Postgraduate Diploma in Visual Basic Programming via Online Distance Learning

Overview of Microsoft Visual Basic.Net Programming

 Overview of the Visual Studio tools for building VB.NET applications;

Introduction to Visual Basic

Basic Concepts of Programming; Visual Basic Timeline; An Overview of Visual Basic; Computer Programming; Generations of Computer Programming Languages; Procedural and Object Oriented Programming; IDE; Test Driving a Visual Basic Application; Object Technology & UML;

Visual Basic IDE

Visual Studio Express; Starting with Visual Studio; Menu Bar & Toolbar; Menu Bar Descriptions; Solution Explorer; Creating a Simple Program;

Introduction to Visual Basic Programming

Console Applications; Projects & Procedures; Creating a Visual Basic Express Program; Using the Text Editor; The Parameter Info Window; Debugging; Visual Basic Keywords; Contextual Keywords; Console.Writeline; Command Prompts; Using the Command Prompt to Run the Program; Mistyping Code; Variables; Procedure Level Variables; Module Level Variables; Global Variables; Declaring Variables; Implicit & Explicit Declaration; Integers; Memory; Arithmetic; Arithmetic Operator Precendence; Equality and Relational Operators; The Message Box; Using a Message Dialog to Display a Message;

Introduction to Classes and Objects

What is a Class; Classes and Objects; Declaring a Class with a Method; Instantiating an Object of a Class; Fields and Properties; Methods and Events; Encapsulation; Inheritance; Polymorphism; Object Oriented Programming; Instantiation; UML Classes; Value Types and Reference Types; Constructors and Destructors; Validating Data with Set Accessors;

Control Statements

Defining Algorithms; Pseudocode; UML Activity Diagrams; UML Activities & Actions; Action Constraints; Control Flow; Start & Final Nodes; Object & Object Flows; Control Structures; If...Then Selection Structures; If...Then...Else Selection Structures; Nested Statements; Select...Case Selection Structure; Loop Structures; Do While Loop; Do Loop; Counter Controlled Repetition; Sentinel Controlled Repetition; Counter Controlled Repetition; For...Next Header; Type Inference; Method MessageBox; Messageboxicon Constants; Messageboxbutton Constants; Calculating Compound Interest - Visual Basic Example; Controlling Expressions; Case else; With Statment Block; Do...Loop while Statements; Do...Loop Until Statements; Exit Do; Exit For; Exit While; Continue Statement; Continue Do Statement; Continue For Statement; Continue While Statement; Truth Tables; The And Operator; The Or Operator; AndAlso; OrElse; Xor; Not Operator; Logical Operators; State Machine Diagrams;

Methods

Methods & Subroutines; Public & Private Methods; Methods That Return a Value; The Return Statement; Declaring and Using Methods; Calling a Method; Sub Statement; End Sub Statement; Const Statement; Dim Statement; Declaration Statement; Executable Statement; Shared Methods; Method Call Stack and Activation Methods; LIFO; Arguments; Pass by Value; Pass by Reference; Basic Scopes; Argument Conversions; Option Strict & Data Type Conversions; Value & Reference Types; Framework Class Library Namespaces; Overloading; Identifying Class Operations;

Arrays

Collections & Arrays; Declaring & Allocating Arrays; Creating an Array; Creating two 10-Element Integer Arrays; Using Arrays to Analyse Survey Results; Passing an Array to a Method; Using For Each.. Next with an Array; Sorting an Array with a Method; Methods for Performing Linear Search; Linear Search of an Array; Binary Search of an Array; Rectangular Arrays; Mested Loops and Arrays; Creating Variable Length Paramter Lists; Initializing a Jagged Array; ReDim Statements; Passing an Array Reference with ByVal & ByRef;

LINQ

Structured Query Language. Language Integrated Query; LINQ to Objects using an Integer Array; Writing a LINQ Query; 3 Stages of a Query Operation; Querying an Array Using LINQ; Using LINQ to Query an Array of Objects; LINQ Select Clause; Collections; Resizing a List Object Dynamically;

Classes and Objects

Class Scope; Demonstrating Object Initializers; Class Default; and Paramterless Constructors; Overloaded Constructors and Optional Arguments; Overloading Constructors; Partial Classes; Composition; Using the Me Reference; Garbage Collection; Shared Class Members; Const and ReadOnly Members; Object Browser; Creating Class Libraries; Extension Methods; Using Delegates to Pass Functions as Arguments; Delegates; Lambda Expressions; Using Anonymous Types;

Inheritance

Inheritance; Base Classes; Derived Classes; Class Hierarchy; Inheritance Hierarchy; Uniheritable Classes; Limitations with Inheritance; Object Class; Protected Class;  Access Modifiers; Access Levels; Declaration Context; Overriding; Subtyping; Relationship between Base Classes & Derived Classes; Constructors in Derived Classes; Software Engineering with Inheritance; Friend Members;

Polymorphism

Polymorphism; Static Polymorphism; Dynamic Polymorphism; Abstract Classes and Methods; Class Hierarchy Using Polymorphism; Polymorphic Variations; Notoverridable Methods and NotInheritable Classes; Interfaces; Creating and Using Interfaces; Common Interfaces of the .NET Framework Class Library; Inheritance Based Polymorphism; Abstract Classes;

Exception Handling

Exceptions; Exception Handling; Try...Catch; Unstructured & Structured Handling; Catch Clause; Catch...As; Catch...When; The Exception Object; Creating Exceptions for Structured Exception Handling; Unstructured Exception Handling; On Eror Statement; Resume Statement; Error Statement; Integer Division without Exception Handling; Dividing by Zero without Exception Handling; Enclosing Code in a Try Block; Catching Excpetions; Uncaught Exceptions; The Exception Assistant; Termination Model of Exception Handling; .NET Exception Hierarchy; Finally Block; The Using Statement; Exception Propoerties; Stack Unwinding;

Graphical User Interfaces with Windows Forms

Graphical User Interface; GUI Controls; Control Basic; Common Controls; Properties of Visual Basic.NET Controls; Events of Visual Basic.Net Controls; Buttons; Text Boxes; Labels; Prefixes; Windows Forms; Components and Controls for Windows Forms; Common Form Properties; Event Handling; Delegates and the Event Handling Mechanism; Locating Event Information; Anchoring; Control Layout Properties; Snaplines; GroupBoxes and Panels; Creating Panels with Scrollbars; Checkboxes and Radio Buttons; Using Checkboxes to Change Font Style; ToolTips; Mouse-Event Handling; Keyboard Event Handling; LinkLabel Control; ListBox Control; CheckedListBox Control; ComboBox Control; TreeView Control; TabControl; Multiple Document Interface Windows; Visual Inheritance; User Defined Controls;

Windows Presentation

Windows Presentation Foundation; Advantages of WPF; Introduction to XML; XML Basics; Structuring Data; XML Namespaces; Uniform Resource Identifier; Uniform Resource Name; Uniform Resource Locator; Default Namespaces; Declarative GUI Programming using XAML; Layout Containers; Creating a WPF Application in VB Express; Canvas Control Routed Events; Commands and common Application Tasks; WPF GUI Customization; Using Styles to Change the Appearance of Controls; Using Timers; Customizin Windows; Data Driven GUIs with Data Binding;

XML and LINQ to XML

W3C XML Schema Documents; Extensible Stylesheet Language and XSL Transformations; LINQ to XML: Document Object Model (DOM); LINQ to XML: XML Axis Properties; LINQ to XML: XML Literals and Embedded Expressions; XSLT with Class XslCompiledTransform;

Database, SQL and LINQ to SQL

Relational Databases; Relational Database Overview: Books Database; Overview Structured Query Language (SQL); LINQ to SQL (SQL in this case means Microsoftís SQL Server DBMS); Creating LINQ to SQL Classes; Creating Data Bindings; More Complex LINQ Queries and Data Binding; Retrieving Data from Multiple Tables with LINQ; Creating a Master/Detail View Application; Programming with LINQ to SQL: Address-Book Case Study;

ASP.NET and ASP.NET AJAX

Simple HTTP Transactions; Multitier Application Architecture; Creating and Running a Simple Web-Form Example; Examining an ASPX File; Examining a Code-Behind File; Relationship Between an ASPX File and a Code-Behind File; How the Code in an ASP.NET Web Page Executes; Examining the XHTML Generated by an ASP.NET Application; Building an ASP.NET Web Application; Web Controls; Text and Graphics Controls; AdRotator Control; Validation Controls; Session Tracking; Cookies; Session Tracking with HttpSessionState; Case Study: Guestbook ApplicationóConnecting to a Database in ASP.NET; Case Study: Secure Books Database Application; ASP.NET AJAX; Traditional Web Applications; Ajax Web Applications; Examining an ASP.NET AJAX Application; New ASP.NET Data Controls;

Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) Web Services

WCF Services Basics; Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP); Representational State Transfer (REST); JavaScript Object Notation (JSON); Publishing and Consuming SOAP-Based WCF Web Services; Creating a WCF Web Service; Building a SOAP WCF Web Service; Deploying the SOAPXMLService; Creating a Client to Consume the SOAPXMLService; Consuming the SOAPXMLService; Publishing and Consuming REST-Based XML Web Services; Creating a REST-Based XML WCF Web Service; Consuming a REST-Based XML WCF Web Service; Publishing and Consuming REST-Based JSON Web Services; Creating a REST-Based JSON WCF Web Service; Consuming a REST-Based JSON WCF Web Service; Blackjack Web Service ; Using Session Tracking in a SOAP-Based WCF Web Service; Creating a Blackjack Web Service; Consuming the Blackjack Web Service; Airline Reservation Web Service; Database Access and Invoking a Service from ASP.NET; Equation Generator: Returning User-Defined Types; Creating the REST-Based XML Web Service; Consuming the REST-Based XML Web Service; Creating the REST-Based JSON WCF Web Service; Consuming the REST-Based JSON WCF EquationGenerator Web Service;

Silverlight, Rich Internet Applications and Multimedia

Platform Overview; Silverlight Demos; Silverlight Runtime and Tools Installation; Building a Silverlight WeatherViewer Application; GUI Layout; Obtaining and Displaying Weather Forecast Data; Custom Controls; Animations and the FlickrViewer; Images and Deep Zoom; Getting Started With Deep Zoom Composer; Creating a Silverlight Deep Zoom Application; Audio and Video; Isolated Storage;

Generic Types and Data Structures

Data Structures; Linked Lists; Doubly Linked Lists; Circular Lsits; Binary Trees; Binary Search Trees; Generic Types in Visual Basic; Generic Collections; Generic Collection Classes of the .NET Framework; Alternatives to Generic Types; Advantages of Generic Types; Using the Generic Class; Generic Collections Overview; Dictionary Generic Class; Displaying Arrays of different Types Using Overloaded Methods; Type Parameters; Type Constraints; Overloading Generic Methods;