Professional ASP.NET MVC 3

Chapter 8

AJAX

— By K. Scott Allen

What's In This Chapter?

• Everything you want to know about jQuery
• Using AJAX Helpers
• Understanding Client Validation
• Using jQuery Plugins

It's rare to build a new web application today and not include AJAX features. Technically, AJAX stands for asynchronous JavaScript and XML. In practice, AJAX stands for all the techniques you use to build responsive web applications with a great user experience. Being responsive does require some asynchronous communication now and then, but the appearance of responsiveness can also come from subtle animations and color changes. If you can visually encourage your users to make the right choices inside your application, they'll love you and come back for more.

ASP.NET MVC 3 is a modern web framework, and like every modern web framework there is support for AJAX right from the start. The core of the AJAX support comes from the open source jQuery JavaScript library. All the major AJAX features in ASP.NET MVC 3 build on or extend features in jQuery.

To understand what is possible with AJAX in ASP.NET MVC 3, you have to start with jQuery.