You can now download the May release o the ASP.Net Futures. ASP.Net Futures will work for both VS 2005 and VS “Orcas”. With the ASP.Net Futures new controls, here is a list of some of them:

DynamicRssLink

The DynamicRssLink control will display a RSS link for you. It will use the name of the folder and use the name to get information out from a table with the same name (by default).

<asp:DynamicRssLink ID="DynamicRssLink1" runat="server"/>

When you put the DynamicRssLink to the page you need to specify a connection string, this could be done by using the <dynamicDataControls> section in the web.config file:

<dynamicDataControls connectionString="MyBlogConnectionString" showAllTables="false">
     <nameMap>
           <add table="Posts" pathPrefix="~/MyPosts"/>
     </nameMap>
</dynamicDataControls>

By using the <nameMap> section, you can map a path to a specific table. The example above will make sure a page under the MyPosts that has the DynamicRssLink, will generate RSS from the specified table, in this case the Posts table. If you use for example IE 7.0 and press on the RSS link that will be rendered by the DynamicRssLink, you will see the rows added to the mapped table. If you press on a post, you will be navigated to details.aspx page in the same folder where the page with the control is located.

DynamicDetails

The DynamicDetails will render a details view control for you with intert, edit and update capability.

<asp:DynamicDetails ID="DynamicDetails1" runat="server" />

It will work in a similar way as the DynamicRssLink control when it gets the data from a data source; it will get the table with the same name as the folder where the page with the control is located and show the content in a DetailsView control.

Note: The DynamicDetails will inherit the DetailsViewExtenderBase class, that in turn inherit the CompositeDataBoundControlExtender<DetailsView>.

We can also here use the <nameMap> element of the <dynamicDataControls> section in web.config, to map our folder to a specific table if the name of the folder will not be the same as a table in our specified data source.

DynamicList

The DynamicList control will work in a similar way as the DynamicDetails control but will instead render an extended GridView control.

<asp:DynamicList ID="DynamicList1" runat="server" />

DynamicNavigator

The DynamicNavigator will extend the Menu control.

DynamicFilter

The DynamicFilter control will extend the ListControl and you can use it for example to filter a DynamicList.

DynamicInsert

The DynamicInsert is similar to the DynamicDetails, but it will show t he DetailView in an Insert mode.

DynamicAutoData

The DynamicAutoData can be used to create a Master-Detail view page. When you add this control to a page, it will use the name of the file as the table it retrieves the data from as long as the file is not located in a folder that is mapped in the <nameMap> section. It will then render a DynamicRssLink, DynamicFilter, DynamicList, DynamicDetails and a DynamicInsert control to the page. If you add the control to a page under folder that exists in the <nameMap>, it will only by default render a DynamicDetails control.

SearchDataSource

The SearchDataSource contol is a new kind of data source control that can be used together with a data-bound control. The control can be used to search for content and display in the data-bound control that uses it as a source. You can for example do a Microsoft Live Search from your app, and display the search result in a GridView control etc. You can in web.config change provider for the SearchDataSource. Out from the box we have a provider for Microsoft Live Search.

History

The History control will handle the Back button problem when you are doing an async. Postback with ASP.Net Ajax. It will use a IFRAME to handle the history.

This was a short description of some of the controls shipped with the current version of ASP.Net Futures.