Resources for What and how NOT to use ASP.NET AJAX?

Question

It's very easy to put an UpdatePanel and have AJAX working. I am looking for resources on how to best use ASP.NET AJAX for maximum performance and security. Resources for best practices, guidance, design patterns, gotachas, pitfalls when using ASP.NET AJAX.

I am not looking for books on ASP.NET AJAX. Amazon lists those.

Answer 1

Dino Esposito's two part article on MSDN Magazine is worth a read, AJAX Application Architecture Part 1 and Part 2. Covers some interesting topics including:

• Optimization Techniques for Partial Rendering
• Weighing Partial Rendering
• Flavors of Services
• JSON Versus XML
• Security Concerns

Answer 2

I really like Dave Ward's stuff on using jQuery and Asp.Net Ajax in unison. Especially his article on Why Asp.Net Ajax Update Panels are dangerous.

Answer 3

From the maximum performance angle, check out ASP.NET Ajax Under-the-hood Secrets, on Codeproject.com.

Subtitled "Performance tips and hard-core tricks that change core runtimes, not for the faint-hearted" it's about "the advantages and disadvantages of Batch calls, Ajax call timeouts, browser call jam problems, ASP.NET 2.0's bug in web service response caching, and so on."

It's a little over my head, but it might be relevant to what you're looking for. Since it's written by Omar Al Zabir, the guy who did Pageflakes, I think we can assume that it's solid advice.