From all appearances, the ASP.NET Ajax Control Toolkit and Community Server are two great tastes that go great together. I was tired of the limitations of the built-in Community Server Photo Gallery viewer, so the Slideshow Ajax Control that was recently added to the ASP.NET Ajax Control Toolkit seemed a viable option on which to base a new Community Server Ajax Slideshow Control. You can see the result on my site home page and in the screenpic below.
There are a number of issues to consider in integrating Microsoft Web Extensions and the Ajax Control Toolkit into Community Server, and I'll blog on the particulars when I can. I haven't decided what to do with making the Community Server Ajax Slideshow Control available, but I'll let you know about that, too.
An Ajax-based slideshow is a great approach for a CS slideshow control because you can drop it on any page, retrieve photos from any gallery or category, format, size and style the control anyway you want, control the click destination, and because the photos are retrieved through a web service, they can even reside on another Community Server site. Added to that, since we've brought the Ajax Toolkit into the game, all other Ajax toolkit controls are available to a Community Server site as well. There is a lot of built-in Ajaxie support in Community Server out-of-the-box, but as with the Slideshow, it's good to have options.
