What's new in ASP.NET 3.5

New/changed ASP.NET 3.5 feature - LISTVIEW AND DATAPAGER CONTROLS

Not content with repeaters, gridviews and datalists, ASP.NET 3.5 now comes with the listview control.  This is like a gridview, but:

• It supports inserting records, as well as updating and deleting
• It allows for direct control of formatting using CSS
• It supports built-in paging with the new DataPager control
• It supports grouping of records

The dialog box below shows how to create a listview using the wizard:

New/changed ASP.NET 3.5 feature - LINQ SUPPORT

ASP.NET 3.5 includes support for the LINQ data retrieval language.  This is yet another halfway data class, which allows you to write strongly-typed queries without needing to know SQL.  This owl isn't convinced that LINQ is worth learning, but here's a screen-shot of a data class that ASP.NET creates when you add a LINQ to SQL class:

New/changed ASP.NET 3.5 feature - AJAX

ASP.NET 3.5 now includes support for AJAX (Asynchronous JavaScript And Xml), a client-side technology which allows you to refresh part of a screen without sending a request back to the server.  Here are the tools provided in Visual Studio: