MIX07 Slides and Demo Code

Last week I gave a couple of talks at MIX07... one on various AJAX Patterns with ASP.NET, and another on Developing ASP.NET AJAX Controls with Silverlight. I back to Redmond yesterday, and just getting around to uploading the slides and code. I am planning on pulling out a couple of topics into individual posts for deeper discussion.

Here is a quick outline of what is in the samples:

• Script attachment (aka unobtrusive javascript): I used an accordion control to demonstrate the ASP.NET AJAX model for splitting content and logic through the use of behaviors. I discussed this a while back when writing about enabling structural markup.
• Update gestures and feedback: I demonstrated an UpdateIndicator control that allows the application to provide feedback using highlight and scroll animations about what changed on a page. This not only fixes problems introduced by Ajax, but it allows for a much better user experience than tradition post-back pages.
• Logical navigation: I used the new history functionality added to the latest futures CTP of ASP.NET AJAX. This is based on the functionality I've discussed before in my post on Back Button Support. The key thing here is again how you can not only fix Ajax pages to behave more intuitively, but go beyond that and improve the whole navigation model as compared to traditional post-back-based pages.
• Smart data access: I don't have a good name for this pattern, but it will be a topic I'll discuss in more depth. Its about making Ajax pages work in script-disabled environments, and work well for search engine indexability.
• Mashups using server-side proxies and JSONP: I demonstrated how you can use JSONP with the ASP.NET AJAX networking stack, and contrasted that with server-side proxies for implementing mashups.
• Use of Silverlight to go beyond the browser: I demonstrated a Silverlight-based slide show control and a charting control to demonstrate how AJAX controls can use the power of vector graphics, animations and media while continuing to provide a familiar ASP.NET server control-based programming model.