What's New in ASP.NET 2.0?

  New Server Controls - ASP.NET 2.0 includes 45 new server controls that enable powerful declarative support for data access, login security, wizard navigation, image generation, menus, tree views, portals and more. Many of the new controls take advantage of core application services in ASP.NET for scenarios like data access, membership and roles, and personalization.

  Data Controls - Data access can be accomplished completely declaratively (without code) using the new data-bound and data source controls. There are new data source controls to represent different data backends such as SQL, business objects, and XML, and there are new data-bound controls for rendering common UI for data, such as grids, details, and data-bound forms.

  Navigation Controls - Provide a common UI for navigating between pages in your site, such as tree views, menus, and breadcrumbs.

  Login Controls - Provide the building blocks to add authentication and authorization-based UI to a site, such as login forms, create user forms, password retrieval, and custom UI for logged in users or roles.

  Web Part Controls - A new family of controls that enable developers to add rich, personalized content and layout to a site, in addition to the ability to edit that content and layout directly from an application page.

  Master Pages - This new feature provides the ability to define common structure and interface elements for your site, such as a page header, footer, or navigation bar, in a common location called a "master page", to be shared by many different pages within your site.

  Themes and Skins - This allows for easy customization of a site's look-and-feel. You can define style information in a common location called a "theme" and apply that style information globally to pages or controls in a site.

  Many more performance, scalability, administration, management and extensibility enhancements and additions...