Download Microsoft AJAX Library Cheat Sheets!

As promised, I’ve compiled “cheat sheets” for JavaScript base type extensions: Array, Boolean, Date, Error, Number, Object, and String.

It took longer than I anticipated. Documentation is pretty darn good, but I had to work through some inconsistencies, ambiguous wording and incorrect samples. For example, the Date Type Extensions one took the longest. Documentation points to the Standard DateTime Format Strings on MSDN, but the AJAX Library does not support them all. I had to look at the source code and figure out which formats were supported. Same goes for the Number Type Extensions. I’ve made an attempt to write a clear and concise sample where one was missing.

Feedback

I’ve proofread the cheat sheets numerous times, and, for the sake of brevity, took something out with each iteration. I’d love to hear your feedback, and, as announcements in public transportation in NY go, “If you see something, say something.”

Download here or click the image.

PDF Readers

Jason and James pointed out that the PDFs looked odd in Foxit Reader. Indeed, they do. I bitched about Word as a publishing tool before, but I don’t own a full version of Acrobat, so I used Word 2007 to publish PDFs.

I downloaded Acrobat Reader 8, and I have to say Adobe seems to have gotten their act together. The reader loads fast and without annoying splash screens. Still, I’ll see if I can figure this out.

Moving on

The Type Class is next, and I will probably do one on tracing and debugging. What else in the MS AJAX Library would you like to see dissected into a one-pager?

Update: Users of Foxit Reader, see this follow-up.

Very cool! Thanks a bunch for putting these together (what are you using to create them BTW?).

I just pointed people at them here: http://weblogs.asp.net/scottgu/archive/2007/01/10/download-asp-net-ajax-pdf-cheat-sheets.aspx

Thanks,

Scott

Great job !

Thanks :)

Hi,

Great work. I just thought I'd let you know that for some reason, these pdf's dont seem to work with foxit reader - they have blacked out areas all over the place.

Matt.

These are great. Many thanks for putting these together, it's very very useful and will help a great deal!

they don't work in foxit reader :(

Thanks for your efforts guys, the sheets are very interesting and handy. Could also be interesting to attaching sample projects as well.

How about adding some useful MS AJAX specific funtions as well. e.g instead of using document.getElementById("something"), we can now use $get("something").

A list of these kind of methods/fuctions/properties would be useful as well, no?

not readable in foxit reader :(

Hey, great work!!!

I agree with #7, though! Please use AJAX functions instead of the regular javascript ones.
If there's one thing I don't like is that many microsoft tutorials also use the javascript functions, as if the groups that develop the tutorials and the actual framework were not in sync. I know that that's not true, because Scott creates many of those tutorials (and you can't get any closer to the framework than Scott, right?), but it is really strange.

Keep the Cheat sheets coming! :)

Good Job - Thanks.

Keep them coming! :)

@ScottGu: Thanks, Scott! I use Word 2007 since it has a free PDF exporter. It seems, though, fonts are embedded in some funky way that Foxit Reader doesn't display them correctly.

@Rachit and Eduardo: Yep, I'll hunt down and list some useful shortcuts and classes (Sys.UI.DomEvent, Sys.UI.DomElement, for example)

milan: try using PrimoPDF print driver and see if that does a better job embedding the fonts, etc.

These are great, Thanks!

I noticed a slight misspelling in the footer, "Based om Microsoft..."

These are an excellent resource. If you are using Word to create these, have you tried using XPS format. That would be another option instead of using PDF.

I use the free Cute PDF to make PDFs from anything that will print, it might be an alternative to Office.
www.cutepdf.com/Products/CutePDF/writer.asp

@Tim: great idea! I installed PrimoPDF, and it does produce something Foxit can view and print. I still don't understand why it rotates a document on its side, which will be annoying for viewing it on the screen. I'll play with it some more.

@Ryan: thanks for pointing it out.

@Mike: I didn't think of it, but it's a great idea, too. Now that XPS is well supported in XP and Vista, it would be interesting to try both XPS and PDF.

Superb Guys! BTW, the AJAX Class Browser @ http://weblogs.asp.net/leftslipper/archive/2006/11/21/ASP.NET-AJAX-JavaScript-Class-Browser.aspx is probably not news to you; however, may be unknown to others. I thought this would be a good place to repost, because I'm sure this post will experience some significant traffic.

Thanks again,
-Dan

Hi,
Thanks! this will come very handy.
Keep the cheat sheets coming!...

Milan... If you are still looking into creating PDF's, try giving PDFCreator a try:

http://sourceforge.net/projects/pdfcreator/

I use from Excel and Document Imaging software. Thanks for working on creating these AJAX sheets

Great work
I love it

Thank you Milan Negovan and thank you ScottGu that you pointed this resource to me.

Thanks! Extremely helpful!
I also spread the word about your work on the local .Net users group (http://ronua.ro/CS/forums/12570/ShowThread.aspx#12570 is in romanian).
Keep on the good work!

Try using the free OpenOffice.org writer instead of Word. It reads most Word documents perfectly, and has an "Export PDF" choice under the file menu.

Great cheat sheets btw! Thanks!

Milan, Great Job! it helps a lot as quick and easy reference. Thank You So Much

Eh, pa Milane.. Car si!

Great idea, Milan!!! Thanks for taking the time to put this up. This will be very 'handy'...

They're up on the wall ;)

String.trimEnd() and String.trimStart() use value.trim() instead of the respective method. It would seem to me like it should be:
var myString = " A string ";
myString = myString.trimEnd();
// myString = " A string"
var myString = " A string ";
myString = myString.trimStart();
// myString = "A string "

Hey, great job!
Thanks a lot.

Great sheets!

Thanks

Excellent blog!

Should save me a few hours!

Nice info. I noticed the Date type format strings on the AJAX documentation site listed with the Sys.CultureInfo.dateTimeFormat Field. I guess you would really have to search extensively to find everything. And there's a numberFormat too.

Great job !! thanks

Milane, thanks for great work.

Just what the doctor ordered, I've added a link on my blog to here, I'm sure you don't mind :) @ http://neilkilbride.blogspot.com/2007/11/ms-aspnet-ajax-cheat-sheets.html

Neil, no, I don't mind. :)

Hi Milan,
I know I am late for the party !!!
But, a very good work :)
Please keep it up.

wish you Merry X-Mas and Very Happy New Year ahead....

Thank you!:)

Thanks for these cheat sheet. They are lifesavers.