Introduction to ASP.
NET
Introduction to ASP.NET
Last Updated : 11 Jul, 2025 BOC:
ASP.NET is a web application framework designed and developed by Microsoft. ASP.NET is
open
source and a subset of the NET Framework and successor of the classic ASP(Active Server
Pages).
With version 1.0 of the .NET Framework, it was first released in January 2002. So a question
comes
to mind that which technology we were using before the year 2002 for developing web
applications and services? Answer is Classic ASP. So before NET and ASP.NET there was
Classic
ASP. ASP.NET is built on the CLR(Common Language Runtime) which allows the
programmers to
execute its code using any .NET language(C#, VB etc.). It is specially designed to work with
HTTP
and for web developers to create dynamic web pages, web applications, web sites, and web
services as it provides a good integration of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. .NET Framework is
used to
create a variety of applications and services like Console, Web, and Windows, etc. But
ASP.NET is
only used to create web applications and web services. That's why we termed ASP.NET as a
subset
of the .NET Framework. Below table illustrates the ASP.NET Versions History:
Year Version
2002 1.0
2003 12
2005 2.0
2006 3.0
2007 3.5
2008 3.5SP1
2010 4.0
2012 4.5
2013 4.5.1
2014 45.2
2015 4.6
2015 4.6.1
2016 4.6.2
2017 47
2017 47.1
Note: In the year 2015, the version 5 RC1 came and later this gets separated from the
ASP.NET and
turns into a new project called ASP.NET Core Version 1.0 with some advancement.
What is Web Application?
A web application is an application installed only on the web server which is accessed by
the users
using a web browser like Microsoft Internet Explorer, Google Chrome, Mozilla FireFox,
Apple Safari,
etc. There are also some other technology like Java, PHP, Perl, Ruby on Rails, etc. which can
be
used to develop web applications. Web applications provide the cross-platform feature. The
user
needs only a web browser to access a web application. The web applications which are
developed
using the .NET framework or its subsets required to execute under the Microsoft Internet
Information Services(IIS) on the server side. The work of IIS is to provide the web
application's
generated HTML code result to the client browser which initiates the request as shown in
the
below diagram.
Client 1
Browser
web-application
Don't confuse in the terms ASP.NET, ASP.NET core, ASP.NET MVC, etc. ASP(Active Server
Pages)
supports a lot of development models which are as follows:
* Classic ASP: It is the first server side scripting language developed by Microsoft.
¢ ASP.NET: It is web development framework and successor of Classic ASP. ASP.NET 4.6 is
the
latest version.
¢ ASP.NET Core: In November 2015, Microsoft released the 5.0 version of ASP.NET which
get
separated later and known as ASP.NET Core. Also, it is considered as an important redesign
of
ASP.NET with the feature of open-source and cross-platform. Before this version, ASP.NET
is
only considered as Windows-only version.
¢ ASP.NET Web Forms: These are the event-driven application model which are not
considered a
part of the new ASP.NET Core. These are used to provide the server-side events and
controls to
develop a web application.
¢ ASP.NET MVC: It is the Model-View-Controller application model which can be merged
with the
new ASP.NET Core. It is used to build dynamic websites as it provides fast development.
¢ ASP.NET Web Pages: These are the single page application which can be merged into
ASP.NET
Core.
¢ ASP.NET API: It is the Web Application Programming Interface(API).
Also, to create web applications ASP.NET provide the 3 development styles which are
ASP.NET
Web Pages, ASP.NET MVC, Web Forms.
Why ASP.NET?
There are a lot of reasons which makes the ASP.NET popular among the developers. Some of
the
reasons are listed below: Extending .NET Framework: ASP.NET is a subset of .NET
Framework as it
extends the .NET Framework with some libraries and tools to develop web apps. The thing
that it
adds to the INET Framework is Libraries for common web patterns like MVC, Editor
Extensions, the
base framework to process the web requests, and web-page templating syntax like Razor,
etc.
Performance: It is faster than the other web frameworks available in the market. Backend
Code:
With the help of ASP.NET you can write the backend code for data access and any logic in
C#.
Dynamic Pages: In ASP.NET, Razor provides the syntax for developing the dynamic web
pages with
the help of C# and HTML. ASP.NET can be integrated with JS(JavaScript) and it also includes
the
frameworks like React and Angular for the SPA(Single Page Application.) Supporting
different OS:
You can develop and execute ASP.NET apps on Windows, Linux, Docker, and MacOS. The
Visual
Studio provides the tools to build .NET apps different OS.
