We've been working on web solutions for over past 9+ years and just like many of you, we've migrated from the legacy ASP to ASP.Net, MVC, knockoutjs and so on. jQuery played a keyrole and now it seems its the age of MVVM libraries like KO with declarative data binding based approach.
I'll stop here and ask for expert opinions on our two requirements -
An editable grid with inbuilt sorting, paging and basic search. And if possible a grid capable of handling its own editable dialog (i.e. like datatables.net - but its paid)
Is there a way to take the declarative binding to the next level and auto-generate forms backed with knockoutjs like data-binding technology.
I believe no need to mention that we're working in ASP.Net v4.0+ and MVC. Most of our forms are backed by one or more table(s) and we can easily manage the backend CRUD operations once the correct actions are triggered from front end and we can have requests serving JSON as and when requested.
PS: We don't need the old school approachs like the #Html.EditorFor in MVC.
I'm pretty new to Dojo and I'm wondering about some best practises for building a MVC application. I know there are modules like dojox/app, but it seems like these are made for more complex applications.
It seems like the best way to go is to make custom page-level controller objects with will handle all the page logic, but I'm not quite sure how to fit this piece in the puzzle. What is the proper way to switch between views and passing through parameters through them following a MVC archtiecture.
I have an overview page with list items, each with their own ID. I want to navigate to another page passing through the corresponding item ID so I can retrieve the details for this item externally. What would be the proper way of doing this?
I could call a method on the corresponding controller (Page1 Controller or Page2 Details controller) directly using a button and passing the listID parameter directly?
Another way of doing this could be by working with transition states and addling listeners in the page controller to forward to the correct page. Although I'm not quite sure how to pass parameters in this scenario..
... any better solutions?
Can anybody shed some light on this? It doesn't seem like there is much documentation/examples on this with the latest versions of dojo (1.9).
Thanks!
I will recommend dojox/app since you are already using dojo mobile.
It's very simple to get started and can be use for simple apps or very complex apps
Take a look at this resources:
https://github.com/csantanapr/dapp-examples/tree/master/dapp-request
https://github.com/csantanapr/dapp-boilerplate
http://dojotoolkit.org/documentation/tutorials/1.9/dojox_app/contactsList/
Is it possible to do a KendoUI mobile project, using ASP.net mvc? Watching the introduction on Pluralsight, I'm sort of confused. As an example, KendoUI Mobile uses something like this to navigate:
<a href="#someView" data-role="button">Go to some view</button>
When rendering views through RenderBody in my main layout, will I have to specify this view as a mobile view, or does the application defined in my main layout pick up on this?
So, I guess my question is this; Has anyone got any experience on this combination and, if so, could you provide some resources as to where this combination is being used?
I figured this on out. Seems to be a few projects out there using this combination. One example is this project: KendoUI mobile task manager
That being said, I'll try to play around and tweak the framework to my needs.
The answer is Yes. I was searching for the same answers, and found this resource very helpful, using MVC4, with detailed explanations:
Single Page App using MVC and Kendo Mobile
When searching for references and tutorials, what is not immediately clear is that Kendo UI Mobile is a different setup from Kendo UI. As WhizKid points out it is a single page application, and all your data must go through AJAX.
If you have not used them before, you will probably need to learn Kendo's MVVM and datasources. You must decide what sort of interface you will use for data exchange (eg. WebApi, OData) and fix the routing.
The reason I am going this way is because Kendo comes with good looks, and MVC can help me with localization.
I was reading about JSF that it's a UI framework and provides some UI components. But how is it better or different from number of components that are available from jQueryUI, AngularJS, React, Vue.js, Svelte, ExtJS, or even plain HTML, CSS and JavaScript.
Why should someone learn JSF?
JSF to plain JSP/Servlet/HTML/CSS/JS is like as jQuery to plain JS: do more with less code. To take PrimeFaces (jQuery + jQuery UI based) as an example, browse through its showcase to see complete code examples. BootsFaces (jQuery + Bootstrap UI based) has also a showcase with complete code examples. If you study those examples closely, then you'll see that you basically need a simple Javabean class as model and a XHTML file as view.
Note that you should not see JSF as replacement of alone HTML/CSS/JS, you should also take the server side part into account (specifically: JSP/Servlet). JSF removes the need of all the boilerplate of gathering HTTP request parameters, converting/validating them, updating the model values, executing the right Java method to do the business stuff and generating the HTML/CSS/JS boilerplate code. With JSF you basically end up with a XHTML page as view definition and a Javabean class as model definition. This greatly speeds up development.
As with every component based web MVC framework, you have in JSF less fine-grained control over the rendered HTML/CSS/JS. Adding custom JS code isn't that easy as you have to take the JSF view state in the server side into account as well (e.g. enabling a disabled button in JS side won't enable the button in JSF side, which is in turn a huge security advantage). If that is however a major showstopper, then rather look for an action based web MVC framework like Spring MVC. You'll only take into account that you have to write all that HTML/CSS/JS code (and prevention against XSS, CSRF and DOM-manipulation!) yourself. Also if you fall back from Facelets to JSP, you'll miss advanced templating capabilities as well.
On the other hand, if you have a big JSP/Servlet/HTML/CSS/JS/jQuery based website and you'd like to refactor the repeated JSP/Servlet/HTML/CSS/JS/jQuery boilerplate code into reusable components, then one of the solutions would be JSF. Custom templates, tagfiles and components can aid in this. In that perspective, JSF stands above JSP/Servlet/HTML/CSS/JS/jQuery (and that's also why it's pretty important to understand those basics before diving into JSF).
You can find a real world kickoff JSF based project here: Java EE Kickoff App. You'll see that it contains next to JSF as good HTML5, CSS3 and jQuery.
See also:
Difference between Request MVC and Component MVC
Difference between JSP, Servlet and JSF
What are the main disadvantages of JSF 2.0?
Is it possible to use JSF+Facelets with HTML 4/5?
When to use <ui:include>, tag files, composite components and/or custom components?
JSF was created to make it so that java shops didn't have to learn stuff like jQuery and build complex JS but instead focus on a purely Java stack. In a world where time is money and lots of places already focusing on Java development, one less language/piece in the stack makes training and maintaining faster and thus cheaper.
I'll add that JavaScript is easy to become a maintenance nightmare on large teams, especially if some of the developers on the project are not highly web savvy.
With Javascript and frameworks such as jQuery you have full flexibility and full control . With ext's etc you lose much control and must adapt to the framework. With JSF you totally lose control and must totally adapt to the framework. You're invoked in lifecycles etc. and finally you have no control when the call to the server can be made and where not. If you are to do something considered 'special', you're in very hard position. And in JSF world even such basic things as multicolumn table sort or fields where you can type only limited set of characters (such as number field) are considered 'special'.
However, the more flexibility you have, the more errors or bad practices you can made. High flexibility works only with highly intelligent programmers, others will turn the project into unmanagable nightmare.
But, with JSF and its limited flexibility, there's always only a few (or even only one) correct way to do something. You are very limited, you can't make shortcuts, you must write more XML etc. - but when adapting to standard, there's better control on the code the unexperienced or low-skilled programmers will produce. As a result, big corporations love JSF because it is 'safer' for them.
When I moved from GWT to JSF, I was shocked, how many things, that was natural to me, was considered highly untypical and how much simple things were so hard to achieve. What's more, even making the smallest changes, such as adding ':' sign after label, which in GWT/jQuery powered app would be changing one function generating label, required changing dozens of files with localized properties, which wasn't even considered by anyone except me strange...
The benefits of using JSF are not only in generating xhtml + css + js. Sometimes JSF imposes a restriction on the markup you can generate, like any component based framework. But JSF is not just for that, its lifecyle helps greately. After validating the input it can update the model and sync your server side beans without any effort. you just say "whatever the user types here, check if it's a number, if yes then store it in the property YY in object XX" and JSF will do all that.
So yes, you can still use JQuery, JS, etc. But JSF provides many benefits when it comes to writing server side code and saves you from a lot of boiler plate.
I strongly disagree that jsf adds anything. It only adds overhead. Doing ui stuff on the server is the most ridiculous thing ive ever heard. And javascript on large teams works great - its called reusing code.
Just wrap the jquery in some jsp tags, thats all you need and youre done, and dont endure the.shackles and scalability issues with.jsf and richfaces.
Having worked with JSF, Spring MVC, Struts, Grails, JQuery, and ExtJS my opinion is that Grails + ExtJS is one powerful combination.
I would pick Grails over JSF any day. I like the completeness of ExtJS as the client side framework and library, but it comes with a steeper learning curve than JQuery.
Here are the biggest differences between jQuery & JSF:
no MVC architecture
no state control (store date in session or conversation, auto-clean up, etc.)
no (default) validation library
no templating library
no advanced navigation/routing
client side
jQuery was never intended to be used as a full stack webframework. It was more intended for replacing low-level JS code so that writing JS becomes easier and more powerfull in less lines of code.
And it should thus mostly be used to add behaviour on HTML elements.
Having used ExtJS framework for a large web application, I know how easy it is to use. The ExtJS (Schena) is best suited for (Oracle 11g) database interactions in MVC architecture. The View was for the visual / user interactions. The controller specified the 'processing' and the triggers that needed to be used form the PLSQL packages (the API for the CRUD, SQL select queries etc.). The Model and the store files were used to 'map' the data items to the Viewer / inputs.
ExtJS is not suitable for non database intensive web interfaces - where Angular JS may be a better fit.
Asp.net MVC 3 preview 1 was released at the end of last month. Are there any new features you are excited about or any features you would like to see before it is fully released?
Full support for Controllers with Generic Parameters
public GenericController<SomeType> : Controller
Generic controllers are quite possibly the greatest MVC timesaver if your doing a lot or business CRUD. There are so many similarities between the Add methods of almost every MVC project that it makes sense to abstract these operations out in a Controller that fits all scenarios.
Right now its a little hacky to create a generic controller. The MVC engine always gets the name wrong (GenericCo vs. Generic) and without full support plugin and libraries that interact with controllers just fall over when they encounter a generic one.
Make Dropdowns easier to work with
As a professional MVC tag watcher I've noticed that working with dropdowns is one of the most repeated questions on SO. The amount of Dropdown questions is a strong indication that something should be done to make it easier or less ... complex?
make checkbox list easy to work with
add T4MVC to the official release
add official helpers for OData
support one javascript library either MS Ajax or jQuery(preferably)
I wish they can add something to help developer to migrate their previous ASP.NET WebForms application.