1.8. Summary

The Web has evolved over the last decade from providing a static presence to being the default choice for developers writing applications. With Web applications, you get reach without having to deal with the deployment and servicing issues that accompany desktop applications. But the bar continues to move higher for Web applications as users come to expect more. AJAX technologies are driving Web applications to rival rich desktop apps. You can use the results of asynchronous communication with the Web server to update portions of the page without forcing the user to stop his or her work and wait for the page to post back and be repainted. Dynamic HTML allows you to create a rich GUI with transitions and animations leveraging CSS for colors, fonts, positioning, and more.

ASP.NET AJAX includes the Microsoft AJAX library, which makes writing browser-based JavaScript easier and simplifies many common client programming tasks. It is easy to attach code to DOM events, write JavaScript in an object-oriented way, and access the server for persistent storage, authentication, and updated data.

ASP.NET AJAX also includes extensions to version 2.0 of the .NET Framework that can greatly improve your Web application. There is built-in support for returning data in the JSON format that is easily consumed by JavaScript in the browser.

In this book, you will see how the client and server features of ASP.NET AJAX make it easier to push the limits of what you can do with a Web application! You learn how to update portions of a page asynchronously and how to manage the scripts that are used in the browser. You will find out how to use the networking facilities, with a dive into accessing ASP.NET services such as authentication and profile storage. You will get a closer look at the JavaScript language and how the Microsoft AJAX library builds on the language to simplify programming tasks. You will also see what ASP.NET AJAX offers for adding a richer UI to Web applications and look at how to debug and test Web applications.