Using a Different Platform

The Microsoft AJAX Library is available as a standalone .zip file. It includes the script files that are sent down to the browser to enable AJAX functionality. You can deploy these files to any web server on any platform. As already discussed, script files are not versioned like a binary is, so the .zip file includes a path with version information. If you follow this convention when deploying the files, you can easily migrate to a new version of the AJAX Library when it becomes available. The versions are backward-compatible, so you can also run one version of scripts alongside a newer version if some new behavior or change requires updating code. This versioning is helpful in making it easy to switch between versions after validating functionality and features.

When it comes to deployment, if you aren’t using any of the server features of ASP.NET AJAX, you could just put the Microsoft AJAX Library JavaScript files on the server and have them downloaded to the browser.

The three library files all come in release and debug versions.

MicrosoftAjax.debug.js
MicrosoftAjax.js
MicrosoftAjaxTimer.debug.js
MicrosoftAjaxTimer.js
MicrosoftAjaxWebForms.debug.js
MicrosoftAjaxWebForms.js

The release also includes a large set of files in a Globalization subdirectory for greater reach as well as a readme file and a file called pid.txt, which contains the product identifier that you need to provide if you call in a support question to Microsoft.

The ASP.NET team has validated functionality on Internet Explorer and Firefox as well as Safari. There has been quite a bit of testing on Opera, too, where the support of the Microsoft AJAX Library continues to improve.