Using ASP.NET for AJAX in SharePoint Sites: Tread Gently for Now

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We get asked about what we're doing about AJAX quite a lot these days, especially about ASP.NET for AJAX (the technology formerly known as "Atlas"). We *love* AJAX. We actually use AJAX (albeit not ASP.NET for AJAX) all over the place in SharePoint sites. Dropdown menus when clicking on Edit Control Buttom (ECB) menus? AJAX. The Settings menu on a site's home page? AJAX.

As for ASP.NET for AJAX, we love it (we're ASP.NET developers ourselves – how could we not? J), we're excited to see Beta 2 emerge, but given that we started working on Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 and Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 in late 2003, it wasn't possible to engineer those products to ensure 100% compatibility at RTM.

We've been investigating this issue very carefully. We've been working directly with the ASP.NET team to come up with the nicest possible way of giving you the ability to make all of this work. But we're not ready yet. We know some things work fine, other things will work fine once one or both of our teams have done some extra work, and a few (hopefully very few) things won't be supportable in SharePoint sites.

Until we're ready, though, we'd truly appreciate it if you let us work it out rather than trying to hack a solution of your own. It will take some time, but whatever we're able to work out will be something we can support.

Here's what we can say with confidence today:

  • We will, when we release Service Pack 1 for Windows SharePoint Services 3.0, officially support some – but probably not all – uses of ASP.NET in SharePoint site application pages, site pages, and Web Parts. Note that we just shipped WSS 3.0, and no, we don't yet have a target date for SP1. But when it comes out, it will include any work we believe we have to do for this (along with the usual bug fixes, etc.). We'll specifically tell you which ASP.NET for AJAX techniques are supported and which aren't. We'll have tested those scenarios and we'll know what happens with the techniques we wind up supporting.
  • Until we release Service Pack 1 for Windows SharePoint Services 3.0, ASP.NET for AJAX is not supported. You're welcome to experiment with it, but we cannot endorse you using ASP.NET for AJAX on a production deployment of WSS 3.0, MOSS 2007, etc. If you do so anyway, you're in the support business for that kind of thing and/or you'll have to depend on the community for assistance. I, and the team, doesn't wish to be mean about this, but when we say we support something, it's because we've tested it under many, many use cases, know what to expect, etc. We can't say that today.

Besides, you're going to have enough to get done with SharePoint Products and Technologies given that you can download WSS 3.0 on the 16th of this month, aren't you?

Comments

  • Anonymous
    November 16, 2006
    GetFirebug: 1.0 is getting close [Via: Dion Almaer ] Microsoft 2007 Office System downloads (including...

  • Anonymous
    November 16, 2006
    Sad to hear that there is no approach for Ajax inside WSS. What you could do to help us on the field is to give us more sample code of webparts inside WSS and MOSS... Regards Magnus

  • Anonymous
    November 19, 2006
    Using ASP.NET for AJAX in SharePoint Sites Build web parts with AJAX </steve>

  • Anonymous
    November 20, 2006
    Speaking of work arounds, I've got a blog post that describes how to use asp.net client script callback functionality (basically ajax) in web parts. Its really easy and been pretty reliable for me so far... http://www.sharethispoint.com/archive/2006/11/15/Build-web-parts-with-ajax.aspx

  • Anonymous
    January 24, 2007
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    January 24, 2007
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    May 13, 2007
    Интересная подборка ссылок по использованию AJAX в SharePoint. Ссылок очень много, сам еще пересмотрел

  • Anonymous
    November 29, 2007
    I was doing some searches for SP1 and noticed a number of references with anticipation for SP1 awaiting

  • Anonymous
    November 29, 2007
    I was doing some searches for SP1 and noticed a number of references with anticipation for SP1 awaiting