28 Part I ASP.NET AJAX Building Blocks

The ComfortASP.NET framework refers to this technique as “selective update;” but in the end
it is just another term to indicate what ASP.NET AJAX calls “partial rendering.” (We’ll cover
partial rendering in Chapter 4.)

Using ComfortASP.NET couldn’t be easier and faster. It only requires you to tweak the
web.config file to add an HTTP handler for ASP.NET requests and add a manager control to
each page you intend to expand with AJAX capabilities. The manager control features a few
interesting properties such as compression, automatic form disabling during postback, and
request timeout handling.

Taken alone, the manager control works on the page as a whole. The framework also includes
a PanelUpdater control for you to selectively update specific portions (panels) of the page. You
can learn more about the ComfortASP.NET Framework at http://www.comfortasp.de/.