Is there anything out there that explains the rules - but doesn't get to technical? I love the controls but so far I haven't been able to use them in the real world.

Everything is fine as long as the scenario is simple (they always work in the videos!) but as soon as I try to fit them into more complex pages they invariably throw some error. Basically I can't combine update panels, buttons, dynamic updates, position and other stuff in a confident way.

I'm so wary now that I think twice about using a control from the toolkit. Initially it seems that one of the controls would be perfect - but 9 times out of 10 I spend hours trying to understand why it errors and eventually remove it - I need to finish the project!

I have the latest versions.

I'll persevere but it looks like a steep learning curve.

Mark.  

After using ASP.NET ATLAS/AJAX in a production environment for close to a year ...  

I don't use most controls in the toolkit for many reasons. One of them is that most of these controls are stricktly client-side and they do not interact well with the server side. For example, there is a new AutoComplete control that works good but it doesn't provide a way to call back the server when an item is selected from the list! I was so much expecting the Tab control, but when it came I noticed that it doesn't work with the Visual Studio page designer, so you have to go to the code view if you want to use it.

Honestly I don't think there is something for dummies in the AJAX Toolkit, unless you are doing really basic pages. It's very technical, the learning curve is 70 degrees steep, documentation is still not easy to reach and the features do not fit well in many scenarios.

But still I beleive it's a big  and it has a bunch of great free features. I do love the AJAX extensions like the UpdatePanel and Timer Control.

So my advice to anyone would be ... if you are seriously going to get into AJAX make sure you have plenty of extra time for your project.

Neutrino

I just thought I'd have one more go! I've got a panel that is absolutely positioned and initially invisible. It pops up in the middle of the screen when the user clicks on an icon in the toolbar.

It would be great if the panel could be dragged around - so add a dragpanel extender! Fingers crossed this time.................. Doh! Now when the OK button on the panel is clicked to make it invisible again - an extra line break appears.

Someone will write a book soon - I hope.

 Mark

Just checked Firefox - no extra line. Problems with IE6 box model? Unfortunately the backend company users all have IE6 and probably will stick with it for at least 2 years.