With this book, web developers can build engaging and interactive sites and applications using Microsoft's latest web development tools -- ASP.NET 2.0 and the new ASP.NET AJAX framework. You learn to create applications that have all the great tricks you see on popular commercial web sites, such as order forms and the ability to interact with a database. And you can build pages that display information interactively without a page refresh. This straightforward tutorial explains how.

Learning ASP.NET 2.0 with AJAX helps you master the concepts and techniques of Microsoft's tools with plenty of annotated examples, review quizzes, web construction exercises and chapter summaries, so you can practice new skills and test your understanding as you go. With it, you'll learn to:

• Master the fundamental skills of ASP.NET 2.0 to build professional quality web applications



• Integrate new Ajax tools and CSS with ASP.NET 2.0 for flashier and more interactive sites



• Build applications with minimal coding using Visual Studio or its free counterpart, Visual Web Developer



• Connect your site with a database so that users can retrieve, interact and save data



• Debug your application, deal with unexpected problems, and protect your site from malicious users



• Use the community-maintained ASP.NET AJAX Control Toolkit to extend the controls that come with ASP.NET AJAX



• Use personalization tools to give your site a customized look for each user

Ideal for beginning web developers, or those who are new to ASP.NET, this book gets you involved with your own learning through hands-on lessons that are clear and to the point. You get the chance to try out new techniques on the spot. Want to join the world of modern web development? This book will get you started.

Ajax applications should be open yet secure. Far too often security is added as an afterthought. Potential flaws need to be identified and addressed right away. This book explores Ajax and web application security with an eye for dangerous gaps and offers ways that you can plug them before they become a problem. By making security part of the process from the start, you will learn how to build secure Ajax applications and discover how to respond quickly when attacks occur.

Securing Ajax Applications succinctly explains that the same back-and-forth communications that make Ajax so responsive also gives invaders new opportunities to gather data, make creative new requests of your server, and interfere with the communications between you and your customers. This book presents basic security techniques and examines vulnerabilities with JavaScript, XML, JSON, Flash, and other technologies -- vital information that will ultimately save you time and money.

Topics include:

• An overview of the evolving web platform, including APIs, feeds, web services and asynchronous messaging
• Web security basics, including common vulnerabilities, common cures, state management and session management
• How to secure web technologies, such as Ajax, JavaScript, Java applets, Active X controls, plug-ins, Flash and Flex
• How to protect your server, including front-line defense, dealing with application servers, PHP and scripting
• Vulnerabilities among web standards such as HTTP, XML, JSON, RSS, ATOM, REST, and XDOS
• How to secure web services, build secure APIs, and make open mashups secure

Securing Ajax Applications takes on the challenges created by this new generation of web development, and demonstrates why web security isn't just for administrators and back-end programmers any more. It's also for web developers who accept the responsibility that comes with using the new wonders of the Web.

Ajax can bring many advantages to an existing web application without forcing you to redo the whole thing. This book explains how you can add Ajax to enhance, rather than replace, the way your application works. For instance, if you have a traditional web application based on submitting a form to update a table, you can enhance it by adding the capability to update the table with changes to the form fields, without actually having to submit the form. That's just one example.

Adding Ajax is for those of you more interested in extending existing applications than in creating Rich Internet Applications (RIA). You already know the "business-side" of applications-web forms, server-side driven pages, and static content-and now you want to make your web pages livelier, more fun, and much more interactive. This book:

• Provides an overview of Ajax technologies, and the importance of developing a strategy for changing your site before you sit down to code
• Explains the heart and soul of Ajax: how to work with the XMLHttpRequest object
• Introduces and demonstrates several important Ajax libraries, including Prototype, script.aculo.us, rico, Mochikit
• Explores the interactive element that is Ajax, including how to work with events and event handlers that work across browsers
• Introduces the concept of web page as space, and covers three popular approaches to managing web space
• Explains how to make data updates, including adding new data, deleting, and making updates, all from within a single page
• Describes the effects Ajax has on the Web-breaking the back button, losing browser history, dynamic effects that disappear when the page is refreshed, and more
• Covers advanced CSS effects, including drag and drop "scroll bars", pagination, and the use of SVG and the Canvas object
• Explores mashups-Ajax's ability to combine data from different web services in any number of ways, directly in our web pages

You don't need to start over to use Ajax. You can simply add to what you already have. This book explains how.