After about a week of great discussion and development over at CodePlex, the Username Availability Validator control is nearing readiness for an initial release.

While there are still a few outstanding bug fixes up for grabs and ample room for enhancement, most of the control’s base functionality has been implemented. If you intend to enter the Advanced ASP.NET AJAX Server Controls book giveaway contest via code contribution, time is running out, so don’t delay.

Don’t code? You can still win.

As the coding stage of the contest winds down, it’s time to start pulling together documentation. I’d like to see just as much attention given to creating excellent documentation as has been given to code.

An overview description, usage examples, and a more complete (and attractive) sample website are examples of things that would be welcomed documentation contributions.

If you’d like the access to edit the project’s wiki directly, email me your CodePlex username. If you prefer, you can email me your contributions directly and I’ll take care of getting them up on CodePlex.

Finally, don’t forget that one copy of the book will go randomly to anyone who contributes to the discussion threads or issue tracker, or writes a post about the contest on their blog or website. So, even if you’re not comfortable working on the project, you still have a chance to win a copy of the book by participating.