What's New in ASP.NET and Web Development in Visual Studio 11

Visual Studio 11 introduces a number of enhancements focused on improving the experience and the performance when working with Web technologies. Visual Studio editors for CSS, JavaScript and HTML now include several features to increase your productivity. Some of the enhancements are new CSS3 and HTML5 code snippets, XML documentation and navigation for JavaScript code, and built-in bundling and minification features to easily reduce the page load time, among others.

Overview

The new version of Visual Studio introduces a number of enhancements focused on improving the experience and performance when working with Web technologies. Visual Studio Editors for CSS, JavaScript and HTML have been completely revamped to include many of the most in-demand code aids, such as IntelliSense and automatic indentation. Regarding performance, bundling and minification are now integrated as built-in features to easily reduce page load time.

Visual Studio enables you to work with the latest website technologies. You can use cross-browser CSS3 Snippets to make sure your site works regardless of the client platform while also taking advantage of the new HTML5 elements and features.

Writing and profiling JavaScript code should be easier with this Visual Studio version. IntelliSense lists, integrated XML documentation and navigation features are now available for JavaScript code. You now have the JavaScript catalog at your fingertips. Additionally, you can check ECMAScript5 compliance with your scripts and detect syntax errors at an early stage.

Last but not least, this Visual Studio version implements built-in bundling and minification. Your script files and style sheets will be packed and compressed so that the site performs faster.

This lab walks you through the enhancements and new features previously described by applying minor changes to a sample Web application provided in the Source folder.

Objectives

In this hands-on lab, you will learn how to:

• Use the new features and improvements in the CSS editor
• Use the new features and improvements in the HTML editor
• Use the new features and improvements in the JavaScript editor
• Configure and use bundling and minification

Prerequisites

• Microsoft Visual Studio 11 Beta
• Windows PowerShell (for setup scripts – already installed on Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2)
• Internet Explorer 9 – or an HTML5 compliant browser

Exercises

This hands-on lab includes the following exercises:

1. What’s New in the CSS Editor
2. What’s New in the HTML Editor
3. What’s New in the JavaScript Editor
4. Bundling and Minification

Estimated time to complete this lab: 60 minutes.