A little over a month ago, Microsoft released the fourth preview of ASP.NET 4.0 AJAX. This is the new release of the Microsoft AJAX Framework that will be released with ASP.NET 4.0. We’re getting closer to the RTM release of .NET 4.0 (hopefully later this year), so I figured this would be a good time to start posting about ASP.NET 4.0 AJAX. There are some very exciting things coming along with ASP.NET 4.0, and the ASP.NET AJAX component is no exception. The best news about ASP.NET AJAX is that you can start using it today without having to wait for the full blown ASP.NET AJAX framework. Keep in mind that these components are still in "preview" mode (meaning no Microsoft support), though they are usable at your own risk. For more information, you can check out the license on CodePlex.
In this post, I’ll be talking about the client templates that can be found in the latest release. Client templates are very powerful. They are a key component for rich client-side applications. Up until now, I have been using jTemplates, a client template solution plugin for jQuery. If you aren’t familiar with jTemplates, check out Dave Ward’s article “Use jQuery and ASP.NET AJAX to build a client side Repeater.” jTemplates is really a nice plugin, but it’s a bit disconnected from the flow of the page. Enter ASP.NET 4.0 AJAX and the DataView control. More...