Microsoft AJAX Library Essentials: Client-side ASP.NET AJAX 1.0 Explained (Paperback)

~ Bogdan Brinzarea (Author), Cristian Darie (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

A practical tutorial to enhancing the user experience of your ASP.NET web applications with the final release of the Microsoft AJAX Library

• A rapid and practical guide to including AJAX features in your .NET applications
• Learn practical development strategies and techniques
  
• Go through a case study that demonstrates the theory you learned throughout the book.
  

In Detail

Microsoft AJAX Library Essentials is a practical reference for the client-side library of the ASP.NET AJAX Framework 1.0, and a tutorial for the underlying technologies and techniques required to use the library at its full potential. The main goal of this book is to get you comfortable with the Microsoft AJAX Library, a huge set of functions that can be used for developing powerful client-side functionality.

Beginning with a hands-on tour of the basic technologies associated with AJAX, JavaScript, XMLHttpRequest, JSON, and the DOM, you'll move on to a crash course in the Microsoft AJAX tools. You will learn, through numerous step-by-step exercises, how to create basic AJAX applications, how the object-based programming model of JavaScript works, and how Microsoft AJAX Library extends this model. You'll understand the architecture of the Microsoft AJAX components, how they all fit together, and exactly what they can do for you. Then you will learn how to use the Microsoft AJAX Library in your web projects, and a detailed case study will walk you through creating your own customized client components.

At every stage of your journey, you'll be able to try out examples to illuminate the theory, and consolidate your understanding. In addition to learning about the client and server controls, you'll also see how to handle errors and debug your AJAX applications.

To complement your new found skills, the book ends with a visual reference of the Microsoft AJAX Library namespaces and classes, including diagrams and quick explanations for all the classes mentioned in the book, providing an invaluable reference you will turn to again and again.

What you will learn from this book?

This book teaches you, through step-by-step exercises, the following essential topics:

• How to create basic AJAX applications using JavaScript, CSS, DOM, and the XMLHttpRequest object.
• Understand the object-oriented model of JavaScript.
• Learn what the Microsoft AJAX Library is made of.
• Understand how the Microsoft AJAX Library extends the object-oriented capabilities of JavaScript by adding support for namespaces, interfaces, events, properties, and an improved set of base classes.
• Implement JavaScript classes and interfaces based on Visual Studio class diagrams
• Create client components, controls and behaviors, by extending existing elements of the page, registering events, and utilizing the page life cycle.
• Go through a case study that demonstrates the theory you learned throughout the book.

Approach

This book is a practical tutorial to get you confident and comfortable working with the Microsoft AJAX suite. Packed with step-by-step examples and detailed explanations of how the examples work, this book is the ideal first step into the exciting world of AJAX in ASP.NET

Who this book is written for?

This book has been written for ASP.NET developers entering the world of the ASP.NET AJAX Framework, and for existing ASP.NET AJAX developers looking for a more detailed tutorial on the client-side of the framework: the Microsoft AJAX Library.

About the Author

Bogdan Brinzarea

Bogdan has a strong background in Computer Science holding a Master and Bachelor Degree at the Automatic Control and Computers Faculty of the Politehnica University of Bucharest, Romania and also an Auditor diploma at the Computer Science department at Ecole Polytechnique, Paris, France.

His main interests cover a wide area from embedded programming, distributed and mobile computing and new web technologies. Currently, he is employed as an Alternative Channels Specialist at Banca Romaneasca, Member of National Bank of Greece where he is responsible for the Internet Banking project and coordinates other projects related to security applications and new technologies to be implemented in the banking area.

Cristian Darie

Cristian Darie is a software engineer with experience in a wide range of modern technologies, and the author of numerous books, including his popular AJAX and PHP tutorial by Packt, his ASP.NET E-Commerce tutorial, by APress and his forthcoming SEO tutorial for PHP developers by Wrox Press. Cristian is studying distributed application architectures for his PhD, and is getting involved with various commercial and research projects. When not planning to buy Google, he enjoys his bit of social life. If you want to say "hi", you can reach Cristian through his personal website at cristiandarie.ro.

Product Details

• Paperback: 300 pages
• Publisher: Packt Publishing (July 30, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1847190987
• ISBN-13: 978-1847190987
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 7.4 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #544,092 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Microsoft AJAX Library Essentials, January 23, 2008

By	Vamseedhar R. Sane (New York, USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

A practical tutorial to enhancing the user experience of your ASP.NET web applications with the final release of the Microsoft AJAX Library. What is Microsoft Ajax Library? Microsoft Ajax Library or otherwise known as Asynchronous JavaScript and XML is a unique compilation of standards-based JavaScript classes included in ASP.NET Ajax. The library is supported by most of today's most popular browsers and is used to build client-centric web applications that are used to integrate with backend data providers. In short Ajax is a web development technique for creating interactive applications.

This book features eight chapters. Each chapter holds a wealth of information. The book as a whole is essential to the understanding of the new Microsoft Ajax Library, it provides a detail look into how each aspect works, how each application or tool can be used, and how the reader can use each to their full advantage. The authors provide a greater understanding of what was once a closed topic, understood only by those who spent year dabbling in it.

Microsoft Ajax Library Essentials is a book designed to serve as a practical tutorial to enhance a user's experience of the ASP.NET web applications with the latest release of the Microsoft Ajax Library. It serves to teach practical development strategies and techniques. The first chapter covers topics such as Ajax and its relationship with Web 2.0, HTTP and HTML, Server Side Technologies, Client Side technologies, What makes Ajax, Uses and Misuses, an introduction to ASP.NET, resources and tools, installing IIS, installing visual web developers, and a section on how to quick start Ajax. It is easy to see early on that this book provides an in-depth view of the Microsoft client library for Ajax and is beneficial to any within the world of client side or server side technologies.

This book serves as a fantastic overview of the object oriented capabilities of JavaScript. Rather then just taking a swing at JavaScript this book gives readers the information they need to use OOP aspects so there is much more to be acquired from its material. Daire and Brinzarea reveal in a simple and easy to follow manner the proper way to create HTML codes with the Document Object Model. The book also covers all of the debugging tools for JavaScript, like Nikhil Kothari's Web Development Helper. These tools are extremely helpful with JSON and complicated JavaScript. The Web Development Helper offers a more detailed view JavaScript error messages and the complete stack trace, allowing users to gain a greater understanding of the error messages and how to avoid or bypass them.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Great Book On Advanced JavaScript, December 9, 2007

By	Robert S. Robbins (Williamsport, PA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This is good book to get if you want to use a JavaScript library for AJAX which is designed to be similar to the .NET Framework in its use of namespaces and classes. The Microsoft AJAX Library is the best choice for ASP.NET developers and this book is an excellect reference guide to using it. In addition, it provides an overview of advanced JavaScript OOP language features and concepts.

I appreciated the extensive listing of online resources for advanced JavaScript tutorials, reference guides, and debugging tools. I learned about many that I did not know about and it included some obscure resources that I was familiar with. In other words, the authors clearly did their homework and were very thorough.

The sample code included detailed explanations of what the code does so you can easily follow it. They even used class diagrams to document the JavaScript classes which qualifies as extra effort since you cannot produce these diagrams using any JavaScript tools. They had to recreate them in C#. I was quite impressed by the authors' technical expertise.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great book, July 24, 2008

By	J. James (Maricopa, Az United States) - See all my reviews

This is a book that should be in your library if you are going to be doing development with ASP.NET AJAX.

Typically when you start learning ASP.NET Ajax all of the material centers around UpdatePanels and leaves out anything to do with the client-side scripts. This book will make you realize how much functionality you are missing by only using UpdatePanels.

Also, this book not only covers learning the ASP.NET AJAX client scripts but how to do object oriented javascript development.