Scott Guthrie, a general manager in the Microsoft Developer Division broke the news that the ‘Atlas’ framework is the recipient of not just one new name, but three. Microsoft is unveiling its official Atlas technology branding for Asynchronous JavaScript and XML (AJAX) programming on ASP.Net, and will make the software available sooner than planned. The company hopes to ship its Atlas technologies around the end of 2006.
Previously, Microsoft used the code name ASP.Net 'Atlas' to refer to multiple components of technologies designed to assist Web developers with AJAX-style development, a Microsoft representative said. Now, the server-side Atlas functionality, which integrates with ASP.Net, is called ASP.Net 2.0 AJAX Extensions.
According to Jeff Prosise, developers who've worked with Atlas know that it consists of two frameworks, one on the server side and one on the client side. The server-side framework, which is officially titled 'ASP.NET 2.0 AJAX Extensions,' supports the control-based programming model familiar to ASP.NET developers. UpdatePanel, the popular component of Atlas, is part of the server-side framework. Like other server-side components, UpdatePanel emits ‘goo’ that leverages the client-side framework.
The client-side framework, which richens the browser as a development platform while insulating development from browser DOMs and providing a browser-agnostic programming model, will henceforth be known as the 'Microsoft AJAX Library.' Significantly, the client-side framework does not require ASP.NET on the server. PHP developers and ColdFusion developers can leverage the client-side framework almost as easily as ASP.NET developers. They simply write server-side code that emits the same 'goo' as Microsoft's server-side framework.
Development of Atlas was not smooth sailing. An Update Panel feature for page refreshes was beset with reliability problems, according to a presentation at the Microsoft TechEd 2006 conference in Boston in June. Microsoft nonetheless has had interest in Atlas, Microsoft's Scott Guthrie, wrote, "We’ve had an unbelievable amount of interest and excitement around the product, with more than 250,000 downloads this year alone," Guthrie said. "I am excited to announce that we are going to ship this fully supported Atlas 1.0 release on top of ASP.Net 2.0 and ensure that it works with Visual Studio 2005," Guthrie said.
"Over time, we will be moving more features into the fully supported bucket," Guthrie said. The 1.0 Atlas technology will be cross-browser and cross-platform, he added. "Things will get even better next year with Visual Studio Orcas, where we are adding rich JavaScript IntelliSense, debugging and WYSIWYG designer support for the ASP.Net AJAX Extensions within Visual Studio and many other great features to take advantage of," Guthrie said.
Joshua Flanagan on the other hand, was skeptical at first with the re-naming. This is the explanation:
- ASP.NET 7.0 aptly identifies the technology for exactly what it is, the next version of our web developer framework.
- The change in name will not affect the technologies being delivered as part of the product. ASP.NET 7.0 is still comprised of the existing ASP.NET 2.0 components, including DataSource controls, the Provider model, and Master Pages & Themes, as well as new web 2.0 developer-focused innovative technologies like UpdatePanels and JSON serialisation.
- The ASP.NET platform has always been at the core of Atlas, but the Atlas brand didn’t convey this.
- The name conveys the maturity of the platform by emphasising that it has evolved from proven technology in production for over a decade, while also aligning it with the rest of the Web Tools Platform (IIS 7 + IE 7).
Scott Guthrie: 'Atlas' Feature Delivery Plan
To help expedite the schedule and get out a fully supported release this year, we are going to focus on delivering a 'core' set of fully supported functionality. This core set of functionality includes all the common components needed to enable developers to build client-side controls/components, as well as the server-side functionality that provides integration within ASP.NET (including the update-panel and other server controls).
There are features of the current 'Atlas' CTP drops that won’t be in the fully supported 'core' bucket. These features will continue to be available in a separate download and will continue to work on top of the supported 'core' release. We aren’t pulling back from these features at all. We are simply trying to optimise the timing of the first fully supported set of features and also make sure that we have the flexibility to continue to evolve and innovate some features in a more agile fashion (whereas we are trying to 'bake down' the core set of features and avoid having it change dramatically in the future).
We will continue to support a Go-Live license for all features going forward. Enterprise customers who only want to use products backed by a full support agreement can optionally choose to only use those features in the 'core' release.
Over time we will be moving more and more features into the fully supported bucket. We will also be publishing a detailed white paper listing features, release plans, and product changes from the CTPs to help with planning over the next few weeks.
Microsoft plans to have a beta of its Atlas technologies soon, followed by a release candidate.
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