These days people would expect a web page with absolute no post back rather than asking for it. Utilising Microsoft update panel is good but it is not always helpful. I recently come across a page and tried to do a quick fix using update panel. The result was randomly throwing error...
The best practice would be using JQuery. There is a very simple way to implement a nice, clean solution which I bet you would prefer it to the Microsoft Update panel. My favorite is $.ajax() although there are more JQuery functions like $.getJson().
Lets walkthrough doing an Ajax call:
Step 1: Make a web service
You would need to write all of your database talk in some methods in a web service. You could pass parameters and return Json object. Webservice should be decorated with [ScriptService] and methods should with [ScriptMethod]
Step 2:
Add Script manager, reference your web service:
<asp:ScriptManager id="scriptManager" runat="server">
<Services>
<asp:ServiceReference Path="/MyWebservice.asmx" />
</Services>
</asp:ScriptManager>
you might leave the script manager in your master page and reference the JQuery library at the same place.
Step 3: Call your web service method using $.ajax():
function MyWebServiceMethod(parameter1, parameter2) {
$.ajax({
type: "POST",
url: "/MyWebService.asmx/WebMethod",
data: "{'parameter1':'" + parameter1 + "','parameter2':'" + parameter2+ "'}",
contentType: "application/json; charset=utf-8",
dataType: "json",
success: function (response) {
if (response.d == 0) {
//Do something
}
},
failure: function (msg) {
alert("There is an error...");
}
});
}
response.d == 0 means it is working properly. However response itself could be an object (Json object) which is returned by the webservice. So you can have for example response.Name, response.Price, etc.