ASP.NET AJAX 1.0 RC Feature Matrix

ASP.NET AJAX has been factored into two separate downloads in preparation for the scheduled v1.0 release in January:

• ASP.NET AJAX 1.0 — Provides the core ASP.NET 2.0 AJAX Extensions and Microsoft AJAX Library for creating AJAX-style applications with either server-centric or client-centric development models. At final release, this package will be fully supported by Microsoft Premier Support Services.
• ASP.NET 2.0 AJAX Futures December CTP — Provides features that extend the core ASP.NET AJAX 1.0 platform with additional functionality that remains under development. This package enhances the depth and breadth of the platform and introduces new ideas and concepts. Each release of this package is supported by the vibrant ASP.NET AJAX developer community and includes a Go-Live license for use in production environments.

For more details about changes and assistance migrating from the earlier CTP releases to the ASP.NET AJAX 1.0 RC, see the Changes between the ASP.NET AJAX (“Atlas”) CTP and the ASP.NET AJAX 1.0 RC whitepaper (also available as a Word document and a PDF document).

Feature	ASP.NET AJAX 1.0	ASP.NET AJAX CTP
Server features
Asynchronous client-to-server networking	X
Authentication as a Web service	X
AutoCompleteExtender class		X
ControlExtender class	X
Cross-browser Web Parts drag-and-drop		X
DragOverlayExtender control		X
PopupExtender class		X
Profile as a Web service	X
ScriptManager and ScriptManagerProxy controls	X
Static page methods as Web services	X
Timer control	X
UpdatePanel control	X
UpdateProgress control	X
Client Features
Actions components		X
Authentication for JavaScript	X
AutoCompleteBehavior class		X
BatchResponse class		X
Behavior class	X
Binding component		X
Button control		X
Calling .asmx Web services from JavaScript	X
Checkbox control		X
Click behavior		X
Component class	X
Control class	X
Counter class		X
Cross-browser Web Parts		X
Data control		X
Debug class	X
DragDropList control		X
DragDropManager component		X
DraggableListItem control		X
FadeAnimation component		X
Floating behavior	X
Hover behavior		X
Hyperlink control		X
Image control		X
Input control		X
JavaScript Array type extensions	X
JavaScript Boolean type extensions	X
JavaScript Error type extensions	X
JavaScript Number type extensions	X
JavaScript Object type extensions	X
JavaScript String type extensions	X
JavaScript localization	X
JavaScript globalization	X
JSON serialization	X
Label control		X
Layout behavior		X
Opacity behavior		X
Popup behavior		X
Profile for JavaScript	X
Selector control		X
ServiceMethodRequest class		X
Sys.Data and Sys.UI.Data namespaces		X
Textbox control		X
Timer control		X
Trace class	X
Validator controls		X
xml-script support		X

Visual Studio 2005 Service Pack 1 (SP1) Released

Visual Studio 2005 Service Pack 1 (SP1) Released

Visual Studio shipped the final release of VS 2005 SP1 yesterday. It is available for immediate download in all 10 languages (English, French, Spanish, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Russian, and both traditional and simplified Chinese). You can download and install it here.

This SP release is a pretty major service pack, and incorporates a lot of bug-fixes and feedback from customers. Included built-in with the service pack is support for VS 2005 Web Application Projects (which we also made available as a separate download back in May). It also contains a number of design-time performance optimizations and fixes across the product.

Some Suggestions on Installing the Service Pack

The service pack itself is a fairly large download (431Mb), and can take 30-90 minutes to update your Visual Studio 2005 installation depending on which versions of VS you have installed, and what features are enabled. So you should plan ahead and not expect it to be a few second operation (note: it is a good task to kick off before lunch or in the evening).

A few suggestions/comments on the setup process:

1) Before starting the SP1 upgrade make sure you first uninstall the standalone VS 2005 Web Application Project download if you've installed that on your system. You'll no longer need this as support for it is built-in to SP1, and the SP1 installer will block and make you uninstall it if you have it installed. Your existing web application project files will continue to work just fine - so you won't need to-do anything to update them to work with SP1.

2) SP1 will run the upgrade patching process on each copy of Visual Studio 2005 it finds on your system. So if you have VS 2005 Professional, Visual Web Developer Express, and Visual Basic Express on your system, it will run the patching process 3 times (since each of these installs have separate copies of some files). If you aren't using all of these versions on your system, you might want to uninstall some of them - both to save yourself some disk space as well as to speed up the SP1 install process.

3) SP1 will patch/update all files/features in VS 2005 that you have installed. Sometimes I just click "install everything" when I setup VS 2005, in which case I get a lot of features that I often don't use (for example: some of the C++ header/lib sources for ATL, MFC, etc). What I've seen on my personal system is that when I only have the features I use installed, the SP1 upgrade process takes about 15 minutes end to end. But with everything it can take closer to 45-50 minutes. You might want to consider unchecking certain features of VS if you aren't using them and want to both save some disk space as well as speed up the SP1 install process.

One last built performance suggestion

SP1 does include a number of build performance improvements (for both VB and C#). For suggestions on how to optimize Web Site and Web Project build performance with VS 2005, I also highly recommend you check out my optimizing build performance blog post here. This will help you optimize your build times significantly for both RTM and SP1 systems.

Hope this helps,

Scott

P.S. Some people have noticed that my pictures and sample downloads on my site are missing at the moment. Unfortunately the Puget Sound region was hit by a really bad storm last night, and all electrical power was knocked out in the area shortly before 1am (exactly 3 minutes after I finished my ASP.NET AJAX RC post last night - I hit submit just in time ). Both my house and the Microsoft campus are without power at the moment, which means the server hosting my pictures/downloads is not running. They are hoping to get us power again in the next few days, at which time my server will (fingers crossed) come back up. Until then I'm hanging out in a very crowded Starbucks for heat/light and will also be sporadic on email. Sorry in advance for any delays.

Destination Microsoft !!!

Destination Microsoft !!!

So, where have I been all these days? I know I have been putting up some posts with regard to IndiMix, .NET Framework 3.0 etc., but havent been much active in this blog of late.Well, October 2006, I joined the blue ocean. Yes, I joined Microsoft Corporation, India. I have paved my career all these days on the Microsoft Technologies and have worked for companies ranging from start-ups, mid size to enterprise Top Tier companies, but working for Microsoft has been my dream all these years.I remember, winking at the Microsoft logo at their offices (notice that I have put it slanting as they do) whenever I happen to visit their offices while I was a vendor, an MVP and for various other reasons.So, what do I do at Microsoft?I work as a Developer Evangelist, talking about technology to the developer community. My primary job is to work with the Web Community and help them unleash the Next Generation Web Technologies from Microsoft.What does this mean for you?Well, I am excited to be able to share with you all the latest information and get more authoritative information than I used to do all these days.I am available still for your queries, emails and If you manage to drop by the Microsoft Office, in Hyderabad, just pull me so that we can catch up.Before I conclude, wanted to mention that I am super excited about my path ahead. Though the post title says "Destination Microsoft", its still only a beginning of my journey in this "Blue Ocean" and I hope to help the community better for a long time to come.Moral of the postIf you have the dreams and aspirations, catching them up is just a matter of time.Cheers !!!