1.2. Atlas and ASP.NETAlthough Atlas provides a host of benefits to the client script programmer who is creating Ajax applications, Atlas is not just about writing JavaScript and making asynchronous calls to the server. Since Atlas was created by the ASP.NET team, it's no surprise that a prominent Atlas feature is a server framework that is integrated with (and requires) ASP.NET 2.0. As with ASP.NET itself, one of the goals of Atlas is to deliver functionalityin this case, the benefits of Ajaxwithout requiring mastery of the technologies that make it work. Atlas can manage Ajax functionality for you in much the way that ASP.NET manages HTTP functionality such as postbacks, state management, and the client script required to make ASP.NET all "just work." In addition, on the server side, Atlas works as part of ASP.NET, and can take advantage of ASP.NET features. Atlas controls can interact with ASP.NET controls and components and with the page life cycle. You can link Atlas to ASP.NET 2.0 features like sessions and profiles, so you can take advantage of these types of capabilities on the client. Also, with Atlas and ASP.NET, you can reach beyond the page to special web services, and to web services and third-party APIs that are outside the domain and can't be directly accessed from the client. Key elements of the Atlas server framework include:
|