Version 3.0.20820
2008-08-20 release of the AJAX Control Toolkit targets the official release of .NET Framework 3.5 SP1 and Visual Studio 2008 SP1.

• AjaxControlToolkit-Framework3.5SP1.zip is the full release package with complete source code to all controls, the test framework, VSI, and more.
• AjaxControlToolkit-Framework3.5SP1-NoSource.zip contains only the sample web site and VSI and is for people who don't need or want the source code for the controls.
• AjaxControlToolkit-Framework3.5SP1-DllOnly.zip contains only the dll (and satellite assemblies) for the toolkit. Use this by dropping the contents of this zip file directly into the bin directory of a web site (and optionally, add its components to the Visual Studio Toolbox for better designer support). This is the download for you if you just want to use the toolkit but don't want the source code and sample site.
• AjaxControlToolkit-ScriptFilesOnly.zip contains script files, CSS style sheets and pictures used by the toolkit. Use this download if you don't want to use embedded resources and prefer a file-based model. This can be installed on a web site by unzipping the archive into a folder on the web site. You can then point ScriptManager's ScriptPath to that folder (this requires the presence of the Microsoft Ajax Library in the same folder) and the Toolkit will then work the same way as before without having to change anything else in the page (warning: some controls may still make use of web resources even after that). Another way of using these files is without ScriptManager at all (one scenario for this is ASP.NET MVC). You are then responsible for including to your page the necessary script dependencies and point the components to the style sheets and image files by setting the relevant properties. We will provide more documentation going forward on client-side only use of the Ajax Control Toolkit, this is only the first step in enabling that.

To start using the Toolkit in your own web sites, please follow the instructions on this page: http://www.asp.net/AJAX/AjaxControlToolkit/Samples/Walkthrough/Setup.aspx.

To start building your own extenders, launch the VSI installers on your machine. This will install new Visual Studio templates that contain everything you need to build extenders.

To get started with source code, simply load the "AjaxControlToolkit.sln" solution in Visual Studio 2008, and run the solution. This will launch the web site and allow you to experiment with the different controls. Also included in the solution is the source code for all the controls.

The web site also contains walkthroughs covering:

• Setting up your machine to use control extenders
• Using control extenders with your ASP.NET web site
• Creating new control extenders
• Writing your own automated tests

Please see the sample website release notes for more details.

Note: the latest version precompiled against .NET 2.0 can be found here: 20229. It is possible to doanload the source tree for the current release and compile against 2.0.