How To: Upgrade an ASP.NET AJAX 1.0 Web Project to .NET Framework 3.5

Visual Studio 2008 includes a new version of ASP.NET AJAX, which provides improvements over the ASP.NET AJAX 1.0 release. This topic describes how to upgrade existing ASP.NET AJAX 1.0 Web sites and Web application projects to use the AJAX support in the .NET Framework 3.5 and Visual Studio 2008.

Upgrading to the New Version of ASP.NET AJAX

To upgrade an ASP.NET AJAX Web site or Web application project

  1. Make a backup copy of the project.

  2. Start Visual Studio 2008.

  3. Open the project. Do one of the following:

    • If you are working with a Web site, in the File menu, click Open Website, and then open the Web site or IIS virtual directory.

    • If you are working with a Web application project, in the File menu, click Open Project, browse to the project file, and then open it.

    The Visual Studio Conversion Wizard starts. Follow the steps in the wizard to upgrade the project.

  4. When Visual Studio 2008 prompts you to upgrade the Web site, click Yes.

Updating the ASP.NET AJAX Control Toolkit Assembly

If your application includes controls or extenders from the ASP.NET AJAX Control Toolkit, you must upgrade to a new version of the Control Toolkit in order to run with the .NET Framework 3.5. You can download the current version of the ASP.NET AJAX 1.0 Control Toolkit from the Codeplex Web site.

Important noteImportant Note:

The Control Toolkit is a community-supported library and is not supported by Microsoft.

To update the ASP.NET AJAX Control Toolkit assembly

  1. Download the current version of the ASP.NET AJAX Control Toolkit for .NET Framework 3.5. The Control Toolkit is available on the Codeplex Web site.

  2. In Windows Explorer, right-click the .zip file for the Control Toolkit, and then click Extract All… .

  3. Extract the contents to a folder named AjaxControlToolkit-Framework3.5 in the same directory.

  4. Copy the AjaxControlToolkit.dll assembly from AjaxControlToolkit-Framework3.5\SampleWebSite\Bin to your application's Bin directory, replacing the earlier version of the Control Toolkit assembly.

You can optionally install the ASP.NET AJAX Control Toolkit controls to the Visual Studio Toolbox.

To install the ASP.NET AJAX Control Toolkit controls to the Toolbox

  1. In the ASP.NET AJAX 1.0 Web site or project, open an ASP.NET Web page (Web Form).

  2. Right-click the Toolbox and then click Add Tab.

  3. Give the new tab a name, such as "ASP.NET AJAX Toolkit 1.0".

  4. Right-click the new tab and then click Choose Items….

    Note

    There might be a delay before this dialog box opens for the first time.

  5. In the Choose Toolbox Items dialog box, click Browse… .

  6. Browse to \AjaxControlToolkit-Framework3.5\SampleWebSite\Bin, select AjaxControlToolkit.dll, and then click Open.

    The controls from the Control Toolkit are selected in the Choose Toolbox Items dialog box.

  7. Click OK

    The controls are added to the Toolbox.

Using AJAX 1.0 Components in an Upgraded Project

A new version of the Microsoft ASP.NET AJAX Control Toolkit is available that is compiled by using the ASP.NET AJAX (System.Web.Extensions) assembly in .NET Framework 3.5. However, your application might include third-party components or assemblies that were compiled by using ASP.NET AJAX 1.0. When you upgrade a Web site to the .NET Framework 3.5, a bindingRedirect section is added to the Web.config file of the ASP.NET AJAX 3.5 application. This section enables third-party pre-compiled components to bind to version 3.5 of the System.Web.Extensions assembly instead of binding to the 1.0 version.

Note

The bindingRedirect section applies only at run time. At design time, the third-party component references version 1.0 of the System.Web.Extensions assembly. In order for the control designer to work, you must install AJAX 1.0. If possible, you should obtain a version of the component that is compiled for version 3.5 of the System.Web.Extensions assembly.

See Also

Tasks

How To: Work with an ASP.NET AJAX 1.0 Web Project in Visual Studio 2008

Concepts

.NET Framework Targeting for Web Sites

Migrating and Converting ASP.NET Web Sites

Overview: Converting Visual Studio Web Sites and Projects to Visual Studio 2008