.net Class Library

Front 1

System namespace

Back 1

The System namespace 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.

Front 2

System.CodeDom namespace

Back 2

The System.CodeDom namespace contains classes that can be used to represent the elements and structure of a source code document. The classes in this namespace 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.

The strength here comes from the fact that applications can generate code at runtime, compile it in memory, and execute it. This allows applications to respond to a changing environment in real time, or to exploit the highly-optimized CLR Execution engine in application-specific ways. A great example would be a programmable logic controller in a manufacturing or process control system an application could dynamically generate MSIL corresponding to the logic as it changes.

Front 3

System.Collections namespace

Back 3

The System.Collections namespace contains interfaces and classes that define various collections of objects, such as lists, queues, bit arrays, stacks, hashtables and dictionaries.

In the .NET Framework v2.0, the collections classes are expanded to include support for generic types, making for greater performance, and improved type safety.

Front 4

System.ComponentModel namespace

Back 4

The System.ComponentModel namespace 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.

Front 5

System.Configuration namespace

Back 5

The System.Configuration namespace provides classes and interfaces that allow applications to programmatically access .NET Framework configuration settings and handle errors in configuration files (.config files).

Configuration files allow administrators to change values in applications without having to recompile those applications.

ConfigurationManager class provides access to configuration files for client applications.

Front 6

System.Data namespace

Back 6

The System.Data namespace consists mostly of the classes that constitute the ADO.NET architecture. The ADO.NET architecture enables developers to build components that efficiently manage data from multiple data sources. In a disconnected scenario, for example where a mobile application client connects to a database, extracts data, and then disconnects, ADO.NET provides the tools to request, update, and reconcile data in multiple tier systems.

The same ADO.NET model can be used in client applications, such as Windows Forms, in Web applications created with ASP.NET, in Web services, in daemon applications, or even in database trigger logic.

Front 7

System.Diagnostics namespace

Back 7

The System.Diagnostics namespace provides classes that allow applications to interact with system processes, event logs, and performance counters.

Like the Process class provides functionality to monitor system processes across the network, and to start and stop local system processes.

The System.Diagnostics namespace also provides classes that allow you to debug your application and to trace the execution of your code through Trace and Debug classes.

Front 8

System.DirectoryServices namespace

Back 8

The System.DirectoryServices namespace 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.

The classes in this namespace can be used with any of the Active Directory service providers. The current providers are: Internet Information Services (IIS), Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP), Novell NetWare Directory Service (NDS), and WinNT.

Front 9

System.Drawing namespace

Back 9

The System.Drawing namespace provides access to GDI+ basic graphics functionality. GDI+ is a subsystem of Windows that allows drawing to the screen or to printers, and provides developers with advanced functionality for rendering user interfaces and data.

For example, System.Drawing can be used to generate graphics dynamically, from a web application, before downloading those graphics to a platform-independent browser.

The Graphics class provides methods for drawing to the display device. Classes such as Rectangle and Point encapsulate GDI+ primitives. The Pen class is used to draw lines and curves, while classes derived from the abstract class Brush are used to fill the interiors of shapes.

Front 10

System.EnterpriseServices namespace

Back 10

The System.EnterpriseServices namespace provides access to the COM+ services, which provide a services architecture for component programming models deployed in an enterprise environment. These services include transactions distributed across components and across databases, as well as management of object pools for scalability.

This namespace provides .NET objects with access to COM+ services making the .NET Framework objects more practical for enterprise applications.

Front 11

System.Globalization namespace

Back 11

The System.Globalization namespace 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. Classes like StringInfo and TextInfo provide advanced globalization functionalities, such as surrogate support and text element processing.

Front 12

System.IO namespace

Back 12

The System.IO namespace contains types that allow reading and writing to files and data streams, and types that provide basic file and directory support.

FileInfo class provides instance methods for the creation, copying, deletion, moving, and opening of files, and aids in the creation of FileStream objects.

DirectoryInfo class exposes instance methods for creating, moving, and enumerating through directories and subdirectories.

Front 13

System.Management namespace

Back 13

System.Management namespace 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.

Applications and services can query for interesting management information (such as how much free space is left on the disk, what is the current CPU utilization, which database a certain application is connected to, and much more.)

Front 14

System.Messaging namespace

Back 14

The System.Messaging namespace provides classes that allow applications to connect to, monitor, and administer message queues on the network and send, receive, or peek messages.

Members of the MessageQueue class enables your application to write messages to the queue, reading messages from a queue, creating and deleting Message Queueing queues etc.

The Message class provides detailed control over the information you send to a queue, and is the object used when receiving or peeking messages from a queue.

Front 15

System.Net namespace

Back 15

The System.Net namespace provides a simple programming interface for many of the protocols used on networks today, including FTP, HTTP, SMTP, ICMP, DNS, and others.

The WebRequest and WebResponse classes form the basis of what are called pluggable protocols, an implementation of network services that enables developers to create applications that use Internet resources without worrying about the specific details of the individual protocols. System.Net also includes a full sockets library, including, in the .NET Framework 2.0, an SSL-enabled Stream class.

Front 16

System.Reflection namespace

Back 16

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

The System.Reflection namespace contains types that retrieve information about assemblies, modules, members, parameters, and other entities in managed code by examining their metadata. These types also can be used to manipulate instances of loaded types, for example to hook up events or to invoke methods.

Front 17

System.Resources namespace

Back 17

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

One of the most important classes of the System.Resources namespace is the ResourceManager class.

The ResourceManager class allows the user to access and control resources stored in the main assembly or in resource satellite assemblies. Use the System.Resources.ResourceManager.GetObject and System.Resources.ResourceManager.GetString methods to retrieve culture-specific objects and strings.

Front 18

System.Security namespace

Back 18

The System.Security namespace provides the underlying structure of the Common Language Runtime security system, including base classes for permissions.

CodeAccessPermission class defines the underlying structure of all code access permissions.

SecurityContext class encapsulates and propagates all security-related data for execution contexts transferred across threads.

Front 19

System.Text namespace

Back 19

The System.Text namespace 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.

Under the System.Text namespace there is also a regular expression class library, for advanced text processing.

Front 20

System.Threading namespace

Back 20

The System.Threading namespace 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 applications to use a pool of system-supplied threads, and a Timer class that executes callback methods on thread pool threads.

Front 21

System.Timers namespace

Back 21

The System.Timers namespace provides the Timer component, which allows developers to raise an event on a specified interval. The Timer component is a server-based timer, which is designed for use with worker threads in a multithreaded environment.

Server timers can move among threads, resulting in more accuracy than Windows timers in raising the event on time.

Front 22

System.Web namespace

Back 22

The System.Web namespace 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.

Front 23

System.Windows.Forms namespace

Back 23

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

Most classes within the System.Windows.Forms namespace derive from the Control class. The Control class provides the base functionality for all controls that are displayed on a Form. The Form class represents a window within an application. This includes dialog boxes, modeless windows, and Multiple Document Interface (MDI) client and parent windows. You can also create your own controls by deriving from the UserControl class.

Front 24

System.Xml namespace

Back 24

The System.Xml namespace provides standards-based support for processing XML. The supported standards are: XML 1.0, XML Namespaces, XSD Schemas, XPath expressions, XSLT transformations, DOM Level 1 Core, and DOM Level 2 Core.

In addition to W3C DOM-compliant interfaces, System.Xml provides optimized pull-based readers and optimized writers. Finally, System.Xml provides an easy-to-use XML binding library (XML Serialization).