Programming Atlas

Chapter 15. Using Atlas with Other Server Technologies

As discussed in Chapter 1, Atlas includes both client-side and server-side components. The Atlas server components rely heavily on ASP.NET 2.0 controls, but the client components are delivered as JavaScript libraries. Even though the client libraries are embedded into pages by the <script> tag that references WebResource.axd, the libraries are also available as stand-alone .js files. From the Windows Start menu, Start → (All) Programs → Microsoft ASP.NET Atlas → Atlas → Atlas Assembly and Script Library, you can open up a folder that contains the ScriptLibrary directory. Here, both the Debug and Release versions of the Atlas libraries can be found.

By using these libraries, you can take advantage of some Atlas features provided by other (non-ASP.NET) server technologies. You are not limited to the client scripting features of Atlas, but can use its more advanced, server features. However, to implement Atlas on servers other than ASP.NET 2.0 and IIS, some of the Atlas functionality and some Atlas server controls have to be emulated with non-ASP.NET technology.

This chapter demonstrates how to use the Atlas AutoComplete extender with PHP. It is based largely on code written by Shanku Niyogi and is published in his blog (see the "For Further Reading" section at the end of this chapter). The following sections present a highly simplified version of the code, just to demonstrate what is possible and how much work must be put into it. ...