Chapter 4. Controls

In Chapters 2 and 3, you learned the basics of JavaScript and key Ajax technologies, especially asynchronous calls, that support it. As you saw, Ajax itself is no big deal. The effects that Atlas lets you create are possible without Atlas. Everything you do with Atlas creates HTML, CSS, and JavaScript on the client side, which is also possible with any other server-side technology.

The real value of Atlas is that it greatly facilitates development of Ajax-powered applications. Although you can create applications without it, Atlas can make their implementation go faster. Also, with Atlas, your need to master browser-agnostic JavaScript is not a top priority, though, as is always the case, having such skills will give you a much better understanding of how Atlas works its magic.

This chapter covers client-side controls that ship with Atlas and mimic the behavior of ASP.NET web controls. This not only allows for consistent development on both the server and the client, but also supports convenient features like data binding, which you'll explore in Chapter 5.