Ajax has revolutionized the way users interact with web pages today. Gone are frustrating page refreshes, lost scroll positions and intermittent interaction with a web site. Instead, we have a new generation of fast, rich, and more intuitive web applications. The ASP.NET AJAX framework puts the power of Ajax into the hands of web developers. ASP.NET AJAX, formerly called Atlas, is a new free framework from Microsoft designed to easily add Ajax features to ASP.NET applications. With this technology, ASP.NET developers can easily build more interactive and highly-personalized web applications that work across all most popular browsers.

ASP.NET AJAX in Action is a fast-paced, example-rich tutorial designed for ASP.NET web developers and written by ASP.NET AJAX experts Alessandro "Garbin" Gallo, David Barkol, and Rama Krishna Vavilala. This book introduces you to Ajax applications and to the ASP.NET AJAX technology. Beginners will appreciate the clear explanations of key ideas and terminology. Intermediate and advanced ASP.NET developers will find a no-nonsense learning source and well-organized reference.

ASP.NET AJAX in Action offers a rich set of examples and meticulous explanations. The extensive code samples are accompanied by accurate and rigorous explanations of the concepts behind development with ASP.NET AJAX. In this book, you will discover how to use

• Microsoft Ajax Library

• Partial rendering with UpdatePanels

• Advanced client and server techniques

• Ajax Control Toolkit

If you are a web developer looking to bring your web pages to life and to enhance the user experience, this book is for you.

ASP.NET AJAX in Action will give you with the knowledge and tools you need to more easily craft the next generation of Ajax applications. With the help of the Microsoft ASP.NET AJAX framework, Ajax development has never been easier and more instinctive for both client-script developers and ASP.NET developers alike.

Amazon.com® Reader Reviews (Ranked by Helpfulness)

Average Amazon.com® Rating:  Based on 27 Ratings

The best, if somewhat dated, book on the subject - 2008-12-30
Reviewer Rating:
The book is an excellent book because it really describes what exactly happens in the ASP and AJAX post back process, and details the application interface models. It also contains an excellent tutorial for working with Javascript in the context of the Microsoft AJAX implementation with ScriptManager.

While there is a book web site with some updates, I feel that an updated book would be helpful that includes information about working with Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) and JSON. Perhaps this is already in the works.

Poor Focus and Continuity - 2009-06-27
Reviewer Rating:
This book has some very good segments and the code examples are very well structured, with clever snippets of code, like 'hooking the key down event in chap 6'. However the presentation in some areas is a more a smattering of technology without a application as a basis. In this regard it is a little frustrating. The authors could have benefited with a good proof reader, if not an idea and continuity reader - assuming that there is such a thing. The book is littered with examples without consideration of how you would implement some of the code, for example on page 12 where there is a comment "The value 4 indicates that the request has completed. Well how about a table of the other values - is this all the user needs to implement this technology? This is a very naive and non methodical approach to a book. "Especially the Appendix which is an afterthought I think and leaves the reader hanging during the crucial installation phases of the tools.

I think you should use this book as a I gave up trying to follow it as a coherent narrative, but decided to download the source code and load them up in Visual Studio, and run through the ones that do work and then reference the book. It is unfortunate that where many of the interesting examples around chapter 9, 10, 11 and 12 occur is where things begin to fall apart due to the the need to have compatibility between .NET 2 and 3 even though the book clearly says that they will work with the .NET 2 extensions. It is all a bit of a mess really, with extensions, control kits and so on. One wonders whether you are not just better off grabbing a good book on Ajax Java script implementations and coding your own framework.

Apart from these frustration - buy it for the examples, but make sure you load VS2008 with .NET 3.5 if you are prone to tantrums and outbursts when you come across sample code does not work.

The only ASP.NET AJAX book you will need - 2009-06-15
Reviewer Rating:
This book provides excellent coverage of ASP.NET AJAX and is geared towards the expert ASP.NET developer. Readers who are looking for a lighter introduction to AJAX will get plenty of value out of this book, but they may be better off buying a 24 hour reference book or similar title. But if you need to really use AJAX in the real world I highly recommend this book. The book is well organized, and the chapters build logically on the previous ones. The layout is accessible, so I can use this book as a reference or for in-depth review. I greatly appreciated their coverage of advanced topics thus saving me having to go online as I usually need to do once it's time to apply the technology to the real-world. The only chapter I skipped was on XML script, which is a futures technology that may not eventually be adopted. I would give this book 6 stars if I could because it represents everything that is done right in a technology book. Highly recommended.

Superb - 2009-06-26
Reviewer Rating:
This is a great learning tool for those in need of a way to quickly coming up to speed with Microsoft's ASP.NET AJAX framework. Although it could benefit those with little JavaScript experience, you will understand things much better and easier by having just a small amount of JavaScript under your belt before starting this book.

Very Helpful - 2009-02-10
Reviewer Rating:
This book provides the best general coverage for ASP.NET Ajax that I have found. It is easy to read and the content is thorough.

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