I'm going to create a website with lots of business logic, connected to a background data model. For these reasons I chose ASP.NET MVC3 as development platform.
Unfortunately, I left web programming at the time of the old ASP and JSP and lately I worked with windows applications and C#.
Now I'm wondering which is the best(easiest, fastest, most reliable, most compatible with browsers) technique to create user views?
I explored a little Razor, but it is unclear for me, is it a so good choice? Is it supported by forums or still too fresh?
I'm very tempted of using webcontrols since I'm now addicted to them. Would this be a good choice? Can I use webcontrols just in aspx or in razor as well?
What about Ajax controls? Would it be a better choice?
Thanks!
Yes, Razor is a good choice. See here for a pretty good summary.
As Robert mentioned, "controls" go against the MVC pattern and will not even work in Razor. You want html helpers for small bits of markup (for example, to render a text box) and partial views for more complicated things (like a shopping cart widget)
Use of AJAX depends on the UI needs of your application. Initially it would be simpler to start without AJAX. Also, some clients might have JavaScript disabled and then AJAX would not work.
"web controls" are not appropriate for MVC at all - they go against the MVC pattern. Instead, look into "partial views" for creating common bits of UI that get reused across multiple pages
Related
I am just trying to streamline my MVC3 development approach. I use Razor in the View and was wondering what the recommendation is for easily creating more fancy UI widgets such as Menus. I would hope I could leverage some good open source components and plug them in. I do subscribe to a good 3rd party component library, but wonder whether this type of feature is best implemented via JQuery UI or old style HTML/CSS?
Many thanks.
In general, Stack Overflow isn't here to recommend tools for you. However, I will say that whether to choose a javascript tool or straight html/css depends on the needs.
It's best to work with the simplest solution that solves your problem. CSS can do menus quite well, and straight CSS menus are often the best choice. However, if you need things straight css can't do, then you need to add javascript. For instance, one problem with CSS menus is that it's very easy to "roll off" the menu and have it disappear from under your pointer. Most javascript menus add a delay that allows you to roll off for a second and get back before the menu disappears. This improves usability.
Even lots of fancy effects can be done strictly in CSS, but as with many such things.. it won't be compatible across all browsers, which is again where javascript comes into play. Sometimes the only way to be compatible across the board is with js (at least without losing functionality).
I wouldn't recreate the wheel on this one, since so many web sites already do this. If you are trying to streamline your development, I'd say use your 3rd party library or find a good jQuery plugin. You could probably easily create your own in HTML/CSS/Jquery, but it will add on to your testing later. An existing 3rd party/jQuery type of component would take significantly less time and have a lot of features you want already built in.
I'd recommend using MVC SiteMap Provider in conjecuyion with a JavaScript menu of choice e.g. SuperFish http://users.tpg.com.au/j_birch/plugins/superfish/. The menu fancy JS part part is the least important.
From the MVC point of view what I think really matters is how you manage and maintain your menu. MVC SiteMap Provider makes it really easy to build an maintain menus (can even use Attributes to make Actions appear on the menu). It can also do things like Security Trimming so if a user doesn't have permission to get to the action etc it isn't displayed on the menu.
I'd check that out.
Is there a Design View in ASP.NET MVC3 ?
There is no 'Design' view in MVC, like there is in Forms. However your views are just HTML so you can use any HTML editor, although they will not be able to interpret the Razor syntax.
What most people do is make changes to the HTML, save (you don't have to recompile,) and refresh your browser. Google Chrome has a very help full tool built in (Firebug or something like it.) Just right click on the page and select Inspect Element. This will come in very handy.
Also one thing to think about since you're new to MVC is that you can easily use most any css themes that you can find online to make the site look very different out of the box.
I would really like to use the MVC and Razor technology for my web application. The problem I am running into is that I am the coder and will be working with a HTML GUI designer.
I only see 2 ways for the GUI person to work at this point.
Install Visual Studio and open the whole solution and work like I am working, except he would stick to the CSHTML files.
Use his favorite HTML editor or notepad and edit the CSHTML files manually and then also have something like IIS Express installed with the app configured so that they can refresh the page they are working on.
Neither of these seems productive or intuitive. I would love to see the GUI person able to use a tool like Expression Web or other tools that allow you to see the design and html at the same time. Having tools available for shading and colors and positioning would be good.
Now I understand why it is this way. It is because of the processing that Razor does to render the pages. This is most true by the fact that most of the cshtml pages themselves are not complete pages. They are meant to live inside of a _layout page.
Isn't there something, though, that can at least show the basic rendering during editor?
What are other people doing?
You have a few options. AFAIK there is no WYSIWYG HTML editor that understands Razor. So, either your designer must work in straight html, or...
1) The designer works in pure HTML files. They give you those files, and you adapt them to Razor. If they need to make changes, you can track those changes with a diff tool (from the previous version) or use a version control system to compare versions of the raw html. Then you apply those changes to your Razor files.
2) Your designer works in .aspx files, which Expression Web understands. You could convert the WebForm syntax to Razor syntax. Again, you are spent doing lot of work, but probably less work than the pure HTML way of doing things, because the designer will have designed the code for master pages. These can be relatively easily adapted to Layouts.
It would be nice if the next version of Expression understands Razor.
I'm working on sharepoint project, i have like 1000 image i want to upload, i need webpart or something to do swap images on click, is there any web part that do this?
what the best method to use on my situation.
Are you a SharePoint developer? If not, I'd strongly suggest not even trying to do this. Modifying SharePoint beyond out-of-the-box options requires some extensive asp.net and SharePoint-centric developer skills. Even then, it's not a joy to work with.
In the past, for modifying UI interactions, I found the saner approach is to manipulate the DOM post-render. Load up jQuery and then upon page render, do your thing.
I have a question. Is it possible to work with AJAX Control Toolkit in razor views?
I need to use TabContainer or similar (it could be a HTML Helper)
I know I can use it in aspx but I'm using Layouts on my project... so maybe a partial view is the solution, I really don't know.
Regards.
I have a question. Is it possible to work with AJAX Control Toolkit in razor views?
Not recommended. The AJAX Control Toolkit consists of server side controls which depend on ViewState and PostBack which are notions that no longer exist in ASP.NET MVC. So referencing the AjaxControlToolkit assembly inside an ASP.NET MVC application is like attaching a caravan on a Lamborghini.
As an alternative you might take a look at jQuery UI which has many useful widgets such as Tabs.