Microsoft .NET Development Series

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– Don Box

Architect, Microsoft

“This is a great resource for professional .NET developers. It covers all bases, from expert perspective to reference and how-to. Books in this series are essential reading for those who want to judiciously expand their knowledge base and expertise.”

–John Montgomery

Principal Group Program Manager,

Developer Division, Microsoft

“This foremost series on .NET contains vital information for developers who need to get the most out of the .NET Framework. Our authors are selected from the key innovators who create the technology and are the most respected practitioners of it.”

–Brad Abrams

Group Program Manager, Microsoft

ASP.NET AJAX server controls can encapsulate even the most powerful AJAX functionality, helping you build more elegant, maintainable, and scalable applications. This is the first comprehensive, code-rich guide to custom ASP.NET AJAX server controls for experienced ASP.NET developers. Unlike other books on ASP.NET AJAX, this book focuses solely on server control development and reflects the significant improvements in ASP.NET 3.5 AJAX and the latest Visual Studio 2008 features for streamlining AJAX development

Adam Calderon and Joel Rumerman first review the core Microsoft AJAX Library and JavaScript techniques needed to support a rich client-side experience. Next, they build upon these techniques showing how to create distributable AJAX-enabled controls that include rich browser-independent JavaScript client-side functionality. The authors thoroughly explain both the JavaScript and .NET aspects of control development and how these two distinct environments come together to provide a foundation for building a rich user experience using ASP.NET AJAX.

• Create object-oriented cross-browser JavaScript that supports .NET style classes, interfaces, inheritance, and method overloading

• Work with components, behaviors, and controls, and learn how they relate to DOM elements

• Learn Sys.Application and the part it plays in object creation, initialization, and events in the Microsoft AJAX Library

• Build Extender and Script controls that provide integrated script generation for their corresponding client-side counterparts

• Localize ASP.NET AJAX controls including client script

• Discover ASP.NET AJAX client and server communication architecture and the new support for Windows Communication Foundation (WCF)

• Understand ASP.NET AJAX Application Services

• Create custom Application Services

• Design controls for a partial postback environment

• Understand the AJAX Control Toolkit architecture and the many features it provides

• Develop highly interactive controls using the AJAX Control Toolkit

• Understand AJAX Control Toolkit architecture and build controls that utilize the toolkit

Foreword xxv

Preface xxvii

Acknowledgments xxxv

About the Authors xxxix

Part I: Client Code

Chapter 1: Programming with JavaScript 3

Chapter 2: Microsoft AJAX Library Programming 51

Part II: Controls

Chapter 3: Components 121

Chapter 4: Sys.Application 169

Chapter 5: Adding Client Capabilities to Server Controls 207

Chapter 6: ASP.NET AJAX Localization 255

Chapter 7: Control Development in a Partial Postback Environment 317

Part III: Communication

Chapter 8: ASP.NET AJAX Communication Architecture 371

Chapter 9: Application Services 425

Part IV: AJAX Control Toolkit

Chapter 10: ASP.NET AJAX Control Toolkit Architecture 481

Chapter 11: Adding Client Capabilities to Server Controls Using the ASP.NET AJAX Control Toolkit 513

Appendixes

Appendix A: JavaScript in Visual Studio 2008 547

Appendix B: Validating Method Parameters 555

Appendix C: ASP.NET Handlers and Modules 559

Appendix D: Client Error Handling Code 569

Index 577

Amazon.com® Reader Reviews (Ranked by Helpfulness)

Average Amazon.com® Rating:  Based on 9 Ratings

A Fine Resource - 2008-10-02
Reviewer Rating:
This is a fine resource for ASP.NET developers who want to build high performance, data-driven Web applications with a richer user interface. The introduction of ASP.NET AJAX 2.0 extensions caught many of us off-guard. We were suddenly thrown into intensive JavaScript programming on a Microsoft platform. Faced with a major learning curve, many of us fled to the convenience of the UpdatePanel control as a stepping stone.

There's no getting around it, it's going to take effort to get to the next level of AJAX capabilities using Microsoft's library. This book takes you into that journey - but not necessarily by the most direct route.

The first third of the book feels more like a solid ASP.NET AJAX reference than a "how-to-do-it" tutorial. The early chapters cover the library's types, namespaces, and classes in depth. It just seemed too early and too dry to be dealing with the nitty-gritty of the platform.

In my view, the book should start at Chapter Five. That's where you really make use of client-side functionality by adding it to server-based controls. As the authors point out, the AJAX library extensions help you overcome inconsistencies among browsers. You learn practical steps such as adding script resources, configuring ScriptManager, and getting into extender controls. The book leads you through the creation of an Image control extender that loops through a series of images at runtime. It's in this hands-on chapter that you really start to grasp the concepts. There's a substantial chapter of localization in ASP.NET AJAX. If you're taking on a translation, it would certainly be worth the price of the book.

At the outset, I referred to the UpdatePanel. It could be called the "lazy developer's AJAX control". What I learn from Chapter 7 is that the UpdatePanel can be a real headache for control developers. The authors warn of unexpected problems when your carefully-crafted control finds itself inside a partial postback environment.

The book's coverage of the asynchronous consumption of web services is solid. The authors go into all the important acronyms such as REST, and explain WCF from many angles including creating data contracts and service contracts.

In the chapter on Application Services, I discovered how much I didn't know about the client-side use of ASP.NET's Membership, Role, and User Profile services. If these AJAX extensions to the server-side API's escaped you too, you'll really benefit from the chapter.

Every ASP.NET developer knows about the AJAX Control Toolkit but Calderon and Rumerman take it further. They explain the overall architecture and then dig into how you can harness the Toolkit (and especially its animation support) in your own controls.

In summary, this is a very good book for learning to write your own AJAX controls. My main complaint is that the cart comes before the horse... You want to dig into building something interesting (call it 'instant gratification' if you wish) but need to wade through several chapters of dry architectural and reference-type information.

Great primer on MS AJAX framework and Javascript - 2009-02-17
Reviewer Rating:
I found this book as very resource full and requires a serious and focussed read. I have a good ASP.NET 2.0 server development experience and little or basic experience on the client scripting and AJAX. I wanted to learn this piece of web development and being a professional I picked up this book even though the title says 'Advanced' only because the advanced and pro series books generally tend to have more technical details that are needed in a real project and have more serious material.
I have tried most of the example code and took my own time learning the details before moving forward to a new concept.
The authors really know their subject very well. The topics were well paced and well structured. I suggest reading the book thorougly and not to skim the material. The book also features a great chapter on JavaScript.
All in all, a worthy buy for serious learners.

Great for the developer who wants to know more. - 2008-09-10
Reviewer Rating:
This is an excellent book for developers looking to lean more than just the basics of ASP.NET AJAX, to truly understand how ASP.NET AJAX works. This book contains some fairly advanced subjects that are probably too much for a beginner, but great for the experienced developer.

Almost Thorough Coverage of ASP.NET AJAX - 2009-07-17
Reviewer Rating:
Overall, I find this book to be quite detailed, unraveling the deeper "secrets" of ASP.NET AJAX architecture far better than any other book in the market. My only gripe, I guess, is the lack of a more practical coverage on AJAX Control Toolkit; it shows you how to extend the library but doesn't cover examples on how to use the various controls in the toolkit. For that, you should either refer to ASP.NET 3.5 AJAX (Unleashed) by Robert Foster or the CodePlex's examples online.

Thorough Book - 2009-02-10
Reviewer Rating:
These guys know there stuff. It's not a book you can skim. That's because the book is quite detailed. To me, that's good. The errata that often plagues technical books is minimal and the downloadable source code provides some very informative examples.

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