Existing AJAX Frameworks for ASP.NET

Today, quite a few APIs exist to implement AJAX functionality in ASP.NET, and one of these
APIs is already integrated into ASP.NET 2.0. Other APIs come from third-party vendors or take
form from open-source projects. I’ll briefly look at some of these APIs. Note, though, that as
long as ASP.NET is your development environment, the most reasonable choice you can make
is Microsoft ASP.NET AJAX Extensions. However, ASP.NET AJAX Extensions can coexist
pretty well with a large number of the existing alternative AJAX frameworks. ASP.NET AJAX is
not a mutually exclusive choice.

Since early 2005, some aggressive independent software vendors (for example, Telerik,
Infragistics, and ComponentArt) have integrated AJAX functionality into their existing suite
of controls for rapid and rich Web development. In the beginning, each vendor developed its
own internal and proprietary AJAX engine and integrated it with the product. The advent of
ASP.NET AJAX Extensions will likely prompt vendors to offer native ASP.NET AJAX controls
or, at a minimum, provide controls that work seamlessly with ASP.NET AJAX.

Let’s review some of the options you have today for developing AJAX-enabled ASP.NET Web
applications. As you can see, the list is not exhaustive and features libraries from both independent
software vendor (ISV) companies and open-source projects started by outstanding
members of the ASP.NET community