Programming Atlas

Features

• Cover Type: Paperback with 404 pages
• Published by: O'Reilly Media, Inc. September 22, 2006
• Written in: English
• ISBN 10 Number: 0596526725
• ISBN 13 Number: 978-0596526726
• Book Dimensions: 8.8 x 6 x 0.9 inches
• Weighs: 1.2 pounds

Product Description


Learn how to deliver richer, more interactive web experiences to your users using ASP.NET Atlas, Microsoft's new framework for building Ajax-savvy web sites. Web developers of all persuasions have embraced the Ajax suite of technologies (JavaScript, HTTP, XML and more) as a way to implement pages that are faster, livelier and more desktop-like in their behavior. Now Atlas brings the power of Ajax to ASP.NET 2.0 developers with controls, script libraries and server support that delivers engaging results without the pain that writing complex JavaScript can entail. Better yet, Atlas web pages are standards based and even run cross-browser.



Programming Atlas is not just another "drag and drop" ASP.NET 2.0 book, but dives into the technologies that make it work. You'll begin with a tour of the technologies most often associated with Ajax, from JavaScript and XMLHttpRequest to JSON and the DOM. With the basics in place, author JavaScript expert Christian Wenz unpacks the Atlas framework and shows you how to put its tools to work. You'll learn to:

• Understand the architecture of Atlas and the role played by server conrols, such as ScriptManager and UpdatePanel
• Use core Atlas controls and extenders to build more interactive pages with text fields that autocomplete, user input that is validated, controls that can be dragged and dropped, and much more
• Bind, display, and update data without causing the entire page to refresh and use the Atlas web services bridge to consume third-party services beyond the domain of your application
• Incorporate Microsoft Virtual Earth into an application, use Atlas with Web Parts, and create a Windows Live Gadget
• Use Atlas with PHP and explore other non-Microsoft Ajax tools for ASP.NET

About The Author
Christian Wenz takes pride in the fact that he has written about using JavaScript to access remote data long before it was named "AJAX" and the whole buzz started. His (German) JavaScript book containing AJAX-related information goes into its 7th edition soon. He is also the author of PHP Phrasebook (Sams Publishing, September 2005) and Professional PHP5 (Wrox) due in 2006, and wrote or co-wrote over four dozen other titles. Christian works with both open source and closed source web technologies. This leads to the unusual situation that he has both been awarded a Microsoft MVP for ASP/ASP.NET and is listed in Zend's Who is Who of PHP. He is also listed in Mozilla's credits (about:credits) and is considered an expert in browser-agnostic JavaScript. Apart from writing and working on web projects, Christian frequently speaks at developer conferences that cover web technologies.

Reader Reviews
Even though Atlas has not yet been officially released, this book is already a late comer to the market. It's been beaten to market by a variety of AJAX texts that included some coverage of Atlas and at least one dedicated Atlas book from Apress. With all the press around Ajax and the huge Microsoft ASP.NET programmers market, putting out a book in the Atlas category is an opportunity that won't be ignored by the major publishing houses. After trying out Atlas for a while during its Community Technology Preview (CTP) release and seeing the fairly extensive documentation and examples released by both Microsoft and the community, I tend to think that it's an opportunity that they might best have chosen to ignore just the same. Working through Christopher's book, things appeared to be clustered into several sections. Although this is not officially the way the book is broken down, it makes the most sense from a reviewing standpoint: * Introductory Chapters - Introduction to Atlas, AJAX, JavaScript, and client-side controls. This material takes up the first eight chapters (i.e. half) of the book and the information contained within can largely be garnered elsewhere including articles, books, and the Atlas documentation. If you're not entirely new to AJAX, this section of materials is skimmable or skippable entirely. * Server-Side Chapters - These chapters cover using server data, custom data sources, Web services, and cross-domain calls using a server proxy. This is by far the best original material in the book and is well worth a read. * Atlas Implementation Chapters - This section covers the broadest array of topics. Some of it, such as extending controls and using Atlas with Web parts, is very interesting material. Other sections, such as Map mashups (using MapPoint, blah!), and the Atlas control toolkit (great tools, no value added above and beyond MS materials). * "Other" Chapters - Certainly not what I bought the book for. Using Atlas with PHP, other AJAX tool coverage, although interesting, was put at the tail end of the book for a reason. This material could just have well been made into appendixes or omitted entirely. All in all, Christopher's writing style is good and he gives adequate coverage to the breadth of Atlas topics. This book might make for a good desk reference but is a tedious end-to-end read. Stick to the documentation or go for more pragmatic materials such as O'Reilly's other offering in this area, Getting Started with Atlas, from their shortcuts series. Comment | | (Report this)