The Microsoft AJAX Framework (formerly known as Atlas) is Microsoft's response to the ASP.NET web developers that wanted to build more responsive and dynamic web sites using AJAX technology. Since its very beginning this framework has gained a lot of popularity and many web sites nowadays built with ASP.NET have some kind of AJAX behavior in their design.
The Microsoft AJAX Framework comes included in the ASP.NET 3.5 version and can be installed on the ASP.NET 2.0 version. Without writing a single line of JavaScript developers can add AJAX functionality to their web application just by using the standard controls that come with the AJAX Framework.
You can learn a lot more by visiting the http://www.asp.net/learn/ajax/ and http://www.asp.net/learn/ajax-videos/ for written tutorials and videos on the subject.
The AJAX Control Toolkit
The AJAX Control Toolkit is a group of about 30 controls developed in a joint effort by the community and Microsoft that is built on top of the Microsoft AJAX Framework. It is an open source project that provides web developers with a rich set of controls that enable the creation of more interactive web sites.
The project is hosted on CodePlex and the latest version as of this writing (Version 3.0.30512) works only on ASP.NET 3.5 SP1. The last version that supports ASP.NET 2.0 is still available for download and be found here.
Available for download are the source files, the binaries and the script files. The source files allow you to view and edit the source code that builds the toolkit and also includes the sample web site which shows the usage of the controls that make the toolkit. The binaries are just the Dlls or Assemblies that you can include in other projects for immediate use.
In this article we'll take a look at installing the AJAX Control Toolkit and using one of its controls for the very first time.
Installation
After you download the AJAX Control Toolkit select a directory where you'll want the binaries and/or source code to be located. At the end we're going to work with the binaries in order to use the controls in other applications.
Unzip the contents of the source file in the selected directory.
Notice the solution file available "AjaxControlToolkit.sln". If you open this file with Visual Studio you will find inside 3 projects: The AJAX Control Toolkit, the sample web site and the toolkit tests project. The sample web site mirrors the web site found at http://www.asp.net/ajax/AjaxControlToolkit/Samples/ . You can browse the sample web site by going to the default.aspx file in the project and selecting View in Browser from the Visual Studio Context Menu. (Note: if you happen to encounter an error related to the Trust Level and any other component set the Trust Level of the application to Full and it should work. This error is not caused by the Toolkit but by a change made by the component that is installed on your machine that modified the machine.config file. In my case it was an Oracle component.).
In the source code directory structure the binaries are located in the "AjaxControlToolkit\bin\Release" directory. If you plan on modifying the source code for the toolkit I recommend you copy the original binaries to another directory for later referencing in Visual Studio.
In order to create the Toolbox Items in Visual Studio go to your Toolbox and right click to create a new tab. Name this tab to something like "AJAX Control Toolkit" and then right click on it and select "Choose Items" to add the controls within the AJAX Control Toolkit binaries.
In the window that appears click Browse and go to the directory where the binaries were saved and select the "AjaxControlToolkit.dll" as shown below. Click Open.
The new controls that were selected are highlighted. If a previous version of the toolkit was already installed you will see them side by side only differing by the directory where the DLL comes from and the version number.
Click OK and the new controls will be loaded in the new tab that we just created in the Toolbox.
Congratulations. The AJAX Control Toolkit has been installed.
Testing the Toolkit
Let's test the toolkit by creating a single page web application that uses at least one of the controls. You can also test it by running the sample web site but let's get our hands dirty instead. Create a new web form and name it something like "toolkit-test.aspx".
Some of the toolkit controls work as extenders of other regular controls and others are full fledged controls. Extenders mean that they add new functionality to the regular controls. For example, the TextBox control can be extended to show a Calendar Dialog for date selection using the CalendarExtender control.
Let's test the toolkit using this scenario. In the newly created web form named "toolkit-test.aspx" insert a TextBox and select it. Notice that you can now click the right task button that appears for the TextBox and a menu with option appears. The only option available in this case is Add Extender. Click on it.
As soon as you click it a dialog windows asks for the extender you want to apply to the TextBox. See below some of the extenders available. Let's select CalendarExtender and specify the ID for the extender. Let's leave it at the default value "TexBox1_CalendarExtender".
Now the task button displays the Remove Extender option in its menu. You can also add other extenders to the TextBox control such as DropShadow.
We're almost ready to test our web form with the toolkit but there's one thing left to do. All ASP.NET AJAX Components require the ScriptManager control. Drag the ToolkitScriptManager from the toolbox and place it somewhere in the page.
Now we're ready. Compile the application and view the page in your browser.
As soon as you give focus to the TextBox control you will see a nicely formatted Calendar ready to accept your selection.
Next Steps
Test the toolkit by experimenting with the extenders and the controls. Take a look at the Samples web site included with the source code or visit the samples web site that is available online.
Please visit the following links for in depth tutorials and video examples on how to use the toolkit.
Happy programming! 
Suscribirse