Download Pick: Microsoft Atlas Framework

Microsft recently announced the availability of the Atlas Framework which harnesses the power of Ajax. (Watch out Mr. Clean!) Here is the future of Web Based Applications! ~JK

Atlas" is a free framework for building a new generation of richer, more interactive, highly personalized standards based Web applications.
This new Web development technology from Microsoft integrates client script libraries with the ASP.NET 2.0 server-based development framework. In addition, 'Atlas' offers you the same type of development platform for client-based Web pages that ASP.NET offers for server-based pages. And because 'Atlas' is an extension of ASP.NET, it is fully integrated with server-based services. “Atlas” makes it possible to easily take advantage of AJAX techniques on the Web and enables you to create ASP.NET pages with a rich, responsive UI and server communication. However, "Atlas" isn’t just for ASP.NET. You can take advantage of the rich client framework to easily build client-centric Web applications that integrate with any backend data provider.

The Atlas site is at:
http://atlas.asp.net/Default.aspx?tabid=47

Download it at:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=B01DC501-B3C1-4EC0-93F0-7DAC68D2F787&displaylang=en

Overview

This new Web development technology from Microsoft integrates client script libraries with the ASP.NET 2.0 server-based development framework. In addition, 'Atlas' offers you the same type of development platform for client-based Web pages that ASP.NET offers for server-based pages. And because 'Atlas' is an extension of ASP.NET, it is fully integrated with server-based services. “Atlas” makes it possible to easily take advantage of AJAX techniques on the Web and enables you to create ASP.NET pages with a rich, responsive UI and server communication. However, ‘Atlas’ isn’t just for ASP.NET. You can take advantage of the rich client framework to easily build client-centric Web applications that integrate with any backend data provider.

• Atlas enables you to take full advantage of the capabilities of the browser to deliver richer web experiences that work on any modern browser
  
• Atlas enables ASP.NET developers to enrich their web applications with incredible ease
  
• Atlas includes a rich client-side Javascript framework that enables easy creation and reuse of script components and rich client-side behaviors.
  
• Atlas makes it super easy to consume services from ASP.NET, and to build composite applications from services on the programmable web.