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Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0

Application Development Foundation

Wikibook Development Stages
Sparse text	Developing text	Maturing text	Developed text	Comprehensive text

Preface

Welcome to the 'Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0 Application Development Foundation' module.

Please give us you feedback on the module so we can improve it (see discussion page).

The preface contains information relevant to the context of the document, authors, wikibooks, etc. You can skip to the Introduction if you are primarely interested in the module content.

Contributions

This module is far from over! Please do not hesitate to improve it as you see fit.

Just a couple of pointers thow if you are a new contributor to wikibooks:

Wikibooks are about textbooks not "standard" wikis. The project team is looking for continuous narratives that can be read from top to bottom. For somebody used to the MSDN type of documentation this can be a significant adjusment.

Links only pages does not fit the above picture and are actively discouraged. If you create a page, be sure to have content to put on it :-)

The administrators use templates to ask questions or notify of incomplete tasks. Those templates produce rather flashy notices that can be surprising at first. Don't worry about the look and ask for clarifications. The admins are very helpful and nice and will help you with whatever you may need.

Code samples are very welcome and should be put in "hidden" sections to preserve the flow of the text. see example section. A sample should be kept as short as possible but the space limitations of printed material obviously do not apply here. We thus encourage you to have complete, yet clear and simple, programs so they can be directly tested and used.

Use the discussion page for questions or comments.

Exam information and certifications

Current information on the exam can be found at MSDN Exam Information

This module is the study guide for the first exam (70-536) for obtaining many Microsoft certifications:

Authors

William "Scott" Baker (User:Scott98390)

If you contribute to this book, if you wish, please add your name here. The contributors for a specific article can be traced by its history.

Please note that it is not wikibook's policy to have link only pages or pages with very few text. The preferred way is to have continuous textbooks that can be read from start to finish. The first contributions to this module where in the form of separate pages for each third or forth level exam objectives. This gave way to numerous pages that are in the process of beeing merged into more consistent global pages. This process have the adverse side effect of losing references for the contributions to those detailed pages. We apologize if your texts or links have been moved in this way.

Introduction

This module is structured around the objectives set by Microsoft for the 70-536 Exam. Chapters 2 to 8 represents each of the 7 major objective categories of the exam.

For each chapter a first section covers the major concepts (topics). A second section then details each of the second, third and fourth level exam objectives for that objective category.

As of december 4th 2007, 24 subjects where detailed on separate pages (the blue links).

Most of the detailed subjects point to the corresponding section on MSDN2 (Microsoft's developpers documentation).

Whenever possible the "topics" sections link to wikipedia articles to give you a feel of how the concepts are defined and treated outside of Microsoft's world.

The .NET Framework

Wikipedia has related information at .NET_Framework

In the certification paths where exam 70-536 "Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0 Application Development Foundation" is present, it represents the first step of the cetification process. It is thus natural to start this first study guide with a short discussion of the framework as a whole.

The definition on MSDN .NET main page is: "The .NET Framework is Microsoft's managed code programming model for building applications on Windows clients, servers, and mobile or embedded devices. Developers use .NET to build applications of many types: Web applications, server applications, smart client applications, console applications, database applications, and more".

Wikipedia's definition is: "The Microsoft .NET Framework is a software component included with the Microsoft Windows operating system. It provides a large body of pre-coded solutions to common software development requirements, and manages the execution of programs written specifically for the framework. The .NET Framework is intended to be used by most new applications created for the Windows platform"

The problem with Microsoft's definition is that it refers to a "managed code programming model" which is still Microsoft terminology. The best defintion for it: "Managed code is code that has its execution managed by the .NET Framework Common Language Runtime" (see Brad Adams blog on MSDN).

Wikipedia's definition points to the two more important aspects from a developper point of view:

The presence of a huge set of class libraries that allows for all of the common programming tasks. Atop the sheer size of the those class libraries, they are also evolving at a rapid paste.
The fact that the execution environment is specific to the framework. The term "virtual machine" is often used to qualify such an environment.

System types and collections

Exam objective: Developing applications that use system types and collections.

Topics

System types

Collections

For a tutorial see GotDotNet

For some "prescriptive guidance" see AspNetResources

Generics

Specialized

System Interfaces

Events and Delegates

Classes, Interfaces, and tools

System types

Exam objective: Manage data in a .NET Framework application by using the .NET Framework 2.0 system types.

(Refer System namespace)

Exception classes

Some links to MSDN:

Exceptions and exception handling - MSDN
Handling and throwing exceptions - MSDN
Exception Hierarchy - MSDN
Exception Class and Properties - MSDN

Boxing and UnBoxing

TypeForwardedToAttribute Class - MSDN

For a discussion of TypeForwardToAttribute in the CLR see MSDN

Other possible links: Marcus' Blog, NotGartner

Collections

Exam objective: Manage a group of associated data in a .NET Framework application by using collections.

(Refer System.Collections namespace - MSDN)

ArrayList class

Collection interfaces

ICollection interface and IList interface

IComparer interface, IEqualityComparer interface, and IKeyComparer interface

IComparer interface - MSDN

IEqualityComparer interface - MSDN

IKeyComparer interface - IKeyComparer does not exist in .Net 2.0

IDictionary interface and IDictionaryEnumerator interface

IDictionary interface - MSDN

IDictionaryEnumerator interface - MSDN

IEnumerable interface and IEnumerator interface

IHashCodeProvider interface - MSDN - Interface is now obsolete (as of .NET 2.0)

Iterators

Hashtable class - MSDN

Used to represent a collection of key/value pairs.

CollectionBase class and ReadOnlyCollectionBase class

CollectionBase class - MSDN

ReadOnlyCollectionBase class -MSDN

DictionaryBase class and DictionaryEntry class

DictionaryBase class - MSDN

DictionaryEntry structure - MSDN

Comparer class - MSDN

Queue class - MSDN

SortedList class - MSDN

BitArray class - MSDN

Stack class - MSDN

Generic collections

Exam objective: Improve type safety and application performance in a .NET Framework application by using generic collections.

(Refer System.Collections.Generic namespace MSDN )

Collection.Generic interfaces

Specialized collections

Exam objective: Manage data in a .NET Framework application by using specialized collections.

(Refer System.Collections.Specialized namespace)

Specialized String classes

StringCollection class - MSDN

StringDictionary class - MSDN

StringEnumerator class - MSDN

Specialized Dictionary classes

HybridDictionary class - MSDN

IOrderedDictionary interface and OrderedDictionary class

IOrderedDictionary Interface - MSDN

OrderedDictionary class - MSDN

ListDictionary class - MSDN

Named collections

NameObjectCollectionBase class - MSDN

NameObjectCollectionBase.KeysCollection class - MSDN

NameValueCollection class - MSDN

CollectionsUtil class

CollectionsUtil class - MSDN

BitVector32 structure and BitVector32.Section structure

BitVector32 structure - MSDN

BitVector32.Section structure - MSDN

Standard interfaces

Exam objective: Implement .NET Framework interfaces to cause components to comply with standard contracts.

(Refer System namespace)

IComparable interface - MSDN

The IComparable interface defines a comparison method that a value type or class implements to create a type-specific comparison method

IDisposable interface - MSDN

The IDispose interface can be used to explicitly release unmanaged resources in custom classes. The consumer of an object can call this method when the object is no longer needed.

The .Net garbage collector releases memory allocated to managed objects when they are no longer used, however, it is not possible to predict when garbage collection will occur and it has no knowledge of unmanaged resources such as window handles, or open files and streams.

IConvertible interface - MSDN

ICloneable interface - MSDN

INullableValue interface - MSDN

IEquatable interface - MSDN

IFormattable interface - MSDN

Events and delegates

Exam objectives: Control interactions between .NET Framework application components by using events and delegates.

(Refer System namespace)

Delegate class

EventArgs class - MSDN

EventHandler delegates - MSDN

Services, threading, and application domains

Exam objective: Implementing service processes, threading, and application domains in a .NET Framework application

Topics

Services

Mutithreading

Application Domain

Classes, Interfaces, and tools

Implement, install, and control a service

Exam objective: Implement, install, and control a service

(Refer System.ServiceProcess namespace)

Inherit from ServiceBase class

ServiceController class and ServiceControllerPermission class

ServiceController class - MSDN

ServiceControllerPermission class - MSDN

ServiceInstaller and ServiceProcessInstaller class

ServiceInstaller - MSDN

ServiceProcessInstaller class - MSDN

ServiceChangeDescription structure and ServiceChangeReason enumeration

SessionChangeDescription structure - MSDN

SessionChangeReason enumeration - MSDN

Develop multithreaded applications

Exam objective: Develop multithreaded .NET Framework applications

(Refer System.Threading namespace)

Thread class - MSDN

ThreadPool class - MSDN

ThreadStart delegate, ParameterizedThreadStart delegate, and SynchronizationContext class

Timeout class, Timer class, TimerCallback delegate, WaitCallback delegate, WaitHandle class, and WaitOrTimerCallback delegate

Timeout class

Timer class

TimerCallback delegate

WaitCallback delegate

WaitHandle class

WaitOrTimerCallback delegate

ThreadExceptionEventArgs class and ThreadExceptionEventHanlder class

ThreadExceptionEventArgs class

ThreadExceptionEventHanlder class

ThreadState enumeration and ThreadPriority enumeration

ThreadState enumeration

ThreadPriority enumeration

ReaderWriterLock class

AutoResetEvent class and ManualResetEvent class

AutoResetEvent class

ManualResetEvent class

IAsyncResult interface and ICancelableAsyncResult interface

(Refer System namespace)

IAsyncResult interface

ICancelableAsyncResult interface

EventWaitHandle class, RegisterWaitHandle class, SendOrPostCallback delegate, and IOCompletionCallback delegate

EventWaitHandle class

RegisterWaitHandle class

SendOrPostCallback delegate

IOCompletionCallback delegate

Interlocked class, NativeOverlapped structure, and Overlapped class

Interlocked class

NativeOverlapped structure

Overlapped class

ExecutionContext class, HostExecutionContext class, HostExecutionContext manager, and ContextCallback delegate

ExecutionContext class

HostExecutionContext class

HostExecutionContext manager

ContextCallback delegate

LockCookie structure, Monitor class, Mutex class, and Semaphore class

LockCookie structure

Monitor class

Mutex class

Semaphore class

Using applications domains

Exam objective: Create a unit of isolation for common language runtime in a .NET Framework application by using application domains

(Refer System namespace)

Create an application domain - MSDN

An application domain is a division of a process into multiple parts. Applications running in different application domains are as isolated as they would be in different processes.

Application domains are easier to maintain and are faster because it is easier to communicate between application domains than between processes. An application domain can hold multiple assemblies.

Unload an application domain - MSDN

Configure an application domain - MSDN

Retrieve setup information from an application domain - MSDN

Load assemblies into an application domain - MSDN

Configuration, diagnostic, management, and installation

Exam objective: Embedding configuration, diagnostic, management, and installation features into a .NET Framework application

Topics

Configuration management

.NET framework installer

Event log

MSDN's definition is "Windows event logs allow your applications and components to record information about important events. You can use these records to audit access to your system, troubleshoot problems, and re-create usage patterns"

For a general discussion see MSDN

For specifics on the EventLog class and some cautions about its use see MSDN

System processes

Performance monitoring

Debugging and tracing

Management information and events

Classes, Interfaces, and tools

Embed configuration management

Exam objective: Embed configuration management functionality into a .NET Framework application.

(Refer System.Configuration namespace)

Configuration class and ConfigurationManager class

Configuration class - MSDN

ConfigurationManager class - MSDN

ConfigurationSettings class, ConfigurationElement class, ConfigurationElementCollection class, and ConfigurationElementProperty class

ConfigurationSettings class - MSDN

ConfigurationElement class - MSDN

ConfigurationElementCollection class - MSDN

ConfigurationElementProperty class - MSDN

Implement IConfigurationSectionHandler interface - MSDN

ConfigurationSection class, ConfigurationSectionCollection class, ConfigurationSectionGroup class, and ConfigurationSectionGroupCollection class

ConfigurationSection class

ConfigurationSectionCollection class

ConfigurationSectionGroup class

ConfigurationSectionGroupCollection

Implement ISettingsProviderService interface

Implement IApplicationSettingsProvider interface

ConfigurationValidationBase class

Implement IConfigurationSystem interface

Create custom installer and configure application

Exam objective: Create a custom Microsoft Windows Installer for .NET Framework components by using the System.Configuration.Install namespace, and configure the .NET Framework applications by using configuration files, environment variables, and the .NET Framework Configuration tool (Mscorcfg.msc).

Installer class

Configure which runtime version a .NET Framework application should use

Configure where the runtime should search for an assembly

Configure the location of an assembly and which version of the assembly to use

Direct the runtime to use the DEVPATH environment variable when searching for assemblies

AssemblyInstaller class

ComponentInstaller class

Configure a .NET Framework application by using the .NET Framework Configuration tool (Mscorcfg.msc)

ManagedInstaller class

InstallContext class

InstallerCollection class

Implement IManagedInstaller interface

InstallEventHandler delegate

Configure concurrent garbage collection

Register remote objects by using configuration files

Manage an event log

Exam objective: Manage an event log by using the System.Diagnostics namespace

Write to an event log

Read from an event log

Create a new event log

You create an EventLog by creating the first event source that writes to that log.

The two simplest way to do this are:

Use the EventLog.CreateEventSource method
Create an EventLog instance, specify a source and then write to the log. The actual creation takes place on execution of the first write.

C# Code sample

C# EventLog creation Example

   using System;
   using System.Collections.Generic;
   using System.Text;
   using System.Diagnostics;
   namespace EventLogLab1
   {
       class Program
       {
           static void Main(string[] args)
           {
               try
               {
                   EventLog log1 = new EventLog("EvtLab2Log");
                   log1.Source = "EvtLab2Source";
                   // Actual creation happens next
                   log1.WriteEntry("Example message", EventLogEntryType.Information,
                       123, 1);
               }
               catch (Exception e)
               {
                   Console.WriteLine(e.Message);
               }
               Console.WriteLine("Press ENTER to finish");
               Console.ReadLine();
           }
       }
   }

The recommended way, which does not seem to be covered on the Training Kit (so probably not on the exam) is to use the EventLogInstaller class during the installation of the application. For reference purposes see MSDN

Manage processes and monitor performance

Exam objective: Manage system processes and monitor the performance of a .NET Framework application by using the diagnostics functionality of the .NET Framework 2.0.

(Refer System.Diagnostics namespace)

Get a list of all running processes.

Process class - MSDN

For example code for GetCurrentProcess(), GetProcessesByName(), GetProcesses(), and GetProcessById() see MSDN

Retrieve information about the current process - MSDN

Get a list of all modules loaded by a process

The Process.Modules property returns a stronlgy-typed collection of ProcessModule objects that represent the Process' currently loaded modules.

For the Process.Modules property see MSDN

For the ProcessModule class see MSDN

PerformanceCounter class, PerformanceCounterCategory, and CounterCreationData class

PerformanceCounter class - MSDN

PerformanceCounterCategory - MSDN

CounterCreationData class - MSDN

Start a process both by using and by not using command-line arguments.

StackTrace class

StackFrame class

Debug and Trace

Exam objective: Debug and trace a .NET Framework application by using the System.Diagnostics namespace.

Debug class and Debugger class

Trace class

CorrelationManager class

TraceListener class

TraceSource class

TraceSwitch class

XmlWriterTraceListener class

DelimitedListTraceListener class

EventlogTraceListener class

Debugger attributes

DebuggerBrowsableAttribute class

DebuggerDisplayAttribute class

DebuggerHiddenAttribute class

DebuggerNonUserCodeAttribute class

DebuggerStepperBoundaryAttribute class

DebuggerStepThroughAttribute class

DebuggerTypeProxyAttribute class

DebuggerVisualizerAttribute class

Embed management information

Exam objective: Embed management information and events into a .NET Framework application.

(Refer System.Management namespace)

Retrieve a collection of Management objects by using the ManagementObjectSearcher class and its derived classes.

- Enumerate all disk drivers, network adapters, and processes on a computer.

Retrieve information about all network connections

- Retrieve information about all services that are paused.

ManagementQuery class

EventQuery class - MSDN

ObjectQuery class

Subscribe to management events by using the ManagementEventWatcher class

Serialization and Input/Output

Exam objective: Implementing serialization and input/output functionality in a .NET Framework application

Topics

Serialization

Wikipedia has related information at serialization

Wikipedia's definition for serialiation is : "in the context of data storage and transmission, serialization is the process of saving an object onto a storage medium (such as a file, or a memory buffer) or to transmit it across a network connection link in binary form".

The problem that is addressed here is that an object is created by a running process and is thus bound to the lifetime of that process instance. If for whatever reason, and there can be many, you want to "transport" the object in the context of another process instance you've got a problem, that you solve by "saving" the state of you object in the original process and "restoring" it in the destination process. This "saving" part is called serialization and the "restoring" part is caled deserialization.

Serializable attribute

An object is serializable if it's class name is be prefixed with the [Serializable] attribute.

Object Serialization

One can use the BinaryFormatter class to serialize an object. To serialize, use the BinaryFormatter's Serialize() method which takes a stream and a serializable object as parameters. To deserialize, use the BinaryFormatter's Deserialize() method which takes a stream as a parameter and returns a object that can be cast back to the original object type. Remember to close streams after you use them by calling the stream's Close() method.

XML Serialization

One can use the XmlSerializer class to serialize an object. To serialize, use the XmlSerializer's Sserialize() method which takes a stream and a serializable object as parameters. To deserialize, use the XmlSerializer's Deserialize() method which takes a stream as a parameter and returns a object that can be cast back to the original object type. Remember to close streams after you use them by calling the stream's Close() method.

For an overview of XML and SOAP serialization see MSDN

Custom Serialization

The ISerializable interface allows an object to control its own serialization and deserialization.

Readers

Writers

Formatters

A formatter is used to serialize objects into streams.

Streams

File IO

Managing Byte Streams

Compression

Isolated storage

For a general discussion on IsolatedStorage tasks see MSDN

Classes, Interfaces, and tools

Serialize and deserialize

Exam objective: Serialize or deserialize an object or an object graph by using runtime serialization techniques.

(Refer System.Runtime.Serialization namespace)

Serialization interfaces

IDeserializationCallback interface - MSDN

IFormatter interface and IFormatterConverter interface

IFormatter interface - MSDN

IFormatterConverter interface - MSDN

ISerializable interface - MSDN

Serilization attributes

For some serialization attributes exemple see MSDN

OnDeserializedAttribute class and OnDeserializingAttribute class

OnDeserializedAttribute class - MSDN

OnDeserializingAttribute class - MSDN

OnSerializedAttribute class and OnSerializingAttribute class

OnSerializedAttribute class - MSDN

OnSerializingAttribute class - MSDN

OptionalFieldAttribute class - MSDN

SerializationEntry structure and SerializationInfo class

SerializationEntry structure - MSDN

SerializationInfo class - MSDN

ObjectManager class

ObjectManager class - MSDN

Formatter class, FormatterConverter class, and FormatterServices class

Formatter class - MSDN

FormatterConverter class - MSDN

FormatterServices class - MSDN

StreamingContext structure

StreamingContext structure - MSDN

XML Serialization

Exam objective: Control the serialization of an object into XML format by using the System.Xml.Serialization namespace.

XmlSerializer class - MSDN

Exam objective: Serialize and deserialize objects into XML format by using the XmlSerializer class

Control serialization by using serialization attributes - MSDN

For a list of attributes for controlling serialization see MSDN

Implement XML Serialization interfaces to provide custom formatting for XML serialization

Delegates and event handlers are provided by the System.Xml.Serialization namespace

Custom serialization

Exam objective: Implement custom serialization formatting by using the Serialization Formatter classes.

SoapFormatter clas - MSDN

(Refer System.Runtime.Serialization.Formatters.Soap namespace)

BinaryFormatter class - MSDN

(Refer System.Runtime.Serialization.Formatters.Binary namespace

File system classes

Exam objective: Access files and folders by using the File System classes.

(Refer System.IO namespace)

File class and FileInfo class

For common IO tasks see MSDN

File class - MSDN

FileInfo class - MSDN

Directory class and DirectoryInfo class

Directory class - MSDN

DirectoryInfo class - MSDN

DriveInfo class and DriveType enumeration

DriveInfo class - MSDN

DriveType enumeration - MSDN

FileSystemInfo class and FileSystemWatcher class

Path class

ErrorEventArgs class and ErrorEventHandler delegate

ErrorEventArgs class

ErrorEventHandler delegate

RenamedEventArgs class and RenamedEventHandler delegate

RenamedEventArgs class

RenamedEventHandler delegate

Byte streams

Exam objective: Manage byte streams by using Stream classes.

(Refer System.IO namespace)

FileStream class - MSDN

Stream class - MSDN

System.IO.Stream is the abstract base class that all other streams inherit from. It is not possible in instantiate a Stream class. Instead use one of the other classes that derive from Stream.

In terms of the 70-536 exam objectives, the most important classes that inherit from Stream are:

System.IO.FileStream
System.IO.MemoryStream
System.IO.Compression.DeflateStream
System.IO.Compression.GZipStream
System.Security.Cryptography.CryptoStream
System.IO.BufferedStream

For a complete list of classes that inherit from Stream see MSDN.

For a discussion on File and Stream IO see MSDN.

MemoryStream class - MSDN

BufferedStream class - MSDN

Reader and Writer classes

Exam objective: Manage the .NET Framework application data by using Reader and Writer classes.

(Refer System.IO namespace)

StringReader class and StringWriter class

TextReader class and TextWriter class

StreamReader class and StreamWriter class

BinaryReader class and BinaryWriter class

BinaryReader class - MSDN

BinaryWriter class - MSDN

Compression and isolated storage

Exam objective: Compress or decompress stream information in a .NET Framework application and improve the security of application data by using isolated storage.

(Refer System.IO.Compression namespace)

(Refer System.IO.IsolatedStorage namespace)

IsolatedStorageFile class - MSDN

IsolatedStorageFileStream class - MSDN

DeflateStream class - MSDN

GZipStream class - MSDN

Security

Exam objective: Improving the security of the .NET Framework applications by using the .NET Framework 2.0 security features

Topics

Code access security

Wikipedia has related information at Code_access_security

Code access security, CAS, allows the control of various permissions granted to specific managed applications. MSDN

Permissions allow access system resources. A permission set is a collection of permissions. A code group relates exactly one permission set to exactly one evidence type. Evidence is used to identify an assembly. Evidence types can include the application directory, cryptographic hash of the assembly, publisher's digital signature, site from which the assembly was downloaded, cryptographic strong name of the assembly, URL from which the assembly was downloaded, and the security zone in which the assembly is running. Security zones include the computer zone, local intranet zone, Internet zone, trusted site, and untrusted sites. See the Internet options security tab in Internet Explorer to view various security zones. An assembly can be associated with multiple code groups. Permission sets can be associated with multiple code groups.

A security policy is a logical grouping of code groups and permission sets. An untrusted managed assembly must pass through four security policies: The Enterprise security policy, machine security policy, user security policy, and application domain security policy. Any one of these security policies can deny an untrustrd managed assembly permissions.

Classes, interfaces, and tools

Implement code access security

Exam objective: Implement code access security to improve the security of a .NET Framework application.

(Refer System.Security namespace)

SecurityManager class

CodeAccessPermission class

Modify the Code Access security policy at the machine, user, and enterprise policy level by using the Code Access Security Policy tool (Caspol.exe)

PermissionSet class, NamedPermissionSet class, and PermissionSetCollection class

PermissionSet class

NamedPermissionSet class

PermissionSetCollection class

Standard Security interfaces

IEvidenceFactory interface

IPermission interface

Implement access control

Exam objective: Implement access control by using the System.Security.AccessControl classes.

DirectorySecurity class, FileSecurity class, FileSystemSecurity class, and RegistrySecurity class

DirectorySecurity class

FileSecurity class

FileSystemSecurity class

RegistrySecurity class

AccessRule class - MSDN

AuthorizationRule class and AuthorizationRuleCollection class

AuthorizationRule class

AuthorizationRuleCollection class

CommonAce class, CommonAcl class, CompoundAce class, GeneralAce class, and GeneralAcl class

CommonAce class

CommonAcl class

CompoundAce class

GeneralAce class

GeneralAcl class

AuditRule class

MutexSecurity class, ObjectSecurity class, and SemaphoreSecurity class

MutexSecurity class

ObjectSecurity class

SemaphoreSecurity class

Implement custom authentication scheme

Exam objective: Implement a custom authentication scheme by using the System.Security.Authentication classes.

(Refer System.Security.Authentication namespace)

Authentication algorithms and SSL protocols

Encrypt, decrypt and hash data

Exam objective: Encrypt, decrypt, and hash data by using the System.Security.Cryptography classes.

(Refer System.Security.Cryptography namespace)

DES class and DESCryptoServiceProvider class

DES class

DESCryptoServiceProvider class

HashAlgorithm class

DSA class and DSACryptoServiceProvider class

DSA class

DSACryptoServiceProvider class

SHA1 class and SHA1CryptoServiceProvider class

SHA1 class

SHA1CryptoServiceProvider class

TripleDES and TripleDESCryptoServiceProvider class

TripleDES

TripleDESCryptoServiceProvider class

MD5 class and MD5CryptoServiceProvider class

MD5 class

MD5CryptoServiceProvider class

RSA class and RSACryptoServiceProvider class

RSA class

RSACryptoServiceProvider class

RandomNumberGenerator class

CryptoStream class

CryptoConfig class

RC2 class and RC2CryptoServiceProvider class

RC2 class

RC2CryptoServiceProvider class

AssymetricAlgorithm class

ProtectedData class and ProtectedMemory class

ProtectedData class

ProtectedMemory class

RijndaelManaged class and RijndaelManagedTransform class

RijndaelManaged class

RijndaelManagedTransform class

CspParameters class

CryptoAPITransform class

Hash-based Message Authentication Code (HMAC)

HMACMD5 class

HMACRIPEMD160 class

HMACSHA1 class

HMACSHA256 class

HMACRIPEMD160 class

HMACSHA1 class

HMACSHA256 class

HMACSHA384 class

HMACSHA512 class

Control permissions

Exam objective: Control permissions for resources by using the System.Security.Permission classes.

(Refer System.Security.Permission namespace)

SecurityPermission class

PrincipalPermission class

FileIOPermission class - MSDN

You can also set the FileIoPermisson attribute at assembly level or class level. Be then aware about the SecurityAction enumerations:

SecurityAction.RequestRefuse: specifies the operations that should not be granted.
SecurityAction.RequestMinumum: request for a minimum set of permissions. If not given, the app will not execute.

StrongNameIdentityPermission class

UIPermission class

UrlIdentityPermission class

PublisherIdentityPermission class

GacIdentityPermission class

FileDialogPermission class

DataProtectionPermission class

EnvironmentPermission class

IUnrestrictedPermission interface

RegistryPermission class

IsolatedStorageFilePermission class

KeyContainerPermission class

ReflectionPermission class

StorePermission class

SiteIdentityPermission class

ZoneIdentityPermission class

Control code privileges

Exam objective: Control code privileges by using System.Security.Policy classes.

(Refer System.Security.Policy namespace)

ApplicationSecurityInfo class and ApplicationSecurityManager class

ApplicationSecurityInfo class

ApplicationSecurityManager class

ApplicationTrust class and ApplicationTrustCollection class

ApplicationTrust class

ApplicationTrustCollection class

Evidence class and PermissionRequestEvidence class

Evidence class

PermissionRequestEvidence class

CodeGroup class, FileCodeGroup class, FirstMatchCodeGroup class, NetCodeGroup class, and UnionCodeGroup class

CodeGroup class

FileCodeGroup class

FirstMatchCodeGroup class

NetCodeGroup class

UnionCodeGroup class

Condition classes

AllMembershipCondition class

ApplicationDirectory class and ApplicationDirectoryMembershipCondition class

ApplicationDirectory class

ApplicationDirectoryMembershipCondition class

GacMembership class and GacMembershipCondition class

GacMembership class

GacMembershipCondition class

Hash class and HashMembershipCondition class

Hash class

HashMembershipCondition class

Publisher class and PublisherMembershipCondition class

Publisher class

PublisherMembershipCondition class

Site class and SiteMembershipCondition class

Site class

SiteMembershipCondition class

StrongName class and StrongNameMembershipCondition class

StrongName class

StrongNameMembershipCondition class

Url class and UrlMembershipConditon class

Url class

UrlMembershipConditon class

Zone class and ZoneMembershipCondition class

Zone class

ZoneMembershipCondition class

PolicyLevel class and PolicyStatement class

PolicyLevel class

PolicyStatement class

IApplicationTrustManager interface, IMembershipCondition interface, and IIdentityPermissionFactory interface

IApplicationTrustManager interface

IMembershipCondition interface

IIdentityPermissionFactory interface

Access and modifiy identity information

Exam objective: Access and modify identity information by using the System.Security.Principal classes.

(Refer System.Security.Principal namespace)

GenericIdentity class and GenericPrincipal class

GenericIdentity class

GenericPrincipal class

WindowsIdentity class and WindowsPrincipal class

WindowsIdentity class

WindowsPrincipal class

NTAccount class and SecurityIdentifier class

NTAccount class

SecurityIdentifier class

IIdentity interface and IPrincipal interface

IIdentity interface

IPrincipal interface

WindowsImpersonationContext class

IdentityReference class and IdentityReferenceCollection class

IdentityReference class

IdentityReferenceCollection class

Interoperability, Reflection, and Mailing

Exam objective: Implementing interoperability, reflection, and mailing functionality in a .NET Framework application

Topics

Interoperability

Reflection

Wikipedia has related information at Reflection_%28computer_science%29

The wikipedia definition for reflexion in computer science is: "The process by which a computer program of the appropriate type can be modified in the process of being executed".

The concept is implemented extensively in .NET because a lot of information is maintained at the intermediate language (MSIL) level.

Among other things you can:

get information about running assembly or assembly constituants (modules, classes, methods, etc.), this is particularly usefull for dynamically loaded assemblies that are not known at compile time.
put custom attributes in your code and retreive those attributes at run time
dynamically invoke methods
"emit" and execute MSIL code at run time

Mailing

Classes, Interfaces, and tools

COM interoperability

Exam objective: Expose COM components to the .NET Framework and .NET Framework components to COM

(Refer System.Runtime.InteropServices namespace)

Import a type library as an assembly.

- Add references to type libraries.

- Type Library Importer (Tlbimp.exe)

- Generate interop assemblies from type libraries.

- - Imported Library Conversion

- - Imported Module Conversion

- - Imported Type Conversion

- - Imported Member Conversion

- - Imported Parameter Conversion

- TypeConverter class

Create COM types in managed code.

Compile an interop project.

Deploy an interop application.

Qualify the .NET Framework types for interoperation.

Apply Interop attributes, such as the ComVisibleAttribute class.

Package an assembly for COM.

Deploy an application for COM access.

Call DLL functions

Exam objective: Call unmanaged DLL functions in a .NET Framework application, and control the marshalling of data in a .NET Framework application.

(Refer System.Runtime.InteropServices namespace)

Platform Invoke

Create a class to hold DLL functions.

Create prototypes in managed code.

- DllImportAttribute class

Call a DLL function

Look for "P/Invoke" on the internet.

A good reference is: http://www.pinvoke.net/

Some short hints:

For the DllAttribute "CharSet", Logically, CharSet.Auto is the most secure way as this will autodetect the Charset used. The CharSet can be ANSI(Win95/Win98/ME) or Unicode (Win2000/WinXP)
GetEntryPoint: There could be one tricky question as the EntryPoint states the method that should be called. In case the name of the method used differs from the method to be called, this flag is necessary.

Call a DLL function in special cases, such as passing structures and implementing callback functions.

Create a new Exception class and map it to an HRESULT.

Default marshaling behavior

Marshal data with Platform Invoke - MSDN

Marshal data with COM Interop

MarshalAsAttribute class and Marshal class

Implement Reflexion

Exam objective: Implement reflection functionality in a .NET Framework application (refer System.Reflection namespace), and create metadata, Microsoft intermediate language (MSIL), and a PE file by using the System.Reflection.Emit namespace.

Assembly class

Assembly attributes

- AssemblyAlgorithmIdAttribute class

- AssemblyCompanyAttribute class

- AssemblyConfigurationAttribute class

- AssemblyCopyrightAttribute class

- AssemblyCultureAttribute class

- AssemblyDefaultAliasAttribute class

- AssemblyDelaySignAttribute class

- AssemblyDescriptionAttribute class

- AssemblyFileVersionAttribute class

- AssemblyFlagsAttribute class

- AssemblyInformationalVersionAttribute class

- AssemblyKeyFileAttribute class

- AssemblyTitleAttribute class

- AssemblyTrademarkAttribute class

- AssemblyVersionAttribute class

Info classes

- ConstructorInfo class

- LocalVariableInfo class

Binder class and BindingFlags

MethodBase class and MethodBody class

Builder classes

- AssemblyBuilder class

- ConstructorBuilder class

- MethodBuilder class

- ModuleBuilder class

- ParameterBuilder class

- PropertyBuilder class

- TypeBuilder class

Send Electronic mail

Exam objective: Send electronic mail to a Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) server for delivery from a .NET Framework application.

(Refer System.Net.Mail namespace)

MailMessage class

MailAddress class and MailAddressCollection class

SmtpClient class, SmtpPermission class, and SmtpPermissionAttribute class

Attachment class, AttachmentBase class, and AttachmentCollection class

SmtpException class, SmtpFailedReceipientException class, and SmtpFailedReceipientsException class

SendCompleteEventHandler delegate

LinkedResource class and LinkedResourceCollection class

AlternateView class and AlternateViewCollection class

Globalization, Drawing, and Text manipulation

Exam objective: Implementing globalization, drawing, and text manipulation functionality in a .NET Framework application

Topics

Globalization

Drawing

Text manipulation

Text manipulation, in the context of the exam objectives, covers 3 main subjects: string building, regular expressions and text encoding. We look at each in the follwing paragraphs.

String and StringBuilder classes

Text manipulation starts with the representation of a string which is done via the String class. No specific exam objective mentions the String class but we added a section for it because you must understand some of its specific caracteristics.

Next comes the StringBuilder class that serves for efficent construction.

Regular expressions

Wikipedia has related information at Regular_expressions

The Regex, Match and Group classes together implement the regular expressions support in the .NET framework.

Regular expressions are a world by themselves and have been around for quite some time.

There is a wikibook on regular expressions which, among other things, point to this Tutorial.

Regular expressions support in .NET basically allows for:

testing the match of a string to a regex pattern (Regex.IsMatch method)
extracting the substrings that "match" part of a pattern (Regex.Match method with Match and Group classes).

Text encoding

Classes, Interfaces, and tools

Format data based on culture information.

(Refer System.Globalization namespace)

Access culture and region information

Exam objective: Access culture and region information in a .NET Framework application

CultureInfo class

CultureTypes enumeration

RegionInfo class

Format date and time values based on the culture.

DateTimeFormatInfo class

Format number values based on the culture.

NumberFormatInfo class - MSDN

NumberStyles enumeration

Perform culture-sensitive string comparison.

CompareInfo class

CompareOptions enumeration

Custom culture

Exam objective: Build a custom culture class based on existing culture and region classes

CultureAndRegionInfoBuilder class

CultureAndRegionModifier enumeration

System.Drawing namespace

Exam objective: Enhance the user interface of a .NET Framework application by using the System.Drawing namespace.

Brushes, Pens, Colors and Fonts

Exam objective: Enhance the user interface of a .NET Framework application by using brushes, pens, colors, and fonts

Brush class - MSDN

Brushes class - MSDN

SystemBrushes class - MSDN

TextureBrush class - MSDN

Pen class - MSDN

Pens class - MSDN

SystemPens class - MSDN

SolidBrush class - MSDN

Color structure - MSDN

ColorConverter class - MSDN

ColorTranslator class - MSDN

SystemColors class - MSDN

StringFormat class - MSDN

Font class - MSDN

FontConverter class - MSDN

FontFamily class - MSDN

SystemFonts class - MSDN

Graphics, Images, Bitmaps and Icons

Exam objective: Enhance the user interface of a .NET Framework application by using graphics, images, bitmaps, and icons

Graphics class - MSDN

BufferedGraphics class - MSDN

BufferedGraphicsManager class - MSDN

Image class - MSDN

ImageConverter class - MSDN

ImageAnimator class - MSDN

Bitmap class - MSDN

Icon class - MSDN

IconConverter class - MSDN

SystemIcons class - MSDN

Shapes and Sizes

Exam objective: Enhance the user interface of a .NET Framework application by using shapes and sizes

Point Structure - MSDN

PointConverter class - MSDN

Rectangle Structure - MSDN

RectangleConverter class - MSDN

Size Structure - MSDN

SizeConverter class - MSDN

Region class - MSDN

Text handling and regular expressions

Exam objective: Enhance the text handling capabilities of a .NET Framework application, and search, modify, and control text in a .NET Framework application by using regular expressions

(Refer System.Text namespace)

(Refer System.RegularExpressions namespace)

String class

The String class is not a specific exam objective but was added to have a place to discuss some of its caracteristics.

String class - MSDN

StringBuilder class

Regex class

Regex class - MSDN

Match class and MatchCollection class

Match class - MSDN

MatchCollection class - MSDN

Group class and GroupCollection class

Group class - MSDN

GroupCollection class - MSDN

Encode text by using Encoding classes

Encoding class - MSDN

EncodingInfo class - MSDN

ASCIIEncoding class - MSDN

UnicodeEncoding class - MSDN

UTF8Encoding class - MSDN

Encoding Fallback classes - MSDN

Decode text by using Decoding classes.

Decoder class - MSDN

Decoder Fallback classes - MSDN

Capture class and CaptureCollection class

Capture class - MSDN

CaptureCollection class - MSDN

External links

Exam 70-536 Preparation Guide

@@ Line 72: / Line 72: @@
 Wikipedia's definition is: "The Microsoft .NET Framework is a software component included with the Microsoft Windows operating system. It provides a large body of pre-coded solutions to common software development requirements, and manages the execution of programs written specifically for the framework. The .NET Framework is intended to be used by most new applications created for the Windows platform"
+The problem with Microsoft's definition is that it refers to a "managed code programming model" which is still Microsoft terminology. The best defintion for it: "Managed code is code that has its execution managed by the .NET Framework Common Language Runtime" (see Brad Adams blog on [http://blogs.msdn.com/brada/archive/2004/01/09/48925.aspx MSDN]).
+Wikipedia's definition points to the two more important aspects from a developper point of view:
+*The presence of a '''huge''' set of class libraries that allows for all of the common programming tasks. Atop the sheer size of the those class libraries, they are also evolving at a rapid paste.
+*The fact that the execution environment is specific to the framework. The term "virtual machine" is often used to qualify such an environment.
 ==System types and collections==