I spent about two hours trying to solve a UI problem tonight for CBv4, which is a lot of time only because it's not even a public facing piece, it's an admin function. I kind of hate that I spent the time on something that adds relatively little value (time is money), but there is something to be gained.
My solution used the AJAX framework, in part because it was something I previously experimented with. Once I remembered my little science project, it was pretty easy to apply it quickly. The bottom line is that I learned something, and that's value even if it pushed me behind schedule.
The truth is, AJAX changes everything. We've been able to manipulate the contents of a page with infinite variations in ASP.NET since the start, by using the postback mechanism that returns the entire page in its new state. An example of this is on the current news contribution page, where you can select a park to associate with the news, click the right arrow button, and it appears in the other list. This simulates the statefulness of a regular Windows app.
But now we can focus on a small part of the page with almost no additional work. Then to do things in a more interesting way, we can start blurring the line between client and server even more, thanks to the richness of the ASP.NET AJAX framework. It's incredibly well thought out, and takes a lot of the pain out of client-side script.
These are exciting times to be an ASP.NET developer.
No comments yet.