Wednesday, May 03, 2006 7:09 AM
Everyone's talking about AJAX (Asynchronous JavaScript and XML) these days. Sites like GMail,
SpotBack.com,
Start.com, and many others are investing heavily in creating the best user experience possible by providing near-instant updates with no page refresh. When I was in the Java world, I coded at least half for the web, the rest other server-side apps. Since switching to .NET a few years ago, I did one project about ASP.NET 2.0 Membership and Personalization early on, and I regularly do some work on a ASP.NET 1.1 site, but little else. Mostly I've been working with Windows Forms, ADO.NET, SQL Server, some work with ADAM (Active Directory Application Mode), Windows Communication Framework (WCF/Indigo) and some upcoming technologies like LINQ. I need to get a better handle on ASP.NET 2.0, especially with AJAX support.
Microsoft has been releasing previews of their upcoming AJAX product: Atlas. It sounds nice, and I watched a
great video by Scott Guthrie, so I was ready to give it a try! Start at
http://atlas.asp.net to browse the forums, view videos, and download the product including documentation. Installation was a snap. You get a new project template for an "AJAX Web Site." Unfortunately, it doesn't seem incredible intuitive at that point. Following the Guthrie video with some customizations, I was able to create a fairly simple view/edit/delete data site using the GridView control. It works fine, but I'm not sure how well I'll be able to translate the knowledge to other functionality. Definitely a good start though.
My initial impressions are that it covers a good range of functionality. I'm not sure if it handles server push (I haven't extensively studied the API/tags yet), but this would be pretty important for many applications. Even if it's only one-way though, it still offers lots of value. The ability to just select/drag/change data on a page and have elements update in a blink is a great experience for the user. If you haven't given it a try yet, I highly recommend that you check it out. No idea when the final version comes out. It really needs to be a first-class citizen in ASP.NET with support directly from Smart Tags in all of the controls. I'm sure it will get there.
If you can visualize a Windows Form application, then you know how a good AJAX site should flow. Give it some thought and see how your site might benefit. You should probably download the samples, view some videos, and check out the forums. It just amazes me how much innovation is left on the web and with computers in general. I've said it again: we are only on the tip of the iceberg. Software is at an incredible primitive stage right now, and in a generation or so people will look back with confusion that we ever considered ourselves productive with it!