Microsoft has unveiled its ASP.Net Ajax 1.0 development tool.
The software provides a graphical user interface that lets developers create web applications based on the Asynchronous JavaScript and XML (Ajax) programming technique.
The company touted the tool as a solution for enterprise developers who wish to build online applications while using tools that hook into the familiar Visual Studio.Net development kit.
"You don't have to buy new tools or learn new programming techniques," claimed Keith Smith, a group program manager for Microsoft's web platform and tools group.
The software is available as a free download. Microsoft offers support services at a fee.
The development tool also ties into Microsoft's ASP.Net control toolkit, a so-called shared source project that provides developers with ready-made application building blocks that developers can use inside their applications. Each control is certified to work on all of the major browsers including Firefox and Opera.
The controls for instance allow for expandable items on a page, three dimensional animations or auto-complete services that pre-populate data entry fields based on a server hosted dictionary.
Developers can access the source code for each control and can distribute the code free of charge.
Microsoft's Ajax tool comes at a time that enterprises are starting to ramp up their use of the web development technique. This has sparked a market for commercial developer tools.
The Ajax tool market is currently dominated by a number of smaller vendors such as Backbase as well as open source projects, including the Dojo Web Toolkit that is currently under development with backing from vendors including AOL, IBM and Sun Microsystems.
Google last May launched the Google Web Toolkit, which allows developers to transform Java applications into Ajax code. The toolkit in December was released under an open source licence.
Smith touted Microsoft technical support as a main advantage over competing offerings, in addition to the similarities with the company's other development tools.