Foundations of ASP.NET AJAX (eBook)

Laurence Moroney is the director of technology evangelism at Mainsoft, the cross-platform development company. He has over 10 years in software development and architecture, specializing in interoperability, security and performance in such diverse industries as casinos, jails, the U.S. Border Patrol, airports, professional soccer teams and financial services. He has written several books on computing, including some on Web Services Security, ASP.NET and Java/.NET interoperability, as well as dozens of articles on various technology issues. He lives in Sammamish, Washington with his wife, Rebecca, and children, Claudia and Christopher. His blog is at Philotic.com, where you can find lots of Atlas and other development resources.

Contents at a Glance 5
Contents 6
About the Authors 11
About the Technical Reviewers 12
Acknowledgments 13
Introduction 14
Who This Book Is For 14
Prerequisites 15
Introducing AJAX 16
Delving into the History of Web Application Technology 16
Thin Client Applications Save the Day 21
AJAX Enters the Picture 22
Using the XMLHttpRequest Object 25
Using Visual Studio 2005 27
Summary 30
Taking AJAX to the Next Level 32
Introducing ASP. NET 2.0 Server Controls 32
Synchronous vs. Asynchronous Web Applications 39
Introducing the ASP. NET AJAX Architecture 40
Summary 44
The Microsoft AJAX Library: Making Client- Side JavaScript Easier 45
JavaScript with the Microsoft AJAX Library 45
Using Namespaces and Classes in JavaScript 55
Using Inheritance in JavaScript 57
Implementing Interfaces in JavaScript 59
Accessing Server Resources from JavaScript 63
Summary 68
ASP.NET AJAX Client Libraries 69
JavaScript Type Extensions 69
The Sys Namespace 80
Sys.Application 81
Sys.Component and Client Component Model 84
Sys.UI 85
Global Shortcuts 91
Other Commonly Used Classes in the Sys Namespace 92
Summary 94
Introducing Server Controls in ASP. NET AJAX 95
Using ASP. NET AJAX Server Controls in Visual Studio 2005 95
Introducing the ScriptManager Control 97
Introducing the ScriptManagerProxy Control 104
Introducing the UpdatePanel Control 109
Introducing the UpdateProgress Control 116
Introducing the Timer Control 119
Summary 122
Using Server Controls in ASP.NET AJAX 123
Using the UpdatePanel, UpdateProgress, and Timer Controls 123
Using a Task List Manager 129
Summary 143
Using the ASP.NET AJAX Control Toolkit ( Part 1) 144
Installing the ASP. NET AJAX Control Toolkit 144
The Accordion and AccordionPane Controls 146
AlwaysVisibleControlExtender Control 148
The AnimationExtender Control 150
AutoCompleteExtender Control 157
CalendarExtender Control 160
CascadingDropDown Control 162
CollapsiblePanelExtender Control 167
ConfirmButtonExtender Control 170
DragPanelExtender Control 172
DropDownExtender Control 174
Summary 176
Using the ASP.NET AJAX Control Toolkit ( Part 2) 177
DropShadow and RoundedCorners Extenders 177
DynamicPopulate Extender 180
FilteredTextBox Extender 183
HoverMenu Extender 184
MaskedEdit and MaskedEditValidator Extenders 186
ModalPopup Extender 189
NoBot Extender 192
NumericUpDown Extender 194
PasswordStrength Extender 197
PopupControl Extender 200
Rating Control 202
ReorderList Control 204
ResizableControl Extender 207
Slider Extender 209
SlideShow Extender 210
TabContainer and TabPanel Control 213
Summary 216
AJAX-Style Mapping Using the Virtual Earth SDK 217
Introduction to Microsoft Virtual Earth ( VE) 217
Programming the VEMap Control 218
Summary 236
Building a Sample Application Using ASP. NET AJAX 237
Understanding the Application Architecture 238
Creating the Application 241
Summary 267
Index 269