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Microsoft has announced the final 1.0 release of ASP.NET Ajax (a.k.a. Atlas). It consists of a core platform, and a bunch of controls:

ASP.NET AJAX 1.0 ASP.NET AJAX 1.0 delivers a rich client-side AJAX library that provides cross platform, cross browser support for a core JavaScript type-system, JSON-based network serialization stack, JavaScript component/control model, as well as common client JavaScript helper classes. ASP.NET AJAX also delivers a rich server-side library that integrates AJAX functionality within ASP.NET, and enables developers to easily AJAX-enable existing ASP.NET 2.0 sites with minimal effort. ASP.NET AJAX is available for free, and can be used with ASP.NET 2.0 and VS 2005. It is a fully supported Microsoft product, and is backed by a standard 10 year Microsoft support license (with Microsoft Product Support available via phone 24 hours a day x 7 days a week). ASP.NET AJAX Control Toolkit In addition to the fully-supported ASP.NET AJAX 1.0 release, you can use the more than 30 free ASP.NET AJAX enabled controls available within the ASP.NET AJAX Control Toolkit. The control toolkit is a shared-source collaborative project built together by a team containing both Microsoft and non-Microsoft developers (visit the CodePlex Project to learn more, or volunteer to contribute). All source for the controls is provided completely for free (with full re-use and modification rights). The majority of controls within the ASP.NET AJAX Control Toolkit leverage the "Control Extender" pattern that the core ASP.NET AJAX library introduces, and which delivers a super powerful way to easily enable specific AJAX scenarios on a site with minimal effort. Future Plans While the core ASP.NET AJAX 1.0 release is now officially shipped, we are definitely not slowing down. :-) All of the ASP.NET AJAX 1.0 features will be integrated directly into the next release of ASP.NET (codename: "Orcas"). Visual Studio "Orcas" will also provide client-side JavaScript intellisense, JavaScript compilation checking, and rich JavaScript debugging support for ASP.NET AJAX scenarios. We are also already at work on the next ASP.NET AJAX release, and will continue to add new features and improvements to the supported ASP.NET AJAX core. You can already start using many of these new features with the ASP.NET AJAX Futures CTP (available for download now on the ASP.NET AJAX site - it also supports a "go live" license).

Is the Microsoft camp of developers going to listen to the ivory tower and use this? Or will you be looking for alternatives?

Googlers Joe Walnes and Adam Connors gave a presentation on testable Ajax back in September (we didn't cover it at the time) ... "Does my button look big in this? Building testable AJAX applications." at the Google London Test Automation Conference. The theme is how to automate website testing with all the complexity Ajax adds. They talk mostly about testing strategies and technologies (like JUnit), but also mention the importance of architecting for testability.

Dynamic graphics inside the browser are starting to become a little bit more practical, thanks to increased support for Canvas and SVG. I recently discussed eight competing techniques for generating dynamic graphics in an Ajax application, each with their own implications for portability, usability, and performance. The following techniques are descibed:

1. SVG
2. Canvas
3. Dynamic images from the server
4. VML
5. Richer Plugin (e.g. Flash)
6. CSS/DOM
7. data: resource
8. XBM

Ever feel like, when you’re coing up that next great Ajax application, that you’re doing the same things over and over again? Like there has to be something better out there to help you make development of common functionality a lighter and easier task? MVC (Model/View/Controller) just might be what you’re looking for, and in this new posting on PHPied.com, they show you the basics of creating your own Ajax MVC framework.

This is sort of a framework thing to create AJAX applications, based on the MVC design pattern. Yep, I have a lot of buzzwords here, I admit, but this shouldn’t be taken too seriously. I was doing a bunch of small projects lately and I found myself using something like this little framework, without even thinking about it. Then I thought about it and I found that the scripts and the organization of them may resamble MVC a bit. So how does MVC fit when you mix things like thin and fatter client, HTML, JavaScript, XMLHttpRequest, PHP and CSS?

They answer the question by comparing the “usual flow” of an Ajax application to the structure that MVC provides. They use PHP for some of the backend work, but they use Javascript (including some Yahoo UI libraries) to handle the interaction with the user (in the View). They also use an Ajax connection to grab data from the backend server and a little extra Javascript to push that content out to the page. It’s a pretty simple example of what can be done, but it gives you a good idea of how Ajax/advanced Javascript can be integrated very easily with the Model/View/Controller style of development. To check out a demo of this mini-app, click here, and to just grab the source files click here.

Javascript is just like any other language - well, sorta. It has the power to make your web applications really earn their keep and perform for the user. It also can be confusing if things start getting pretty complex. Thankfully, there’s something that can help you compartmentalize your code and make it simpler to use more modularly - the object oriented functionality Javascript offers. Don’t know how to get started with it? Well, check out this new article over on Digital Web Magazine for a few tips.

As scripts get larger, functions become more interrelated. Suddenly, you’ve got ten functions on a page, six of them calling each other to accomplish one task, and another four working towards something else entirely. For someone taking a first look at this code, it certainly wouldn’t be immediately clear which were meant to work together and which weren’t. This is where objects come in.

The author, Jonathan Snook, gets down to the basics of objects in Javascript - what they are, how to create them, how to access them, and much more. If you’ve ever done any work with the popular libraries like Prototype or Script.aculo.us, some of this will look familiar. He even gets into design patterns in OOP for Javascript with setting up Singletons and Factory patterns.