Advantages and disadvantages of using Ajax update panels in ASP.NET application

asp.net ajax updatepanel
Sauron picture Sauron · Jul 20, 2009 · Viewed 15.6k times · Source

What are the advantages and disadvantages of using Ajax update panels in ASP.NET application. Is there any alternatives available to avoid the use of Ajax update panel?

Answer

Galilyou picture Galilyou · Jul 20, 2009

Advantages:

  1. Easy to use and configure (Well, I don't know of any other advantages!)

Disadvantages:

See here and here
Now for the best part, the alternatives:

Use jQuery's built in support for Ajax to make GET/POST Ajax calls, it's very simple (simpler than the update panel I would say), and absolutely compatible with most browsers!
An example of using one of the many easy ways jQuery provides for doing Ajax calls: 

  $('#anotherContainer').load('/Home/RegularAjaxResource');

This would simply call a server resource (RegularAjaxResource in this case) and display it's returned data on an UI element with id anotherContainer

Related questions

ASP.NET Display "Loading..." message while update panel is updating

Hello I am creating an ASP.NET/C# application I have an update panel that takes time to update. Is there a way to display a "Loading... Please Wait" Message during the time of the calculations? Currently I am using …

Read More
Can't get ScriptManager.RegisterStartupScript in WebControl nested in UpdatePanel to work

I am having what I believe should be a fairly simple problem, but for the life of me I cannot see my problem. The problem is related to ScriptManager.RegisterStartupScript, something I have used many times before. The scenario I …

Read More
ASP.NET UpdatePanel Time Out

I'm making a request from an UpdatePanel that takes more then 90 seconds. I'm getting this timeout error: Microsoft JScript runtime error: Sys.WebForms.PageRequestManagerTimeoutException: The server request timed out. Does anyone know if there is a way to increase the …

Read More