Hasn't AJAX been available for sometime now?

[Eric]

I've been reading a lot about the new AJAX functionality included in ASP.NET
2.0. From what I've gathered it gives you the ability to make async server
calls using
javascript, avoiding the need for postbacks to update information in the
browser. I've been using, quite successfully, this type of functionality
included with the IEWebControls package for quite awhile now. How do the
two differ? Is there a lot more functionality included within AJAX?


Thanks

 

[Bruce Barker]

AJAX is a design pattern that has been available for years.

asp.net 2.0 includes a simple ajax implementation that allows client script
in IE (at least in the RC) to make an async call to an asp.net webform which
fires a callback event to return a single value back to the client.

MS is working on a set of AJAX enabled web controls that allow more
functionality (client binding to AJAX results), but this is for a later
release (post 2.0).

-- bruce (sqlwork.com)

 

[Jason Kester]

Yeah, it's been around for several years in one form or another. A
couple years ago somebody came up with a cool acronym, and it took off.

I think I first did asynchronous client/server communication from a
browser back in 1998. This was before the XmlHttpRequest object, so
you had to either use hidden IFrames or a Script element.

Apart from that, not much has changed. Except that everybody is using
XML for data storage.

Jason Kester
Expat Software Consulting Services
http://www.expatsoftware.com/