Asp.net 3.5 New Feature

New Features in ASP.NET 3.5 ASP.NET AJAX

In ASP.NET 2.0, ASP.NET AJAX was used as an extension to it. You had to download the extensions and install it. However in ASP.NET 3.5, ASP.NET AJAX is integrated into the .NET Framework, thereby making the process of building cool user interfaces easier and intuitive.

The integration between webparts and the update panel is much smoother. Another noticeable feature is that you can now add ASP.NET AJAX Control Extenders to the toolbox in VS2008. Even though this is an IDE specific feature, however I feel it deserves a mention over here for developers, who had to add extenders using source view earlier. It is also worth noting that Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) now supports JSON along with other standard protocols like SOAP, RSS and POX.

LINQ (Language Integrated Query) adds native data querying capability to C# and VB.NET along with the compiler and Intellisense support. LINQ is a component of .NET 3.5. LINQ defines operators that allow you to code your query in a consistent manner over databases, objects and XML. The ASP.NET LinqDataSource control allows you to use LINQ to filter, order and group data before binding to the List controls.You can learn more about LINQ over here.

The ListView and DataPager are new controls added along with a new datasource control called the LinqDataSource.