Beginning Ajax With ASP.NET (2006).pdf

10
Atlas Client Script
On the surface, Atlas sounds like just another Ajax library that happens to be from Microsoft.
While Atlas does provide support for Ajax-style operations, Atlas provides so much more than
that. With the Microsoft Atlas package, there is support for generating client-side JavaScript, and
this chapter delves into that aspect of Atlas. In this chapter, you look at:
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An introduction to Atlas
Calling out to web services
Data objects in Atlas
Extensions to the JavaScript language
Support for a programming model similar to programming in .NET
The Atlas examples and code are based on the March/April CTPs of Atlas. The March CTP is the
first version of Atlas that comes with a “Go-Live” license for actual usage in a production application.
The April CTP is basically a set of bug fixes to the March CTP. It is our intention to
update these files with new versions as breaking changes are made to Atlas. The site for the files
is http://beginningajax.com. Alternatively, you can check for updates on the Wrox web
site for this book (www.wrox.com).
Introduction to Atlas
There has been a lot of confusion in the marketplace regarding what Microsoft’s Atlas project is. At
this time, Atlas will be included in the next version of ASP.NET and the .NET Framework. From a
programming standpoint, Atlas may be considered to be at least a couple key things:
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Ajax library — The part of Atlas that has programmers talking the most is the support for
Ajax. With this support, Microsoft has created a library to support the ability to communicate
back to the server without the need to perform a full postback from the client to the
server.