Well, the portal projected was benched and will resurface in the near future. Working on a suite of web apps that will be taking advantage of the Web 2.0 feature set. Along the way, Atlas has come around... with a go license. Our plan was to use it where possible... problems..
- Unfinished - It is an impressive mix, but still being shaken out.
- Limited documentation - There is only one book to date published by O'Reily.
- Limited controls - The toolset provided in the April drop our nice but a work in progress. (Found and logged a bug that will be in the next drop. http://forums.asp.net/thread/1269962.aspx I will say MS is monitoring their forum and reacting proactively.)
- Simple implementations - The tool set and examples are as usual, very primative. They do show off features... but let's face it, I don't think there is an Enterprise app out there using a full blown Atlas implementation. MS is touting the lessons learned with Outlook web, Live.com, Maps, etc. But for the most part, they are using the “Ajax“ styled programming, but I don't think they are using Atlas.
- Hooking into a current web framework. I put together a framework that is to assist with common features - page dirty prompting user when leaving, security token (preventing back, refresh, etc.) For the most part, things were changed to play well, but...we found that putting a few update panels here and there didn't quite do it. Bummer!
We have decided to use ComponentArt's callback features including their grid control. At some point, CA will catch up and support Atlas. Additionally, we may just do regular page posts to save time due to project timelines.
Overall, I think Atlas will prove an excellent development platform in the future. At present time, bleeding edge is an understatement... standing in the middle of a beating heart is more appropriate.
More to come.