Atlas (atlas.asp.net) has any1 used this? or know whats different about it than other stuff? i'm getting a site built in it apparently an the people who are doing it were getting all excited about this but i have no idea what it is or why its good? something about auto-updating the page & constantly being in touch with the database apparently... i have no idea what the deuce is going on with this thing http://atlas.asp.net/Default.aspx?tabid=47
come on! some of the geeks on this board must've used or heard about this! i'm trying my best not to look stupid in meetings here!
Atlas is Microsofts implementation of AJAX technology. Essentially what it allows you to do is make server calls from a web page without having to 'post back' the page, and then display server outputs on the clients browser. .... Right this minute im doing something with AJAX that calculates an insurance quote and displays it to the person on their browser - but as soon as that screen is displayed the page makes a javascript/xml call back to my .NET application to calculate all the variations on the quote with a different value for the insurance excess. So from a users perspective they are seeing one thing during their session and the page hasnt posted or refreshed, but in the background the web application is doing other things and can go back to a users browser and make changes to their screen without refreshing it - its all done instantly.... so the browser and the site are acting ASYNCHRONOUSLY with regards to what the user is doing versus what your web app is doing behind the screens. Ajax is shorthand for Asynchronous Javascript and XML (AJAX). Google for AJAX and .NET if you want to read up more on it.
thanks man thats kinda what i thought... had a look at some tech forums an it just went over my head! so basically it just refreshes the information you've put on the page without needing to refresh the page?
AJAX is mint.. hands down one of the best web technological advancements of the last couple of years. The scope of use for the technology is immense. I'm hoping they implement some of this into the MCAD I wanna do later this year.. although I'm fairly sure it'll just be VB.net
