ASP.NET Atlas Overview
Dflying | 11 March, 2006 21:23Atlas is about Javascript OOP, AJAX, it offers client and server controls, cross-browser compatibility, UI enhancements, it supports flexible binding and a declarative programming style. Atlas integrates the ASP.NET server technology and allows to develop web applications.
At the moment, Atlas is a Preview Technology.
The January release of the Atlas CTP can be downloaded here.
This blog entry by Nikhil Kotari introduces some features of this release, while an Added/Fixed list can be found here.
Following are copied form asp.net atlas introduction.
ASP.NET 'Atlas' Overview
Introduction
The new ASP.NET Web development technologies, code-named 'Atlas', integrate client script libraries with the ASP.NET 2.0 server-based development platform. 'Atlas' builds on the AJAX strategy for building Web applications, which enables you to make calls to Web-based applications from client script. 'Atlas' also enables you to perform significant portions of an application's processing on the client, without requiring a round trip to the server to update the page.
This development strategy enables you to build a new breed of Web application that has a number of advantages over traditional Web applications. AJAX-style applications offer better performance, work across browsers, and enable you to create a user interface with more extensive UI features. For more information, see Understanding AJAX Applications and ASP.NET "Atlas".
ASP.NET 'Atlas' applies this new strategy for building Web applications, and significantly enhances it by adding both client and server-side development components. This topic describes the goals of the 'Atlas' feature, and explains the architecture of an 'Atlas' application, including the 'Atlas' client script libraries and 'Atlas' server components.
'Atlas' Goals
The main goal of 'Atlas' is to give you a broad range of application building blocks with the following aims:
- Helping you create 'Atlas' applications.
- Integrating 'Atlas' client script features with the features of ASP.NET on the server to provide a comprehensive development platform.
The first aim of 'Atlas' is to help you create AJAX applications. AJAX development can be complex. 'Atlas' manages this complexity for you by providing features such as the following:
- A consistent, object-oriented set of APIs for developing in JavaScript.
- Automatic browser compatibility, so that you do not have to write code or deploy components to make your applications run in multiple browsers.
- Client-script APIs and components that support rich UI features, which saves you from having to write the extensive code normally required in AJAX-style applications. For example, 'Atlas' provides commonly used behaviors including drag and drop, and you can bind these to HTML controls with minimal coding.
- A declarative scripting model for client development that is similar to the declarative syntax for ASP.NET server controls. This can reduce or eliminate much complex coding.
The second aim of 'Atlas' is to integrate client scripting with ASP.NET server-side development. Rather than focusing all development on only the client or only the server, 'Atlas' provides tools for both, enabling you to handle application tasks wherever it makes the most sense. ASP.NET provides the following server-side features for 'Atlas' applications:
- Web services that are useful to integrate with 'Atlas' applications, such as a profiles service.
- ASP.NET Web server controls that emit the client script needed for 'Atlas' applications. These controls ease the process of creating 'Atlas' applications, because they reduce the task of learning the 'Atlas' client script APIs and components.
- Integrated development tools such as Visual Studio, which provide a design-time development environment, debugging, statement completion, administration, and other productivity-enhancing features.
'Atlas' Architecture
In its minimal form, an 'Atlas' application consists of a Web application that uses the 'Atlas' client script libraries to call a service or application on a Web server. But for an application with the best development options and tools, you will also want to use the 'Atlas' server components. The complete 'Atlas' architecture consists of both client script libraries and server components.
'Atlas' Client Components
The 'Atlas' client script libraries consist of a number of JavaScript (.js) files that provide features for object-oriented development. This was not previously available to developers in a scripting environment, and it enables a new level of consistency and modularity in client scripting. The following layers are included in the 'Atlas' script libraries:
- A browser compatibility layer. This provides compatibility across most browsers for your 'Atlas' scripts.
- 'Atlas' core services, which include a number of extensions to JavaScript, such as classes, namespaces, event handling, inheritance, data types, and object serialization.
- An 'Atlas' base class library, which includes components like string builders, debuggers, timers, and tracing.
- A networking layer that communicates with Web-based services and applications and manages asynchronous remote method calls.
- A UI layer that provides a number of 'Atlas' client capabilities: behaviors, the 'Atlas' declarative syntax, UI components, and data binding.
- A controls layer that creates 'Atlas'-specific controls for client development. These controls can be data-bound, scripted, bound to 'Atlas' behaviors such as drag and drop, and so on. This layer includes controls such as an auto-completion text box, ordinary form controls, a data-bound listview control, and navigation controls.
'Atlas' Server Components
The 'Atlas' server components consist primarily of ASP.NET Web services and ASP.NET server controls. 'Atlas' also includes components in ASP.NET, including Web services and server controls. These components work in conjunction with 'Atlas' client script libraries.
- 'Atlas' can take advantage of a number of ASP.NET Web services, including the following:
- The profiles service can persist user information on the server.
- The membership service provides authentication options.
- The roles service can perform role-based authorization for 'Atlas' applications.
- The personalization services can persist user-specific and page-specific personalization data on the server.
- Globalization and culture-specific services are available.
ASP.NET also includes 'Atlas' server controls that resemble ASP.NET server controls, but emit 'Atlas' client script. ASP.NET 'Atlas' server controls simplify the process of producing 'Atlas' client script, and are suitable for developers who want to focus on server-side development. 'Atlas' includes a complete set of server controls that corresponds closely to the existing ASP.NET server controls, such as controls for buttons, labels, options, text boxes, check boxes, hyperlinks, and validation controls. There are also special 'Atlas' controls that emit JavaScript to produce client behaviors, including a HoverBehavior control, a ClickBehavior control, a Popup control, and an AutocompleteBehavior control. All of these controls will be integrated into Visual Studio so that you can work with them in a designer just as you can with standard ASP.NET server controls.
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