Book Image

Microsoft AJAX Library Essentials: Client-side ASP.NET AJAX 1.0 Explained

Book Image

Microsoft AJAX Library Essentials: Client-side ASP.NET AJAX 1.0 Explained

Overview of this book

Microsoft AJAX Library Essentials is a practical reference for the client-side library of the ASP.NET AJAX Framework 1.0, and a tutorial for the underlying technologies and techniques required to use the library at its full potential. The main goal of this book is to get you comfortable with the Microsoft AJAX Library, a huge set of functions that can be used for developing powerful client-side functionality.Beginning with a hands-on tour of the basic technologies associated with AJAX, JavaScript, XMLHttpRequest, JSON, and the DOM, you'll move on to a crash course in the Microsoft AJAX tools. You will learn, through numerous step-by-step exercises, how to create basic AJAX applications, how the object-based programming model of JavaScript works, and how Microsoft AJAX Library extends this model. You'll understand the architecture of the Microsoft AJAX components, how they all fit together, and exactly what they can do for you. Then you will learn how to use the Microsoft AJAX Library in your web projects, and a detailed case study will walk you through creating your own customized client components. At every stage of your journey, you'll be able to try out examples to illuminate the theory, and consolidate your understanding. In addition to learning about the client and server controls, you'll also see how to handle errors and debug your AJAX applications.To complement your new found skills, the book ends with a visual reference of the Microsoft AJAX Library namespaces and classes, including diagrams and quick explanations for all the classes mentioned in the book, providing an invaluable reference you will turn to again and again.
Table of Contents (14 chapters)
Copyright
Credits
About the Authors
About the Reviewers
Preface

Introducing JSON


In AJAX applications, client-server communication is usually packed in XML documents, or in the JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) format. Interestingly enough, JSON’s popularity increased together with the AJAX phenomenon, although the AJAX acronym includes XML. JSON is the format used by the Microsoft AJAX Library and the ASP.NET AJAX Framework to exchange data between the AJAX client and the server, which is why it deserves a quick look here. As you’ll learn, the Microsoft AJAX Library handles JSON data packaging through Sys.Serialization.JavaScriptSerializer, which is described in the Appendix—but more on this later.

Perhaps the best short description of JSON is the one proposed by its official website, http://www.json.org : “JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) is a lightweight data-interchange format. It is easy for humans to read and write. It is easy for machines to parse and generate.”

If you’re new to JSON, a fair question you could ask would be: why another data exchange...