Pro Ajax and the .NET 2.0 Platform

486 Pages·2006·11.43 MB·English

by  Daniel Woolston

CYAN YELLOW
MAGENTA BLACK
PANTONE 123 CV
BOOKS FOR PROFESSIONALS BY PROFESSIONALS® THE EXPERT’S VOICE® IN WEB DEVELOPMENT
Companion
eBook Available
Pro Ajax and the .NET 2.0 Platform
Pro
Dear Reader,
Thanks to the folks at Google, Ajax technology has become a force to be reckoned
A
with. It is a technology that is here and now, just waiting for developers to
implement it. Google Maps, Google Suggest, and Flickr are just a few of the sites j
out there that have moved Ajax into the mainstream. More will come as the a
technology becomes easier to implement. This book will examine not only Ajax
x
technology, but also XmlHttpRequest processes, putting theory into code with Pro Ajax
samples that duplicate many of the technologies utilized by the aforementioned
cutting-edge websites. a and the
Fortunately for C# developers, we have Ajax options right now in the form of n
some newly released class libraries that open the Ajax door to the .NET d
Framework. The majority of the code in this book centers on a third-party
library called Anthem, written by Jason Diamond. One of the benefits of using t
h
this library is that you’ll also have backwards compatibility to Visual Studio .NET 2.0
e
2003, as a majority of the code in this book will work with .NET 1.1 or 2.0.
Having that range of opportunity makes Ajax development accessible to all. Platform
.
You’ll also get an introductory look at Microsoft’s Atlas and how it holds up N
against Ajax. You’ll have a chance to build an Atlas application as well and
decide for yourself whether Atlas is the right fit for your development work. E
I’m confident that this book will help you get a firm grasp on the dynamic
tools that are available now. You’ll be ready for next-generation web develop- T
ment in a surprisingly short amount of time.

2
Dan Woolston
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this print for content only—size & color not accurate spine = 0.924" 488 page count
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Pro Ajax and the
.NET 2.0 Platform
Daniel Woolston
6706fmfinal.qxd 6/20/06 3:40 PM Page ii
Pro Ajax and the .NET 2.0 Platform
Copyright © 2006 by Daniel Woolston
All rights reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means,
electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage or retrieval
system, without the prior written permission of the copyright owner and the publisher.
ISBN-13 (pbk): 978-1-59059-670-8
ISBN-10 (pbk): 1-59059-670-6
Printed and bound in the United States of America 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
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owner, with no intention of infringement of the trademark.
Lead Editor: Matthew Moodie
Technical Reviewer: Nick McCollum
Editorial Board: Steve Anglin, Ewan Buckingham, Gary Cornell, Jason Gilmore, Jonathan Gennick,
Jonathan Hassell, James Huddleston, Chris Mills, Matthew Moodie, Dominic Shakeshaft, Jim Sumser,
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The source code for this book is available to readers at http://www.apress.comin the Source Code section.
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For Terry and Cathy Woolston.
This book is a testament to the perseverance and faith
that you have had throughout the years.
Thank you.
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Contents at a Glance
About the Author .................................................................xv
About the Technical Reviewer ......................................................xvi
Acknowledgments ...............................................................xvii
Introduction .....................................................................xix
PART 1 n n n Ajax Concepts
nCHAPTER 1 History and Revival of Ajax......................................3
nCHAPTER 2 Introducing JavaScript.........................................15
nCHAPTER 3 The XmlHttpRequest Object....................................41
nCHAPTER 4 N-Tier and Ajax................................................65
PART 2 n n n Ajax Components
nCHAPTER 5 RichInternet Applications......................................91
nCHAPTER 6 CSS and the DOM.............................................101
nCHAPTER 7 Ajax Frameworks.............................................135
PART 3 n n n Concept to Code
nCHAPTER 8 Understanding the Library ....................................149
nCHAPTER 9 Ajax and Web Services........................................181
nCHAPTER 10 Tagging with Ajax ............................................207
nCHAPTER 11 Cloning Google Suggest.......................................227
nCHAPTER 12 User Controls and Ajax.NET ...................................257
nCHAPTER 13 Ajax and Mapping ............................................271
nCHAPTER 14 Ajax and Web Parts...........................................299
iv
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PART 4 n n n Security and Performance
nCHAPTER 15 Ajax and ASP.NET Security....................................329
nCHAPTER 16 Performance .................................................351
nCHAPTER 17 Debugging Your Application...................................373
nCHAPTER 18 Ajax and Site Testing .........................................391
nCHAPTER 19 Ajax Usability.................................................409
PART 5 n n n Moving Forward
nCHAPTER 20 Atlas .........................................................425
nINDEX .......................................................................453
v
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Contents
About the Author .................................................................xv
About the Technical Reviewer ......................................................xvi
Acknowledgments ...............................................................xvii
Introduction .....................................................................xix
PART 1 n n n Ajax Concepts
nCHAPTER 1 History and Revival of Ajax..................................3
The Age of Discovery .............................................3
1970.......................................................3
1975.......................................................4
1979.......................................................4
1991.......................................................5
The Age of Implementation........................................5
1993.......................................................5
1994.......................................................5
The Age of War ..................................................5
1995.......................................................5
1996.......................................................6
1997.......................................................6
1998.......................................................7
1999.......................................................7
The Age of Transition.............................................8
2000.......................................................8
2001.......................................................8
The Age of Experimentation........................................9
2002–2004.................................................9
2005......................................................11
Summary ......................................................14
vii
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viii nCONTENTS
nCHAPTER 2 Introducing JavaScript .....................................15
HTML Presence.................................................15
Scripting Load Cycle.............................................19
During Document Load......................................19
After Document Load .......................................20
When Called by Other JavaScript Statements ..................21
Variables.......................................................22
Concatenating and Adding...................................23
Variable Scope.............................................23
Control Structures..........................................23
Looping and Iteration ............................................24
while Loops................................................25
do/while Loops.............................................25
for Loops..................................................26
Switch Statements ..............................................27
Functions ......................................................29
Returning Values ...........................................30
Arrays .........................................................30
Creating an Array...........................................30
Objects ........................................................32
Declaring Properties ........................................33
Declaring Functions.........................................34
Error Handling ..................................................37
Summary.......................................................39
nCHAPTER 3 The XmlHttpRequest Object................................41
Initialization ....................................................42
LOADVIEWSTATE................................................42
LOADPOSTBACKDATA............................................42
LOAD..........................................................42
RAISEPOSTBACKEVENT ..........................................43
SAVEVIEWSTATE ................................................43
Render.........................................................43
Asynchronous Resource Retrieval .................................45
Header Requests................................................50
Retrieving XML Data.............................................52
Introducing JSON................................................57
Summary ......................................................64
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nCONTENTS ix
nCHAPTER 4 N-Tier and Ajax .............................................65
What Is N-Tier? .................................................65
Application Layer...........................................68
Business Layer.............................................69
Data Layer.................................................70
Data Store.................................................72
The Place for Ajax...............................................72
Sample N-Tier Application........................................73
Presentation Layer..........................................74
Business Layer.............................................82
Data Layer.................................................86
Data Store.................................................88
Summary.......................................................88
PART 2 n n n Ajax Components
nCHAPTER 5 Rich Internet Applications..................................91
What It Is Not...................................................91
What It Could Be ................................................91
Cross-browser Support......................................92
Client-side Logic Handling...................................92
Application Installation ......................................92
Browser Transition Logic....................................94
RIA Recommendations...........................................94
Focused Interaction.........................................94
Page Disruptions ...........................................95
Compelling Navigation ......................................97
URL Linking ....................................................98
Summary .....................................................100