Microsoft AJAX Library 3.5 SP1 Readme

Overview

For AJAX development, the Microsoft AJAX Library package contains the complete set of client JavaScript resources for ASP.NET AJAX client framework components in ASP.NET 3.5 SP1. The Microsoft AJAX Library is primarily intended for these scenarios:

Building client-centric AJAX applications on any platform and with any server-based technology, including those that have no dependency on ASP.NET, such as PHP and ColdFusion.
In ASP.NET AJAX applications, using the Microsoft AJAX JavaScript runtime from the file system and not from embedded resources. The ScriptPath property of the ScriptManager class can be used for this purpose.

Note For ASP.NET users, the Microsoft AJAX Library includes the JavaScript resource files that are available to ASP.NET pages that contain a ScriptManager server control.

New feature

The Microsoft Ajax Library 3.5 SP1 adds browser history support (back button management). More details about this feature can be found here:

Managing Browser History Using Client Script: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc488538.aspx
Sys.Application.addHistoryPoint: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc488025.aspx
Sys.Application.navigate event: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc488024.aspx

In order to allow the browser history feature without using the server-side ScriptManager control, it is necessary to add the following markup into the page for Internet Explorer versions before 8:
<iframe id="__historyFrame" src="/System.Web.Extensions/3.5.0.0/3.5.30729.1/empty.htm" style="display:none;"></iframe>
And the following for Safari 2:
<input type="text" id="__history" style="display:none"/>

Supported Browsers

The Microsoft AJAX Library package supports the following browsers:

Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.0 and 7.0
Mozilla Firefox 1.5, 2.0 and 3.0
Apple Safari 3.0
Opera 9.5

Useful Links

Community Web site: http://www.asp.net
Download location: http://www.asp.net/ajax/downloads/
Documentation: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb397536.aspx
Community Forum: http://forums.asp.net/1007.aspx