ASP.NET 3.5 Extensions... What are the new features anyway? How can I get started? 

ASP.NET 3.5 Extensions


New features are being added to ASP.NET and ADO.NET this year that increase the power of the .NET Framework 3.5. These enhancements target:


    

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    Enabling high productivity data escenarios by using the .NET Entity Framework, ADO.NET Data Services, ASP.NET MVC, and ASP.NET Dynamic Data.
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    Supporting test-driven development by using a powerful and extensible ASP.NET MVC framework.
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    Creating the best server for rich clients by using AJAX history support and ASP.NET controls for Silverlight.


ASP.NET controls for Silverlight


You can integrate the rich behavior of Microsoft Silverlight into your Web application by using the familiar model of ASP.NET server controls. The MediaPlayer server control lets you integrate media sources such as audio (WMA) and video (WMV) and take advantage of rich built-in media player skins. The Silverlight server control lets you add your own Silverlight XAML content to ASP.NET pages, using a custom JavaScript type of a Silverlight 2 managed-code XAP package.


ASP.NET MVC


ASP.NET MVC provides a framework that enables you to easily implement the model-view-controller (MVC) pattern for Web applications. This pattern lets you separate applications into loosely coupled, pluggable components for application design, processing logic, and display. ASP.NET MVC also greatly facilitates test-driven development (TDD).


ASP.NET Dynamic Data


ASP.NET Dynamic Data helps developers build a fully customizable, data-driven app quickly. It provides a rich scaffolding framework that allows rapid data driven development without writing code, yet it is easily extendible using the traditional ASP.NET programming model.


ADO.NET Entity Framework


ADO.NET Entity Framework is a new modeling framework that enables developers to define a conceptual model of a database schema that closely aligns to a real world view of the information. Benefits include easier to understand and easier to mantain application code that is shielded from underlying database schema changes.


ADO.NET Data Services
ADO.NET Data Services provide new services that find, manipulate and deliver data over the web using simple URIs. Benefits include an easy and flexible way to access data over the web, while enabling the separation of presentation and data access code.