.NET news » Ajax

This article introduces AJAX to ASP.NET developers, implementing an example web page in different ways using ASP.NET Atlas, ASP.NET callbacks, Ajax.Net, Anthem.Net, and MagicAjax.Net.

The progress bar is great for keeping users informed about the progress of a task. Unfortunately, there's no progress bar element built into ASP.NET, so Dino Esposito solves that problem with his ProgressPanel control.

This article introduces Ajax to ASP.NET developers implementing an example web page in different ways using ASP.NET Atlas, ASP.NET callbacks, Ajax.Net, Anthem.Net and MagicAjax.Net.

Add a date picker and a time picker to your web pages

Nearly every Web site could benefit from a chat room to help users socialize or sort out important issues. However, creating a chat room is usually more effort than it’s worth — unless somebody’s already done the work for you. This article presents a WebChat control that you can drop onto any ASP.NET Web page to get an instant, fully functional chat room.

EasyPack enables syntax checking, validation, compression and obsfucation of JavaScript files with a single click

Extends one of the Web pages developed in Part 2 of this four-part series, using the Microsoft implementation of AJAX called Atlas. It describes two techniques for reducing Web server traffic to the browser to enhance the user's Web experience.

There's no reason to get lost with Atlas, Microsoft's framework for building fast, responsive AJAX-enabled Web apps. Get your bearings by following along as we build two introductory applications: a calendar and a content portal.

Traditionally, web applications have left a lot to be desired from a user experience standpoint, due primarily to the "request/response" lifecycle. Any interaction with a page typically requires a postback to the web server (a "request"), which then performs any server-side tasks needed and returns the updated page's markup (the "response"). Outside of intranet-based applications, such behavior adds a bit of a lag when interacting with a page. One approach to improving the end user's experience is to use AJAX. AJAX is a technique for using JavaScript and the XMLHttpRequest object to make light-weight HTTP requests back to the web server from client-side script. Once a response is received, the web page's layout can be seamlessly refreshed using JavaScript to message the page's Document Object Model (DOM) and CSS settings. AJAX-enabled pages provide a slick, responsive user experience, making web-based applications function more like desktop-based ones.

In the past adding AJAX type behaviors to your web application was difficult and came with a steep learning curve since AJAX encompasses a bevy of technologies (JavaScript, XML, XmlHttpObject, HTTP requests, DHTML, and so on). With the advent of the ASP.NET Atlas framework, however, there is much less of a reason to feel so overwhelmed when it comes to AJAX!

This tutorial delves into the relationship between declarative and imperative programming in Atlas, and how these can be used to create drag and drop functionality in a web client.