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What you need to create a membership website

This is not a tutorial in the usual sense; rather it is a list of resources you will need to set up a password-protected membership based, database driven website using the asp.net controls of Expression Web. To be an actual tutorial, this presentation would need to be as long as the first referenced book below.

A. Recommended Reference Books -- These are books that I have found most useful, and why:

1. "Sam's Teach Yourself ASP.NET 2.0 in 24 hours" by Scott Mitchell. He has a later book on ASP.NET 3.5 but you want the 2.0 one as it walks you completely through the process of setting up a membership enabled database-driven website. This book is your step-by-step tutorial for setting up your membership-based website! I can't recommend it highly enough! If you don't buy any other book on this list, buy this one and read it. Don't be put off by the fact that it isnt a book on Expression Web -- the fact is that the asp.net controls in  Expression web that you will be using for your database work are well demonstrated in use by the sample website Scott  shows you how to build. It also introduces you to SQL database which you will need, since the default database used  by the membership controls is SQL Express. 

This book includes way more details than can be presented here -- such things as setting up roles using the Website Administration Tool and how to assign users to Roles so that only approved users can access certain folders.

2. "Murach's ASP.NET 3.5 web programming with VB2008". This is another indispensable book. It goes over all the  asp.net controls in detail, with actual code examples and explains how to use the controls.

3. "Using Microsoft Expression Web" , special edition by Jim Cheshire. This is a good book on Expression Web and  using it to build a website. It walks you through all the basics, the design interface and gives good explanations. It is  *not* (as it states on the cover) "the only Expression Web book you need". At least it is not if you consider, for example, sending form-submitted information to a database as part of what you expect to do with Expression. Jim left  all the business about how to actually do anything with the user-submitted data (e.g. send an email or write to a database) to his second book.

4. "The Microsoft Expression Web Developer's Guide to ASP.NET 3.5" by Jim Cheshire. 

This book gets into actually using the controls to interact with a database, and provides a lot of good explanation for how things work. It gets into some areas like compilation and using different Providers that don't get discussed in other Expression Web books. I would buy it, and read it for those reasons. But for the down-and-dirty working with the controls and databases, refs. (1) and (2) are the ones.

5. "Foundations of Microsoft Expression Web, The Basics and Beyond" by Cheryl Wise. 

The reason for buying and reading this book is that Cheryl provides the approach to "doing things right" from the get-go. Especially if you are a beginning web designer, you should read through her book to get off on the right track, especially with regards to using Cascading Style Sheets and good practice design for accessibility.

B. Software and Technology

1. Choose ASP.NET 3.5 as your technology and a host that supports it and SQL2000 or 2005. There are other more "open" approaches such as using PHP and Linux servers. My recommendation is to use asp.net for the simple reason  that so much of the heavy lifting code is already done for you via the controls. Everything you need to manage users (password reminders, recovering passwords, logon feature etc) is already done for you. The host needs to support SQL databases since you will eventually have to move your SQL Express database to SQL2000 or SQL2005.

2. Download Visual Web Developer Express and SQL Express (both are free) as your primary development tools. 

Yes, you probably came here because you use  Expression Web, but the fact is that Expression Web by itself is *not* a good tool for interacting with a database. VWD is the tool you want to start with (all this is explained in ref (1) above). Every page on your site should be first created using VWD, not Expression. VWD will automatically create the code-behind pages that contain any VB code you will eventually need for your database interactions, or for the application of any business logic for your website. VWD is an excellent "sister" program to Expression, and once you have created your website and your pages with VWD, you can open the site and work on its design with Expression. But when you need any VB code (you will), go back to VWD.

The reason to use SQLExpress is that the asp.net membership controls use it by default. Perhaps the best deal on the internet is the VWD / SQL Express tool combination that Microsoft makes available for FREE ! You can actually do this job entirely with those two free tools -- VWD has most (not all) of the design features that Expression Web has, so if you are on a tight budget, you don't really *have* to buy Expression web at all!

3. If you are going to accept payments for membership, 

I recommend using the Spicelogic Paypal Control which will do the heavy lifting regarding payments, and the Spicelogic help team is very responsive. You can add it to the Toolbox of VWD, and use it just like any of the other asp.net controls and, as with all controls, the coding is all done for you.  No worries about the back and forth between your site and PayPal. You will probably need to do a little VB code-behind to, for example, put the user who has just paid into a "Paid" Role. Then, if you have set up your site -- following ref (1) -- such that only people in the Role of "Paid" can access the password-protected portion of the site, you are all set.

4.  Port your SQL Express database to your host's SQL database  

When you upload your site to your host, you need to transfer your SQL Express database to the host, since most of them will not support SQL Epxress. Depending on your host, you can use the tool in VWD that handles generating the script needed for porting up to the host's SQL2000 or 2005 database (VWD, Database Explorer panel, right-click / Publish to provider) , or for some hosts, it is a simple as copying your aspnetdb.mdf database to your host. Directions for using former script  generation have kindly been posted online by Gregory Beamer at

http://gregorybeamer.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!B036196EAF9B34A8!630.entry

The great thing is  you never have to actually pay for SQLServer yourself !

C. Pick a web host. 

The host I use is webhost4life.com. The reasons I use them are they are reasonably priced, their help system is excellent (you can on-line chat with a tech support person at any time), and their method of porting your SQL Express database up to their SQL database is dead simple -- just copy your aspnetdb.mdf database to them.

That's the basics.  Remember, your basic guide to creating your site is the first reference above (the Sam's book by Scott Mitchell). Use that as your roadmap. There are many things not covered in this brief discussion that are covered in Scott's book (for example the use of the Website Administration Tool for setting up Roles etc) When you get stuck on anything related to web design, get help at the Expression Web Forum, and when you need help with your database, business logic, or anything related to code behind and the asp.net controls, get help at the ASP.NET forum.  And of course there are the other tutorials on this site, and many others.

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