A modern approach is to use ASP.NET Web API 2 (server-side) with jQuery Ajax (client-side).
Like page methods and ASMX web methods, Web API allows you to write C# code in ASP.NET which can be called from a browser or from anywhere, really!
Here is an example Web API controller, which exposes API methods allowing clients to retrieve details about 1 or all products (in the real world, products would likely be loaded from a database):
public class ProductsController : ApiController
{
Product[] products = new Product[]
{
new Product { Id = 1, Name = "Tomato Soup", Category = "Groceries", Price = 1 },
new Product { Id = 2, Name = "Yo-yo", Category = "Toys", Price = 3.75M },
new Product { Id = 3, Name = "Hammer", Category = "Hardware", Price = 16.99M }
};
[Route("api/products")]
[HttpGet]
public IEnumerable<Product> GetAllProducts()
{
return products;
}
[Route("api/product/{id}")]
[HttpGet]
public IHttpActionResult GetProduct(int id)
{
var product = products.FirstOrDefault((p) => p.Id == id);
if (product == null)
{
return NotFound();
}
return Ok(product);
}
}
The controller uses this example model class:
public class Product
{
public int Id { get; set; }
public string Name { get; set; }
public string Category { get; set; }
public decimal Price { get; set; }
}
Example jQuery Ajax call to get and iterate over a list of products:
$(document).ready(function () {
// Send an AJAX request
$.getJSON("/api/products")
.done(function (data) {
// On success, 'data' contains a list of products.
$.each(data, function (key, item) {
// Add a list item for the product.
$('<li>', { text: formatItem(item) }).appendTo($('#products'));
});
});
});
Not only does this allow you to easily create a modern Web API, you can if you need to get really professional and document it too, using ASP.NET Web API Help Pages and/or Swashbuckle.
Web API can be retro-fitted (added) to an existing ASP.NET Web Forms project. In that case you will need to add routing instructions into the Application_Start method in the file Global.asax:
RouteTable.Routes.MapHttpRoute(
name: "DefaultApi",
routeTemplate: "api/{controller}/{id}",
defaults: new { id = System.Web.Http.RouteParameter.Optional }
);