ASP.NET AJAX in Action (Paperback)

by Alessandro Gallo (Author), David Barkol (Author), Rama Vavilala (Author), Scott Guthrie (Foreword), Bertrand Le Roy (Foreword)
Key Phrases: web services, protected mode, virtual earth, Microsoft Ajax Library, Ajax Control Toolkit, Visual Studio (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
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.

About the Author
Alessandro Gallo is a Microsoft MVP in the Visual ASP/ASP.NET category and has been an active contributor for the Ajax Control Toolkit project. As a .NET developer/consultant with a primary focus on ASP.NET application design and development, Alessandro has been developing with ASP.NET AJAX since the very first CTP. Notably, he won the Grand Prize at the Mash-it-up with ASP.NET AJAX contest held by Microsoft in 2006.

David Barkol is a Principal Consultant for Neudesic, one of Microsoft's leading .NET professional services firms and a Gold Certified Partner. At Neudesic David specializes in providing custom .NET solutions that leverage technologies such as ASP.NET, Web Services, Windows Forms, SQL Server, and C#. He is an MCSD in .NET and a member of the Microsoft ASP.NET Advisory Council. David resides in tropical La Palma, CA.

Rama Krishna Vavilala is a senior software developer/architect at 3C Software, a leading supplier of Cost Management Solutions. He has designed and developed three different versions of Impact:ECS(tm) (3C Softwares product suite). Currently, he is designing an Ajax-based web application using ASP.NET AJAX. This application will be a part of the Impact:ECS(tm) suite. He is a regular contributor at The Code Project and has contributed around 20 articles on wide ranging subjects.

Product Details

• Paperback: 600 pages
• Publisher: Manning Publications (August 24, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1933988142
• ISBN-13: 978-1933988146
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7.4 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (27 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #191,719 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

  Popular in these categories: (What's this?)

  #46 in	Books > Computers & Internet > Programming > Languages & Tools > Ajax
  #65 in	Books > Computers & Internet > Web Development > Programming > ASP

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Solid foundation + great examples, September 4, 2007

By	Jason Jung "JCube" - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I don't normally give a rave review about books unless I was really satisfied with the book, but this book really is a great book.

First of all, apart from it being an ASP.NET AJAX book, one of things I consider when buying a book is the overall flow of the book - the flows between paragraphs and the flows between chapters. On that note, ASP.NET Ajax in Action has a great flow. Especially the transitions of the book and the divisions of the chapters were well put into the book, so it could feel like reading a novel in some cases.

On the technical side, I like technical books that have a lot of examples that make good sense. This book is full of examples, which is very imporant for understanding a new technology. Another thing I like about th book is the detailed examplanations of the ASP.NET Ajax foundations. For example, it doesn't talk about UpdatePanel until Chatper 6 and 7, which most of ASP.NET developers like to just use for quick development. However, this book does a good job of illustrating the overall architecure of the Ajax framework, and does not neglect that Javascript is also a big part in developing Ajax-enabled websites. Unlike other ASP.NET Ajax books, this book has a few chapters dedicated to client-centric ASP.NET Ajax development, which is necessary for building hard-core ajax sites and components.

To conclude, this book is a must-have for asp.net developers and you can use it as both a reference book and a learning material.

18 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Clearly the best ASP.NET AJAX Book - buy it NOW!, August 28, 2007

By	Eric W. Engler "Avid Reader" (Atlanta, GA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I do a lot of reading, and to the best of my knowledge my personal .NET book collection is bigger than anyone else's. The first thing I noticed about this book is the smooth and highly readable writing style - very rare to see in a technical book. As I read through the chapters it became clear to me that the content was no less stunning than the readability! The charts and tables are not merely a reprint of MSDN, and the authors dominated the subject without making it dry like a reference manual.

It was obviously their goal to ensure that readers already familiar with ASP.NET in general would become a subject expert on AJAX just by studying this book. The real world example code stands alone among the other books: this code works and it is highly relevant instead of being a bunch of contrived example snippets! There is no better book on ASP.NET AJAX.

I am looking for any other books from these authors - I'll order them without even thinking about it. There's a very short list of authors about whom I can make that statement. And I'll keep my eye on the Manning publishing company from now on. They know how to edit books well, and they selected the best authors available.

13 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A highly recommended book on a surprisingly useful library, October 1, 2007

By	Christian Graus (Hobart, TAS, Australia) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I had written off ASP.NET AJAX as bloated and for beginners until I bought this excellent book. While I have done AJAX by hand in the past, I'm now a convert to the advantages of leveraging this powerful library. I highly recommend this book both for beginners who want to start with ASP.NET AJAX and those professionals looking to either leverage this library, or to be convinced that they need to.

The book is full of practical examples that I was able to apply immediately to my code, as well as thorough explanations that enabled me to expand on and understand the code provided