News

ComponentOne Adds ASP.NET AJAX Support to Studio Enterprise

• By John K. Waters
• October 2, 2006

ComponentOne has just released a new version of its Studio Enterprise toolset for Windows, Web, and mobile application development. Among the new components in this release (v3) is the WebSplitter for ASP.NET, which the company is billing as the first-ever server-side AJAX control. This version also supports Microsoft AJAX interoperability across the entire ASP.NET product line.

Microsoft's AJAX implementation is a free framework for building rich, interactive Web applications. It provides a set of extensions to ASP.NET 2.0 and a client-side JavaScript library for writing Web apps using AJAX techniques.

With this release, the Pittsburgh-based maker of .NET development tools and email self-service solutions joins the growing number of vendors offering support for Microsoft's .NET-based approach to the AJAX-style development.

"We are dedicated to providing our customers with new components and features that support the latest emerging technologies," said the company's Managing Director, Gustavo Eydelsteyn, in a statement. "This mission is demonstrated in our latest release, delivering the first ever server-side Atlas component..."

Also new in this version of ComponentOne Enterprise Studio: WebInput for ASP.NET, a suite of 5 data input controls; SuperToolTip for .NET, which allows developers to add Windows Vista-style elements to .NET applications; NavBar and TopicBar, two new components included in Menus and Toolbars for .NET; AJAX support in WebChart for ASP.NET; and new chart types for Chart for .NET and WebChart for ASP.NET, including cylindrical, cone and pyramid charts.

Microsoft's AJAX framework has the potential to lure .NET developers into the AJAX camp, says Ron Schmelzer, senior analyst and founder of ZapThink, because it leverages much of the existing technology for asynchronous distributed computing they already know. Furthermore, it allows organizations, not only to build distributed applications using browser-based technologies, but also finally to migrate their client-server apps to a richer browser environment.

"What Microsoft brings to the table is the millions of .NET and VB developers who are very familiar with the Microsoft environment, Schmelzer says, "but need to be brought into the AJAX fold. In the past, ActiveX filled the role of client-side logic in the browser, but this role has been diminished significantly by the much more heterogeneous, lighter weight, and wider coding base of JavaScript, XML, and DHTML that forms the core of most AJAX-based systems."

Microsoft is planning to release its own commercial-grade tools for building AJAX-style Web apps by the end of the year. The company has said that it will integrate the AJAX framework into the next version of Visual Studio (code-named "Orcas"), which is due some time next year.

The new release of ComponentOne Studio Enterprise offers more than 200 components for .NET, ASP.NET, Mobile and ActiveX, and it includes a subscription that provides customers with new releases, updates, upgrades, and online support for one full year. To learn more about ComponentOne Studio Enterprise 2006 v3, or to download a free trial version, visit: http://www.componentone.com/enterprise.