I spent quite a few words on the XMLHttpRequest object and its expected behavior, but I still
owe you a practical demonstration of the object’s capabilities. In this section, I’ll cover the
members of the component, the actions it can perform, and details of the syntax.
As mentioned, the XML in the name of the component means little and in no way limits the
capabilities of the component. In spite of the XML prefix, you can use the object as a true automation
engine for executing and controlling HTTP requests, from client code generated by
ASP.NET pages or the Windows shell, or Visual Basic 6.0 or C++ unmanaged applications. Using
the XMLHttpRequest COM object from within .NET applications is nonsensical, as you can find
similar functionality in the folds of the System.Net namespace in the .NET Framework.
Important : If you’re going to use Microsoft ASP.NET AJAX Extensions or any other AJAXlike
framework for building your applications, you’ll hardly hear about the XMLHttpRequest
object, much less use it directly in your own code. ASP.NET AJAX Extensions completely
encapsulates this object and shields page authors and application designers from it. You
don’t need to know about XMLHttpRequest to write great AJAX applications, no matter how
complex and sophisticated they are. However, knowing the fundamentals of XMLHttpRequest
can lead you to a better and more thorough understanding of the platform and to more
effective diagnoses of problems.
