Getting Started w/ Atlas

Sherman Quick — Fri, 03 Nov 2006 22:37:27 GMT

For the next couple of posts, I think I'm going to focus on showing off some of the new Atlas components; therefore, I'll go through a brief demo on how to start a new Atlas project using Visual Studio 2005 first before diving into them head first.

Before I begin, please note that Atlas is currently Beta and that means that things are going to be changing on a pretty consistant basis. I'd appreciate it if you can send feedback to me if something isn't quite lining up with what you're seeing so that I can update my posts appropriately.

With that being said, let's proceed with setting up that new Atlas project using Visual Studio 2005...

Be sure you've got the following components installed (see http://ajax.asp.net/ to download them)
- ASP.NET 2.0 AJAX 1.0 Beta
- ASP.NET 2.0 AJAX CTP Beta
Open Visual Studio 2005
Click File -> New -> Web Site...
Since the new Atlas controls are contained under the CTP, you'll want to select the "ASP .NET AJAX CTP-Enabled Web Site" template under Visual Studio Installed Templates
Since I've got IIS enabled on my system, I'm going to select "HTTP" for location and type in "http://localhost/AtlasDemo" for the URL. You can select "File System" if you don't have IIS enabled on your system and choose a location where you want the files installed. If you choose "File System", Visual Studio can still emulate the web site for you when you run in debug mode (very nice feature by the way...)
Select your favorite programming language (I like C#) and then click the OK button

After a few seconds of Visual Studio chewing on your request, you'll have your first Atlas project set up and ready to go. Too easy, eh? Next post, I'm thinking we should check out the UpdatePanel component and see what it can do...

Atlas (ASP.NET 2.0 AJAX) Introduction

Sherman Quick — Thu, 02 Nov 2006 04:52:49 GMT

As I mentioned in my previous post, I've been playing around with Atlas, Microsoft's implementation of AJAX for ASP .NET 2.0, recently and think its about time I started sharing some of my experiences with you guys.

For starters, AJAX stands for Asynchronous Javascript and XML and it's a term that is used to encompass a variety of technologies whose overall mission is to provide us "web-head" types with a platform via which we can add more fluidity and functionality to our web pages through asynchronous operations. From what I've seen so far, the combination of these technologies allows client-server communications to go on behind the scenes in an extremely fluid manner making the typical static web page operate in a more dynamic fashion, dare I say, similar to what you'd find in a Windows application. To be perfectly honest with you, the technologies being used in AJAX really aren't ground breaking or new; however, the basic premise AJAX is to wrap these various technologies into a single architecture that makes it easier to for us developers to create, standardize, and re-use web components that would benefit greatly from asynchonous operations.

If you're one of those brave souls who like to work with Beta implementations, feel free to visit the following site that has everything you need to get started: http://ajax.asp.net/

To begin working with Atlas, you'll need the following items installed in the order given below:

Visual Studio 2005 or Visual Web Developer 2005
ASP.NET 2.0 AJAX 1.0 Beta
ASP.NET 2.0 AJAX CTP Beta

Naturally, the two AJAX installations can be obtained from the link I gave you above and, hopefully, you've already got Visual Studio 2005 already installed. If not, you might be able to get away with a Visual Studio Express Edition, but, unfortunately, I don't have confirmation on that. Anyway, give those installs a try so that you can work along with me as I experiment with this stuff. Next post, we'll start working with the basics and have some fun learning what this technology update can do...