wrox press asp.net ajax programmer's reference with asp.net 2.0 or asp.net 3.5 (2007)

LoadRecursive 995Rendering 1019 Summary 1029 Chapter 22: ASP.NET AJAX Client-Side PageRequestManager 1033 Instantiating and Initializing the Client-Side PageRequestManager 1034 _updateCo

with ASP.NET 2.0 or ASP.NET 3.5

Dr Shahram Khosravi

Wiley Publishing, Inc.

with ASP.NET 2.0 or ASP.NET 3.5

Acknowledgments xi

Introduction xxix

Chapter 1: AJAX Technologies 1

Chapter 2: JavaScript Base Type Extensions 27

Chapter 3: Built-In and Custom Exception Types 53

Chapter 4: JavaScript Object-Oriented Programming and Type Reflection Extensions 77

Chapter 5: Event Programming Extensions 131

Chapter 6: DOM Extensions 161

Chapter 7: Component Development Infrastructure 219

Chapter 8: Developing Client Controls 281

Chapter 9: Event Bubbling and Button Client Control 323

Chapter 10: Type Description Extensions 349

Chapter 11: Data Classes 407

Chapter 12: Client-Server Communications 457

Chapter 13: Consuming Web Services Via Soap Messages 511

Chapter 14: Consuming Web Services Via JSON Messages 535

Chapter 15: Proxy Classes 597

Chapter 16: Behaviors 659

Chapter 17: Script and Extender Server Controls 707

Chapter 18: Web Services Bridges and Transformers 773

Chapter 19: UpdatePanel and ScriptManager 857

Chapter 20: Using UpdatePanel in User Controls and Custom Controls 911

Chapter 21: Page Life Cycle and Asynchronous Partial Page Rendering 965

Chapter 22: ASP.NET AJAX Client-Side PageRequestManager 1033

Continues

Server Side Processing 1105

Chapter 24: Asynchronous Partial Page Rendering: Client-Side Processing 1179

Appendix A: XML Script 1275

Appendix B: Binding 1325

Appendix C: Actions 1341

Appendix D: Data Control 1357

Appendix E: Templated Controls 1381

Appendix F: ListView 1409

Index 1481

with ASP NET 2.0 or ASP.NET 3.5

with ASP.NET 2.0 or ASP.NET 3.5

Dr Shahram Khosravi

Wiley Publishing, Inc.

with ASP.NET 2.0 or ASP.NET 3.5

Copyright © 2007 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data:

1 Active server pages 2 Internet programming 3 Web site development

4 Ajax (Web site development technology) 5 Microsoft NET I Title

TK5105.8885.A26K538 2007

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Trademarks: Wiley, the Wiley logo, Wrox, the Wrox logo, Wrox Programmer to Programmer, and related trade dress

are trademarks or registered trademarks of John Wiley & Sons, Inc and/or its affiliates, in the United States and

other countries, and may not be used without written permission All other trademarks are the property of their

respective owners Wiley Publishing, Inc., is not associated with any product or vendor mentioned in this book

Wiley also publishes its books in a variety of electronic formats Some content that appears in print may not be

available in electronic books

Shahram Khosravi, Ph.D , is a senior software engineer, consultant, author, and instructor specializing

in ASP.NET, Windows Communications Foundation (WCF), ASP.NET AJAX, Windows Workflow dation (WF), IIS7 and ASP.NET Integrated Programming, ADO.NET, Web services, NET, and XML tech-nologies such as XSD, XSLT, XPath, SOAP, and WSDL He also has years of experience in object-oriented analysis, design, and programming, architectural and design patterns, service-oriented analysis, design, and programming, 3D computer graphics programming, user interface design, and usability

Shahram is the author of the following four books: Professional ASP.NET 3.5 and NET 3.5 Programming

(ASP.NET Internals plus ASP.NET AJAX, IIS 7.0, Enterprise Library Application Blocks, Windows Workflow Foundation, and Windows Communication Foundation) , ASP.NET AJAX Programmer’s Reference with ASP.

NET 2.0 or ASP.NET 3.5 , Professional IIS7 and ASP.NET Integrated Programming , and Professional ASP.NET Server Control and Component Development He has written articles on the ASP.NET, ADO.NET, NET, and

XML technologies for the industry’s leading magazines, such as Dr Dobb’s Journal , asp.netPRO magazine, and Microsoft MSDN Online

Senior Acquisitions Editor

First and foremost, I would like to greatly thank Jim Minatel, the senior acquisitions editor on the book, for giving me the opportunity to work on this exciting project and for all his support and guidance throughout the process Huge thanks go to Brian MacDonald, the book’s development editor I greatly appreciate all your input, comments, and advice Thanks, Brian, for everything! Special thanks go to the book’s technical editors; Alexei Gorkov, Darren J Kindberg, Sam Judson, Dan Maharry and

Cody Reichenau Thank you gentlemen, for all your input and comments

Additional thanks go to Eric Charbonneau, the book’s production editor Thanks also go to Kathi Duggan and S.B Kleinman, the copy editors; as well as Ian Golder, the proofreader

Acknowledgments xi Introduction xxix

ASP.NET AJAX String Type Extensions 39

Chapter 4: JavaScript Object-Oriented Programming

getBaseType 100 initializeBase 102 resolveInheritance 103 callBaseMethod 104 getBaseMethod 110 implementsInterface 113 inheritsFrom 118 isImplementedBy 121 getRootNamespaces 123

INotifyPropertyChange 272 INotifyDisposing 272

raiseBubbleEvent 290

Summary 348

Chapter 10: Type Description Extensions 349

Using DataColumn, DataRow, and DataTable 446

get_started 479 get_responseAvailable 479

getResponseHeader 482 getAllResponseHeaders 483 get_responseData 484 get_statusCode 484

ScriptHandlerFactory 571 RestHandlerFactory 574

RestHandler 577

HandlerWrapper 582

Summary 595

Summary 706

Chapter 17: Script and Extender Server Controls 707

IExtenderControl 709 ExtenderControl 710

ScriptDescriptor 716

ScriptComponentDescriptor 717 ScriptControlDescriptor 730 ScriptBehaviorDescriptor 731

ScriptReference 733 ScriptReferenceCollection 735 ScriptManager 735

LoadScriptsBeforeUI 741

RegisterScriptControl 741 ExtenderControls 742 RegisterExtenderControl 742

WatermarkCssClass 755

ClientStateFieldID 756 CreateClientStateField 756

GetScriptReferences 756 GetScriptDescriptors 756

OnPreRender 761

Script Server Controls versus Extender Server Controls 770

Summary 771

Chapter 20: Using UpdatePanel in User Controls and Custom Controls 911

MasterDetailControl 911

CreateBaseDataBoundControlMaster 913 RegisterMasterEventHandlers 914

MasterDetailControl2 921

CreateBaseDataBoundControlMaster 923 RegisterMasterEventHandlers 923 Master_SelectedIndexChanged 923 Master_DataBound 923

Developing Partial-Rendering-Enabled User Controls 945

The First Visit to a Partial-Page-Rendering-Enabled Web Page 971 InitRecursive 971

LoadRecursive 995

Rendering 1019

Summary 1029

Chapter 22: ASP.NET AJAX Client-Side PageRequestManager 1033

Instantiating and Initializing the Client-Side PageRequestManager 1034

_updateControls 1046

The _pageLoadedInitialLoad Method of the Client-Side PageRequestManager 1050

_onFormSubmit 1081

Summary 1104

Chapter 23: Asynchronous Partial Page Rendering:

RetrievePostData 1105

LoadScrollPosition 1109

InitRecursive 1111

ScriptManager 1117

PreRender 1121

Rendering 1122

Summary 1178

Chapter 24: Asynchronous Partial Page Rendering:

The registerDisposeScript Method of PageRequestManager 1209 _destroyTree 1209 _ScriptLoader 1210

readLoadedScripts 1210

queueScriptBlock 1212 queueCustomScriptTag 1212 isScriptLoaded 1212 _getLoadedScript 1213 queueScriptReference 1213

_loadScriptsInternal 1215 _createScriptElement 1217

pageLoaded 1253 endRequest 1255

Summary 1273

Appendix A: XML Script 1275

Index 1481

Welcome to ASP.NET AJAX Programmer’s Reference with ASP.NET 2.0 or ASP.NET 3.5 The ASP.NET AJAX

framework consists of two frameworks: the ASP.NET AJAX client-side framework and the ASP.NET AJAX server-side framework

It’s a well-known fact that client-side programming is very different from server-side programming The main difference lies in the fact that client-side programming lacks a feature-rich programming frame-work like the ASP.NET/.NET framework Wouldn’t be great if you could write your client-side code in a framework with programming styles and capabilities like those of the ASP.NET/.NET framework? Enter the ASP.NET AJAX client-side framework It simulates the rich programming features of the ASP.NET/.NET framework on the client side as much as possible The capabilities of these simulations are only limited by the fundamental limitations of client-side technologies such as JavaScript

The ASP.NET AJAX server-side framework extends the ASP.NET Framework to provide server-side port for Ajax-enabled Web applications The ASP.NET AJAX client-side and server-side frameworks work hand in hand to meet both the client-side and server-side needs of your Ajax-enabled applications That said, the ASP.NET AJAX client-side framework can also work alongside server technologies other than the ASP.NET Framework

This book uses a unique approach characterized by the following attributes to provide you with an in-depth coverage of both the ASP.NET AJAX client-side and server-side frameworks:

❑ Practical real-world examples: The discussions in this book are presented in the context of

numerous practical real-world examples that you can use in your own ASP.NET AJAX applications

❑ Under-the-hood looks: This book takes you under the hood of both ASP.NET AJAX client-side and server-side frameworks, where you can see for yourself how they work from the inside out and how you can extend them to meet your application requirements

❑ Code walkthroughs: I’ll use numerous code walkthroughs to help you gain the skills, experience, and knowledge you need to implement similar features in your own ASP.NET AJAX

applications

Who This Book Is For

This book is aimed at the ASP.NET developer who wants to learn ASP.NET AJAX for the first time No knowledge of ASP.NET AJAX is assumed

What This Book Covers

This book is divided into 24 chapters and six appendices, as follows:

❑ Chapter 1, “Ajax Technologies,” provides an overview of the main technologies used in

Ajax-enabled Web applications, such as XMLHttpRequest , XML , and JSON, in the context of examples

❑ Chapter 2, “JavaScript Base Type Extensions,” explains the JavaScript base type extensions

You’ll learn how these extensions enhance the JavaScript base types such as Array , Boolean ,

Date , Error , Object , and String to enable you to experience these types — as much as

possible — as you would their NET counterparts

❑ Chapter 3, “Built-In and Custom Exception Types,” first covers the ASP.NET AJAX

built-in exception types, including ArgumentException , ArgumentNullException ,

ArgumentOutOfRangeException , ArgumentTypeException , ArgumentUndefinedException ,

InvalidOperationException , NotImplementedException , and ParameterCountException ,

in depth Then it provides you with a recipe for developing custom exception types, uses this

recipe to implement a custom exception type named DuplicateItemException , and

imple-ments a page that uses this custom exception type

❑ Chapter 4, “JavaScript Object-Oriented Programming and Type Reflection Extensions,” first

examines those JavaScript technologies that the ASP.NET AJAX object-oriented programming

(OOP) and type reflection extensions use under the hood to extend JavaScript to add OOP and

type reflection support Then it provides a comprehensive coverage of the Type and its methods,

where you’ll learn through numerous examples how to define namespaces, interfaces, classes,

and enumeration types, how to implement classes that implement one or more interfaces, and

how to implement classes that derives from other classes

❑ Chapter 5, “Event Programming Extensions,” provides you with a detailed step-by-step recipe

for implementing and adding events to your custom ASP.NET AJAX client classes to enable the

clients of your classes to extend their functionality to execute application-specific logic It then

presents and discusses a practical example that uses this recipe This chapter also describes the

EventArgs , CancelEventArgs , and EventHandlerList classes and their methods and

prop-erties in detail

❑ Chapter 6, “DOM Extensions,” shows you how the ASP.NET AJAX DOM extensions extend

tra-ditional DOM programming to add support for NET-like methods and properties, and how to

use these extensions in your own DOM programming It covers the ASP.NET AJAX delegates

and the DomElement and DomEvent client classes and their methods and properties

❑ Chapter 7, “Component Development Infrastructure,” covers the ASP.NET AJAX component

development infrastructure and its main constituent interfaces, including IDisposable ,

INotifyDisposing , INotifyPropertyChanged , and IContainer and its main constituent

classes, including Component and Application You’ll also learn through numerous examples

how to implement these interfaces and how to implement a custom component that derives

from the Component base class This chapter also covers the application and component life

cycles and application level events in detail

❑ Chapter 8, “Developing Client Controls,” describes the Control , Label , Image , and HyperLink

client controls and their methods and properties, and presents examples that use these client

controls This chapter also presents and discusses the implementation of a custom Image

client control that extends the functionality of the ASP.NET AJAX Image client control

❑ Chapter 9, “Event Bubbling and Button Client Control,” first covers the CommandEventArgs event data class and the Button client control Then it discusses ASP.NET AJAX event bubbling and shows you how to implement custom controls that bubble their events up to their parents, and how to implement custom controls that capture events bubbled up by their children This chapter implements a client control named GridView , which uses ASP.NET AJAX event bubbling

❑ Chapter 10, “Type Description Extensions,” provides comprehensive coverage of the

TypeDescriptor class and ICustomTypeDescriptor interface, from which you’ll learn how

to take advantage of the ASP.NET type description capabilities in your own applications in order to isolate your client code from the specifics of the types of the objects that your client code deals with This will allow your code to interact with different types of objects without code change This chapter implements three Web pages that you can use to generically inspect the properties, events, and methods of any ASP.NET AJAX type This chapter also implements a custom client control named CustomTable that uses the ASP.NET AJAX type description capa-bilities to display any type of data records Finally, this chapter shows you how to dynamically inject metadata information

❑ Chapter 11, “Data Classes,” first discusses the IData interface and then dives into the ASP.NET AJAX DataColumn , DataRow , and DataTable data classes It also implements a custom client control that can display data from any data source, such as DataTable , and that implements the

IData interface

❑ Chapter 12, “Client-Server Communications,” covers the client-server communications layer of

the ASP.NET AJAX framework and its constituent classes, including detailed discussions of

WebRequest , WebRequestExecutor , WebRequestManager , NetworkRequestEventArgs , and

XMLHttpExecutor , and presents several examples that show you how to use these classes in your own ASP.NET AJAX applications

❑ Chapter 13, “Consuming Web Services Via SOAP Messages,” first discusses WSDL documents

and SOAP messages in detail and then presents an example that uses the classes in the server communications layer of the ASP.NET AJAX framework to exchange SOAP messages with a Web service

client-❑ Chapter 14, “Consuming Web Services Via JSON Messages,” provides in-depth coverage of

the WebServiceProxy and WebServiceError classes and teaches you three different ways to invoke server-side methods from your client code: calling page methods, Web service methods, and Web services bridges It also covers asbx files in detail This chapter then presents and implements fully functional replicas of the main components of the ASP.NET AJAX REST method call-request-processing infrastructure, including the ScriptHandlerFactory ,

RestHandlerFactory , RestHandler , HandlerWrapper , and ScriptModule classes, and implements an example in which these replicas are used This chapter also uses these replicas to demystify page method calls and Web services bridges

❑ Chapter 15, “Proxy Classes,” first covers proxy classes associated with page methods,

Web services bridges, and Web services methods in detail Next, it discusses ScriptManager and ScriptManagerProxy server controls and the role of ScriptManagerProxy server controls in parent/child page scenarios This chapter then implements fully functional replicas of the main components of the ASP.NET AJAX automatic proxy-class-generation infra-structure, such as ScriptManager , ServiceReferenceCollection , ServiceReference ,

ClientProxyGenerator , and RestClientProxyHandler , and you’ll see for yourself how this infrastructure generates the proxy classes associated with page methods, Web services bridges, and Web services methods This chapter then implements an example that uses these replicas

❑ Chapter 16, “Behaviors,” begins by providing in-depth coverage of the Behavior base class

and its methods and properties, and shows you how to derive from this base class to implement

your own custom behaviors It then discusses the ASP.NET AJAX control toolkit behavior base

class named BehaviorBase , and shows you how to derive from the BehaviorBase class to

implement your own custom toolkit behavior

❑ Chapter 17, “Script and Extender Server Controls,” implements fully functional replicas of

those components of the ASP.NET AJAX server-side framework that are deeply involved in

the internal functioning of two important types of server controls, known as script controls

and extender controls, to help you gain a solid understanding of these server controls, how

they interact with their associated client-side components, how they differ from one another,

and how to implement your own custom script controls and extender controls The components

of the ASP.NET AJAX server-side framework whose replicas these chapter implements include

IExtenderControl , ExtenderControl , IScriptControl , ScriptControl ,

ScriptDescriptor , ScriptComponentDescriptor , ScriptBehaviorDescriptor ,

ScriptControlDescriptor , ScriptReference , ResolveScriptReference ,

ScriptReferenceCollection , and ScriptManager This chapter then implements custom

script and extender server controls, and you’ll gain the skills you need to develop your own

custom script and extender server controls

❑ Chapter 18, “Web Services Bridges and Transformers,” first walks you through the

implemen-tation of a Web services bridge–enabled script server control that uses the Amazon Web services

Then it discusses ASP.NET AJAX transformers in detail, including XmlBridgeTransformer and

XsltBridgeTransformer , and uses them to enhance the Web services bridge–enabled script

server control This chapter also shows you how to implement your own custom transformers

❑ Chapter 19, “UpdatePanel and ScriptManager,” uses numerous examples in which you learn

how to enable asynchronous partial page rendering, how to use triggers, and several different

ways to conditionally update an UpdatePanel server control, including by setting its

ChildrenAsTrigger property, by directly adding it to another UpdatePanel server control, by

indirectly adding it to another UpdatePanel server control via a user control, by indirectly

adding it to another UpdatePanel server control via a content page, and by explicitly

calling its Update method from your code This chapter then implements two base custom

partial-page-rendering-enabled server controls named BaseMasterDetailControl and

BaseMasterDetailControl2

❑ Chapter 20, “Using UpdatePanel in User Controls and Custom Controls,” implements three

custom partial-page-rendering-enabled server controls named MasterDetailControl ,

MasterDetailControl2 , and MasterDetailControl3 , a custom

enabled data control field named MasterDetailField , and a partial-page-rendering-enabled

threaded discussion forum user control This chapter also implements pages that use these

partial-page-rendering-enabled custom server controls, data control field, and user control

❑ Chapter 21, “Page Life Cycle and Asynchronous Partial Page Rendering,” follows the Page

object through its life cycle phases to process the first request to a

enabled Web page to help you gain a solid understanding of the ASP.NET AJAX asynchronous

partial-page-rendering infrastructure and its main components, such as the ScriptManager

and server-side PageRequestManager , UpdatePanel , UpdatePanelTrigger ,

UpdatePanelControlTrigger , and AsyncPostBackTrigger classes This chapter also

implements a custom UpdatePanel server control named CustomUpdatePanel and a custom

trigger named AsyncMultiPostBackTrigger

❑ Chapter 22, “ASP.NET AJAX Client-Side PageRequestManager,” first provides a

comprehen-sive coverage of the instantiation and initialization process of the current client-side

PageRequestManager instance, where you also learn about this instance’s pageLoaded event and its associated PageLoadedEventArgs event data class It also shows an example in which this event is used This chapter then dives into the process through which the current client-side

PageRequestManager instance makes an asynchronous page postback request to the server, and you also learn about this instance’s initializeRequest and beginRequest events It also shows examples in which you’ll learn how to use these events in your own ASP.NET AJAX applications

❑ Chapter 23, “Asynchronous Partial Page Rendering: Server-Side Processing,” follows the Page object through its life cycle phases to process an asynchronous page postback request where you’ll learn about the role of the server-side PageRequestManager , RetrievePostData ,

ScriptManager , UpdatePanel , ScriptRegisterationManager , and triggers in generating the final response text This chapter also implements a page that enables you to inspect the server response text

❑ Chapter 24, “Asynchronous Partial Page Rendering: Client-Side Processing,” follows the

client-side PageRequestManager instance through its life cycle phases to process the server response to an asynchronous page postback request where you’ll see for yourself how the current client-side PageRequestManager manages to parse the server response text, download the required scripts, and update the required UpdatePanel server controls on the client side You’ll also learn about the pageLoading and endRequest events of the current client-side PageRequestManager instance and their associated PageLoadingEventArgs and EndRequestEventArgs event data classes This chapter shows examples in

which these events and their associated event data classes are used It also covers the

PageRequestManagerTimeoutException , PageRequestManagerServerErrorException ,

PageRequestManagerParserErrorException , and InvalidOperationException tions that the current client-side PageRequestManager instance raises Finally, it implements a custom error handler and a page that uses this error handler

excep-❑ Appendix A, “XML Script,” provides comprehensive coverage of the ASP.NET AJAX

xml-script, which enables you to program declaratively with little or no imperative or procedural JavaScript code This appendix covers the main components of the ASP.NET AJAX xml-script parsing infrastructure, such as MarkupContext and MarkupParser , and you’ll learn through numerous examples how to enable the clients of your client classes to declaratively instantiate and initialize instances of your classes in xml-script without writing any procedural JavaScript code You’ll also learn how to extend the ASP.NET AJAX xml-script parsing infrastructure to add support for custom parsing of your own client classes

❑ Appendix B, “Binding,” covers ASP.NET AJAX binding in detail The BindingBase client class, built-in and custom transformers, and the Binding client class are discussed in depth

❑ Appendix C, “Actions,” discusses the ASP.NET AJAX actions including the IAction client interface, the Action base class, actions in xml-script, and built-in actions such as

InvokeMethodAction , SetPropertyAction , and PostBackAction in detail

❑ Appendix D, “Data Control,” first provides a comprehensive coverage of the ASP.NET AJAX

DataControl base class and its methods, properties, and events Then it implements a custom data control named CustomTable that derives from the DataControl base class, and uses the ASP.NET AJAX type description capabilities to display any type of data records

❑ Appendix E, “Templated Controls,” first covers the ITemplate client interface,

TemplateInstance client class, and Template client class in detail Then it develops a custom

template named TemplateField that derives from the Template class and supports its own

parseFromMarkup static method, which tells the ASP.NET AJAX xml-script parsing

infrastruc-ture how to parse an instance of the TemplateField class declared in xml-script Finally, it

develops a custom templated data control that enables its clients to use TemplateField

instances in xml-script to specify different types of HTML markup texts for rendering different

types of database fields

❑ Appendix F, “ListView,” begins by providing an overview of the ASP.NET AJAX ListView

client control and its methods, properties, and events, and goes on to present examples in which

this client control is used to display data records downloaded from a backend Web service Then

it dives into the internals of the ListView client control and its methods, properties, events, and

surrounding classes and interfaces such as ITask , _TaskManager , and ListViewRenderTask

You’ll learn the skills you need to develop a custom templated data control as complex as the

ListView client control

What You Need To Use This Book

You’ll need the following items to run the code samples in this book:

❑ ASP.NET AJAX Extensions 1.0

❑ ASP.NET Futures

❑ Windows Server 2003, Windows 2000, Windows XP, or Windows Vista

❑ Visual Studio 2005, Visual Studio 2005 Express Edition, Visual Studio 2008, or Visual Studio 2008

Express Edition

❑ SQL Server 2005 or SQL Server 2005 Express Edition

You can download free copies of Visual Studio 2005 Express Edition or Visual Studio 2008 Express

Edi-tion and SQL Server 2005 Express EdiEdi-tion from http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/express/

and ASP.NET AJAX Extensions 1.0 and ASP.NET Futures from http://ajax.asp.net/downloads/

Conventions

To help you get the most from the text and keep track of what’s happening, we’ve used a number of

con-ventions throughout the book

Boxes like this one hold important, not-to-be forgotten information that is directly

relevant to the surrounding text.

Tips, hints, tricks, and asides to the current discussion are offset and placed in italics like this

As for styles in the text:

❑ We highlight new terms and important words when we introduce them

❑ We show keyboard strokes like this: Ctrl+A

❑ We show file names, URLs, and code within the text like so: persistence.properties

❑ We present code in two different ways:

In code examples we highlight new and important code with a gray background

The gray highlighting is not used for code that’s less important in the present context, or that has been shown before

Source Code

As you work through the examples in this book, you may choose either to type in all the code manually

or to use the source code files that accompany the book All the source code used in this book is available for download at http://www.wrox.com Once at the site, simply locate the book’s title (either by using the Search box or by using one of the title lists) and click the Download Code link on the book’s detail page to obtain all the source code for the book

Because many books have similar titles, you may find it easiest to search by ISBN; this book’s ISBN is 978-0-470-10998-4

Once you download the code, just decompress it with your favorite compression tool Alternately, you can go to the main Wrox code download page at http://www.wrox.com/dynamic/books/download.aspx to see the code available for this book and all other Wrox books

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Traditional Web pages use server-side technologies and resources to operate and deliver their features and services to end users These Web pages require end users to perform full-page postbacks to the server, where these pages can run the required server-side code to deliver the requested service or feature In other words, these Web pages use the click-and-wait, user-unfriendly interaction pattern, which is characterized by waiting periods that disrupt user workflow and degrade the user experience This click-and-wait user interaction pattern is what makes the traditional Web applications act and feel very different from their desktop counterparts

Asynchronous JavaScript And XML (abbreviated AJAX ) is a popular Web application development

approach that uses client-side technologies such as HTML, XHTML, CSS, DOM, XML, XSLT, Javascript, and asynchronous client-callback techniques such as XMLHttp requests and hidden-frame techniques to develop more sophisticated and responsive Web applications that break free from the click-and-wait pattern and, consequently, act and feel more like a desktop application In other words, AJAX is closing the gap between Web applications and their desktop counterparts

This chapter begins by discussing the main characteristics of AJAX-enabled Web pages in the text of an example

Google Suggest

The Google Suggest Web page (www.google.com/webhp?complete=1 ) contains an AJAX-enabled search box that completes your search items as you type them in, as shown in Figure 1-1 Under the hood, this AJAX-enabled search box uses AJAX techniques to asynchronously download the required data from the Web server and to display them to the end user without interrupting the user’s interaction with the page All the client-server communications are performed in the back-ground as the end user types into the search box

An AJAX-enabled component such as the Google Suggest search box exhibits the following four important characteristics:

❑ It uses HTML, XHTML, CSS, DOM, and JavaScript client-side technologies to implement most of its functionalities where the code runs locally on the client machine to achieve the