As the Internet user experience (UX) progresses, more users are demanding and expecting their custom-built business applications to provide the same UX that they see on the Internet every day. "ASP.NET 3.5 AJAX Unleashed" empowers ASP.NET developers to easily provide this type of experience with minimal code. Author Rob Foster has built AJAX-enabled web applications for a number of major corporations and uses the experience he has gained there to explain concisely, clearly, and completely what ASP.NET developers need to learn to start taking advantage of the rich opportunities made possible by ASP.NET AJAX. UL LILearn ASP.NET AJAX by working with real-world examples/LI LIUse the ScriptManager and ScriptManagerProxy controls in your ASP.NET AJAX-enabled applications/LI LILeverage the ASP.NET AJAX client-side API to maximize the flexibility of ASP.NET AJAX/LI LIBuild applications that use the UpdatePanel and Timer controls/LI LIUse the ASP.NET AJAX Control Toolkit to provide rich AJAX functionality to your web applications/LI LIBuild ASP.NET AJAX-enabled extender controls/LI LIIntegrate ASP.NET AJAX and .NET 3.5 with Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007/LI LICreate ASP.NET AJAX-enabled Windows Vista Gadgets/LI LILearn advanced AJAX concepts such as JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) and WCF Web services/LI/UL Introduction 1 Part I Introduction Chapter 1 Introduction to AJAX Technologies 5 AJAX and Web 2.0 6 Why Use AJAX? 7 AJAX Rationale 7 AJAX: An Example 8 The XMLHttpRequest Object 8 A Simple AJAX Library 10 Using the AJAX Library 14 Summary 20 Chapter 2 Introduction to ASP.NET AJAX 21 Introducing the Visual Studio Controls 22 ScriptManager 22ScriptManagerProxy 23 Timer 23 UpdatePanel 23 UpdateProgress 23 Introducing the Visual Studio Projects and Web Site Items 24 Projects 24 Web Site Items 25 Introducing the AJAX Control Toolkit 26 Summary 27 Part II Working with ASP.NET 3.5 AJAX Chapter 3 The ScriptManager and ScriptManagerProxy Controls 31 About the ScriptManager Control. 31 ScriptManager Properties, Methods, and Events 34 JavaScript Proxy Classes for Web Services 37 Partial-Page Rendering 43 Summary 47 Chapter 4 The ASP.NET AJAX Client API 49 The Namespaces 49 Global 49 Sys 52 Sys.Net 53 Sys.Serialization 54 Sys.Services 62 Sys.UI 66 Sys.WebForms 68 Summary 71 Chapter 5 The UpdatePanel and Timer Controls 73 About the UpdatePanel Control 73 Using the UpdatePanel Control 74 Advanced Features of the UpdatePanel Control 78 Triggers 78 Multiple UpdatePanel Controls on a Single Page 81 The Timer Control 89 Using the Timer Control with Partial-Page Rendering 90 Summary 92 Chapter 6 Advanced Techniques with the ASP.NET AJAX PageRequestManager Object 93 Using the PageRequestManager Object 93 A Practical Example of the PageRequestManager Object 95 Summary 100 Chapter 7 Using the ASP.NET AJAX Control Toolkit 101 ASP.NET AJAX Control Toolkit: The Controls 102 Using Controls in the ASP.NET AJAX Control Toolkit 105 Configuring Visual Studio to Use the Toolkit 105 The Accordion and AccordionPane Controls 106 The CalendarExtender Control 110 The CollapsiblePanelExtender Control 112 The ConfirmButtonExtender Control 118 The DragPanelExtender Control 120 The DropDownExtender Control 122 The FilteredTextBoxExtender Control 125 The HoverMenuExtender Control 127 The TextBoxWatermarkExtender Control 130 ASP.NET AJAX Control Toolkit: APractical Example 134 Using the ASP.NET AJAX Control Toolkit with Microsoft Expression Web 145 Configuring Expression Web for the ASP.NET AJAX Control Toolkit 145 Summary 150 Chapter 8 Building an ASP.NET AJAX Extender Control 151 Add ASP.NET Controls 151 How to Build an Extender Control 154 Server-Side Code 156 Client-Side Code 159 Summary 163 Chapter 9 ASP.NET AJAX and SharePoint 2007 165 SharePoint and AJAX 165 Modifying Web.Config 166 Developing an AJAX-Based SharePoint Web Part 171 Summary 177 Chapter 10 Creating ASP.NET AJAX-Enabled Vista Sidebar Gadgets 179 Vista Sidebar Gadgets 179 Creating the Gadget 181 Create the Web Service 181 Generate the JavaScript Proxy 183 Create the Vista Gadget 186 Test the Gadget 187 Summary 188 Part III Appendices Appendix A Microsoft Expression Web 191 An Introduction to the Expression Web Interface 191 Creating Web Pages and Web Sites 191 Customizable Interface 194 Creating Standards-Based Web Sites 198 Quickly Build Standards-Based Sites 198 Code Formatting and IntelliSense 202 Autoformatting Code 202 IntelliSense 204 XML and XSLT Tools in Expression Web 204 Drag and Drop XML 205 Creating and Updating XSL 207 Summary 209 Appendix B Deploying the .NET Framework 3.5 as a SharePoint Feature 211 Features and Solutions 211 Creating the Solution 213 Using Visual Studio 214 Creating the Feature Receiver 218 Deploying the Solution to SharePoint 228 Compiling the Solution 228 Running STSADM.EXE to Register the Solution 234 Deploying the Solution Using SharePoint Central Management 235 Activating the Feature 237 Summary 239 Index 241