Programming Atlas

PRObooks

Programming Atlas

I have read and reviewed several books covering Atlas,Microsoft s AJAX API for ASP.NET, and knew it was only a matter of time beforeO Reilly published their own interpretation on the subject. While certainly notfirst to the Atlas table, ProgrammingAtlas is one of the best I ve seen to date.

For starters, author Christian Wenz, an ASP.NET MVP andPHP and JavaScript master, is also an accomplished technical writer withseveral previously published books to his credit. As such, his experience isquickly apparent to readers seeking to learn as much about the technology withas few extemporaneous words as possible. Second, this book is chock full ofcode samples. Nearly every page has relevant code snippets that illustrateprecisely what concepts are being discussed. Wenz admits in the Preface that heis a big believer in the show, don t tell principle and he stays true tothat assertion throughout the book. ProgrammingAtlas doesn t lend itself easily to be read away from a computer. Consequently,the ideas are stickier because they are reinforced in both the mind and thefingers as code is entered and executed. Fortunately, the code is available fordownload from http://examples.oreilly.com/atlas/for the keyboard impaired. Finally, the book is optimally organized for busyintermediate to experienced ASP.NET developers. The introductory chapters onlytake up 64 of the 382 pages of content, leaving the bulk for the real heart ofthe technology.

After the introductory chapters on Atlas, JavaScript, andAJAX, the next eight chapters explore the Atlas toolkit by covering clientcontrols, data binding/validation, behaviors and components, animations,client-script libraries, interacting with server data, creating and consuming Webservices, and extending controls (including drag/drop and autocompleteexamples).

The remaining five chapters go beyond the usualmatter-of-fact tutorials found in other Atlas books by covering other AJAXtools (in addition to installing and using the Atlas Control toolkit), achapter on using Microsoft s Virtual Earth Web service as an AJAX tutorial,invoking Atlas from PHP instead of ASP.NET on the server side, and usingMicrosoft Web Parts and Gadgets with Atlas. In fact, this is one of the firstbooks I ve read on Atlas that demonstrates how to create a Vista-only WindowsGadget front-end tied to an Atlas back-end, and it drives home the exciting newintegration possibilities these two new technologies can bestow upon Microsoftdevelopers. Notes, tips, and call-outs via the standard conventions used in allO Reilly titles offer great insight into the deep Web development knowledgeknown and imparted by the author. The book concludes with four appendices thatreference the XMLHttpRequest object, the W3C DOM implementation, the Atlas JavaScriptlibraries, and, lastly, a declarative reference for the Atlas ScriptManager andUpdatePanel controls.

Like all Atlas books before it, Programming Atlas was written before the 1.0 product was releasedby Microsoft, and it s possible that some beta behaviors will not be manifestedin the final release. Still, progressive developers will appreciate the qualityeducation that Programming Atlasdelivers and the head start it offers with this exciting new way userinterfaces are being constructed for today s demanding browsing population.

Mike Riley

Rating:

Title: Programming Atlas

Author:Christian Wenz

Publisher: O Reilly

ISBN:0-596-52672-5

Web Site: http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/atlas

Price: US$34.99

Page Count: 382