Special Edition Using Microsoft Expression Web 2

Chapter 34. ASP.NET AJAX Extensions

<feature><title>In This Chapter</title>

• What Is Ajax?

• Microsoft’s ASP.NET AJAX

• Adding AJAX Functionality to a Web Form

• Troubleshooting

• Lagniappe: Using the AJAX Library

</feature>

What Is Ajax?

The underlying architecture of Web applications has always posed a problem with usability. Whenever a user performs an action on a Web page that requires a post back to the Web server, data from all form fields is sent over the network, the page goes blank, and the browser sits in limbo waiting for the Web server to send the response. In a typical ASP.NET scenario where a post back reloads the same page after the server processes the data, the speed of the application can be sacrificed because the entire page must reload each ...