Chapter 1. Atlas, Ajax, and ASP.NET

This book is about Atlas, the code name for a collection of new Microsoft technologies that enable web developers, particularly ASP.NET 2.0 developers, to create web sites with pages that use Ajax more easily. Ajax-style pages provide a richer interface to users, they are more responsive, because the page can react immediately to users, and they can interact more or less immediately with the server. Atlas also includes tools for creating mashups: web applications that combine content from multiple sites, typically using the APIs provided by third-party web services. We'll be exploring all of these capabilities and more throughout the book; this chapter tells you how to get started with Atlas, paints a broad picture of the technologies involved, and explains how Atlas works from an architectural point of view.