A key factor for the relatively slow adoption of the AJAX development technique is the fact that it relatively complex and requires advanced coding skills. The client-side scripting tends to be particularly intricate and naturally difficult for most developers.
The Telerik RadAjax framework is built with that idea in mind and offers a completely codeless development experience when building AJAX-enabling applications. Both the client- and server-side parts of the AJAX engine are encapsulated in a component model (AJAX Manager and AJAX Panel), which only have to be configured using Visual Studio design mode.
The patent-pending Click-and-Go™ technology allows you to define all AJAX relations on the page (which controls initiate AJAX requests and which controls are respectively updated) using a single dialog. Then all postback requests made by the controls you select as AJAX initiators will be automatically replaced with AJAX ajax requests. No other modification to your application will be necessary and not a single line of client- or server-side code will need to be written. (Watch a video)
In contrast, other AJAX frameworks offer simply a generic ajax initiating control. From there on you have to manually write custom JavaScript functions that call the "ajax" method of this control, and attach the JavaScript functions to the various events of the controls that you need to AJAX enable.
Consider you need to AJAX-enable the standard ASP.NET calendar. This control renders a __doPostBack() functions for every day of the current month as well as for the previous- and next-month buttons. So you will generally have to do the following:
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write a custom JavaScript function that calls the "Makeajax" method of the generic ajax control with the respective parameters
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override the DayRender event of the calendar so that for each day you call the this custom JavaScript function instead of the __doPostBack function of the calendar
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since the SelectionChanged event of the calendar will not be fired, you have to move the server-side code that is executed on SelectionChanged event of the calendar to the "ajax" server event of the generic ajax control
Now think about complex real-life applications with numerous controls and AJAX relations, like the Telerik HelpDesk sample. Implementing AJAX in the above mentioned manner will be if not impossible then definitely not worth the efforts. Moreover, this approach will break the ASP.NET page lifecycle, which can cause problems to your application.
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