Professional ASP.NET 3.5 AJAX

1.2. Bringing Richness to Web Applications

Years ago, having a Web presence was a distinguishing factor for companies. That is no longer the case. Now just having a Web presence is no longer enough. Companies are distinguishing themselves further through Web applications that react intuitively to customer actions and anticipate user input. This book shows you how ASP.NET AJAX addresses specific Web development challenges and paves the way for taking your Web site to another level of user experience.

The fundamental set of technologies used in the AJAX model that enable the next generation of Web applications is not entirely new. You will find that many people point to Google, Flickr, and several other services as prime examples of leveraging AJAX and its underlying technologies in unique ways. The applications have some unique features, but in reality, the underlying technologies have been around and in use for nearly a decade. Look at how Microsoft Exchange Server provided rich access to e-mail from a Web browser in the Outlook Web Access application, and the concept of ubiquitous access from a browser while leveraging a common set of browser features for a rich user experience has been around for years. In this case, users get a remarkably full-featured application with no local installation and are able to access e-mail from virtually any machine.

While the AJAX acronym is nice, it doesn't do much to explain what is actually happening. Instead of building a Web application ...