RadAjax borrows the original idea for codeless centralized configuration of AJAX relations and uses the standard Microsoft ASP.NET AJAX engine.

In the core of Telerik RadAjax is a patent-pending technology, which uses the Microsoft ASP.NET AJAX engine to make selected controls on the page perform AJAX callbacks instead of traditional postbacks. The AJAX-enabled controls are not merely rendered with callbacks, but preserve their interaction with the server and relations with the other controls on the page. In fact, ajaxified controls do not really know that they are working with callbacks instead of postbacks.

One inconvenience of Microsoft ASP.NET AJAX you have to place UpdatePanels around areas that need to be updated, set triggers, or manually invoke AJAX requests. Thanks to Telerik RadAjax this problem is eliminated -you only have to drag-and-drop the AJAX Manager on the page, tick the respective checkboxes in the dialog, and hit F5. You application is now AJAX-enabled using the standard Microsoft ASP.NET AJAX engine.

Telerik RadAjax offers a completely codeless approach for AJAX-enabling existing or new web applications, using Microsoft ASP.NET AJAX engine. Postback requests of selected elements are automatically replaced with AJAX callbacks so that you don't have to attach custom JavaScript functions to page elements and invoke AJAX requests manually.

One of the greatest shortcomings of the AJAX applications and components is the inability to handle the Back/Forward buttons and browser History. Telerik RadAjax successfully addresses these issues (currently under IE only but we are working on solutions for Gecko-based browsers as well).

The Telerik RadAjax engine can AJAX-enable any of the standard controls shipped with Visual Studio 2003 and 2005 and well as all of the controls included in the Telerik suite for ASP.NET. Most 3rd party controls are also supported, however due to some specifics of certain implementations full compatibility is impossible. See a live demo.

Most AJAX-enabling products offer just limited AJAX capabilities, allowing you to merely load/update a control with a callback. Those solutions, however, do not send form values to the server for processing, or do not preserve the ASP.NET page lifecycle. As a result you can implement only a limited number of scenarios. Telerik RadAjax on the other hand can cover any scenario that can be implemented with the traditional postback mechanism. As a result, you can build very sophisticated applications, similar to Outlook Web Access or the Telerik HelpDesk sample.