[out of date post... this deals with MS Atlas CTP... which has been change drastically and is now MS Ajax Extensions]
So I’m starting to get up to speed on Atlas. I really don’t want to fight the man, and the proliferation of AJAX toolkits has to stop. So I’ve been considering retiring my toolkit and using Microsoft’s Atlas library instead. Unfortunately I discovered a few things today that scared me.
First of all, many of the examples start out like this... Create a Web Service with 1 method. I originally wrote a post (and was corrected) about how it only supported Web Service calls. Now, this is not entirely correct, but the first way you show someone is often the way that they will sink back to. Atlas is very easy to use; please don't try to bring people into the Kumbaya/SOA religion.
Most of the sites I have built have been Intranets or Extranets. You're not sharing data in those environments. Telling me to use Web Services has security implications. I know that's not necessarily the advice, but the implication is that the easiest way to use Atlas is to use Web Services.... wrong!
I almost feel like my JAAJAX library is complimentary to Atlas. Atlas let's me dynamically update whole areas of the screen. What if I need to extract a piece of info, but not necessarily bind it to a control; this is where JAAJAX comes in. I like MS' whole plan to help me write less code, but unfortunately I don't trust the code that they are writing for me. Remember Palermo's whole Rad kills deal...
They've exposed part of the ASP.NET security model, so you an login via a remote call. They don't appear to be exposing too much which is OK by me, but the idea scares me; and the docs imply that they are not done in this area. Scary!
Technorati Tags: Ajax, Atlas