ASP.NET AJAX is a free framework for quickly creating a new generation of more efficient, more interactive and highly-personalized Web experiences that work across all the most popular browsers.
How we used ASP.NET AJAX in BackgroundMotion
In BackgroundMotion we used ASP.NET AJAX on our Add and View contribution pages.
UpdatePanel
By using UpdatePanel controls, you can refresh selected parts of the page instead of refreshing the whole page with a postback. This is referred to as performing a partial-page update. A Web page that contains a ScriptManager control and one or more UpdatePanel controls can automatically participate in partial-page updates, without custom client script.
In
View.aspx we used the UpdatePanel control to allow our Rating controls to asynchronously post back to the server without causing a page refresh.
This is great for usability!
Its easy to use the UpdatePanel because you just need to wrap it around an existing set of ASP.NET controls as shown below:
<asp:UpdatePanel ID="DownloadExperienceRating" runat="server">
<ContentTemplate>
<div>Rate the download experience:
<ajaxToolkit:Rating ID="DownloadRating" runat="server"
MaxRating="5"
StarCssClass="ratingStar"
WaitingStarCssClass="savedRatingStar"
FilledStarCssClass="filledRatingStar"
EmptyStarCssClass="emptyRatingStar"
OnChanged="DownloadRating_Changed"
/>
</div><br />
</ContentTemplate>
</asp:UpdatePanel>
The UpdatePanel control contains a ContentTemplate which declares the region of markup which it will manage.
Tip: Remember to declare a ScriptManager on each page you are using an ASP.NET AJAX control on. This will automatically manage the JavaScript resources you need. In BackgroundMotion we declared this in our master pages.
ASP.NET AJAX Control Toolkit
The Control Toolkit provides a set of sample controls and extenders that makes it a snap to spice up your web site with rich functionality. We used the
Rating Control and the
Modal Popup Control in BackgroundMotion.
We used the Modal Popup control on the Add page to aid usability
Where can I find out more information?
ASP.NET AJAX already has a rich community of resources available for you to discover. Here are some great resources to start with;