Gaia Ajax 3.6 Alpha Released: GridView and Adaptiv Rendering
Reaching the first release of Gaia Ajax 3.6 is a great step for us. For those who have waited for it; we hope you will be rewarded with a great, new web development experience. We think 3.6 is not only an important step for us, but also for the future of web development itself. It is our vision to bring you the finest quality platform for developing ajax applications on ASP.NET. The 3.6 version comes with practical innovation previously unavailable to ASP.NET developers. It’s going to brings back memories from the first time Microsoft unveiled ASP.NET and the "goosebumps" it brought.
Adaptive Rendering Adaptive Rendering is a mind-blowing concept that enables dynamic insertion, removal, moving and replacement of individual controls. Adaptive rendering will replace partial rendering. This concept represents a major breakthrough in making Gaia Ajax an even better choice for your web application development.
[Learn more - Sample I]
Gaia Ajax GridView The Gaia Ajax GridView is a premier example of adaptive rendering as it enables the worlds most advanced GridView for ASP.NET. Some beat us on design, but nobody beats us on Ajax+GridView architecture.
[Learn more - Sample]
Please visit http://gaiaware.net/ for more information and also to download the latest bit of the product.
Categories: Press Releases Tags: ajax, ASP.NET, components, controls, gaia, gridview
Review: ASP.NET 3.5 AJAX Unleashed
Nowadays, many web developers have implemented AJAX in their web applications. This enables them to create dynamic, rich web sites. There are numerous resources available on the web for learning ASP.NET 3.5 AJAX, but it is always nice to refer to a book as and when required. In his latest book, ASP.NET 3.5 AJAX Unleashed, Robert Foster examines the relevant concepts in less than 300 pages, which I think is excellent and is rarely achieved by authors. It is hard to write short and crispy content, especially on ASP.NET related concepts, but Robert has worked really well to bring out a quality book for budding developers very effectively. The book is mainly divided into three parts including two appendixes.
Inside the Book
The chapters in part 1 provide a brief overview about AJAX and introduce the controls shipped with Visual Studio. This section also provides a sneak preview of the AJAX Control Toolkit. The author has provided complete source code along with relevant screenshots. Part 2 consists of the core chapters which help you learn ASP.NET AJAX 3.5 starting from the basics. While chapter 3 examines the ScriptManager and ScriptManagerProxy controls, Chapter 4 provides nice coverage of various namespaces such as Sys, Sys.Net, Sys.Serialization, Sys.UI, etc.
Chapters 5 and 6 help you to learn about the UpdatePanel, Timer controls, and also some of the advanced techniques associated with the ASP.NET AJAX PageRequestManager object. Chapter 7 provides detailed coverage of various controls included with the AJAX Control Toolkit with the help of a practical example. The author also examines the role of Expression Web in the development of AJAX applications. I think this chapter will be very useful for beginners. The book then delves deeply into the steps involved in the development of an Extender Control with the help of both server and client side controls.
A key feature of the book is that the author has provided detailed analysis in a lucid style along with each bit of source code. Chapter 9 examines the role of SharePoint 2007 in the development of AJAX based applications. It also includes a practical example which illustrates the development of SharePoint WebParts powered by AJAX.
You should be familiar with Gadgets if you work with the Windows Vista operating system, and the final chapter examines the creation of vista sidebar gadgets with the help of AJAX. It includes a detailed explanation of each step starting with the creation of web service and ending with testing the gadget. I would prefer to see the screenshots in color in the next edition of the book.
The book also includes two appendixes which provide a brief overview of expression web and also examine the steps required to deploy .NET 3.5 as a SharePoint feature. I expected a little bit more advanced content especially in the areas of LINQ. It would be helpful if the author had devoted a chapter to discuss the implementation of an AJAX based billing solution as a mini project.
Conclusion
The book will be useful for beginners and intermediates and I would recommend it for those developers who would like to learn ASP.NET 3.5 AJAX quickly. This book can also be used by those developers who are averse to reading bulky books. The author has done a terrific job of restricting the content in less than 300 pages and I must say that the book is an ideal supplement for online resources.
Description
As the Internet user experience (UX) progresses, more users are demanding and expecting their custom-built business applications to provide the same UX that they see on the Internet every day. ASP.NET 3.5 AJAX Unleashed empowers ASP.NET developers to easily provide this type of experience with minimal code. Author Rob Foster has built AJAX-enabled web applications for a number of major corporations and uses the experience he has gained there to explain concisely, clearly, and completely what ASP.NET developers need to learn to start taking advantage of the rich opportunities made possible by ASP.NET AJAX.
•Learn ASP.NET AJAX by working with real-world examples
•Use the ScriptManager and ScriptManagerProxy controls in your ASP.NET AJAX-enabled applications
•Leverage the ASP.NET AJAX client-side API to maximize the flexibility of ASP.NET AJAX
•Build applications that use the UpdatePanel and Timer controls
•Use the ASP.NET AJAX Control Toolkit to provide rich AJAX functionality to your web applications
•Build ASP.NET AJAX-enabled extender controls
•Integrate ASP.NET AJAX and .NET 3.5 with Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007
•Create ASP.NET AJAX-enabled Windows Vista Gadgets
•Learn advanced AJAX concepts such as JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) and WCF Web services
Introduction 1
Part I Introduction
Chapter 1 Introduction to AJAX Technologies 5
AJAX and Web 2.0 6
Why Use AJAX? 7
AJAX Rationale 7
AJAX: An Example 8
The XMLHttpRequest Object 8
A Simple AJAX Library 10
Using the AJAX Library 14
Summary 20
Chapter 2 Introduction to ASP.NET AJAX 21
Introducing the Visual Studio Controls 22
ScriptManager 22
ScriptManagerProxy 23
Timer 23
UpdatePanel 23
UpdateProgress 23
Introducing the Visual Studio Projects and Web Site Items 24
Projects 24
Web Site Items 25
Introducing the AJAX Control Toolkit 26
Summary 27
Part II Working with ASP.NET 3.5 AJAX
Chapter 3 The ScriptManager and ScriptManagerProxy Controls 31
About the ScriptManager Control. 31
ScriptManager Properties, Methods, and Events 34
JavaScript Proxy Classes for Web Services 37
Partial-Page Rendering 43
Summary 47
Chapter 4 The ASP.NET AJAX Client API 49
The Namespaces 49
Global 49
Sys 52
Sys.Net 53
Sys.Serialization 54
Sys.Services 62
Sys.UI 66
Sys.WebForms 68
Summary 71
Chapter 5 The UpdatePanel and Timer Controls 73
About the UpdatePanel Control 73
Using the UpdatePanel Control 74
Advanced Features of the UpdatePanel Control 78
Triggers 78
Multiple UpdatePanel Controls on a Single Page 81
The Timer Control 89
Using the Timer Control with Partial-Page Rendering 90
Summary 92
Chapter 6 Advanced Techniques with the ASP.NET AJAX PageRequestManager Object 93
Using the PageRequestManager Object 93
A Practical Example of the PageRequestManager Object 95
Summary 100
Chapter 7 Using the ASP.NET AJAX Control Toolkit 101
ASP.NET AJAX Control Toolkit: The Controls 102
Using Controls in the ASP.NET AJAX Control Toolkit 105
Configuring Visual Studio to Use the Toolkit 105
The Accordion and AccordionPane Controls 106
The CalendarExtender Control 110
The CollapsiblePanelExtender Control 112
The ConfirmButtonExtender Control 118
The DragPanelExtender Control 120
The DropDownExtender Control 122
The FilteredTextBoxExtender Control 125
The HoverMenuExtender Control 127
The TextBoxWatermarkExtender Control 130
ASP.NET AJAX Control Toolkit: A Practical Example 134
Using the ASP.NET AJAX Control Toolkit with Microsoft Expression Web 145
Configuring Expression Web for the ASP.NET AJAX
Control Toolkit 145
Summary 150
Chapter 8 Building an ASP.NET AJAX Extender Control 151
Add ASP.NET Controls 151
How to Build an Extender Control 154
Server-Side Code 156
Client-Side Code 159
Summary 163
Chapter 9 ASP.NET AJAX and SharePoint 2007 165
SharePoint and AJAX 165
Modifying Web.Config 166
Developing an AJAX-Based SharePoint Web Part 171
Summary 177
Chapter 10 Creating ASP.NET AJAX-Enabled Vista Sidebar Gadgets 179
Vista Sidebar Gadgets 179
Creating the Gadget 181
Create the Web Service 181
Generate the JavaScript Proxy 183
Create the Vista Gadget 186
Test the Gadget 187
Summary 188
Part III Appendices
Appendix A Microsoft Expression Web 191
An Introduction to the Expression Web Interface 191
Creating Web Pages and Web Sites 191
Customizable Interface 194
Creating Standards-Based Web Sites 198
Quickly Build Standards-Based Sites 198
Code Formatting and IntelliSense 202
Autoformatting Code 202
IntelliSense 204
XML and XSLT Tools in Expression Web 204
Drag and Drop XML 205
Creating and Updating XSL 207
Summary 209
Appendix B Deploying the .NET Framework 3.5 as a SharePoint Feature 211
Features and Solutions 211
Creating the Solution 213
Using Visual Studio 214
Creating the Feature Receiver 218
Deploying the Solution to SharePoint 228
Compiling the Solution 228
Running STSADM.EXE to Register the Solution 234
Deploying the Solution Using SharePoint
Central Management 235
Activating the Feature 237
Summary 239
Index 241
Review – Website Optimization: Speed, Search Engine and Conversion Rate Secrets
I currently maintain several websites but I never learned SEO. I did not find any need to completely learn the concepts as I mastered some of the techniques through experience. But recently I found that page rank of some of my websites has been dropped. I then made some attempts to master SEO with the help of online articles. To my surprise Andrew King, the author of website optimization from O’Reilly contacted me with a request to review his book, which I gladly accepted.
The book is divided into two parts. Part 1 examines the benefits of SEO, its techniques, Pay per click and Conversion Rate optimization. The author has provided two case studies which analyzes the implementation of the above discussed concepts in different scenarios.
You will learn optimization techniques involved with web pages, CS and Ajax based sites in Part 2 including speeding up the loading of websites, JavaScript optimization, Minimizing HTTPRequests and much more. The author also examines server side optimization and client side performance techniques. The final chapter delves deep into website optimization metrics, various web analytics software, performance metrics and Search Engine marketing.
The author has presented the content in a lucid style with the help of relevant diagrams and screenshots. I myself learned few tips with the help of Andy’s book. I would prefer to view the coverage of optimizing those websites which are powered with WordPress, Drupal, Joomla, DotNetNuke, Community Server and other similar web applications in the next edition of the book.
A key advantage of the book is that you can not only learn SEO but also other optimization techniques to place your sites very well in search engines. I feel that author has outlined his personal experiences in various chapters of the book and I have no hesitation to give this book a five star (*****) rating. If you would like to learn the tricks to optimize a website then Andy’s book is waiting for you in the book store.
Author - Andrew King | Publisher - O’Reilly | ISBN - 978-0596515089 | Pages - 394 | Price - $39.99
Categories: Book, Channels, Latest, Reviews, SEO Tags: ajax, Andrew King, book store, conversion rate, lucid style, o reilly, optimization techniques, page rank, performance metrics, performance techniques, personal experiences, rate optimization, scenarios, search engines, SEO, server side, software performance, web analytics software, web applications
