This post comes from a comment on one my earlier posts that the 70-515 prep guide was a little too much for the average person who is revising for the exam. It was a very valid comment and the poster also suggested maybe doing a “hot” or “must read” list for this exam and I have to say it was a very good idea.
So here is that list. A quick note on how I compiled this list. I took what I know from previous exams and what are considered the hot topics in ASP.NET 4 and what also has changed from ASP.NET 3.5 to 4. This is not an insiders guide, it is just one guys attempt to predict what may or may not be on the exam. If you are already certified on .NET 3.5 this will give you an idea of what you need to look over.
If you are so inclined check out he the change lists at ASP.NET 4 and Visual Studio 2010 Web Development Overview
Now the caveat: This guide is for use at your own discretion and the author accepts NO liability in relation to incorrect or missing information. Also note that using this guide to study does not imply you will pass the exam
Now with that out of the way, here goes nothing. With each topic and part that I have placed on this list, I give an explanation where possible as to why its there.
Developing Web Forms Pages (19%)
- Configure Web Forms pages.
- ClientIDMode – Since this is new in .NET 4 you can be sure there will be at least one question on this
- ClientIDMode
- Handle page life cycle events
- dynamically creating controls – I am putting this in because it’s a problem that a lot of developers encounter and is considered one of the basic things you should know
- overriding page events – This should be be just a refresher for the page lifecycle. Exams typically contain one or more questions based on where a piece of code should be placed in the lifecycle
- Implement caching. – Caching is one of those things you should just revised and know what should go where
- How to: Set Expiration Values for ASP.NET Page Caching – Have seen this on previous versions of exams and tends to be a topic that repeats
- Manage state – State management always comes up so know the reason for each of the different state management types
- Validate user input. – Validation is always big. Know the validators available and what should be used where.
- Create page layout. – Not much here as most of the controls are standard.
- Implement user controls – Know how to reference a control, create and expose events, properties
- Implement server controls – Main thing if this is asked based on previous experience, its how to make it available in the toolbox.
- Manipulate user interface controls from code-behind – Security is usually a hot topic (consider that Anti-XSS was added to the core libs in ASP.NET 4.5)
- HTML encoding to avoid cross-site scripting
- Control.RenderingCompatibility – New in V4
- RenderOuterTable – New in V4
- Add dynamic features to a page by using JavaScript
- How to: Add Client Script Events to ASP.NET Web Server Controls – General refresher if you aren’t too hot with JavaScript
- Script combining
- Page.clientscript.registerclientscriptblock
- Page.clientscript.registerclientscriptinclude
- Alter a page dynamically by manipulating the DOM
- Adding, modifying, or removing page elements – Most likely to be asked. Tricky to put in what you should know. Be aware of available methods
- Handle JavaScript events
- Implement ASP.NET AJAX
- Creating a script service – Common scenario
- Multiple update panels – How to handle multiple update panels on the one page
- UpdatePanel.UpdateMode – What update mode is best for a given scenario
- Implement AJAX by using jQuery.
- $.get – Most common action and probably will be asked
- Configure authentication and authorization
- Roles – Tends to be a big topic going back to ASP.NET 2.0
- Location element – Securing through the web.config always comes up
- Protecting an area of a site or a page
- Configure providers
- aspnet_regsql.exe – Know what it does and why its there
- Create and configure HttpHandlers and HttpModules
- Asynchronous handlers – Know w
- Configure initialization and error handling – Tends to come up quite often
- Capturing unhandled exceptions -
- Custom error section of web.config – Especially the different attributes such as mode and redirectMode
- Redirecting to an error page
- Reference and configure ASMX and WCF services – Expect more of WCF than ASMX
- Adding service reference – Common task
- Changing endpoints – Common task
- Configure projects and solutions, and reference assemblies
- Debug a Web application
- JavaScript debugging – Since Ajax is more prevalent
- Deploy a Web application – Usually a big topic
- ASP.NET Web Application Project Deployment Overview
- Web.config File Transformation – Big enhancement in .NET 4 expect a question
- How to: Transform Web.config When Deploying a Web Application Project
- Implement data-bound controls – Know the reason for each control
- Implement DataSource controls – Know the available sources and their uses
- Query and manipulate data by using LINQ
- LINQ Samples – Be able to read LINQ and know the different options such as filtering and grouping/joins etc
- Create and consume a data service.
- WCF – Due to it being the communication channel of choice for MS
- Create and configure a Dynamic Data project – Be aware of how to use Dynamic Data and scaffolding
Developing a Web Application by Using ASP.NET MVC 2 (13%) – Depending on your knowledge of MVC2 this will be a make or break.
- Create custom routes – Routing is a core part of MVC so that will come up
- Create controllers and actions.
- Controllers and Action Methods in ASP.NET MVC Applications – Core functionality will be tested – revise Actions
- Action Filtering in ASP.NET MVC Applications
- Error Handling & Security– My own one but error handling always comes up
- Structure an ASP.NET MVC application
- Create and customize views.
I will probably update this list with some more information when I think a bit longer about but for the moment this is the hot list for the MCTS 70-515 Web Applications Development with Microsoft.NET Framework 4.
Thanks to the original comment poster for the idea.
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