Save data to server without postback?

[Mike Szanto]

I have an intranet application where some pages display large tables of
editable data. I've designed the page to operate like Microsoft Access
where the user can move from cell to cell and as they change rows it
checks to see if edits have been made and automatically saves the
changes to that row in our SQL database.

Here's my challenge: Everytime the information is posted back to the
server, the page is reloaded at the client(normal asp behavior). This
causes an uncomfortable delay if the table has hundreds of rows because
it could take a few seconds or more to refresh the page if there are
hundreds of rows.

I'm looking for a better approach but I'm not sure where to look.
Ideally, I should be able to post back only the changes made to that
single row and not have to refresh the page at the client because
nothing has changed. I was wondering if some other technology such as
SOAP or XML or web service might be able to accomadate this and if
someone could point me to a good resource (book, website, etc.) that
would give me a jump start.


TIA, Mike

 

[Carl Prothman [MVP]]

Mike,
If you are using IE 5.0 (or greater), then you can use IE's WebService Behavior
The WebService Behavior enables client-side script to invoke remote methods
exposed by Web Services, without having to do a postback.

For more information, please see the following MS help file
http://msdn.microsoft.com/workshop/author/webservice/webservice_node_entry.asp

--

Thanks,
Carl Prothman
Microsoft ASP.NET MVP
http://www.able-consulting.com

 

[Mike Szanto]

Carl,

That's exactly what I'm looking for.

I had an inkling that webservices would do it but didn't know what to
look for. "Web Services Behavior" looks like it will be the answer.

This looks to be so much more efficient than than the traditional
post/get methodology, I'm surprized there's not much discussion on it in
these newsgroups.

Are you using this and if so, what is you opinion on this methodology
vs. Post/Get.

Thanks again,


Mike

 

[Carl Prothman [MVP]]

That's exactly what I'm looking for.

Cool! ;-)

I had an inkling that webservices would do it but didn't know what to
look for. "Web Services Behavior" looks like it will be the answer.

This looks to be so much more efficient than than the traditional
post/get methodology, I'm surprized there's not much discussion on it in
these newsgroups.

It may be due to that fact that this solution only works with IE 5.x and greater...

Are you using this and if so, what is you opinion on this methodology
vs. Post/Get.

I prefer the IE Web Service behavior since the screen doesn't flicker
when getting data, unlike a post back. Athough it's a bit more work
since you are working with client-side code, which IMHO, Visual
Studio .NET's ASP.NET designer is really not geared up for...

--

Thanks,
Carl Prothman
Microsoft ASP.NET MVP
http://www.able-consulting.com

 

[bruce barker]

actually netscape 7 has web service support builtin (no need for a bunch of
javascript) and flash also supports web services.

-- bruce (sqlwork.com)