I'm just starting a project with ASP.NET MVC 4, and I'm wondering how I should handle the layout management? I'm not very experienced with Web layout management in the first place, but I'm aware that Blueprint is a popular option and that in the Rails world Susy would be a good bet. Should I just go with Blueprint? Is there anything I should be aware of as regards the integration with MVC 4?
Well, as an alternative to what you self mentioned (Blueprint) I can strongly recommend Bootstrap from Twitter (http://twitter.github.com/bootstrap/). I have been using this myself in projects with ASP.NET MVC 3 and ASP.NET web forms.
Bootstrap from Twitter is open source and you can find much information on the Internet (i.e many problems you may encounter have already been solved, just Google them). Bootstrap from Twitter "supports" many browsers (computers, smartphones and so on), big/small screens, jQuery...
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I want to know if there is such concept in MVC4 (or other versions) like "Theme". I'am a total newbie using MVC, but I have some experience making simple Wordpress websites, using cool themes available on the web. Is there a way to get themes for my MVC project? I mean, some custom views and CSS, that can help with front-end.
this link will help you. You can plug these into your MVC app to get you going bootstrap skins
Are there any guidelines regarding which asp.net controls (e.g. GridView, UpdatePanel...?) should be avoided when developing a web application for mobile phones?
My application is going to be used probably in iphone, blackberry or android enabled phone, so I would like to know if there are known problems related, for example, to control renderization or javascript handling in these platforms' mobile browsers.
Also, usability guidelines regarding best controls to avoid / use would also be appreciated.
At this point there is no Web Forms project template for mobile in ASP.NET Web Forms but there is in the new MVC release:
ASP.NET MVC 4 Mobile Features
Here's some info on creating mobile pages for Web Forms:
How To: Add Mobile Pages to Your ASP.NET Web Forms / MVC Application
Lastly, you might want to consider using jQuery Mobile.
As for controls to avoid? Definitely the richer ones like Calendar and GridView - but jQuery Mobile can offer you some options for the former...
You can use Modernizr for feature detection to better target specific mobile browsers.
I'd recommend checking:
That the generated pages validate on http://validator.w3.org/ - depending on which version of ASP.NET you're using, some of the controls throw out some bad HTML.
Depending on what you're doing, the GridView control may not render too well on small screens
Have a look at media queries to use different CSS styling for smaller screens
The first thing though could be to just try it out. Get the devices and visit a site that you know uses the controls and see what it's like. If you've not started on the site yet, consider using ASP.NET MVC to ensure that you're writing good HTML. You can use jQuery to do the ajax calls.
There are a number of frameworks out there for building ASP.NET MVC applications (e.g. sharp architecture, etc...)? In defining what a framework is, I'm thinking along the line of Ruby on Rails ... a stack of technologies that enable you to build all tiers of your application quickly, efficiently and with both testability and quality in mind.
So, in your humble opinions ... which is the best and why?
In particular I'm looking for an architecture that supports an RIA type front-end that takes full advantage of JQuery and/or ExtJs on the client.
IMHO the ASP.NET MVC framework is the best framework at the moment. The reason? Well, basically it is the only framework I've tried that allows you to depart completely from the WebForms methodology. Please note that I have tried a relatively few number of MVC frameworks and it's not like I'm saying that the ASP.NET MVC framework is perfect or anything.
I'm trying to upgrade my existing web forms application to upcoming framework and rewriting couple of workflow as per the new business requirements. I want to introduce TDD based development in this project but after some investigation found that ASP.NET MVC will not help me as my web existing application is using lots of Infragistics UltraWebGrid controls for grouping, paging, column moving etc and there is no good alternative grids in ASP.NET MVC world. I also need to support blackberry in this release. So, am planning to use both MVP for desktop client and MVC for blackberry client in same project.
I would like to know if someone has done something similar in their project and links to any good open source asp.net applicaton using MVP pattern. I dont want to use WCSF as it is too heavy weight. I saw their MVPBundle sample application but it lacks use of modern tools like IoC (Unity or StructureMap), Mocking framework etc.
Regards,
Sunil
The latest incarnation of Nerd Dinner has mobile support in an ASP.NET MVC app.
I'm not sure about the JS support on a black-berry but there are quite a few grid/repeater type controls and mechanisms available using either jQuery or the forthcoming ASP.NET AJAX 4 templating controls.
Web parts seem to be used extensively in Sharepoint related development, but examples of using them in asp.net webforms applications are few and far between. I'm implementing a domain specific portal framework and like the "widgetlike" functionality in iGoogle or pageflakes and would like to get that kind of feature in my application. The real troubling issue from my perspective is that the drag & drop layout features of web parts do not work in non-IE browsers unless you use the latest ASP.NET AJAX futures library. It seems to me if Microsoft meant this to be a foundation technology, they would have moved these features into the main product by now.
Are web parts a dead-end technology? If so, are there any alternatives?
i think they are (dead), at least for developing the types of UI modern web-browsers are looking for. My recommendation ... ASP.NET MVC and a nice .js library. It's more work out of the gate, but with the proper planning and implementation it will serve you much better in the long run.
I found a really great site about some tips to implementing WebParts-like behaviour:
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/nunos/archive/2010/02/16/quick-tips-about-asp-net-mvc-webpart-framework.aspx
Webparts are a part of the .NET infrastructure and are a foundation technology. There are few interface technologies, to make webparts compatible with their J2EE counterparts.