Microsoft ASP.NET Futures

The Microsoft ASP.NET Futures May 2007 (“Futures”) release contains an early developer preview of features providing a wide range of new functionality for both ASP.NET and Silverlight. The Futures release includes early experimental versions of features currently being considered for future versions of ASP.NET and the .NET Framework. The Futures releases assume prior knowledge of the core features of ASP.NET including the previous ASP.NET AJAX Futures January CTP.

Download the ASP.NET Futures (May 2007) Release

Quickstarts

What’s in the Futures Release?

ASP.NET Futures includes a number of new, innovative solutions that help developers become more productive and enables them to create better user experiences for their customers. Features include:

ASP.NET AJAX Futures

The new release includes support for managing browser history (Back button support), selecting elements by CSS selectors or classes, and information on accessing “Astoria” Web data services.

Silverlight Controls for ASP.NET

You can integrate the rich behavior of Microsoft® Silverlight™ into your Web application by using two new ASP.NET server controls: a Media server control that enables you to easily integrate media sources such as audio (WMA) and video (WMV) into your Web application, and a XAML server control that enables you to reference your own XAML and associated JavaScript files.

Dynamic Data Controls for ASP.NET

Dynamic data controls are a set of ASP.NET server controls that obtain database schema information at run time, provide default display formats according to common user expectations, and enable you to easily customize those formats. Watch a video showing how to build a task list application using the Dynamic Data Controls from the ASP.NET Futures Release.

ASP.NET Application Services

New services for ASP.NET enable you to add search to your ASP.NET Web applications, using a commercial search engine’s API (such as Windows Live Search) and custom search providers. You can also publish custom and dynamic sitemaps that are configured to assist search engine crawlers. A new service lets you capture JavaScript errors and report them to server-based ASP.NET code.

Dynamic Languages Support in ASP.NET

In ths release, support for dynamic languages in ASP.NET expands on the earlier support for IronPython for ASP.NET. Support for dynamic languages in ASP.NET is built on the Dynamic Language Runtime (DLR), a new platform currently under development at Microsoft. The DLR simplifies hosting dynamic languages on the Common Language Runtime.

Two dynamic languages are now hosted on the DLR: IronPython and Managed JScript.

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