New Release [0.6.3] - WebMethods have landed

There is an update to this blog and release...

Some people have existing JavaScript Ajax code where they want to start using a fully fledged Managed Ajax Framework, but in a transition phase they still need to use their "custom JavaScript" for a period. Or they have an existing JavaScript widget which they want to bind together with Ra-Ajax somehow...


For the cases when you really need to phone home...

For such projects a very common scenario is to use something defined as WebMethods. A WebMethod is basically just being able to call a server-side method from JavaScript and have the framework take care of everything for you. Ra-Ajax now supports WebMethods! :)

See the WebMethod Ajax Sample...

They're not 100% finished, like for instance we still haven't created support for calling a WebMethod inside a UserControl or a MasterPage, but at least it's a beginning. And we'll be focusing on finishing this before moving on to other areas ;)
(Unless some brilliant user in the community creates a patch for us before we manage to do this ;)

A nice feature of our WebMethods is that they also live through the entire Ra-Ajax life-cycle. This means that you can do whatever you wish from them, including creating server-side controls, setting properties of existing ones and so on. They're basically "pure Ra-Ajax 'controls'" by themselves. So I think you'll find them a nice addition to Ra-Ajax. Also the server-side methods doesn't need to be public, they can be private or anything you need. Though they MUST be marked with the WebMethod attribute...

So anyway, WebMethods are hereby officially (all though quite immaturely) supported in Ra-Ajax...

Ohh yeah, almost forgot, you can now also have nested menus, take a look at our Menu Sample (expand Options and Configuration)

Ohh yeah (II), to download use the source (Luke ;)

Ohh yeah (III), Rick Gibson, our latest contribution to the evangelizers and devs have compiled a nice description for SVN newbies who don't want to wait a full week for our next release (we've had more than one release per week lately ;) but rather access the source directly from our SVN repository. Read Rick's Intro to SVN and Ra-Ajax here. Thank you Rick :)


Have fun :)

Thomas