Dotnetcat » .NET Books » Ajax books

Is Ajax a new technology, or the same old stuff web developers have been using for years? Both, actually. This book demonstrates not only how tried-and-true web standards make Ajax possible, but how these older technologies allow you to give sites a decidedly modern Web 2.0 feel.
Ajax: The Definitive Guide explains how to use standards like JavaScript, XML, CSS, and XHTML, along with the XMLHttpRequest object, to build browser-based web applications that function like desktop programs. You get a complete background on what goes into today's web sites and applications, and learn to leverage these tools along with Ajax for advanced browser searching, web services, mashups, and more. You discover how to turn a web browser and web site into a true application, and why developing with Ajax is faster, easier and cheaper.
The book also explains:

• How to connect server-side backend components to user interfaces in the browser
• Loading and manipulating XML documents, and how to replace XML with JSON
• Manipulating the Document Object Model (DOM)
• Designing Ajax interfaces for usability, functionality, visualization, and accessibility
• Site navigation layout, including issues with Ajax and the browser's back button
• Adding life to tables & lists, navigation boxes and windows
• Animation creation, interactive forms, and data validation
• Search, web services and mash-ups
• Applying Ajax to business communications, and creating Internet games without plug-ins
• The advantages of modular coding, ways to optimize Ajax applications, and more

This book also provides references to XML and XSLT, popular JavaScript Frameworks, Libraries, and Toolkits, and various Web Service APIs. By offering web developers a much broader set of tools and options, Ajax gives developers a new way to create content on the Web, while throwing off the constraints of the past. Ajax: The Definitive Guide describes the contents of this unique toolbox in exhaustive detail, and explains how to get the most out of it.

This book starts by reviewing the overall architecture of .NET in order to give you the background you need to be able to write managed code. After that, the book is divided into a number of sections that cover both the C# language and its application in a variety of areas.

Part I: The C# Language: This section gives a good grounding in the C# language itself. This section doesn’t presume knowledge of any particular language, although it does assume you are an experienced programmer. You start by looking at C's basic syntax and data types, and then explore the object-oriented features of C# before moving on to look at more advanced C# programming topics. Objects, types, inheritance, generics, arrays, tuples, operators, casts, delegates, lambdas, events, strings, regular expressions, collections, Language Integrated, Query (LINQ), Dynamic Language Extensions, memory management, pointers, reflection, errors, and exception are all covered in part 1.

Part II: Visual Studio: This section looks at the main IDE utilized by C# developers worldwide: Visual Studio 2010. The two chapters in this section look at the best way to use the tool to build applications based on the .NET Framework 4. In addition, this section also focuses on the deployment of your projects.

Part III: Foundation: In this section, you look at the principles of programming in the .NET environment. In particular, you look at assemblies, instrumentation, security, threading, tasks, synchronization, localization, System.Transactions, networking, interop, XAML, Managed Extensibility Framework, Manipulating Files and the Registry, transactions, how to build Windows services, and how to generate your own libraries as assemblies, among other topics.

Part IV: Data: Here, you look at accessing databases with ADO.NET, ADO.NET Entity Framework, data services. This part also extensively covers support in .NET for XML and on the Windows operating system side, and the .NET features of SQL Server 2008.

Part V: Presentation: This section shows how to build applications based upon the Windows Presentation Foundation and Silverlight, and covers writing components that will run on web sites, serving up web pages. It also has coverage on building classic Windows applications, which are called Windows Forms in .NET. Windows Forms are the thick-client version of applications, and using .NET to build these types of applications is a quick and easy way of accomplishing this task. Finally, it includes coverage of the tremendous number of features that ASP.NET, ASP.NET MVC, and ASP.Net Dynamic Data provide.

Part VI: Communication: This section is all about communication. It covers services for platform-independent communication using the Windows Communication Foundation (WCF). With Message Queuing, asynchronous disconnected communication is shown. This section looks at utilizing the Windows Workflow Foundation 4, as well as peer to peer networking, and creating syndication feeds.

The book closes with an appendix covering Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 development.

Online Chapters: Even with such a large book, we can't fit in everything we'd like to tell you about C# and using this language with other .NET technologies, so we've made ten additional chapters available online at wrox.com. These chapters include information on a variety of topics: GDI+, which is a technology that is used for building applications that include advanced graphics; .Visual Studio Tools for Office (VSTO); NET Remoting for communication between .NET clients and servers; Enterprise Services for the services in the background; web services with ASP.NET, LINQ to SQL, Windows Workflow Foundation 3.0, and the Managed Add-In Framework (MAF). It also includes examples showing .NET 4 in others supported languages including Visual Basic, C++/CLI, and F#.

Note: CD-ROM/DVD and other supplementary materials are not included as part of eBook file.

ASP.NET is a key component used for development of both online applications under Windows platform. ASP.NET Interview Questions You'll Most Likely Be Asked is a perfect companion to stand a head above the rest in today's competitive job market. Rather than going through comprehensive, textbook-sized reference guides, this book includes only the information required immediately for job search to build a career as a .NET programmer. This book puts the interviewee in the driver's seat and helps them steer their way to impress the interviewer. Includes: a) 200 ASP.NET Interview Questions, Answers and Proven Strategies for getting hired as a .NET Programmer b) Dozens of examples to respond to interview questions c) 51 HR Questions with Answers and Proven strategies to give specific, impressive, answers that help nail the interviews d) 2 Aptitude Tests Software available as download on www.vibrantpublishers.com

This is the eBook version of the printed book.

Many organizations are diving headfirst into AJAX technologies to make their Web applications richer and more user friendly, but they often do not realize the security implications of the AJAX approach. Microsoft's ASP.NET AJAX technologies, commonly known by the codename "Atlas," and other AJAX frameworks are changing the way Web applications look and are developed, but Web developers are often unaware of the security risks they are introducing into their applications with these emerging technologies.

AJAX fundamentally changes the user experience and server interaction in Web applications, so developers may be taking otherwise secure applications and opening up new angles of attack for hackers. This short cut outlines the increased security risk inherent with AJAX technologies and addresses how developers can use Microsoft's ASP.NET AJAX to implement secure AJAX applications. After discussing Web application security pitfalls that are common in AJAX development, given its focus on increased client processing and more frequent access to Web services and databases, the author focuses on a few key security principles for AJAX developers--demystifying AJAX security and teaching how to develop secure AJAX applications using ASP.NET AJAX Extensions. The short cut concludes with a walkthrough of security testing best practices that will help effectively uncover security problems in AJAX applications during development and testing.

What This Short Cut Covers 3

Section 1: AJAX, ASPNET, and Atlas 4

Section 2: AJAX Security Pitfalls 19

Section 3: Securing ASPNET AJAX 44

Section 4: ASPNET AJAX Security Testing 81

About the Author 92

This book provides a step-by-step guide for developing an ASP.NET 3.5 application using the latest features in Visual Studio 2008. The Problem Design Solution series by Wrox is unique because it describes a large case study and builds an entire solution chapter by chapter for each incremental step. This book uses a wide variety of new features in Visual Studio 2008, explains each in detail, and produces a solution that you can use as a starting point for your own applications.

If you are responsible for designing or developing enterprise-wide applications, departmental applications, portals, or any line of business application, then this book is for you. Many applications have a similar set of features, and this book builds an application with some of the most common features of enterprise applications. Let’s face it: Every application has the same general set of features, but implemented in a different way. A database sits in the back end and you, as the developer, are responsible for enabling users to add, update, select, and delete records. If only it were that simple, no?

The real development work starts when you sit with users and try to understand the business process and why they need a new or improved system in the first place. A lot of companies have departments that use Excel and Access wizards to create small systems that eventually become a lifeline for some part of the business. Usually something bad happens because of the nature of the tool they are using. Senior-level management is called in, project managers are hired, programmers are contracted, and the Project Management Office (PMO) is called to save the world. Suddenly this loosely defined process is high priority and people want documented standard operating procedures, audit reports, more productivity, less people, and of course a system that can do it all, which is where you come in. When you think about it, it’s a pretty daunting task. You’re expected to become an expert in someone else’s business process, flaws and all, and create a system that the company will rely on as the backbone for their existence. OK, maybe I’m exaggerating just a little bit, but when you go looking for that raise you might want to phrase it that way.

This book will give you the tools necessary to build a framework that can be extended to create a solution to solve your company’s problems. The design pattern uses the normal three layers, the user interface (UI), the business logic layer (BLL), and the data access layer (DAL), but also builds the classes in each layer that encapsulate common business rules such as role-based security, workflow, reporting, dynamic menus, data entry, dynamic querying, notifications, exception handling, and auditing. As the book guides you through the complete solution, each business requirement is thoroughly examined and some of the latest enhancements in ASP.NET 3.5 and Visual Studio 2008 are used to implement them in a reusable framework.

Enterprise applications are typically complex, and the teams that build enterprise applications come in all shapes and sizes. Some of the roles include a project sponsor, a project manager, business analysts, an architect, UI developers, middle-tier developers, database developers, and, if you’re really lucky, testers. Just a side note: Users are not testers. If you ever have the pleasure of working with professional testers, you’ll realize how important they are in the process, and how they truly are “quality” assurance engineers. Unfortunately, a lot of companies aren’t willing to invest in professional testers, so the users and/or developers end up assuming that role. This book is mainly focused on the architect and developers, but testers may find it valuable as well to help them understand the plumbing that goes into developing and architecting an enterprise application.

This book is for the intermediate to senior level developer or system architect. It would be helpful if you have experience with Visual Studio, the .NET Framework, ASP.NET, and C# because that is what the samples are written in, but the design pattern could be used in any language. The book is focused on enterprise applications, but the pattern could be used for any type of application that has a web front end and connects to a database. The application framework built in this book provides a foundation that can be extended to meet the specific business needs of your organization.

The sample application in this book is built using Visual Studio 2008, ASP.NET 3.5, C#, and SQL Server 2005. Each chapter goes into great detail, with plenty of code samples, and uses some of the new features in Visual Studio 2008 and the language enhancements in the .NET Framework 3.5. The solution includes examples for technologies such as LINQ to SQL, master pages, custom controls, GridViews, business objects, data objects, and Crystal Reports. Some of the language enhancements discussed include LINQ, extension methods, partial methods, automatic properties, anonymous types, lambda expressions, and object initializers.

Of course, I realize that the code is what most developers are interested in, and each chapter provides numerous examples.

The Problem Design Solution series is just that. Each chapter has three sections with a description of the problem to be addressed, the design considerations for choosing a solution for the problem, and the solution that ultimately addresses the problem. The solution includes the bulk of the code. Each chapter builds upon the previous chapter, and it is recommended that you read them in order. The base classes that are described in the first few chapters are critical to an understanding of the rest of the book. Later chapters build upon the base classes and extend their functionality in all three layers of the application.

If you think you're well versed in ASP.NET, think again. This exceptional guide gives you a master class in site building with ASP.NET 3.5 and other cutting-edge Microsoft technologies. You learn how to develop rock-solid web portal applications that can withstand millions of hits every day while surviving scalability and security pressures -- not just for mass-consumer homepages, but also for dashboards that deliver powerful content aggregation for enterprises.
Written by Omar AL Zabir, co-founder and CTO of Pageflakes, Building a Web 2.0 Portal with ASP.NET 3.5 demonstrates how to develop portals similar to My Yahoo!, iGoogle, and Pageflakes using ASP.NET 3.5, ASP.NET AJAX, Windows Workflow Foundation, LINQ and .NET 3.5. Through the course of the book, AL Zabir builds an open source Ajax-enabled portal prototype (available online at www.dropthings.com), and walks you though the design and architectural challenges, advanced Ajax concepts, performance optimization techniques, and server-side scalability problems involved.
You learn how to:

• Implement a highly decoupled architecture following the popular n-tier, widget-based application model
• Provide drag-and-drop functionality, and use ASP.NET 3.5 to build the server-side part of the web layer
• Use LINQ to build the data access layer, and Windows Workflow Foundation to build the business layer as a collection of workflows
• Build client-side widgets using JavaScript for faster performance and better caching
• Get maximum performance out of the ASP.NET AJAX Framework for faster, more dynamic, and scalable sites
• Build a custom web service call handler to overcome shortcomings in ASP.NET AJAX 1.0 for asynchronous, transactional, cache-friendly web services
• Overcome JavaScript performance problems, and help the user interface load faster and be more responsive
• Solve scalability and security problems as your site grows from hundreds to millions of users
• Deploy and run a high-volume production site while solving software, hardware, hosting, and Internet infrastructure problems

Building a Web 2.0 Portal with ASP.NET 3.5 also presents real-world ASP.NET challenges that the author has solved in building educational and enterprise portals, plus thirteen production disasters common to web applications serving millions of users. If you're ready to build state-of-the art, high-volume web applications, this book has exactly what you need.

ASP.NET MVC V2 is the latest version of Microsoft's MVC (Model View Controller) framework that provides a radically new high-productivity programming model for ASP.NET. It will be released as part of .NET 4.0 in Spring 2010. This book is timed to coincide with that release.

Pro ASP.NET MVC V2 Framework is a comprehensive revision of Steve Sanderson's market-leading first edition. It has been expanded to encompass all the new features that have been added to the technology whilst retaining the unique features, such as the extensive case-study, that made the book so popular with readers the first time around.

Dig into LINQ -- and transform the way you work with data.

With LINQ, you can query data from a variety of sources -- including databases, objects, and XML files -- directly from Microsoft Visual Basic® or C#. Guided by data-access experts who've worked in depth with LINQ and the Microsoft development teams, you'll learn how .NET Framework 4 implements LINQ, and how to exploit it. Clear examples show you how to deliver your own data-access solutions faster and with leaner code.

Discover how to:

• Use LINQ to query databases, object collections, arrays, XML, Microsoft Excel® files, and other sources
• Apply LINQ best practices to build data-enabled .NET applications and services
• Manipulate data in a relational database with ADO.NET Entity Framework or LINQ to SQL
• Read, write, and manage XML content more efficiently with LINQ to XML
• Extend LINQ to support additional data sources by creating custom operators and providers
• Examine other implementations, such as LINQ to SharePoint®
• Use LINQ within the data, business, and service layers of a distributed application
• Get code samples on the Web

This Wrox Blox will teach you how to create and customize ASP.NET 4 AJAX Preview 4 Client Templates. The author shows you how to use declarative as well as imperative data-binding techniques to address the simple to advanced UI requirements. He also covers how the observer pattern is fully implemented in ASP.NET 4 AJAX and, when used in conjunction with the Client Template markup extensions, provides a developer experience much like XAML-based applications like WPF and Silverlight. This Wrox Blox walks you through how to implement examples that fetch data from ASP.NET Web Forms using Page Methods and ASP.NET MVC controller actions, as well as interfacing directly with ADO.NET Data Services.

Table of Contents

What’s New in ASP.NET 4 AJAX Preview 4 1

What Are Client Templates? 1

Environment Setup 3

Scripts Files 3

DataView 3

Updating a DataView 8

Data-Binding Syntax 10

Observer Pattern in JavaScript 16

Update the List Editor 19

Create the Page 20

Template Manipulation 23

Pseudo-Columns 24

Code Injection 24

Fetching Data from the Server 27

Using ASP.NET Page Methods 28

Using an ASP.NET MVC Controller Action 30

Using ADO.NET Data Services 31

Wrapping Up 39

About Craig Shoemaker 40

Usage Rights for Wiley Wrox Blox

Any Wrox Blox you purchase from this site will come with certain restrictions that allow Wiley to protect the copyrights of its products. After you purchase and download this title, you:

• Are entitled to three downloads
• Are entitled to make a backup copy of the file for your own use
• Are entitled to print the Wrox Blox for your own use
• Are entitled to make annotations and comments in the Wrox Blox file for your own use
• May not lend, sell or give the Wrox Blox to another user
• May not place the Wrox Blox file on a network or any file sharing service for use by anyone other than yourself or allow anyone other than yourself to access it

May not copy the Wrox Blox file other than as allowed above
May not copy, redistribute, or modify any portion of the Wrox Blox contents in any way without prior permission from Wiley

If you have any questions about these restrictions, you may contact Customer Care at (877) 762-2974 (8 a.m. - 5 p.m. EST, Monday - Friday). If you have any issues related to Technical Support, please contact us at 800-762-2974 (United States only) or 317-572-3994 (International) 8 a.m. - 8 p.m. EST, Monday - Friday).

Get the practical, popular reference written by ASP.NET authority Dino Esposito—now updated for ASP.NET 3.5. An in-depth guide to the core features of Web development with ASP.NET, this book goes beyond the fundamentals. It expertly illustrates the intricacies and uses of ASP.NET 3.5—in a single volume. Part of Microsoft Visual Studio® 2008, ASP.NET 3.5 includes AJAX functionality, the Microsoft Silverlight™ cross-platform development tool, new controls, and new integration features. This pragmatic guide covers these new features, and also includes coverage of Windows® Communication Foundation, LINQ, and other key Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0, 3.0, and 3.5 capabilities. Complete with extensive code samples and code snippets in Microsoft Visual C# 2008, this is the ideal reference for developers who want to learn what’s new in ASP.NET 3.5, or for those building professional-level Web development skills.