This book is aimed at experienced ASP.NET developers looking to add AJAX to their applications, and experienced Web developers who want to move to using ASP.NET and AJAX together. The focus here is on how you can extend ASP.NET applications to update portions of the page asynchronously and to add richer UI elements to a page. ASP.NET AJAX makes it easy to enrich your existing application or to design a new application to provide a better experience for users. The differences among modern browsers have been abstracted, allowing you to write to a common set of APIs and trust that the user will get the correct behavior whether they are using Internet Explorer, Firefox, or Safari.

This book covers ASP.NET 3.5 AJAX but not ASP.NET 3.5, on which ASP.NET AJAX is built. The examples lead you from the core of what is included in the ASP.NET AJAX Library through the core controls you would first start using. You build on that using the core JavaScript library and the ASP.NET AJAX Toolkit.

Detailed coverage includes:

• how ASP.NET AJAX compares to other AJAX libraries and how you can use the client library with any server platform you choose
• the UpdatePanel control that allows you to automatically update portions of a page asynchronously without a visible pause while the page refreshes
• working with JavaScript and how the ASP.NET AJAX Library makes development with JavaScript easier
• control of script resources and working with the ScriptManager control
• the ASP.NET 3.5 ability to work with the back button
• the ASP.NET AJAX Toolkit and all it has to offer for creating rich user interfaces
• how to use ASP.NET’s services and core features such as the Membership and Role management systems,  Web Parts, localization, and state management with ASP.NET AJAX
• networking objects, animations, custom AJAX controls
• testing, debuging, and deploying ASP.NET Ajax applications