Data Conversion / ASP.NET AJAX Controls / Microsoft (Tools & Add-ins, Controls & Components)

What is ASP.NET AJAX? ASP.NET is a part of the Microsoft .NET Framework that enables Web developers to create Web sites and corporate Intranet sites more easily. ASP.NET can be viewed as the next step on from the Microsoft ASP technology where Microsoft first provided Active Server Page (ASP) technology to allow programmers to create Web apps. ASP.NET is a progression from ASP, (initially it was known as ASP+, before being named ASP.NET), in that it is part of the .NET Framework and hence applications built with it are easier to use and maintain, as they are based on the solid .NET Framework component model. Microsoft added AJAX capabilities to the basic ASP.NET technology to help the performance and the user experience of ASP.NET based apps.

AJAX is short for Asynchronous JavaScript and XML and is a technique of using several unrelated technologies together, rather than a technology itself. Microsoft started to add AJAX support, in a project known as ATLAS originally, so that user interaction with Web pages would be more dynamic and responsive. Asynchronous communication allows data to be gathered from a server in the background, without holding up other parts of the application that may cause it to freeze unexpectedly for the user. Another advantage of AJAX is that when data is updated on the Web page, only those parts of the Web page that have changed need to be redrawn, as opposed to Web pages being completely redrawn when they are updated. The data is exchanged between the server and the Web browser in XML (eXtensible Markup Language) format and this XML data can then be presented on a Web page using style sheets and other common approaches to display data in HTML, such as displaying the data using an ASP.NET AJAX control.

What is an ASP.NET AJAX control? An ASP.NET AJAX control is a visual reusable software component that can be added and integrated into a Web page by an ASP.NET AJAX developer. This ASP.NET AJAX component has a visual interface and can be used to enter data, display data, visualize data or allow the user to control the ASP.NET AJAX application in some way.

In this ASP.NET AJAX controls gallery you will find a wide variety of ASP.NET AJAX custom controls that you can download, review, try and buy for your app. For example, in the gallery you will find a ASP.NET AJAX resizer control that provides resizing capabilities for other Web controls, such as Microsoft's Panel and also HTML div and table elements. This ASP.NET AJAX control therefore allows your users to resize the Web page proportionally inside their browser. There is also a wide selection of ASP.NET AJAX datagrids and ASP.NET charting controls that will allow you to create data input and output apps, as well as extensive ASP.NET AJAX gauges & ASP.NET AJAX dials that will allow you create great ASP.NET AJAX dashboards or instrumentation panel mash ups for your BI ("biz intel") users.

The Microsoft software platform provides Microsoft developers with an array of Microsoft tools to create solutions for their customers and end users. The Microsoft applications that programmers develop can be created using the MS Visual Studio range of Microsoft development tools, including: MS Visual Basic; MS Visual C# (C-sharp); MS Visual C++ (C Plus Plus), as well as older MS dev languages and MS IDEs, such as MS Visual FoxPro. MS Visual Studio, the Microsoft .NET Framework and the more mature Microsoft COM platform can be extended to provide additional functionality to help MS developers create solutions faster. For example, there is a Microsoft add-in model that allows a Microsoft tool to be extended by other third-party companies, as long as they comply with the Microsoft addin model. As a result you can get a Microsoft extension for Visual Studio to refactor your Visual Basic code to make it easier to read or maintain and to speed up your coding by helping with code layout.  Many Visual Studio add-ins are available, including add ins to do C# code generation for you, giving you a faster way to create an application from scratch.

Microsoft Visual Studio software can also be extended beyond the Microsoft controls and Microsoft components that are supplied within the Visual Studio Integrated Development Environment (VS IDE) to give additional functionality. You can get Microsoft .NET components from companies that specialize in writing Internet communications components or eCommerce components that can be programmed like any other Microsoft component and save you a vast amount of time and money in programming your next Microsoft project. Or you can get an advanced Microsoft control for charting that enables you to draw many more styles of charts and graphs than are available inside the standard Microsoft controls in Visual Studio. These Microsoft components are available in many different forms as: Microsoft DLLs or as a Microsoft library, or as a Microsoft ActiveX or COM component supporting the COM object model or for the .NET Framework as Microsoft WinForms controls or ASP.NET controls, or as Microsoft WPF controls for Windows Presentation Foundation applications or as Silverlight controls for Microsoft Silverlight developers to use.

In this Microsoft marketplace you will find lots of different MS UI controls, as well as non-visual components, Microsoft utilities and Microsoft plug-ins to help you program in Microsoft Visual Basic, Visual C++ & Visual C#. You will also find Microsoft visual tools written by ISVs that can be used by MS Access developers or by MS Office programmers as Office components to be embedded inside their MS VBA or VSTO apps. There are also SharePoint tools and SharePoint Web Parts for MOSS bases apps being created by SharePoint developers. Plus for SQL Server you will find Microsoft utility products that allow you to access or bind to your data sources, compare data, manage your data, backup your data efficiently and much more. There are over 1,800 commercial products compatible with Microsoft software shown here in this Microsoft product gallery and many come with free downloads or free software trials for you to use listed in our Microsoft downloads product pages.