I’m starting work on an ASP.NET web application that needs AJAX capabilities. I want to make sure I pick the right approach that won’t cause problems down the road.
I’ve been looking into different options and found these main approaches:
Option 1: Using UpdatePanel controls from ASP.NET AJAX
Option 2: Combining ASP.NET Web Services with jQuery for client-side requests
Option 3: Setting up custom HTTP handlers and using jQuery to make calls
For the last two options, I’d have the server return data in JSON or XML format instead of full page content.
I need something that has good documentation and proven reliability. Has anyone worked with these different setups? Which one would you recommend for a production application?
I’m particularly interested in hearing about any gotchas or maintenance issues you might have run into with any of these approaches.
I’ve used all three approaches over the years. Web Services with jQuery wins hands down for maintainability. You get cleaner separation of concerns compared to UpdatePanels, which bloat your ViewState and turn into debugging nightmares when they break. Custom HTTP handlers work fine for simple data pulls, but you’ll write more boilerplate code and lose the structure that Web Services give you. JSON serialization is straightforward with Web Services, plus you get solid error handling built in. Tons of documentation out there since everyone uses this approach. One thing - don’t skip error handling. Handle exceptions properly on the server and make sure your AJAX failures fail gracefully on the client.
interesting question! what data are you sendin back and forth? and what’s ur team’s js experience like? that’ll help determine the best approach. i’ve seen devs struggle movin from postback to full ajax - is that somethin ur worried about?
skip the updatepanels, they’re pretty old school. use web api controllers instead; they’re much more modern and cleaner. just set up controller actions to return json and you can use fetch or axios from your frontend.