.NET Framework Class Library Reference

The .NET Framework class library is a library of classes, interfaces, and value types that are included in the Microsoft .NET Framework. This library provides access to system functionality and is designed to be the foundation on which .NET Framework applications, components, and controls are built.

Namespaces

The .NET Framework class library provides the following namespaces:

  • Microsoft.Aspnet.Snapin
    Contains classes that are necessary for the ASP.NET management console application to interact with the Microsoft Management Console (MMC).

  • Microsoft.Build.BuildEngine
    Contains the classes that represent the MSBuild engine.

  • Microsoft.Build.Framework
    Contains classes that make up the tasks, loggers, and events of MSBuild.

  • Microsoft.Build.Tasks
    Contains the implementation of all tasks shipping with MSBuild.

  • Microsoft.Build.Tasks.Deployment.Bootstrapper
    Contains classes used internally by MSBuild.

  • Microsoft.Build.Tasks.Deployment.ManifestUtilities
    Contains classes used internally by MSBuild.

  • Microsoft.Build.Utilities
    Provides helper classes that you can use to create your own MSBuild loggers and tasks.

  • Microsoft.Csharp
    Contains classes that support compilation and code generation using the C# language.

  • Microsoft.JScript
    Contains classes that support compilation and code generation using the JScript language.

  • Microsoft.SqlServer.Server
    Contains classes that are specific to the integration of the Microsoft .NET Framework common language runtime (CLR) component into Microsoft SQL Server, and the SQL Server database engine process execution environment.

  • Microsoft.VisualBasic
    Contains classes that support compilation and code generation using the Visual Basic language.

  • Microsoft.VisualBasic.ApplicationServices
    Contains types that support the Visual Basic Application Model and provide access to application information.

  • Microsoft.VisualBasic.CompilerServices
    Contains internal-use only types that support the Visual Basic compiler.

  • Microsoft.VisualBasic.Devices
    Contains types that support the My objects related to devices in Visual Basic.

  • Microsoft.VisualBasic.FileIO
    Contains types that support the My file system object in Visual Basic.

  • Microsoft.VisualBasic.Logging
    Contains types that support the My logging objects in Visual Basic and provides a simple log listener that directs logging output to file.

  • Microsoft.VisualBasic.MyServices
    Contains types that support My in Visual Basic.

  • Microsoft.VisualBasic.MyServices.Internal
    Contains internal-use only types that support My in Visual Basic.

  • Microsoft.VisualBasic.Vsa

  • Microsoft.VisualC

  • Microsoft.Vsa
    Contains interfaces that allow you to integrate script for the .NET Framework script engines into applications, and to compile and execute code at run time.

  • Microsoft.Vsa.Vb.CodeDOM

  • Microsoft.Win32
    Provides two types of classes: those that handle events raised by the operating system and those that manipulate the system registry.

  • Microsoft.Win32.SafeHandles
    Contains classes that are abstract derivations of safe handle classes that provide common functionality supporting file and operating system handles.

  • Microsoft.WindowsCE.Forms
    Contains classes for developing Pocket PC and Smartphone Windows Forms applications using the .NET Compact Framework.

  • Microsoft.WindowsMobile.DirectX
    Contains classes for developing DirectX applications on devices with the .NET Compact Framework. Requires a future release of Windows Mobile to run the applications.

  • Microsoft.WindowsMobile.DirectX.Direct3D
    Contains classes for developing Direct3D applications on devices with the .NET Compact Framework. Requires a future release of Windows Mobile to run the applications.

  • Microsoft_VsaVb

  • System
    Contains fundamental classes and base classes that define commonly used value and reference data types, events and event handlers, interfaces, attributes, and processing exceptions. Other classes provide services supporting data type conversion, method parameter manipulation, mathematics, remote and local program invocation, application environment management, and supervision of managed and unmanaged applications.

  • System.CodeDom
    Contains classes that can be used to represent the elements and structure of a source code document. These elements can be used to model the structure of a source code document that can be output as source code in a supported language using the functionality provided by the System.CodeDom.Compiler namespace.

  • System.CodeDom.Compiler
    Contains types for managing the generation and compilation of source code in supported programming languages. Code generators can each produce source code in a particular programming language based on the structure of Code Document Object Model (CodeDOM) source code models consisting of elements provided by the System.CodeDom namespace.

  • System.Collections
    Contains interfaces and classes that define various collections of objects, such as lists, queues, bit arrays, hashtables and dictionaries.

  • System.Collections.Generic
    Contains interfaces and classes that define generic collections, which allow users to create strongly typed collections that provide better type safety and performance than non-generic strongly typed collections.

  • System.Collections.ObjectModel
    Contains classes that can be used as collections in the object model of a reusable library. Use these classes when properties or methods return collections.

  • System.Collections.Specialized
    Contains specialized and strongly typed collections; for example, a linked list dictionary, a bit vector, and collections that contain only strings.

  • System.ComponentModel
    Provides classes that are used to implement the run-time and design-time behavior of components and controls. This namespace includes the base classes and interfaces for implementing attributes and type converters, binding to data sources, and licensing components.

  • System.ComponentModel.Design
    Contains classes that developers can use to build custom design-time behavior for components and user interfaces for configuring components at design time. The design time environment provides systems that enable developers to arrange components and configure their properties.

  • System.ComponentModel.Design.Data
    Contains classes for implementing design-time behavior of data-related components.

  • System.ComponentModel.Design.Serialization
    Provides types that support customization and control of serialization at design time.

  • System.Configuration
    Contains the types that provide the programming model for handling configuration data.

  • System.Configuration.Assemblies
    Contains classes that are used to configure an assembly.

  • System.Configuration.Install
    Provides classes that allow you to write custom installers for your own components. The Installer class is the base class for all custom installers in the .NET Framework.

  • System.Configuration.Provider
    Contains the base classes shared by both server and client applications to support a pluggable model to easily add or remove functionality.

  • System.Data
    Contains classes that constitute most of the ADO.NET architecture. The ADO.NET architecture enables you to build components that efficiently manage data from multiple data sources. In a disconnected scenario (such as the Internet), ADO.NET provides the tools to request, update, and reconcile data in multiple tier systems. The ADO.NET architecture is also implemented in client applications, such as Windows Forms, or HTML pages created by ASP.NET.

  • System.Data.Common
    Contains classes shared by the .NET Framework data providers. A .NET Framework data provider describes a collection of classes used to access a data source, such as a database, in the managed space.

  • System.Data.Design
    Contains classes that can be used to generate a custom typed-dataset.

  • System.Data.Linq
    Contains classes to access relational data as objects. DataContext and related classes can be used for Reading, Creating, Updating and Deleting objects mapped to a database using mapping specified as attributes in your object model or in a separate external XML file.

  • System.Data.Linq.Mapping
    Provides programmatic access to mapping information used by LINQ to SQL.

  • System.Data.Odbc
    Contains classes that encapsulate the .NET Framework Data Provider for ODBC. The .NET Framework Data Provider for ODBC describes a collection of classes used to access an ODBC data source in the managed space.

  • System.Data.OleDb
    Contains classes that encapsulate the .NET Framework Data Provider for OLE DB. The .NET Framework Data Provider for OLE DB describes a collection of classes used to access an OLE DB data source in the managed space.

  • System.Data.OracleClient
    Contains classes that encapsulate the .NET Framework Data Provider for Oracle. The .NET Framework Data Provider for Oracle describes a collection of classes used to access an Oracle data source in the managed space.

  • System.Data.Sql
    Contains classes that support SQL Server-specific functionality. The API extensions in this class add to the .NET Framework Data Provider for SQL Server (System.Data.SqlClient).

  • System.Data.SqlClient
    Contains classes that encapsulate the .NET Framework Data Provider for SQL Server. The .NET Framework Data Provider for SQL Server describes a collection of classes used to access a SQL Server database in the managed space.

  • System.Data.SqlServerCE
    Describes a collection of classes that can be used to access a database in SQL Server CE from Windows CE-based devices in the managed environment. With this namespace you can create SQL Server CE databases on a device and also establish connections to SQL Server databases that are on a device or on a remote server.

  • System.Data.SqlTypes
    Contains classes for native data types within SQL Server. These classes provide a faster alternative to other data types. Using the classes in this namespace helps prevent type conversion errors caused in situations where loss of precision could occur. Because other data types are converted to and from SqlTypes behind the scenes, explicitly creating and using objects within this namespace results in faster code as well.

  • System.Diagnostics
    Provides classes that allow you to interact with system processes, event logs, and performance counters. This namespace also provides classes that allow you to debug your application and to trace the execution of your code. For more information, see the Trace and Debug classes.

  • System.Diagnostics.CodeAnalysis
    Contains classes for interaction with code analysis tools. Code analysis tools are used to analyze code for conformance to coding conventions such as naming or security rules.

  • System.Diagnostics.Design
    Contains classes that can be used to extend design-time support for application monitoring and instrumentation.

  • System.Diagnostics.SymbolStore
    Provides classes that allow you to read and write debug symbol information, such as source line to Microsoft intermediate language (MSIL) maps. Compilers targeting the .NET Framework can store the debug symbol information into programmer's database (PDB) files. Debuggers and code profiler tools can read the debug symbol information at run time.

  • System.DirectoryServices
    Provides easy access to Active Directory from managed code. The namespace contains two component classes, DirectoryEntry and DirectorySearcher, which use the Active Directory Services Interfaces (ADSI) technology. ADSI is the set of interfaces that Microsoft provides as a flexible tool for working with a variety of network providers. ADSI gives the administrator the ability to locate and manage resources on a network with relative ease, regardless of the network's size.

  • System.DirectoryServices.ActiveDirectory
    Provides a high level abstraction object model that builds around Microsoft® Active Directory® directory service tasks. The Active Directory® directory service concepts such as forest, domain, site, subnet, partition and schema are part of the object model.

  • System.DirectoryServices.Protocols
    Provides the methods defined in the Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) version 3 (V3) and Directory Services Markup Language (DSML) version 2 (V2) standards.

  • System.Drawing
    Provides access to GDI+ basic graphics functionality. More advanced functionality is provided in the System.Drawing.Drawing2D, System.Drawing.Imaging, and System.Drawing.Text namespaces.

  • System.Drawing.Design
    Contains classes that extend design-time user interface (UI) logic and drawing. You can further extend this design-time functionality to create custom toolbox items, type-specific value editors that can edit and graphically represent values of their supported types, or type converters that can convert values between certain types. This namespace provides the basic frameworks for developing extensions to the design-time UI.

  • System.Drawing.Drawing2D
    Provides advanced 2-dimensional and vector graphics functionality. This namespace includes the gradient brushes, the Matrix class (used to define geometric transforms), and the GraphicsPath class.

  • System.Drawing.Imaging
    Provides advanced GDI+ imaging functionality. Basic graphics functionality is provided by the System.Drawing namespace.

  • System.Drawing.Printing
    Provides print-related services. Typically, you create a new instance of the PrintDocument class, set the properties that describe what to print, and call the Print method to actually print the document.

  • System.Drawing.Text
    Provides advanced GDI+ typography functionality. Basic graphics functionality is provided by the System.Drawing namespace. The classes in this namespace allow users to create and use collections of fonts.

  • System.EnterpriseServices
    Provides an important infrastructure for enterprise applications. COM+ provides a services architecture for component programming models deployed in an enterprise environment. This namespace provides .NET Framework objects with access to COM+ services, making the .NET Framework objects more practical for enterprise applications.

  • System.EnterpriseServices.CompensatingResourceManager
    Provides classes that allow you to use a Compensating Resource Manager (CRM) in managed code. A CRM is a service provided by COM+ that enables you to include non-transactional objects in Microsoft Distributed Transaction Coordinator (DTC) transactions. Although CRMs do not provide the capabilities of a full resource manager, they do provide transactional atomicity (all-or-nothing behavior) and durability through the recovery log.

  • System.EnterpriseServices.Internal
    Provides infrastructure support for COM+ services. The classes and interfaces in this namespace are specifically intended to support calls into System.EnterpriseServices from the unmanaged COM+ classes.

  • System.Globalization
    Contains classes that define culture-related information, including the language, the country/region, the calendars in use, the format patterns for dates, currency, and numbers, and the sort order for strings. These classes are useful for writing globalized (internationalized) applications.

  • System.IO
    Contains types that allow synchronous and asynchronous reading and writing on data streams and files.

  • System.IO.Compression
    Contains classes that provide basic compression and decompression for streams.

  • System.IO.IsolatedStorage
    Contains types that allow the creation and use of isolated stores. With these stores, you can read and write data that less trusted code cannot access and help prevent the exposure of sensitive information that can be saved elsewhere on the file system. Data is stored in compartments that are isolated by the current user and by the assembly in which the code exists.

  • System.IO.Ports
    Contains classes that control serial ports, providing a framework for synchronous and event-driven I/O, access to pin and break states, access to serial driver properties, and enumerations for specifying port characteristics.

  • System.Linq
    Provides classes and interfaces that support queries that use Language-Integrated Query (LINQ).

  • System.Linq.Expressions
    Contains classes, interfaces and enumerations that enable language-level code expressions to be represented as objects in the form of expression trees.

  • System.Management
    Provides access to a rich set of management information and management events about the system, devices, and applications instrumented to the Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) infrastructure.

  • System.Management.Instrumentation
    Provides the classes necessary for instrumenting applications for management and exposing their management information and events through WMI to potential consumers. Consumers such as Microsoft Application Center or Microsoft Operations Manager can then manage your application easily, and monitoring and configuring of your application is available for administrator scripts or other applications, both managed as well as unmanaged.

  • System.Messaging
    Provides classes that allow you to connect to, monitor, and administer message queues on the network and send, receive, or peek messages.

  • System.Messaging.Design
    Contains classes that can be used to extend design-time support for System.Messaging classes.

  • System.Net
    Provides a simple programming interface for many of the protocols used on networks today. The WebRequest and WebResponse classes form the basis of what are called pluggable protocols, an implementation of network services that enables you to develop applications that use Internet resources without worrying about the specific details of the individual protocols.

  • System.Net.Cache
    Defines the types and enumerations used to define cache policies for resources obtained using the WebRequest and HttpWebRequest classes.

  • System.Net.Configuration
    Contains classes that applications use to programmatically access and update configuration settings for the System.Net namespaces.

  • System.Net.Mail
    Contains classes used to send electronic mail to a Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) server for delivery.

  • System.Net.Mime
    Holds types that are used to represent Multipurpose Internet Mail Exchange (MIME) headers. These types are used with the types in the System.Net.Mail namespace to specify Content-Type, Content-Disposition and Content-transfer-Encoding headers when sending email using the SmtpClient class.

  • System.Net.NetworkInformation
    Provides access to network traffic data, network address information, and notification of address changes for the local computer. The namespace also contains classes that implement the Ping utility. You can use Ping and related classes to check whether a computer is reachable across the network.

  • System.Net.Sockets
    Provides a managed implementation of the Windows Sockets (Winsock) interface for developers who need to help control access to the network.

  • System.Reflection
    Contains classes and interfaces that provide a managed view of loaded types, methods, and fields, with the ability to dynamically create and invoke types.

  • System.Reflection.Emit
    Contains classes that allow a compiler or tool to emit metadata and Microsoft intermediate language (MSIL) and optionally generate a PE file on disk. The primary clients of these classes are script engines and compilers.

  • System.Resources
    Provides classes and interfaces that allow developers to create, store, and manage various culture-specific resources used in an application.

  • System.Resources.Tools
    Contains the StronglyTypedResourceBuilder class, which provides support for strongly-typed resources. Beginning with the .NET Framework version 2.0, this compile-time feature encapsulates access to resources by creating classes that contain a set of static read-only (get) properties, thus making it easier to consume resources.

  • System.Runtime
    Contains advanced types that support diverse namespaces such as System, the Runtime namespaces, and the Security namespaces.

  • System.Runtime.ConstrainedExecution
    Defines a set of types that enumerate and define a contract for reliability between the author of some code, and the developers who take a dependency on that code.

  • System.Runtime.Hosting
    Contains advanced types that are used in application activation within application domains.

  • System.Runtime.CompilerServices
    Provides functionality for compiler writers using managed code to specify attributes in metadata that affect the run-time behavior of the common language runtime. The classes in this namespace are for compiler writers use only.

  • System.Runtime.InteropServices
    Provides a wide variety of members that support COM interop and platform invoke services. If you are unfamiliar with these services, see Interoperating with Unmanaged Code.

  • System.Runtime.InteropServices.ComTypes
    Contains methods that are definitions of COM functions for managed code. These functions replace the now-obsolete UCOM* methods in the System.Runtime.InteropServices namespace.

  • System.Runtime.InteropServices.CustomMarshalers
    Supports the .NET infrastructure and is not intended to be used directly from your code.

  • System.Runtime.InteropServices.Expando
    Contains the IExpando interface which allows modification of an object by adding or removing its members.

  • System.Runtime.Remoting
    Provides classes and interfaces that allow developers to create and configure distributed applications.

  • System.Runtime.Remoting.Activation
    Provides classes and objects that support server and client activation of remote objects.

  • System.Runtime.Remoting.Channels
    Contains classes that support and handle channels and channel sinks, which are used as the transport medium when a client calls a method on a remote object.

  • System.Runtime.Remoting.Channels.Http
    Contains channels that use the HTTP protocol to transport messages and objects to and from remote locations. By default, the HTTP channels encode objects and method calls in SOAP format for transmission, but other encoding and decoding formatter sinks can be specified in the configuration properties of a channel.

  • System.Runtime.Remoting.Channels.Ipc
    Defines a communication channel for remoting that uses the Interprocess Communication (IPC) system of the Windows operating system. Because it does not use network communication, the IPC channel is much faster than the HTTP and TCP channels, but it can only be used for communication between application domains on the same physical computer.

  • System.Runtime.Remoting.Channels.Tcp
    Contains channels that use the TCP protocol to transport messages and objects to and from remote locations. By default, the TCP channels encode objects and method calls in binary format for transmission, but other encoding and decoding formatter sinks can be specified in the configuration properties of a channel.

  • System.Runtime.Remoting.Contexts
    Contains objects that define the contexts all objects reside within. A context is an ordered sequence of properties that defines an environment for the objects within it. Contexts are created during the activation process for objects that are configured to require certain automatic services such synchronization, transactions, just-in-time (JIT) activation, security, and so on. Multiple objects can live inside a context.

  • System.Runtime.Remoting.Lifetime
    Contains classes that manage the lifetime of remote objects. Traditionally, distributed garbage collection uses reference counts and pinging for control over the lifetime of objects. This works well when there are a few clients per service, but doesn't scale well when there are thousands of clients per service. The remoting lifetime service associates a lease with each service, and deletes a service when its lease time expires. The lifetime service can take on the function of a traditional distributed garbage collector, and it also adjusts well when the numbers of clients per server increases.

  • System.Runtime.Remoting.Messaging
    Contains classes used to create and remote messages. The remoting infrastructure uses messages to communicate with remote objects. Messages are used to transmit remote method calls, to activate remote objects, and to communicate information. A message object carries a set of named properties, including action identifiers, envoy information, and parameters.

  • System.Runtime.Remoting.Metadata
    Contains classes and attributes that can be used to customize generation and processing of SOAP for objects and fields. The classes of this namespace can be used to indicate the SOAPAction, type output, XML element name, and the method XML namespace URI.

  • System.Runtime.Remoting.Metadata.W3cXsd2001
    Contains the XML Schema Definition (XSD) defined by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) in 2001. The XML Schema Part2: Data types specification from W3C identifies format and behavior of various data types. This namespace contains wrapper classes for the data types that conform to the W3C specification. All date and time types conform to the ISO standards specification.

  • System.Runtime.Remoting.MetadataServices
    Contains the classes used by the Soapsuds.exe command line tool and the user code to convert metadata to and from XML schema for the remoting infrastructure.

  • System.Runtime.Remoting.Proxies
    Contains classes that control and provide functionality for proxies. A proxy is a local object that is an image of a remote object. Proxies enable clients to access objects across remoting boundaries.

  • System.Runtime.Remoting.Services
    Contains service classes that provide functionality to the .NET Framework.

  • System.Runtime.Serialization
    Contains classes that can be used for serializing and deserializing objects. Serialization is the process of converting an object or a graph of objects into a linear sequence of bytes for either storage or transmission to another location. Deserialization is the process of taking in stored information and recreating objects from it.

  • System.Runtime.Serialization.Formatters
    Provides common enumerations, interfaces, and classes that are used by serialization formatters.

  • System.Runtime.Serialization.Formatters.Binary
    Contains the BinaryFormatter class, which can be used to serialize and deserialize objects in binary format.

  • System.Runtime.Serialization.Formatters.Soap
    Contains the SoapFormatter class, which can be used to serialize and deserialize objects in the SOAP format.

  • System.Security
    Provides the underlying structure of the .NET Framework security system, including base classes for permissions.

  • System.Security.AccessControl
     

  • System.Security.Cryptography
    Provides cryptographic services, including secure encoding and decoding of data, as well as many other operations, such as hashing, random number generation, and message authentication.

  • System.Security.Cryptography.Pkcs
    Provides programming elements for Public Key Cryptography Standards (PKCS), including methods for signing data, exchanging keys, requesting certificates, public key encryption and decryption, and other security functions.

  • System.Security.Cryptography.X509Certificates
    Contains the common language runtime implementation of the Authenticode X.509 v.3 certificate. This certificate is signed with a private key that uniquely and positively identifies the holder of the certificate.

  • System.Security.Cryptography.Xml
    Contains classes to support the creation and validation of XML digital signatures. The classes in this namespace implement the World Wide Web Consortium Recommendation, "XML-Signature Syntax and Processing", described at https://www.w3.org/TR/xmldsig-core/.

  • System.Security.Permissions
    Defines classes that control access to operations and resources based on policy.

  • System.Security.Policy
    Contains code groups, membership conditions, and evidence. These three types of classes are used to create the rules applied by the .NET Framework security policy system. Evidence classes are the input to security policy and membership conditions are the switches; together these create policy statements and determine the granted permission set. Policy levels and code groups are the structure of the policy hierarchy. Code groups are the encapsulation of a rule and are arranged hierarchically in a policy level.

  • System.Security.Principal
    Defines a principal object that represents the security context under which code is running.

  • System.ServiceProcess
    Provides classes that allow you to implement, install, and control Windows service applications. Services are long-running executables that run without a user interface. Implementing a service involves inheriting from the ServiceBase class and defining specific behavior to process when start, stop, pause, and continue commands are passed in, as well as custom behavior and actions to take when the system shuts down.

  • System.Text
    Contains classes representing ASCII, Unicode, UTF-7, and UTF-8 character encodings; abstract base classes for converting blocks of characters to and from blocks of bytes; and a helper class that manipulates and formats String objects without creating intermediate instances of String.

  • System.Text.RegularExpressions
    Contains classes that provide access to the .NET Framework regular expression engine. The namespace provides regular expression functionality that can be used from any platform or language that runs within the Microsoft .NET Framework.

  • System.Threading
    Provides classes and interfaces that enable multithreaded programming. In addition to classes for synchronizing thread activities and access to data (Mutex, Monitor, Interlocked, AutoResetEvent, and so on), this namespace includes a ThreadPool class that allows you to use a pool of system-supplied threads, and a Timer class that executes callback methods on thread pool threads.

  • System.Timers
    Provides the Timer component, which allows you to raise an event on a specified interval.

  • System.Transactions
    Contains classes that allow your code to participate in transactions. The classes support transactions with multiple, distributed participants, multiple phase notifications, and durable enlistments..

  • System.Transactions.Configuration
    Contains classes that describe configuration options used by System.Transactions classes

  • System.Web
    Supplies classes and interfaces that enable browser-server communication. This namespace includes the HttpRequest class, which provides extensive information about the current HTTP request, the HttpResponse class, which manages HTTP output to the client, and the HttpServerUtility class, which provides access to server-side utilities and processes. System.Web also includes classes for cookie manipulation, file transfer, exception information, and output cache control.

  • System.Web.Caching
    Provides classes for caching frequently used data on the server. This includes the Cache class, a dictionary that allows you to store arbitrary data objects, such as hash tables and data sets. It also provides expiration functionality for those objects, and methods that allow you to add and remove the objects. You can also add the objects with a dependency upon other files or cache entries, and perform a callback to notify your application when an object is removed from the cache.

  • System.Web.Compilation
    Contains classes for generating and compiling custom file types within the ASP.NET build environment.

  • System.Web.Configuration
    Contains classes that are used to set up ASP.NET configuration.

  • System.Web.Handlers
    Contains HTTP handler classes that process HTTP requests to a Web server.

  • System.Web.Hosting
    Provides the functionality for hosting ASP.NET applications from managed applications outside of Microsoft Internet Information Services (IIS).

  • System.Web.Mail
    The classes in this namespace are obsolete; use the classes in the System.Net.Mail namespace. Contains classes that enable you to construct and send messages using the CDOSYS message component. The mail message is delivered through either the SMTP mail service built into Microsoft Windows 2000 or through an arbitrary SMTP server. The classes in this namespace can be used either from ASP.NET or from any managed application.

  • System.Web.Management
    Contains classes and interfaces for managing and monitoring the health of Web applications.

  • System.Web.Mobile
    Contains the core capabilities, including authentication and error-handling, required for building ASP.NET mobile Web applications.

  • System.Web.Profile
    Contains classes that are used to implement the ASP.NET user profile in Web server applications.

  • System.Web.RegularExpressions
    Provides regular expressions used to parse ASP.NET files. All members of the System.Web.RegularExpressions namespace are descendants of the Regex class.

  • System.Web.Security
    Contains classes that are used to implement ASP.NET security in Web server applications.

  • System.Web.Services
    Consists of the classes that enable you to create XML Web services using ASP.NET and XML Web service clients. XML Web services are applications that provide the ability to exchange messages in a loosely coupled environment using standard protocols such as HTTP, XML, XSD, SOAP, and WSDL. XML Web services enable the building of modular applications within and across companies in heterogeneous environments making them interoperable with a broad variety of implementations, platforms and devices. The SOAP-based XML messages of these applications can have well-defined (structured and typed), or loosely defined parts (using arbitrary XML). The ability of the messages to evolve over time without breaking the protocol is fundamental to the flexibility and robustness of XML Web services as a building block for the future of the Web.

  • System.Web.Services.Configuration
    Consists of the classes that configure how XML Web services created using ASP.NET run.

  • System.Web.Services.Description
    Consists of the classes that enable you to publicly describe an XML Web service by using the Web Services Description Language (WSDL). Each class in this namespace corresponds to a specific element in the WSDL specification, and the class hierarchy corresponds to the XML structure of a valid WSDL document.

  • System.Web.Services.Discovery
    Consists of the classes that allow XML Web service clients to locate the available XML Web services on a Web server through a process called XML Web services Discovery.

  • System.Web.Services.Protocols
    Consists of the classes that define the protocols used to transmit data across the wire during the communication between XML Web service clients and XML Web services created using ASP.NET.

  • System.Web.SessionState
    Supplies classes and interfaces that enable storage of data specific to a single client within a Web application on the server. The session state data is used to give the client the appearance of a persistent connection with the application. State information can be stored within local process memory or, for Web farm configurations, out-of-process using either the ASP.NET State Service or a SQL Server database.

  • System.Web.UI
    Provides classes and interfaces that allow you to create controls and pages that will appear in your Web applications as user interface on a Web page. This namespace includes the Control class, which provides all controls, whether HTML, Web, or User controls, with a common set of functionality. It also includes the Page control, which is generated automatically whenever a request is made for a page in your Web application. Also provided are classes which provide the Web Forms Server Controls data binding functionality, the ability to save the view state of a given control or page, as well as parsing functionality for both programmable and literal controls.

  • System.Web.UI.Adapters
    Contains the base classes for control adapters and page adapters, which you can use to override lifecycle states of pages and controls to modify their default markup or behavior for new markup standards or for specific browsers.

  • System.Web.UI.Design
    Contains classes that can be used to extend design-time support for Web Forms and Web server controls.

  • System.Web.UI.Design.MobileControls
    Obsolete. Contains classes that provide design-time support for the classes in the System.Web.UI.MobileControls namespace. The classes in this namespace are obsolete; use the classes in System.Web.UI.Design.WebControls instead.

  • System.Web.UI.Design.MobileControls.Converters
    Contains classes that provide design-time support for data type converters in mobile controls.

  • System.Web.UI.Design.WebControls
    Contains classes that can be used to extend design-time support for Web server controls.

  • System.Web.UI.Design.WebControls.WebParts
    Contains classes that provide design-time support for controls derived from classes in the System.Web.UI.WebControls.WebParts namespace.

  • System.Web.UI.HtmlControls
    Consists of a collection of classes that allow you to create HTML server controls on a Web Forms page. HTML server controls run on the server and map directly to standard HTML tags supported by most browsers. This allows you to programmatically control the HTML elements on a Web Forms page.

  • System.Web.UI.MobileControls
    Obsolete. Contains a set of ASP.NET server controls that can intelligently render your application for different mobile devices. The classes in this namespace are obsolete; use the controls in System.Web.UI.WebControls instead.

  • System.Web.UI.MobileControls.Adapters
    Contains classes you can use to override lifecycle stages of a mobile control to modify its default HTML, CHTML, or WML markup or behavior for new markup standards or for specific browsers and mobile devices.

  • System.Web.UI.MobileControls.Adapters.XhtmlAdapters
    Contains classes you can use to override lifecycle stages of a mobile control to modify its default XHTML markup or behavior for new markup standards or for specific browsers and mobile devices.

  • System.Web.UI.WebControls
    Contains classes that allow you to create Web server controls on a Web page. Web server controls run on the server and include form controls such as buttons and text boxes. They also include special purpose controls such as a calendar. Because Web server controls run on the server, you can programmatically control these elements. Web server controls are more abstract than HTML server controls. Their object model does not necessarily reflect HTML syntax.

  • System.Web.UI.WebControls.Adapters
    Contains classes you can use to override lifecycle stages of a Web control to modify a control's default markup or behavior for new markup standards or for specific browsers.

  • System.Web.UI.WebControls.WebParts
    Contains an integrated set of classes and interfaces for creating Web pages whose appearance and behavior can be modified (personalized) by end users. The user-defined settings for each page are saved for future browser sessions.

  • System.Web.Util
    Contains classes that enable callback methods to be run under the scope of a transaction and that enable work to be posted to separate threads.

  • System.Windows.Forms
    Contains classes for creating Windows-based applications that take full advantage of the rich user interface features available in the Microsoft Windows operating system.

  • System.Windows.Forms.ComponentModel.Com2Interop
    Contains helper classes that Visual Studio uses to display property pages while in design mode.

  • System.Windows.Forms.Design
    Contains classes that support design-time configuration and behavior for Windows Forms components. These classes consist of: Designer classes that provide support for Windows Forms components, a set of design time services, UITypeEditor classes for configuring certain types of properties, and classes for importing ActiveX controls.

  • System.Windows.Forms.Design.Behavior
    Contains classes for creating custom user interface behavior for components at design time.

  • System.Windows.Forms.Layout
    Contains classes that support design-time and run-time layout behaviors.

  • System.Windows.Forms.PropertyGridInternal
    Provides internal support for the PropertyGrid control. The classes in this namespace support the .NET Framework infrastructure and are not intended to be used directly from your code

  • System.Xml
    Provides standards-based support for processing XML.

  • System.Xml.Schema
    Contains the XML classes that provide standards-based support for XML Schemas definition language (XSD) schemas.

  • System.Xml.Serialization
    Contains classes that are used to serialize objects into XML format documents or streams.

  • System.Xml.XPath
    Contains the XPath parser and evaluation engine. It supports the W3C XML Path Language (XPath) Version 1.0 Recommendation (www.w3.org/TR/xpath).

  • System.Xml.Xsl
    Provides support for Extensible Stylesheet Transformation (XSLT) transforms. It supports the W3C XSL Transformations (XSLT) Version 1.0 Recommendation (www.w3.org/TR/xslt).

  • System.Xml.Xsl.Runtime
    Provides internal support for the classes in the System.Xml.Xsl namespace. The classes in this namespace support the .NET Framework infrastructure and are not intended to be used directly from your code.

See Also

Concepts

.NET Framework General Reference

.NET Framework Class Library Overview