The course begins with a discussion of rich Internet applications, which include substantial client-side code, typically JavaScript. Microsoft’s AJAX tools are surveyed, and a simple AJAX application is illustrated. Chapter 2 covers the AJAX Client Library, which simplifies client-side programming with JavaScript extensions, a debugging trace facility, and various API shortcuts. The next chapter covers partial page rendering, which enables part of a page to be updated asynchronously, resulting in an improved user experience. The next chapter covers various techniques for making remote-method calls, resulting in greater efficiency in an AJAX application. The next chapter introduces the AJAX Control Toolkit, which provides many very useful controls enabling sophisticated client-side effects with relatively little programming.

The last chapter gives a brief introduction to the popular JavaScript Library jQuery and then goes on to introduce jQuery UI, which provides a collection of GUI widgets, animated visual effects and themes. The chapter concludes with a discussion of JuiceUI, which is an open source collection of Web Forms components that simplify the use of jQuery UI widgets for ASP.NET programmers.

Numerous programming examples and exercises are provided. A case study illustrates a number of features of ASP.NET AJAX working together. The student will receive a complete set of notes and all the programming examples.

• Gain a thorough understanding of the philosophy and implementation of rich Internet applications
• Explain the benefits of AJAX in creating non-blocking and interactive Web applications
• Use ASP.NET AJAX and Visual Studio to easily implement AJAX applications
• Create visually rich and attractive Web applications with controls in the AJAX Control Toolkit
• Create interactive web pages using jQuery UI and JuiceUI

A good working knowledge of Web application development using ASP.NET, Visual Studio and C#. The student should also have a basic knowledge of HTML and JavaScript. Some familiarity with ADO.NET would be helpful for understanding the case study and some of the examples.

• Rich Internet Applications and AJAX
  • Desktop Applications
  • Web Applications
  • Rich Client Applications
  • Using Plug-Ins
  • Using JavaScript
  • Asynchronous Communication
  • AJAX
  • Microsoft’s AJAX Technologies
  • ASP.NET AJAX Enhancements
  • A Simple AJAX Application
• ASP.NET AJAX Client Library
  • Components of Microsoft’s AJAX Support
  • ScriptManager
  • Client-Side Page Lifecycle
  • Debugging Support
  • JavaScript Extensions
  • Object-Oriented Programming Support
  • Global API Shortcuts
  • Embedded JavaScript Resources
• Partial Page Rendering
  • UpdatePanel Control
  • Update Modes
  • Triggers
  • Using a Timer
  • PageRequestManager
  • Partial Page Update Lifecycle
  • UpdateProgress Control
  • Limitations and Performance Issues
• Remote Method Calls
  • Web Service Methods
  • Handling Errors
  • Using Context
  • Page Methods
  • JSON Serialization
  • ScriptMethod Attribute
• AJAX Control Toolkit
  • Using ACT Controls in Visual Studio
  • Extender Controls
  • Use of Style Sheets
  • Page Layout Controls
  • Popup Controls
  • ACT Controls and Web Services
• jQuery UI and JuiceUI
  • jQuery
  • jQuery UI
  • Juice UI
  • Using jQuery UI and JuiceUI

Required software is Visual Studio 2013 and the LocalDB version of SQL Server 2012 Express Edition (bundled with Visual Studio 2013). Use either Visual Studio Professional or higher or else the free Visual Studio Express 2013 for Web. The recommended operating system is Windows 7. Several free downloads are also required. See the course Setup Notes for details.

A good minimal hardware profile for this course would have a 1.8 GHz or equivalent CPU, 2 GB of RAM, and at least 10 GB of free disk space for tools installation and courseware.