This is a sample chapter from Teach Yourself Microsoft Visual Basic .NET 2003

Today, we're going to dig into another set of Web server controls in our coverage of all the Web server controls in Visual Basic .NET. Here, we're going to be working with image controls, image buttons, list boxes, hyperlinks, and link buttons—all fundamental parts of Web programming in Visual Basic .NET. Here's an overview of today's topics:

• Creating image controls
• Creating image buttons
• Using image buttons as image maps
• Creating single-selection list boxes
• Creating multiple-selection list boxes
• Adding items to list boxes at runtime
• Creating drop-down lists
• Creating hyperlinks
• Creating link buttons
• Executing code when a link button is clicked

Some of these controls, such as image controls and list controls, have counterparts in Windows programming—some, such as image buttons and link buttons, don't. As you'd expect, even those controls that handle tasks similar to their Windows counterparts are nonetheless different in Web programming code. Because all these Visual Basic .NET controls have to run in browsers, they're all based on HTML controls even though Visual Basic .NET handles them back on the server. This means that they're not as complex or feature rich as standard Visual Basic Windows controls.

We'll get started immediately with image controls.