Ajax

Visual Web Gui - ASP.NET web applications built with a .NET Windows Forms project!

Mike McIntyre [MVP Visual Basic] — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 19:19:00 GMT

Visual Web Gui is an open source product for porting .NET Windows Forms applications to the web.

It is used to create ASP.NET web applications with a very AJAX like experience - without the AJAX programming hassle.

It may be worth it to you to give it a try. Though it's little rough around the edges at this point, this product can be used today to produce web applications from .NET Windows Forms projects. And - the developer is rapidly improving the product each month.

It's easy to get started and it to produce useful web applications. I've been playing around with it for about a week and have already created two small web applications for IT management.

The process is straight-forward:

1. Download and install the free Visual Web Gui Visual Studio project templates.

2. Create a Visual Web Gui project. This is a Visual Studio Windows Forms project.

3. Build out the Windows Froms application.

4. Compile.

5. Run result in web browser.

6. Deploy to web server.

Visual Web Gui web site: http://www.visualwebgui.com/

Visual Web Gui at CodePlex: http://www.codeplex.com/VWGSilverlight

Mike McIntyre

www.getdotnetcode.com

ASP.NET AJAX 1.0 Released

Mike McIntyre [MVP Visual Basic] — Tue, 23 Jan 2007 12:07:00 GMT

Read about it here: ASP.NET AJAX 1.0 Released

I'm excited. After creating VB examples for Microsoft Ajax and updating them each time the CTP and RC were changed, I am looking forward to updating my examples with the actual release. I also have dozens of new examples I would like to create now that Ajax 1.0 is released.

Microsoft AJAX Series Part 6 - PageRequestManager

Mike McIntyre [MVP Visual Basic] — Wed, 13 Dec 2006 15:13:00 GMT

Source Code: Microsoft AJAX Series Part 6 - PageRequestManager

Microsoft AJAX Series Part 6 - PageRequestManager

This is the sixth in a series of blog posts about Microsoft ASP.NET AJAX, a new web development technology from Microsoft.

Click these links to view previous posts in this series: Post 1, Post 2, Post 3, Post 4 and Post 5

This article introduces the Microsoft Ajax PageRequestManager object and demonstrates how to handle its pageLoaded event to it trigger an animation when a page is updated after an asynchronous post back.

PageRequestManager Overview

The PageRequestManager class in the Microsoft AJAX Library manages partial-page rendering on the client.

When you have a ScriptManager and one or more UpdatePanel controls on the page, the page is automatically enabled for partial-page rendering.

The PageRequestManager exposes properties, methods, and events that allow you to customize the partial-page rendering experience with client script.

Scenarios

Provide custom error message handling for partial-page rendering.
Control multiple asynchronous postbacks.
Display status messages during asynchronous postbacks.
Access the underlying request and response objects used in an asynchronous postback.

Partial-Page Rendering Event Handling

During page processing (both postbacks and asynchronous postbacks), you can handle DOM events to run custom script.

However, these DOM events do not enable you to access information or control the behavior during asynchronous postbacks and during partial-page updates that occur between the load and unload of the page in the browser.

The PageRequestManager class exposes the following events that enable you to customize partial-page rendering:

initializeRequest
beginRequest
pageLoading
pageLoaded
endRequest

About the Source Code

The source code implements an ASP.NET 2.0 web application that shows how you can use the pageLoaded event of the PageRequestManager class to animate an UpdatePanel control when the page is updated after an asynchronous postback.

In this web page shown above, users can select a date and enter an email address into a simple form to make a ticket request. When certain elements postback from the page ( (1) above), the panel is animated briefly to notify the user that the date value was entered into the text box. The page contains a popup that displays a Calendar control. The calendar is displayed or hidden using the control's Visible property. Hiding, showing, or selecting dates in the calendar does not cause the entire page to be refreshed, because the Calendar control is inside an UpdatePanel control.

The source code included with this post (see download link above) includes additional comments about the example.

The source code was created with ASP.NET AJAX 1.0 Beta 2. For more information and FREE Microsoft ASP.NET Ajax installers visit -> The Official Microsoft ASP.NET AJAX Website

mike mcintyre http://www.getdotnetcode.com

Microsoft ASP.NET AJAX the Series Part 5 - Call Web Service With JavaScript

Mike McIntyre [MVP Visual Basic] — Tue, 05 Dec 2006 20:15:00 GMT

Source Code: Microsoft ASP.NET AJAX the Series Part 5 - Call Web Service With JavaScript

This is the fifth in a series of blog posts about Microsoft ASP.NET AJAX, a new web development technology from Microsoft.

Click these links to view previous posts in this series: Post 1, Post 2, Post 3, and Post 4

This post introduces the Microsoft Ajax asynchronous communication layer and demonstrates how to use it to call a web service, from a client, using JavaScript.

Asynchronous Communication Layer

The asynchronous communication layer is the foundation for very responsive client Web application presentation.

The layer enables more separation between the business and data tiers on the server and the presentation tier on the client. It makes it easier to do more processing client side. In this context, the browser has full control of the presentation tier and provides a rich and responsive user interface, while the server performs the business and data tier tasks.

The layer exposes functionality for browser asynchronous behavior provided by the XMLHTTP object as a set of APIs that JavaScript functions can use from any browser to call Web service methods on the server. The XMLHTTP object enables the browser to send asynchronous HTTP requests and return data that can be processed in client script.

What can you do through the asynchronous communication layer?

Asynchronous postbacks and partial-page rendering
Invoke methods in Web services implemented as .asmx files
Invoke specifically enabled ASP.NET page methods
Supports a variety of serialization formats for passing data between the browser and the server
Optimize Web service interactions by pre-loading and caching JavaScript proxies used to communicate with the Web services on a server

About the Source Code

The source code includes a Web service whose proxy class is used by the browser and an ASP.NET Web page containing client script that calls a page method and a web service. Here is a screen shot of the web page:

The source code included with this post (see download link above) demonstrates how to call a web service with JavaScript. Additional comments about the process are included in the example page and source code.

The source code was created with ASP.NET AJAX 1.0 Beta 2 which is available at -> The Official Microsoft ASP.NET AJAX Website

The next post in this series will explore the Microsoft Ajax Page Manager object.

For more information and FREE Microsoft ASP.NET Ajax installers visit -> The Official Microsoft ASP.NET AJAX Website

mike mcintyre http://www.getdotnetcode.com

Microsoft ASP.Net AJAX the Series Post 2 - What is Microsoft's ASP.NET AJAX?

Mike McIntyre [MVP Visual Basic] — Fri, 10 Nov 2006 09:01:00 GMT

VB Source Code: Hello World ASP.NET AJAX Beta 2 - Visual Basic 2005

C# Source Code: Hello World ASP.NET AJAX Beta 2 - C# 2.0

This is the second in a series of blog posts about Microsoft ASP.Net AJAX, a new web development technology from Microsoft.

The previous post in this series provided a definition of Ajax: A term used to refer to a group of technologies used, in various combinations, to create web applications that are more interactive and responsive, and which provide a richer client-side experience, than what is found in classic web applications.

What is Microsoft's ASP.NET AJAX?

Web applications built with Ajax technologies can be referred to as Ajax-style applications.

ASP.NET AJAX is a development framework for developing Ajax-style applications. Its main purpose is to simplify the development of Ajax-style applications. Until now, creating Ajax-style applications has been fairly complicated and time consuming. ASP.NET AJAX simplifies the development of Ajax-style applications through features such as:

ASP.NET server controls that emit client-side JavaScript to reduce or eliminate the JavaScript you must write when you create an Ajax-style application;

An asynchronous communication layer that abstracts away the complexity of adding asynchronous postbacks and partial page rendering to an Ajax-style application;

Beneficial integration between the client-side Microsoft AJAX JavaScript libraries and the ASP.NET 2.0 server-based development framework for example, by providing client-side integration with server-side ASP.NET 2.0 authentication and profiles services and ASP.NET 2.0 web services created by developers.

Browser independence: what you create with ASP.NET AJAX will work across all the major browsers without modification;

Client-side APIs and components to support rich UI features - such as drag-and-drop and auto-completion - to save you from having to write the extensive code normally required for such rich UI features in Ajax-style applications.

Add ASP.NET AJAX Functionality to a Web Page

To add AJAX functionality to an ASP.NET Web page: (1) add an ASP.NET AJAX ScriptManager server control to the page; (2) identify individual sections of your page that you want to update; and (3) wrap each of the identified sections with an ASP.NET AJAX UpdatePanel server control.

The ASP.NET 2.0 ScriptManager control coordinates and tracks ASP.NET AJAX activity for an ASP.NET web page. To enable ASP.NET AJAX activity on an ASP.NET page you must add a ScriptManager control to the page. Note: If you place a ScriptManager on a master page it coordinates and tracks ASP.NET AJAX activity for the children of that master page. You can not add a ScriptManager to a child of a master page that already contains a ScriptManager control.

The ASP.NET 2.0 UpdatePanel control enables sections of a page to be partially rendered without a postback. You identify sections of the page you wish to participate in partial rendering and 'wrap' each such section with an UpdatePanel control. Note: The ScriptManager control keeps track of all the update panels on the page. It coordinates the partial-page rendering behavior on the server and instructs the page what sections of the page to render as a result of the last asynchronous postback.

Hello ASP.NET AJAX

The source code included with this post (see download links above) is a very simple 'Hello World' program created with ASP.NET AJAX. It demonstrates how to implement partial page rendering with the ASP.NET 2.0 ScriptManager and UpdatePanel controls. Additional comments about these controls is included in the example page and source code.

The source code was created with ASP.NET AJAX 1.0 Beta 2 which is available at -> The Official Microsoft ASP.Net AJAX Website

The next post in this series will delve more deeply into partial page rendering.

For more information and FREE Microsoft ASP.NET Ajax installers visit -> The Official Microsoft ASP.Net AJAX Website

mike mcintyre http://www.getdotnetcode.com

Microsoft ASP.Net AJAX the Series - What is Ajax?

Mike McIntyre [MVP Visual Basic] — Tue, 07 Nov 2006 06:40:00 GMT

This is the first in a series of blog posts about ASP.Net AJAX, a new web development technology from Microsoft.

A series about ASP.Net AJAX must start by first answering the question: "What is Ajax?"

Ajax is a term used to refer to a group of technologies used, in various combinations, to create web applications that are more interactive and responsive, and which provide a richer client-side experience, than what is found in classic web applications.

Ajax Technologies

Extensible HyperText Markup Language (XHTML)
Document Object Model (DOM)
Cascading Style Sheets (CSS)
Client Side Scripting (most commonly with JavaScript)
XMLHttpRequest (XHR)
Data Transport Languages (most commonly used are XML and JSON)

For an explanation of an individual Ajax technology click the name of the technology above.

For Wikipedia's definition of Ajax click here -> Ajax (programming) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

To get a feel for the interactivity, performance, and richer client-side experience of Ajax web applications, visit the sites below.

Page Flakes
Mash Up (combines content from more than one source into an integrated experience)
Personalizable Web Desktop

Windows Live
Mash Up
Personalizable Web Desktop

Windows Local
Mash Up
Personalizable Geo Information

All forthcoming posts in this series will include downloadable ASP.Net AJAX examples in Visual Studio 2005 solutions for both Visual Basic 2005 and C#.

The next post in this series will answer the question: "What is Microsoft ASP.Net AJAX?" and will introduce the ASP.NET AJAX v1.0 Beta UpdatePanel server control.

For more information and FREE Microsoft ASP.NET Ajax installers visit -> The Official Microsoft ASP.Net AJAX Website

mike mcintyre http://www.getdotnetcode.com