Can someone give me an overview of ASP.net and how it's different from technologies such as php?

I've been doing the html and css for a site, sending it off to a guy to implement in a web server. I get a call from the designer freaking out about the progress, saying the clients aren't happy. He wants me to personally integrate my css with what's on the site. The site is done in ASP.net, ti开发者_开发问答me is short, and I'm a little in over my head. I have an understanding of how php works, but have never worked extensively with it.

Looking at the stuff on the ftp, I can't even find equivalent of the index.html file (I know that when I go to the site itself, there is nothing after the base url, i.e., www.site.com/ brings me to the homepage.)

Can anyone give me a few tips or links as to what I am to do with this, or where to even being navigating this site?

EDIT: It's -not- a .Net Web Application, from the looks of it.

ASP.Net can be run in a compiled or a scripted environment. It is important to understand which environment your client has. If it is completely scripted, then you are likely looking for the default.aspx file and it's contents. If it is a compiled environment, you may be in for a ride. A compiled site may incorporate "master pages" as a templating engine, and then you'll need to apply your html/css modifications in several places.

You should start with the default.aspx page if there is one. Look for master page directives (it'll be named something like masterpage.master). If there isn't one, then you're in luck you'll just need to implement your changes on a page by page basis. The aspx page will be in a templated xml format so avoid touching tags that involve touching

If you are making changes to divs and structures of that nature, you may need to modify the CssClass attribute of the controls. I would recommend however that you make a back up, give it a shot, and under no circumstances attempt to do something that you aren't really ready to do. You will only anger the client and ruin your rep. It may actually be prudent to contact an actual ASP.Net developer to analyze the files separately and determine what you need to do.

I suggest that you read the Wikipedia article about ASP.NET to get familiarized with it as it summarizes the basic building structures.

Then, just to get you started: take a look at the more recent ASP.NET MVC (Model-View-Controller) paradigm. There's also development in what is called ASP.NET WebForms.

For example: when you go to www.site.com/ (known as friendly URLs) it may be redirecting you to an action method inside a controller. It's called routing. There's also URL rewrite.

In the MVC world a Controller can send/redirect the user to a specific View/Page.

A View (.aspx form/page) that contais HTML markup and CSS on the server side is basically an HTML page (.htm) page that'll be rendered on the client side.