I am new to Silverlight. We are migrating our project to Silverlight. We are just changing our presentation layer. (ASP.NET WebForms site to Silverlight web application). So our other class libraries having business & data access layer will remain as it is.
Firstly I added a Silverlight web application to my solution. It created 2 projects: PM_Tool and Pm_Tool.Web. Now I need to add project references of the Business and Data Access layers to this, since I need to access them in my MainPage.xaml.cs.
But I can't add a reference to Pm_Tool - I get the following message:
You can only add project reference to other Silverlight projects in the solution.
I then added project references to Pm_Tool.Web, but I can't access the business layer objects in MainPage.
Can anyone help how I can proceed further?
A Silverlight application can only reference other Silverlight projects. This is simply because Silverlight uses a lighter version of the .NET framework; if you could reference 'full' .NET projects then it would be required to support the entire framework. Microsoft have made a design decision to limit the functionality - presumably this is to reduce the installation & runtime footprint of Silverlight.
Having said that, it's quite likely that most of your code will still run in Silverlight. You should create "Silverlight Class Library" projects and include your classes into those projects. You will soon see which (if any) classes are using parts of the framework that are not supported by Silverlight. From there, implement workarounds.
Of course all your data access and server side code must remain in your 'Web' project. Silverlight implements a correct client-server model and doesn't allow you to 'cross the boundary' in the same way that ASP.NET WebForms does. Your Silverlight application runs solely in the browser - anything that needs to happen 'on the server' must happen in the 'Web' project. Your Silverlight application posts and gets information from the 'Web' project via WCF (or WebClient, etc).
Unless you have a very well designed ASP.NET solution, I would expect that your transition is not going to be as simple as 'just changing our presentation layer'.
you can only add referances to other silverlight assemblies. you are not allowed to add referances to "normal" windows assemblies--asp.net or WPF, or winforms (etc.) however, you ARE allowed to add referances of silveright assemblies to other projects.
you are going to have to make silverlight versions of the assemblies you want to add. the main reason for this is the security model.
now, the problem you may run into is that since silverlight is really a subset of WPF is that many of the classes that you would like to use will not be available. however, there are ways around this--using webservices, etc.
Related
OrchardCMS, Umbraco and DotNetNuke are CMSes in .Net galaxy. They work as stand alone applications well. Suppose I have a requirement that need CMS features in an another ASP.NET MVC application. I do not like to implement CMS again in the application. Rather I like to use current CMSes as a component of application.
Is it possible at all to use for example OrhcardCMS as a component of my MVC application? It is ideal to have relations between CMS and application itself, for example I can load entities from CMS, update them etc.
I know there are integration techniques in .Net. For example ASP.NET Identity integrates with ASP.NET applications in core level, but view (CSHTMLs) must be copied and customized in most cases. Or Hangfire and ELMAH that integrates with an application without need to copy view (cshtml, html, css) to the target application. Indeed it is good to know that integration methods are available regarding plugging CMSes into ASP.NET applications.
I can tell you more about Umbraco as I don't know other CMS as much as this one. There is a whole course / training for those who want to integrate their apps with Umbraco: https://umbraco.com/products-and-support/training/umbraco-application-integration/. So yes, it's possible and it's even suggested way from my perspective to use already done piece of software rather than building the wheel once again.
Umbraco is an ASP.NET MVC application. You can use Umbraco components, backoffice, membership and everything else CMSish delivered out of box and still you're able to write and use your business logic, controllers and everything else what you've created inside your ASP.NET MVC / C# app. Still, it's an ASP.NET app, so you can use anything what you want from the .NET world. We're using ELMAH.io for example to take care of logging and keeping the errors in the cloud. We're also using a ton of 3rd party, both open-source and commercial tools and softwares to do multiple things around our web components. Umbraco is not blocking us from using them or anything else. I like to consider Umbraco as a framework or library helping us to deal with content editing and giving us a massive number of opportunities to offer for our clients or editors.
Speaking for OrchardCMS, there are some questions touching this subject already, see
Reusing Orchard's Core to build another extensibility framework
Extracting a Module from Orchard
If it's possible for you then try to setup Orchard as the base system and move your MVC application in a module. This will be much easier than trying to cut out peaces of Orchard. In return you get amazing possibilites when running Orchard as the underlying framework, e.g. Localization, Modules, Themes, the whole user / role management etc.
OrchardCMS 2 is currently developed towards single components that can be reused in any application but it's far from finished yet.
I'm looking at the differences between a Web Site and a Web Application on MSDN, and am drawn to the features of a Web Site because I am tasked with devising an architecture in which customers can heavily customize the application we deliver. It seems this feature of web sites would be useful:
You want to be able to update individual files in production by just
copying new versions to the production server, or by editing the files
directly on the production server.
However, I'm also drawn to the MVC architecture because it has built in features for minifying scripts that are delivered to the client. I also kind of like the idea of breaking up the architecture into clean pieces since this is a very large data model we have.
But from what I can tell, these sets of features appear to be mutually exclusive. Is that true? I can't readily figure out how to create an MVC application in which custom views could be dropped in as pure source files, and be able to run, nor can I figure out how to take advantage of any MVC framework when creating a "Web Site" project. Am I missing something or do I have to pick my poison?
Take a look at ASP.NET templates in VS2013. You can create an app with both MVC and WebForms. This will probably give you a good combination of what you need. By default, view files are not compiled, so you'll always be able to publish new files without doing a full push if you want. In fact, VS2012 even allows you to publish select files or folders.
The choice between web site and web app to be is very simple. If you are creating a mostly static app, choose "web site". If you are creating an app that has even a decent amount of dynamic capabilities, choose "web app". Web Sites are not really designed to be dynamic, so the more dynamic you do in that setting, the more of a headache it will be to properly maintain it as the architecture just isn't where it would need to be.
What I would suggest is to spin both of them up and try out some scenarios that you are interested and see what works and what doesn't. Really think about how users will actually want to customize the app. Will they want to copy and paste files to production or would they rather request features and have them built properly? Or maybe they want to work with a workflow instead?
So make realistic business requirements, prototype and then decide. But based on what I'm hearing you want a WebApp and probably one that does MVC and WebForms.
Now everything ONE ASP.Net. You will be creating a WebForm, MVC, Webpages using ASP.Net platform.
Check this video about new features in VS 2013
Not sure you can create website in ASP.Net 4.5.
From my experience, I would go with WebApplication based project, where managing namespace and other stuffs are easy. In website its hard to get the standard name for the classes(randome) generated.
Go with MVC web application.
I am starting a new project which will need a ASP.NET MVC 2.0 website, a Silverlight section and a Windows Phone 7 UI.
My plan was to use WCF RIA Services to create a set of services which would be used in all different UI projects. With the Silverlight project I would use the standard tool integration, the Windows Phone looks like it may have to be WCF Services exposed by the RIA Domain Services, but I'm not sure about the ASP.NET MVC website.
My initial thoughts I would simple reference the class library containing the Domain Services and use them directly. Could this be considered a viable approach to using RIA Domain Services in a ASP.NET MVC website?
Kind Regards
Michael
I know a long time has passed since this question was asked, but since I had to make such a decision, I might as well document it for the benefit of others.
I work in an environment where lots of legacy and new apps co-exist, with the legacy apps being phased out. So we've had to build interoperability between everything from MS Access, to web service end points in C#, VB, Web Forms, MVC 3, even Flex, Reporting Services...the list goes on.
One of the biggest pain points in a multiple-client scenario is the maintenance of interoperability over time. As data, requirements and delivery mechanisms change, keeping things smooth ends up taking a lot of resources.
My approach has been to create one and only one mechanism for reading a given source of data by defining 1) a model, 2) a serialization/deserialization layer and 3) a service layer. All projects that need to use XY_Data must use the XY_Service to get XY_Objects via the XY_Serializer. Direct db calls or stored procs, etc are allowed in the XY_Application. This allows me to drop in replacement DLLs (versioned) with bug fixes and upgrades without restarting anything. I hardly ever do a full publish.
So yes, what you're suggesting will work. I would recommend only that you rigorously enforce the single-source-of-truth and DRY policies both in your data and your APIs.
I'm new to developing in SharePoint and would like some tips please. I want to develop a WebPart. I understand that I effectively need to do this on a machine with SharePoint Server installed and create the web part as an ASP control. Once the control is created, how do I link it into SharePoint?
I would recommend you to take a look at the WSP Builder extensions for Visual Studio. It will simplify the development and deployment process for you, since it contains both templates for web parts, features and it will also package it up in a WSP solution for you.
I would read though this:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms452873.aspx
It will answer a lot of your questions about creating a web part, deploying etc.
If you're using the Microsoft Provided WebPart Visual Studio template...it will automatically be deployed to your site when you build it.
If you need to deploy to a test/production environment, you need to create a SharePoint Feature and then deploy the Feature to the server.
http://www.allaboutmoss.com/index.php/2010/03/22/hello-world-sharepoint-webpart-for-beginners/ helps you to create simple webpart and shows how it deploy in server.
You are able to build Web Parts in a number of different ways, through Visual Studio .NET using either the SharePoint Web Part Namespace or the normal ASP.NET Web Part Namespace further you are able to build Web Parts in SharePoint Designer using a combination of different technologies, such as XML Web Services.
XML Web Services will allow you to hook directly into SharePoint using SharePoint's Native Web Services, you can then create a Data View Web Part which will enable you to view, collate, filter and group List Items. This, of course, will also allow you to mingle normal HTML as well as XSLT syntax, allowing you to build logic into the Web Part.
The good thing about doing it this way is there is no "real' coding, i.e. no Code Behind page etc as there would normally be in ASP.NET. This also allows you keep things more or less SharePoint Centric, which is important because you may or may not have access to Central Admin or SSP nor indeed the Server itself, the 12 hive or the GAC.
How you decide to develop Web Parts should include thinking about all of the above, you may have a very restricted development environment. Further, you can also use Namespaces provided directly from GAC assemblies provided by Sharepoint, you may either need access to a development environment which has a MOSS or WSS Server on it or the PIA's or Assemblies from a MOSS/WSS Server.
I am a software developer, however, it is important for me to develop applications which are as SharePoint centric as they can be, which is why I decided to develop my Web Parts in SharePoint Designer. However, there have been times when using full VS.NET is the way to go, I would suggest you look at SharePoint Designer first, get a feel for the interface, XML Web Services, XSLT and HTML once you have created a SharePoint Designer Web Part and Provided this Web Part exists within a Web Part Zone, you can export the Web Part and reimport it into any number of Site Collections.
I must add that the above relates to SharePoint Lists and Libraries but it gives you a grounding to understand how it all fits together. it helped me understand more and made development of more coded Web Parts easier, It may not suit your individual requirements, SharePoint is a huge environment offering many paths.
Hope this Helps you out, search for SharePoint Designer... at least as a starting point.
Cheers
I have a web application built in the asp.net 2.0 MVC pattern.
Now the clients want to update this application with rich UI experience and the latest .net technologies.
Can anyone suggest whether I should use WPF or Silverlight: which one should I choose to change the application per the client requirement? I should be able to reuse my business layers and data layers, and thus reduce the time of development.
If I should choose one of these, please tell me the reasons and describe the requirements and what other guidelines I should keep in mind.
Thanks in advance
SA
First lets clarify the technologies:
WPF is a desktop technology - although you can run it via a web browser using XBAPs however this is basically just downloads and runs the XPF (so your users need to have everything that WPF needs - Windows, .NET 3.0+ etc..)
Silverlight is a proper web technology - meaning it runs across browsers and OS.
So which can you use:
From Silverlight/WPF you can call to web services meaning you can easily reuse your business layers, although you just may need to wrap them.
I would not recommend a full change though - I would adopt a hybrid approach of using Silverlight + MVC. Swap out the parts of the front end (view) that make sense with Silverlight but keeping the the ASP.NET MVC code. This not only means your change is small (you can test out a single change and get feedback from users such as maybe your user base doesn't have permission to install Silverlight and thus can't use it), and you keep the ability to unit test a large part of your code still.