Columbus would have been proud - extending the ATLAS

The ATLAS group have been busy - today they announced the release of the ATLAS Control Toolkit. From the introduction.

The 'Atlas' Control Toolkit is a collection of samples and components that makes it easier then ever to build and consume rich client-side “Atlas” controls and extenders. The toolkit provides both ready to go samples and a powerful SDK to simplify the creation and re-use of your own custom controls and extenders.

As always, the best way to evaluate at a toolkit like this is to look at the samples provided, and the ATLAS toolkit doesn't disappoint, with 9 new controls and extenders that cover some of the most common AJAX features you'd need to make a site provide a rich and dynamic experience.

My particular favorites include the PopupControl and the ReorderList - paired, these two would provide an editing experience for simple data (such as lookup table data, for example) almost as good as could be achieved with a Windows Forms client.

More later, but I can see myself using these, and the guides for developing your own ATLAS controls and extenders extensively over the next little while.