MSDN Magazine - February 2008 - (Page 37) SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION revolution was the invention and adoption of AJAX itself. Phase 2 is the advent of AJAX frameworks that abstract AJAX and simplify the development of AJAX-enabled Web pages. Microsoft ASP.NET AJAX is a great choice for developing in JavaScript and building AJAX Web sites. eliminates some of the most glaring deficiencies of Web apps; and faster, because ASP.NET AJAX provides JavaScript that you would otherwise have to write yourself. You write less code, test less code, and maintain less code. This results in a direct savings to you. This also means that your Web site will have fewer errors, a shortened development cycle, and an enhanced user experience. Customers will appreciate the richer user interfaces you deliver. They will also enjoy the increased productivity they get from those interfaces. ASP.NET AJAX ASP.NET AJAX is a significant milestone on the road to modernizing the Web. It is a free framework that simplifies the development of AJAX-enabled Web pages and Web sites. The framework includes both server and client-side libraries. The client-side library is pure JavaScript which is compatible with many server-side libraries, including PHP, ColdFusion, and other non-Microsoft Web application frameworks. Because ASP.NET AJAX is 100% browserindependent, pages built with it work not only in Microsoft Internet Explorer, but also in Mozilla Firefox, Apple’s Safari, and other modern browsers. ASP.NET AJAX abstracts the mechanics of AJAX so developers can build AJAX-enabled sites without having to become JavaScript experts. For example, ASP.NET AJAX includes an UpdatePanel control that makes partialpage loading as easy as dropping a control onto a page. One UpdatePanel control can replace hours of tedious JavaScript coding with browser Document Object Models (DOMs) and XmlHttpRequest objects. Other ASP.NET AJAX framework simplifications make it easy to add animations, popup panels, drag-and-drop support, and input validation to your site. Issues Facing Managers and Project Sponsors Revenue drives corporate software development programs and the decisions you make. If the software you are developing will not have an effect on the bottom line, even indirectly, there is no reason to write the software. Development costs are hard to quantify. To try to calculate the cost of development, many IT managers like to factor in the overall team size, skill requirements, management overhead, maintenance costs, and overall team experience—which is one of the most difficult things to measure. As part of this equation, if you decide that you want to support different browsers, you need a larger or more experienced development team. You will need a diverse set of skills with developers who have deep experience with ASP.NET, CSS, JavaScript, and with cross-browser HTML development. You must also increase communication and project management to make sure the development effort runs smoothly. Most important of all is the user experience. Studies suggest users make a decision regarding your Web application within seconds after viewing your initial page. Nobody wants to put significant funds into developing a Web application only to have users dislike it. We want Web applications that are aesthetically pleasing and work as users expect. Yet, at the same time, we want our Web applications to push the boundaries of user interface and user interaction. Deciding on an AJAX framework can literally mean the difference between success and failure in a project. Why reinvent the wheel? Have your team focus on the task at hand: Building the application. There is no reason to waste time wrangling with mundane, error-prone tasks such as writing low-level JavaScript communication libraries when an off-the-shelf solution exists. This is especially true when deadlines are tight, and when aren’t they? ASP.NET AJAX better applications faster. allows you to build The ASP.NET AJAX Advantage Users get a great benefit from ASP.NET AJAX: a faster, more dynamic, and more productive browsing experience. You benefit from using ASP.NET AJAX in several ways: • Faster time-to-market • Reduced software maintenance costs • More efficient use of bandwidth between browsers and Web servers • Less time spent tuning JavaScript targeting a variety of browsers • Little or no knowledge of AJAX internals • A familiar coding model for ASP.NET developers More than anything else, ASP.NET AJAX helps you deliver better sites faster. Better, because AJAX
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