ASP.NET AJAX (ATLAS)

November 17th, 2007 Arsen

Atlas is Microsoft’s in-progress AJAX project.

  • ASP.NET Atlas is a package of new Web development technologies that integrates an extensive set of client script libraries with the rich, server-based development platform of ASP.NET 2.0.
  • “With Atlas, you can take advantage of the best of ASP.NET and server-side code while doing much of the work in the browser, enabling a richer user experience.”
  • Commercial (license terms unclear at time of writing) by Microsoft.
  • Note that as of Beta 1, ASP.Net Ajax requires the assemblies to be deployed to the GAC. This may be an issue for shared hosting.

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AjaxAspects

November 17th, 2007 Arsen

AjaxAspects is an engine that uses JavaScript proxies to call server-side WebService methods.

  • Use AJAX with Web Services.
  • Built upon JavaScript client proxy methods for standard web services. (Just call a regular JavaScript method to call a method on the server).
  • Standard SOAP and WSDL is reused for the communication between client and server.
  • No need for special implementations in WebServices.
  • Multiple types, Arrays and XML objects are supported as parameters and return values.
  • Caching on the client and server.
  • Queuing actions.
  • Delaying actions.
  • Demo web side available. See: http://www.mathertel.de/AjaxEngine/
  • Many AJAX Controls available that integrate in standard ASP.NET Web Forms, including autocomplete, tree view, popup and visual effects.
  • Supporting ASP.NET 2.0.
  • Full source code available at AJAXEngine.
  • Download the documentation in pdf format.
  • Supported by a blog in: English and German
  • Open-source BSD style license by Matthias Hertel.

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Anthem.Net for ASP.NET 1.x/2.0

November 17th, 2007 Arsen

Anthem.NET is Jason Diamonds’ new version of a long-established Ajax library, now a SourceForge open-source project.

  • Anthem.NET provides a set of ajax-enabled controls inherited from ASP.NET server controls, with most AJAX behaviours pre-built, avoiding lots of client Javascript. It supports Viewstate so that you can actually modify server controls (either Anthem controls, or ASP.NET controls inside an Anthem control, e.g. panel) in your serverside code, in C# or VB without having to mess about in JavaScript.
  • Unlike some other Ajax implementations the system supports callbacks for Anthem controls that are inside user controls, and even for wizards and master pages.
  • Binary versions for use in both .NET 1.1 and 2.0
  • Open-source .

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Ajaxium - AJAX, ASP.NET 1.x/2.0

November 17th, 2007 Arsen

Ajaxium ajax for asp.net is the universal AJAX container for all ASP.NET pages and controls. In contrast to other AJAX-based approaches and huge AJAX frameworks, sites powered by Ajaxium remain accessible to all search engines and old browsers due to an automatic and silent degradation to the classic ASP.NET.

Ajaxium replaces ASP.NET postbacks by AJAX, transforming existing ASP.NET applications to Web 2.0 without JavaScript callbacks, callback-panels or server-side coding. Designed as an ultimate solution for ASP.NET developers, Ajaxium is compatible with all browsers supported by ASP.NET.

  • Enables AJAX for ASP.NET controls without using any additional panels or controls placed on the ASP.NET form.
  • Supports all browsers which lack required features owing to a graceful automatic degradation to the classic ASP.NET mode. Thus, Ajaxium-powered sites work even when JavaScript is disabled or the browser doesn’t support the XmlHttpRequest object.
  • Ajaxium-powered sites are indexed by all search engines. This is achieved by a graceful degradation to the classic ASP.NET mode performed automatically for all remote clients who have no JavaScript support. Since search engines ignore all JavaScript code, they do not see Ajaxium at all. Being invisible and leaving HTML source untouched, Ajaxium helps search engines to index the website.
  • There is no need for developers to define explicitly which panels must be updated even for optimization purposes. Ajaxium automatically detects changed regions and performs an optimal update of single panels, multiply panels or the whole ASP.NET form. Ajaxium even automatically rewrites the entire document content if changes occur outside the form and document body (for example, in the document header).
  • Even if additional panels are used to reduce page flickering in old browsers, Ajaxium always analyzes the whole content of the web page. If updates must be applied outside all defined panels, Ajaxium applies them for the ASP.NET main form or rewrites the entire document.
  • Supports transition from one ASP.NET page to another.
  • Allows you to use traditional ASP.NET postbacks with AJAX in any combinations.
  • If a server-side error occurs or if the server returns an unexpected response (for example, a default error page), Ajaxium replaces the current document with a returned response, making the response accessible to the developer.
  • Supports all ASP.NET server-side features and technologies, including data binding, session states, authorization, etc.
  • Supports ASP.NET cookieless sessions. As a result, applications that do not use cookies can be just as well AJAX-enabled.
  • Capable to revert to a traditional ASP.NET - both at run-time and during each separate session.
  • While storing required information in the session state, Ajaxium gracefully handles session timeouts and all related pitfalls.
  • Compresses viewstate and reduces HTML traffic.
  • AJAX Demos, Tutorials and Downloadable Starter Kits available at http://www.ajaxium.com/ajax-tutorials.aspx

To date, Ajaxium enables AJAX on Internet Explorer 5 and above, Mozilla FireFox 1 and above (as well as other browsers which use Gecko engine), Opera 8.50, Konqueror 3+ and Safari 1.2+ (as well as other KHTML-based browsers). All other browsers view Ajaxium-powered websites as classic ASP.NET websites. Even if your favorite browser is Lynx you can access any page at an Ajaxium-powered site.

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Ajax.NET Professional for ASP.NET 1.x/2.0

November 17th, 2007 Arsen

Ajax.NET Professional is the first Ajax framework for ASP.NET 1.x/2.0.

  • AJAX library for ASP.NET which provides the very basic AJAX capability to make xmlhttp callbacks. Does not have any ‘Ajax-enabled’ controls or support for Viewstate, etc.
  • Can serialize ANY data type from .NET including custom classes, structs or enum types
  • Include JavaScript DataTable, DataSet, support for IList and IEnumeration, XML documents
  • Supports Internet Explorer 5.0 and higher, Firefox, Opera, Safari, Netscape,…
  • Great ActiveX replacement for Internet Explorer if ActiveX are disabled
  • Download source code at http://www.ajaxpro.info/sourcecode.aspx
  • Support by Google group: http://groups.google.com/group/ajaxpro
  • Demo and Download of Starter Kits available at http://www.ajaxpro.info/
  • Queuing actions to enable more than 2 concurrent requests
  • No direct code change on server-side code using method attributes
  • Caching available on the server
  • JavaScript includes several prototype features like String.trim or Array.clear
  • Asynchronous and synchronous methods with callback and context support
  • Uses JSON instead of XML for performance reason
  • Reduce HTML traffic (only data is sent instead of HTML code)

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Gaia Ajax Widgets for ASP.NET 2.0 and Mono

November 17th, 2007 Arsen

Gaia Ajax Widgets is the first Ajax library to not re-render HTML in update divs

  • Have most of the ASP.NET controls wrapped in derived controls
  • Also have some more advanced Ajax controls like AutoCompleter, Menu and Window
  • Compatible with both normal ASP.NET and ASP.NET Ajax
  • No JavaScript required to use
  • 100% WYSIWYG and RAD
  • Free to download (registering required)
  • Gaia Ajax Widgets is Open Source
  • Supported browsers are; FireFox, IE and Opera
  • 100% Mono compatible
  • Follows the complete ASP.NET Page syclus (in server code it will “appear” to be a normal postback)
  • Does not re-render the HTML in update divs

The last point is crucial in the design of Gaia Ajax Widgets since it’s the basis for creating stateful controls which are also dynamically changeable. This is in most other Ajax framework an “either nor” option since mostly in other frameworks you’ll have to choose if you want your widget to be updateable in Ajax Callbacks or if it should be possible to keep state. Gaia Ajax Widgets does not re-render HTML on return of your Ajax Request and therefor you can attach events to the DHTML controls on the client without being afraid of your event listeners being dropped when the server returns a “new set” of HTML and replaces your existing control with its attached events. This is crucial in constructing things like AutoCompleters where you want to be able to show the auto completion data from an event in your page and still be able to manipulate properties in other controls in that very same event handler etc…

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ajaxed - classic ASP Ajax Library which uses Prototype and JSON (from July 2007)

November 17th, 2007 Arsen

ajaxed Library is the first classic ASP Ajax Library which lets you call server side ASP code from client side. Similar to PHPs xajax.

  • It allows you to call server side procedures directly from client side
  • automatic conversion of ASP datatypes into its JavaScript equivalents
  • object oriented
  • No detailed Ajax skill required
  • tutorials available
  • easy to use
  • LGPL => free to use
  • Save the network traffic
  • page refresh very fast , because updates the only required part of the page.

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