What is the result of server missing AjaxControlToolkit but pages use controls for AJAX

[Justin]

Greetings,

   I am curious as to what I should expect the behavior to be of a page which utilizes a RadAjaxPanel and functions correctly on the dev box (ASP.NET Development Server, VS 2008 .NET 3.5) but it is subsequently deployed to a server that does not have Ajax (AjaxControlTookit etc.) installed or configured properly. Ex. tell would be AjaxControlToolkit.dll not in bin.

   As far as I can tell the ajax simply does not work, but the app continues to work correctly as if the ajax panel(s) had never been. Does this make sense? We are using Q3 2009 wihtout SP1 or SP2. This question is specific to RadAjaxPanel, but also could be 100% the same answer behavior as the out of the box UpdatePanel etc. Unfortunately in my build for the day on the server I only have the one spot where postback is not async like I expect it to be (and it is on my localhost). So I can't go check a second page for the same behavior.

   On localhost I can see the post data has __ASYNCPOST true, and the param is missing for the autopostback request on the server implicating the default of false. Also RadAJAXControlID parameter is missing in post (for just the real server).

Thank-You,
   Justin

[Justin]

I have some more info that is likely related. I have some errors from the browser when I pull the page form the server. rsmSite is  the RadScriptManager. Yesterday I found at least one of the resources involved was MicrosoftAjax.js

Webpage error details

User Agent: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 8.0; Windows NT 6.0; Trident/4.0; SLCC1; .NET CLR 2.0.50727; .NET CLR 3.5.30729; InfoPath.2; .NET CLR 3.0.30729; .NET4.0C)
Timestamp: Wed, 14 Jul 2010 15:07:07 UTC


Message: Syntax error
Line: 3
Char: 1
Code: 0
URI: http://*edited out*/Telerik.Web.UI.WebResource.axd?_TSM_HiddenField_=ctl00_ctl00_rsmSite_HiddenField&compress=1&_TSM_CombinedScripts_=%3b%3bSystem.Web.Extensions%2c+Version%3d3.5.0.0%2c+Culture%3dneutral%2c+PublicKeyToken%3d31bf3856ad364e35%3aen-US%3a1247b7d8-6b6c-419f-a45f-8ff264c90734%3aea597d4b%3ab25378d2%3bTelerik.Web.UI%2c+Version%3d2009.3.1103.35%2c+Culture%3dneutral%2c+PublicKeyToken%3d121fae78165ba3d4%3aen-US%3a4552b812-caf7-4129-9b53-8f199b5bce6c%3a16e4e7cd%3af7645509%3aed16cbdc%3a24ee1bba%3ae330518b%3a1e771326%3ac8618e41


Message: 'Sys' is undefined
Line: 61
Char: 1
Code: 0
URI: http://*edited out*/


Message: 'Sys' is undefined
Line: 409
Char: 90
Code: 0
URI: http://*edited out*/

[Nikolay Rusev]

Hello Justin,

You should experience similar behavior regardless whether you are using RadAjaxPanel or UpdatePanel in this scenario. RadAjaxPanel does not have dependencies on AjaxControlToolkit.

Bellow articles explains how you can troubleshoot the erroneous behavior that you are experiencing:
http://www.telerik.com/help/aspnet-ajax/web-resources-troubleshooting.html
http://www.telerik.com/help/aspnet-ajax/troubleshooting.html

Regards,
Nikolay
the Telerik team

[Justin]

Thanks for the links, useful. One thing they could have added is a lot like a final note on RadUploadProgressHandler.ashx, is that depending on security configuration of the site you need:

<location path="Telerik.Web.UI.WebResource.axd">
   <system.web>
      <authorization>
         <allow users="*"/>
      </authorization>
   </system.web>
</location>

in the configuration element of Web.config. The login page needed MicrosoftAjax.js from the Telerik.Web.UI.WebResource.axd but the server was denying access wanting forms authentication, so you got to them same page (login) and a returnurl was set somewhere to the resource. This was not transparent at all, should have looked at the server logs earlier.

[Nikolay Rusev]

Hello Justin,

We will have that in mind. However it is general knowledge that you must ensure whether handlers are served when authorization is enabled.

Regards,
Nikolay
the Telerik team

[Justin]

I'm confused now, is telerik noting the idea to remove it from some spots like RadProgressHandler documentation because its such general knowlege or is it not quite general enough so it is an idea to add it to other spots like "troubleshooting web resouces?" I think it would be awesome for the documentation to consider entry level ASP.NET developers as well as experienced ones, it'd make them experienced faster! (in terms or real experiences and not quantity of time elapsed holding a job working on a product involving ASP.NET)

I have to give you all commendation on your online documentation, it is great and I use it daily. Its a major reason for choosing telerik, so keep up the awesome work! telerik has tought me a lot about AJAX under the hood and using it in full with increasing mastery, things couldn't be more exciting!

[Nikolay Rusev]

Hello Justin,

It is general knowledge and it should be on of the first in the list when troubleshoot custom handlers/ web resource. However we have added such articles to our documentation to help developers easily find the reason and solution for such errors.

Correct me if I am wrong, but in the article "General Troubleshooting"  for Problem: Using RadControls with RadScriptManager on your login page throws one of the following errors there is exactly the same suggestion as in final note on RadUploadProgressHandler.ashx

Regards,
Nikolay
the Telerik team

[Donna]

Thanks for adding that tip! It solved my problem.