I am trying to figure out how to use/create a custom control in ASP.NET MVC 2.
I created a custom control earlier and compiled it (ccontrol.dll), the control renders a div, textbox and a button + some javascript in order to post a comment on the website. It could be a static aspx page that i wanted to allow my visitors to add a comment to. I would then drag my control from the toolbar to the aspx page and run it, it would then render all the code needed on the webpage including fetching the data from a datasource and displaying that inside the div. The user could also just type in a comment and press the button to save it to the datasource.
Is this possible to convert to MVC 2? Any good tutorial that covers custom controls and MVC 2? (Ideally would be if the control could be made into a .dll file that i then could reuse on future webpages)
How do i write a custom control the mvc way? Any good tutorials on the topic?
You cannot design Custom Controls according the normal asp.net style because in Mvc there is no ViewState and there are no server side control events. Data are returned back to the server through a Model Binding process. The fact that rendering and filling data in are handled in separated pieces of code make difficult to implement complex server controls in Mvc.
However, I developed a theory, and also a toolset to make quite easily custom controls ina Mvc too in the full spirit of the Mvc paradigm i.e keeping separation of concerns between Views and Controllers. See My Codeplex project. There, you will find pointers to documentation and tutorials on my blog. If you need assistance feel free to contact me.
No it is not possible to use custom controls in ASP.NET MVC. you need to re-write in MVC way
Related
I was wanting to ask the following about mvc to have a better understanding.
1 What is the difference between the way webforms and action controllers work.
2 How should one coming from a webforms background convert the page_load etc button clicks etc into mvc methods and events. Its this understanding that I am lacking.
3.How do i fill controls before I was used to setting the datasource but see allot of controls using the foreach on the front end is that really code separation?.
4 I will be developing a form designer in .net webforms I was used to using panels and loading controls but I see it will be neater in mvc by using partial views would that be my best course of action. I am a senior asp.net webforms developer with over ten years experience.
I have been watching plurisight videos but they center on using sql express not server.
A lot of help material you can get online about this topic.
Your first question about the way webforms and action controllers work -
In webform, you specify the code-behind file of your .aspx page and the code-behind file is the master of that page now. The browser hits the .aspx and the code behind file manages the work.
But in MVC, no view file is approached; the path is matched to the respective controller and action and the action handles it. Any controller can access the View of any other Controller. There are Shared Views which are common for every controller as well.
I strongly suggest you to read at this link and this codeproject article.
Some major points will be this :
You wont have the RAD (Rapid Application Development) environment i.e. the drag drop support for Controls, page viewer in case of Razor, etc.
You wont have the basic server controls Gridview, Repeater,etc in MVC. None of the controls in MVC are bind to any controller. You can neatly pick the desired elements using Javascript and play with them.
You get full control over the HTML
What I feel is that MVC is more flexible and jQuery-able as compared to Webforms
All the best!
I have Coldfusion web application that has a CF query from a database table. This data is displayed in an HTML table with a checkbox beside each data item and an associated picture. There is Jquery functionality on the page so that the items can be re-arranged in the table based on the users preference. After the user finishes with their re-arrangement, it is re-displayed without the checkboxes for sending as an email. Note I did not write this application myself but inherited it...
I need to transfer this functionality to a asp.net C# web application but i am at a crossroads on how to proceed. I've looked at telerik controls and others but none appear to fit the functionality i need. Any solid suggestions?
I'd suggest to handle rendering of the table yourself. If you're using asp.net webforms, this can be done with a custom server control. If you're using asp.net mvc (which I suggest as MVC matches the coldfusion development model a bit closer than webforms), then it's much simpler and you can just do so in the view.
Once you are rendering the grid yourself, then it's simple to apply the jquery functionality on the client-side.
Without more info about what you can or can't do, it's a bit difficult to offer any more guidance. But you did only ask for suggestions :-)
Asp.net doesn't mean you need to use a library control built for .net. jQuery is powerful enough today, and it's not tied to any back end technology.
So, that being said, I would still go with jQuery and back it up with RESTful request using webservices with WebForms or controllers with MVC.
Have a look at this: JQuery Drag and Drop features with ASP.NET
I need to write a web page which I need to interact with Grid entry/edit.
I choose ASP.Net MVC and LINQ TO Entity Framework.
What my problem is I have two option to choose at View Layer.
ASPX
Razor CSHTML
Could someone please give me suggestion which one is more suitable to interact Grid Entry Edit process? And Why?
If there are any references , please let me see them also.
[UPDATED]
JQUERY Grid
Telerik Grid for ASP.NET MVC
Razor Web Grid
After I searching through at Google, I get more than one Grid Controls.
I still wondering which one I need to use.
When I was writing with net 2.0 framework, I use template control from GridView Control in traditional way to put Combo or some other controls to attatch with GridView.It is really useful.
So What i thinking is, at asp net MVC 3 version, should i also use these traditional technique as well.
Could anyone please give me suggestion?
Razor is simply more concise. Both Razor and WebForms will offer the same basic functionality, but Razor results in Views that are much less cluttered and therefore more easily understood.
View engines have nothing to do with this. They both provide the same functionality, which you use is up to you and your preference.
There are many kinds of grids available for MVC, but MVC itself does not come with a grid. You either have to build the grid yourself, or use a third party component, most of which are jQuery based. Again, it's up to you what to use, as it's your preference.
All you can do is choose something and go with it. If it doesn't work for you, choose something else. MVC is a technology that requires you to know much more about how the framework works. If you want point and click and drag and drop, you should go back to Web Forms.
.chtm provides "Mapping of Data(or Business) objects that Your UI needs to Render(the html)" in a isolated way, so you can control the Test Cases for your UI as well as your Business Object Unit testing, which is Hard using ASPX since you have to create HTTPContext and (SSL and all crap) just to TEST your Business Logic..in short .cshmt is more NEATLY TESTABLE than aspx.
I am currently working with ASP.NET and the person who designed the form has used all Server Controls for things like TextBoxes and Dropdowns etc when really they are not providing postbacks.. Some of the dropdowns and textboxes are values that I need only in jQuery so as far as I can see there are no drawbacks to coverting these controls to standard html controls rather than ASP.NET server controls?
I suppose I will need to continue to have my GetDataGrid button as a server control because I will need it to postback (and receive PageLoad events etc - all asp.net events) to update the GridView? Or would it be possible to use the GridView (ASP.NET server control) from a Webmethod and call it via Jquery?
Of course in my webmethod I would need to the instance of the gridview to add the datasource - but I don't see how this would be possible without being in the ASP.NET events - or maybe I wrong?
The other thing I thought of was changing the GetGridView button to a standard HTML and calling the javascript postback from the client click event?? This way it would do a real postback and I would end up in Page_load.
Taking everything into effect i don't want to the change the GridView asp.net control as it funcions well as an asp.net server control but i am unsure how i would do this.
I remember a document being available that said "how to use asp.net webforms without server controls" but i can't seem to find it. I suppose using webforms like asp.net MVC - but i can't change the project to MVC - its out of my control.
I would love to hear some feedback with regards to how to do this or comments etc.
I find ASP.NET webforms to inject a lot of code smell into pages - I am using .NET 3.5 so a lot of the output is with tables etc...
If you use Request.Form["..."] then you can get the information which was filled in in standard html input fields.
Instead of keep on using the GridView control I suggest you take a look at either jqGrid or the new templating system that Microsoft put into place for jQuery (currently a plugin but expected to be part of core jQuery from version 1.5 on). These can bound to json which can be retrieved from a webmethod or pagemethod call to fill up the template with data.
Also i don't think its possible from asp.net (code behind) to receive values of an html >control without it having runat=server.
Use webmethods.
Set a client event (like 'onchange') on the html control and then in javascript function called when the event is fired you can use PageMethods to send your data to the code behind.
Some thoughts...
The GridView can't be created in a WebMethod and even if there was a way to get that to work, you'd be better off going with a genuine client side grid. As that's not an option, I don't think there is too much point in trying to make any major changes to your existing pages.
ViewState
Changing the textboxes, buttons etc to HTML versions, would gain you a little bit in reduced Viewstate size but add a bit of complexity in how you handle interactions with the page. You can add runat="server" to HTML controls which will give you control over what is rendered and still have access to the control on the server side.
.Net 4 gives you far more control over viewstate but unfortunately in 3.5 its not as easy.
The GridViews
You could wrap the GridViews in UpdatePanels. That's a 'cheap' way to add some interactivity to your pages although you won't be gaining anything in terms of performance.
It's also still possible to manipulate the Gridview using jQuery on the client-side. There a lots of tutorials, blog posts etc explaining how to do this on the Internet.
MVC with Webforms
Its also possible to mix ASP.Net MVC with Webforms in the same website. As it sounds like you are familiar weith MVC, you might want to consider this approach for any new pages. Here's a blog post explaining how to do this.
Update:
Here's a more recent article by Scott Hanselman on how to use MVC with an existing Webforms application.
I have an ASP.net webforms app that connects to a web service, All the functionality is on one page that has lots of difference states and I use a multi view to display the correct html depending on the current state.
The problem is the page is huge and unweildly. The code behind isn't so bad but the aspx page is just out of control.
I would like to have a seperate page for each possible state but can't find a good way to move and pass data between pages. Are there any patterns or practices that I can implement that can help with this? And if having a page for each state is not the way to go what else can I do?
I have to stick with the webforms platform :( so i can't move to MVC.
You need to look into Cross Page Posting. This will allow you to postback to a different url and still have access to the previous page's controls. It will make the separation of your different views much easier to manage.
You could create a custom control for each of your states and then programmatically instantiate the appropriate control and populate the properties at runtime.
Use user controls or custom controls to reduce the page weight and improve maintainability of your web forms.