Programming Microsoft® ASP.NET 4

Introduction

In the fall of 2004, at a popular software conference I realized how all major component vendors were advertising their ASP.NET products using a new word—Ajax. Only a few weeks later, a brand new module in my popular ASP.NET master class made its debut—using Ajax to improve the user experience. At its core, Ajax is a little thing and fairly old too—as I presented the engine of it (XmlHttpRequest) to a C++ audience at TechEd 2000, only four weeks before the public announcement of the .NET platform.

As emphatic as it may sound, that crazy little thing called Ajax changed the way we approach Web development. Ajax triggered a chain reaction in the world of the Web. Ajax truly represents paradigm shift for Web applications. And, as the ...