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ASP.NET Ajax Released

Posted by kdawson on from the Redmond-does-Web-2.0 dept.

darrenkopp writes "Microsoft released their anticipated AJAX framework that integrates with their ASP.NET product .It is a fully supported product (24x7 phone support), but is completely free! They are releasing the source for it as well."

12 of 101 comments (clear)

  1. Source? by JoshJ · · Score: 2, Informative

    The word "source" doesn't even appear on the frontpage of that, nor on the "learn more" page. The Download page says the toolkit is shared-source but none of the other stuff mentions the source. Docs don't mention source at all.
    Looking at the terms of use page, this is hardly a free license, and it's certainly not opensource unless they've really managed to bury it within the site somewhere.

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    1. Re:Source? by blowdart · · Score: 5, Informative

      The "source available" (notice how carefully I worded that to avoid your assumption that it should be "open source" using your/RMS's definition) is mentioned on Scott Guthrie's blog

      In addition to shipping the source code for the ASP.NET AJAX Control Toolkit controls, we are also releasing all of the source code for the fully supported ASP.NET AJAX 1.0 release. Specifically:

      We are releasing the client-side ASP.NET AJAX JavaScript library (which we also call the "Microsoft AJAX Library") under the Microsoft Permissive License (Ms-PL). This grants developers the right to freely customize/modify the library, as well as to redistribute the derivative versions of the JavaScript library for both commercial and non-commercial purposes.

      To help with debugging and development, we are also releasing all of the source code for the server-side ASP.NET AJAX 1.0 implementation (including the UpdatePanel, UpdateProgress, ScriptManager, and Network Serialization code) under the Microsoft Reference License (Ms-RL).

      Being granted "the right to freely customize/modify the library, as well as to redistribute the derivative versions of the JavaScript library for both commercial and non-commercial purposes" is pretty "open", despite not being released under the GPL. Heck it's almost a BSD license. It's certainly the least restrictive of the MS source licenses, they just haven't submitted it to the OSI for approval (and really, can you blame them?). It was written with the OSD in mind.

    2. Re:Source? by QuantumG · · Score: 2, Informative

      What it says is the concept of patent retaliation. Suppose Microsoft has some patents which cover some of the code in this software (they probably do). You are using the software under this license. Without the license, you'd have no legal right to use the software (from both a copyright and a patent standpoint). If you decide that some of this software violates one of your patents and try to sue Microsoft for it, this line of the license automatically revokes your patent license, meaning you can't use the software anymore.

      So, for the hypothetical situation that you mentioned... You make what kind of change? A change that implements one of your patents? If that's the case, you can't sue them because another part of the license says that in order to contribute to this project you have to give a patent license to anyone who uses the software.. for that patent that you implemented. So you must be talking about a change that isn't implementing one of your patents.. ok. So now, in your hypothetical situation, Microsoft makes a change to the software which violates one of your patents. You want to sue them, fine, you do that. This statement says that any patent licenses you've received from the contributor you're suing (in this case Microsoft) are now void. Which, essentially means, you can't use the software anymore, but if you don't care about that, you can still try to sue Microsoft. Good luck with that.

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  2. Yeah, but... by Bin_jammin · · Score: 2, Informative

    the support center phone numbers all start in 976, and they charge $14.99 per minute.

  3. I had been following this.. by RuBLed · · Score: 3, Informative

    It is a great tool in my opinion and easy to integrate with existing ASP.Net applications.

    But What I really like about Microsoft Ajax for .Net 2.0 was the Ajax Control Toolkit (separately available w/ source)

    http://www.codeplex.com/Release/ProjectReleases.as px?ProjectName=AtlasControlToolkit

    1. Re:I had been following this.. by Kamidari · · Score: 2, Informative

      If you look at the controls, though, a lot of them aren't really AJAX, calendar control included. It's not making calls to a webservice via XMLHTTPRequest or any such thing - just extending a textbox or button via client-side scripting.

      So, I wouldn't call it an abomination, just a misuse of the term AJAX, which I've noticed isn't all that uncommon out there. Companies have to jump on the AJAX bandwagon, after all. ;)

  4. Re:Sucks for The Others by Osty · · Score: 2, Informative

    This sucks for all those companies whose core business is making an AJAX framework.

    Maybe for those businesses whose core is making an AJAX framework for ASP.NET (are there any such businesses out there?). Those focused on other languages/platforms (PHP, Ruby on Rails, etc) should have no problem competing with this since their target audience probably isn't going to switch from Ruby to C#.

    Besides, it's not like this just came out of the blue. The Atlas framework (the in-progress codename for this v1.0 release) has been available for nearly two years in various different preview forms (Microsoft likes to release "Community Technical Previews" (CTPs) rather than "Betas" of bits like this). If your core business is building an AJAX framework for ASP.NET and you didn't see this coming, you have bigger problems than Microsoft trying to enter your market.

  5. Re:Custom controls? by Shados · · Score: 2, Informative

    yeah, the source for a lot of the community controls can be viewed and all. The Extenders are incredibly easy to make, because its most of the point (ASP.NET Ajax's name is misleading, as its main appeal is to be able to make reusable client-side code blocks, ajax is second in line, so I prefered when it was called Atlas...oh well!)

  6. Re:Browser compatibility? by Shados · · Score: 2, Informative

    IE, Firefox, Safari, Opera the supported browsers as of the release.

  7. Re:Custom controls? by Bovarchist · · Score: 2, Informative

    Yes, it is very easy to implement, even with custom controls. The JSON stuff that you mentioned is built around the .NET postback process and not tied to any individual controls. So any control that posts back to the server (like a series of buttons with a server-side click event) can easily be converted to an "AJAX" control simply by dropping a ScriptManager on the page and wrapping the control in an UpdatePanel.

    --
    Hell is other people's code.
  8. Another breaking release by Iamthefallen · · Score: 2, Informative

    From their Migrate RC to RTM doc.
    The ASP.NET AJAX validator controls that were part of the RC release have been removed. You must remove the following registration entries for those controls from the section and remove any instances of these controls in your pages.

    Oh goodie, let me just go back and do that and undo my previous days work. Apparently there will be a fix in the near future, but for now there's a bandaid available.

    --
    Wax-Museum Fire Results In Hundreds Of New Danny DeVito Statues
  9. Re:dont bash it before you tried it by billDCat · · Score: 2, Informative

    I didn't say it was tied to IE, I know they are supporting other browsers, and are supporting Mac OS. If you re-read my post, I said it was tied to .NET, which is the server part of which you speak.