ASP.Net Ajax Update Panel Quirks

Mainly as a reference for myself, when working with the ASP.Net UpdatePanel remember the following limitations, I have encountered sofar:

• Radiobutton-triggers only work if you set no default value (you can set it from the codebhind) see: http://forums.asp.net/t/1126914.aspx
• Script-blocks don't work if you want it anyway there is a nice solution here: http://weblogs.asp.net/infinitiesloop/archive/2007/09/17/inline-script-inside-an-asp-net-ajax-updatepanel.aspx

For now, I am a big fan of the updatepanel because it gives me the user experience benefits of Ajax without the (architectural) impact.

Microsoft's Ajax Strategy

With only a bugrich codeplex AJAX Toolkit available, professional ASP.Net Developers were forced to count their options outside the Microsoft playfield. Fast amounts of time were and are invested in encorperating Ajax-frameworks into ASP.net. Just think of Backbase, Dojo, Prototype and Yahoo to name a few.

But there is hope If you are a fan of Scott Guthrie it can't be a suprise, Microsoft future direction for their Ajax strategy will be "JQuery". Atleast that is what I expect given the influence that Scott has and the recent beta release of the mvc-framework heavily depending on JQuery.

My experiences with JQuery are amazin: in the very first place it is very very practical. Its amazing what one can accomplish with a few, intuitive, lines of code.

Secondly, the availability of ready-to-use components build on "JQuery" is rapidly increasing.

So my advise: start experimenting with "JQuery" today, and learn the basics.

See: http://www.jquery.com/