, then make sure that your entire application is properly planned before you start and that there is no possible chance that you will ever want to change the data structure afterward.

 

We actually have a poster on our wall in the office with a big no-entry sign over the top of a dataset designer logo and the words "Don't do it - it's not worth it!" written beneath.

 

The long and short of it is that everything becomes terrifyingly complex if you need to change, for instance, a field name further down the line.