Appendix A. Ajax Control Toolkit

The Ajax Control Toolkit is a free set of more than 40 Ajax-enabled controls that can be used with both the ASP.NET Web Forms framework and the ASP.NET MVC framework. The Ajax Control Toolkit is an open-source project that was originally developed by Microsoft employees, but is now part of the CodePlex Foundation (www.codeplex.org). It is part of the ASP.NET Ajax Library.

Note

The mission of the CodePlex Foundation is to enable the exchange of code and understanding among software companies and open source communities. It was founded by Microsoft in 2009.

Because the Ajax Control Toolkit is a separate download, it needs to be installed on your computer before you to use it. You can download it from the following URL:

http://www.asp.net/ajaxlibrary/

There is an excellent Readme.doc file that is included as part of the download that will guide you through the installation process. Figure A-1 shows just some of the controls that are included as part of the Ajax Control Toolkit.

As you can see from Figure A-1, the Ajax Control Toolkit includes two types of controls: extenders and controls. Extenders add properties or methods to existing controls, whereas controls provide entirely new functionality. Most of the controls in the Ajax Control Toolkit are extenders. Although not a common practice, one control can have more than one extender applied to it.

CALENDAR EXTENDER

One of my favorite extenders is the Calendar extender. The Calendar extender displays a client-side ...

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