ASP.NET AJAX Workshop

The workshop lasted for 3 hours and I could explain and show them what AJAX is and where it stands in the industry today.

I have shown some simple AJAX applications. Some of them are developed with simple HTML, JavaScript and server-side process using ASP.NET (though you can use any server-side technology like JSP or PHP). Then I showed how Microsoft's ASP.NET AJAX Framework makes life easy by providing some simple server controls like UpdatePanel.

I have used a project with many simple examples. For everyone, and specifically for the participants of this workshop, I am making the project in ASP.NET available blow. The project is to be opened with Visual Web Developer 2005 Express Edition or Visual Studio.NET 2005. The steps are listed below.

Steps to download and use ASP.NET project:

• Download ASPAJAX.zip project which contains all sample programs shown in the workshop.
• Unzip it into a directory. For example, D:\aspnet. This will create a directory called ASPAJAX in d:\aspnet directory.
• Open Visual Web Developer 2005 EE / Visual Studio.Net 2005 then select File->Open Web site option and select the directory to which you unzipped the project (for example, d:\aspnet\aspajax)
• This project uses ASP.NET AJAX 1.0 Beta 2. It also uses ASP.NET AJAX Control toolkit. So download these softwares from ajax.asp.net and install ASP.NET AJAX first and then control toolkit.
• First install ASP.NET AJAX Extensions.
• Then unzip what you have downloaded for AJAX Control Toolkit.
• Add a tab in the toolbox for controls in Ajax Control Toolkit using the following procedure.
• Go to ToolBox. Add a new tab using Popup Menu  (using right button) and then by selecting Add Tab option.
• Select the tab you added and then right click and select option Choose Items. Select .NET Framework components tab in the dialog box.
• Select Browse button and select AjaxControlToolkit.dll. Search for AjaxControlToolkit.dll in your harddisk. It will be found provided you installed ASP.NET AJAX Control Toolkit.
• Make default.aspx as startup file and run the project.
• This project makes use of SQL Server 2005 Express Edition .  The database related to samples is found in App_Data directory. In one or more pages, you have to change the directory used in the connection string.

However, remember I have used ASP.NET AJAX 1.0 beta2 and by the time final version is released a few things could change. Check ajax.asp.net website for latest developments.

This workshop raised a small fund, which will be donated for a good cause.

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