To load the BDSWebExample into Delphi 8, first launch Delphi :)
When you start the IDE you are presented with a "Welcome Page" - an HTML page featuring links to open your recent projects, containing options to create a new project, and a set of links to access resources on the Internet (like Delphi examples, training, other .NET solutions by Borland, etc).

Go to File - Open Project (or click "Open Project" on the Welcome page), and locate the BDSWebExample folder (if you have followed the Course from the beginning the code should be in "C:\InetPub\WWWRoot\BDSWebExample").

Locate the "BDSWebExample.bdsproj" and the "BDSWebExample.dpr" files. You can select either of them and click OK. The BDSWebExample.bdsproj is the "Borland Developer Studio Project file", this XML file is a project file containing information needed to build the project. The BDSWebExample.bdsproj in one of its nodes has a reference to "MainSource" that points to "BDSWebExample.dpr". The BDSWebExample.dpr is a standard Delphi project file. If you look inside this .dpr file, you'll note the first line: "library BDSWebExample;" - this means that every ASP.NET application compiles into a DLL (dynamic link library). We'll talk more on the purpose of the BDSWebExample.dll in the coming chapters.
Normally, you do not modify those two files manually, Delphi does this for you. The BDSWebExample.bdsproj also contains information about the virtual root of the application.

BDSWebExample at a glance

When you create an empty asp.net application, Delphi creates the necessary files and folders on the server, sets the appropriate security settings for them, and creates the IIS application (virtual root, etc.). With this in mind, we could say that an ASP.NET application consists of a virtual directory in IIS and at least on ASP.NET web page ("WebForm"). Optionally, an application may also include:

- one global.asax file, located in the root of the application,
- one or more .css files - cascading style sheet files that allow developers to describe formatting that should be applied to document structures. Something like : "all links should appear underlined and bold, but not-underlined when a mouse hovers over them".
- one or more web.config files (one per sub-directory in the application). Web.config files are used for configuration of various settings withing an application.
- one or more .ascx files. Files bearing the .ascx extension represent web user controls. For the moment, think of an .ascx (user control) as a programming element similar to the TFrame component in Win32 Delphi.
- one or more .pas files. These can be code-behind classes, or stand alone Delphi units containing particular application code for business objects and application logic. The code-behind file contains the application logic that interacts with the visual components and ASP.NET server controls in your Web Forms page.
- a /bin folder (not visible in the Project Manager window) containing the compiled project's dll and .NET assemblies you use (under "References") in your application.
- any other type of file, typically images, XML files, or anything else that is "web-aware". The BDSWebExample "references" two more folders with pictures ("gfx" and "examplesGFX") and a folder for advert system (used by the AdRotator component along with the ads.xml file).

Note that we will discuss every one of the above files in much more detail in the following chapters of this Course.

Project Options for BDSWebExample.dll

F9 = run and debug, Run - run without debugging

That's it for this chapter. Until the next chapter you should familiarize yourself with the IDE and the WebForms (ASP.NET pages) of the BDSWebExample application.

To the next chapter: A Beginner's Guide to ASP.NET Programming for Delphi developers