MVC sooner rather than later...

I have started working on ASP.NET MVC example, but only week ago.  We are really busy with Csla Light (3.6).

I am thinking actually of building 2 MVC examples:

1)      Using ExtJs as an ajax library

2)      Using Jquery as an ajax library

JQuery will be more like standard MVC Site implementation , where ExtJs being a library that allows us to implement more sort of a Windows like UI using JSON for serializing data back and forth might be more in the spirit of ProjectTracker and the Csla itself.  The problem with the ExtJs is that it heavily depends on the JSon for everything.

Check out these examples of ExtJs, and let me know what you think:

Desktop example:

-          http://extjs.com/deploy/dev/examples/desktop/desktop.html

API Reference:

-          http://extjs.com/deploy/dev/docs/

If you have any comments please let me know.  There are couple of problems I need to solve to have a real MVC example with testability in mind, like taking the factory out of DataPortal, and that is where Rocky’s mobile factory helps – but we are not there yet.

I will start blogging about my progress and will be posting ideas to this newsgroup.  Hopefully I will have a sample site for you to look at and start commenting on within few weeks.

Nermin

Humm this is kinda what I was after... I was more after what nermin was talking about with the project tracker example.

It is my plan to build an MVC version of the Project Tracker sometimes in August. I will try to coordinate with Rocky on that. SO do not worry we will have something in about a month - which is lot earlier than the official release date of the MVC :)

I am currently waiting for CTP 4 to be released, and have busy schedule this month, but we will have something soon

To answer your questions:

ASP.NET AJAX was built for web forms to support their “callback” model.  Personally I do not consider it a “True AJAX” as you are not getting the full advantages of AJAX (rendering partials, instead of callback going through a full page lifecycle, sending everything to the client and then ASP.NET Ajax having to decipher which parts to render).

Besides ASP.NET Ajax is real messy.  I find Jquery/Prototype/ExtJs syntax a lot simpler, easier to learn and lot easier to extend.  They have built an object model that can be easily extended – yes OO Javascript, for your UI.

As far as dynamically changing master pages, controllers View() method by default accepts View Name as a parameter of which View/Page to render.  But there are overloads that besides View Name accept a Master Page Name, allowing you to specify which Master Page to use when rendering a view.

As far as an example using DeepData techniques – I am planning on having something similar.  MVC is going to implement a Repository Pattern, and use Linq DTOs, similar to what one can see in Rob Connery’s MVC storefront example:

http://blog.wekeroad.com/mvc-storefront/asp-net-mvc-mvc-storefront-part-2/

Nermin

Hi Nermin
In a word I can't wait... What you have mentioned and the couple of examples you surrgested sounds great. And i think looking at the testing and AJAX aspects is a good idea.

I think its good that you have chosen these two but it would have been nice if you had done an example with ASP.Net AJAX as well... maybe you could provide small samples of how you would go about using it if you can't do a full sample... just an idea.

I would encourage you to focus on the testing aspects that you mentioned. For me this is one of the biggest challenges I find with CSLA. So having some real examples of how you can go about doing this from start to finish would be extremely valuable. With this, it may be a good idea to include some of the techniques used in the deepdata example. The reason for this is from what I can see this is one of the better ways of being able to conduct tests and as services become more widely used having the tests go to this level would be well worth while.

One thing that I would be keen to see is how you go about using the MVC model with master pages. The reason why i mention this in particular is that it seems to be the weakest point in Microsoft???s MVC implementation. MVC says that all data required should be passed to the view, but so far when master pages are introduced, you have the controller calling the view calling the controller and passing the data back the view. I know there is an action filter option but I really don???t like this because it seems a little limiting in terms of dynamically changing master pages, etc, etc. I don???t think this is a new problem (see http://weblogs.asp.net/stephenwalther/archive/2008/08/12/asp-net-mvc-tip-31-passing-data-to-master-pages-and-user-controls.aspx) but there were a few different options suggested here http://forums.asp.net/t/1293325.aspx (you might need to read through it a bit) but ultimately the solution may be more a framework one. In any case it will be interesting to see how you do this.

Anyway, I better leave it there. The only thing I would encourage is to keep us up to date and show us anything you have sooner rather than later ;)

Cheers
Anthony

Just wanted to let everyone know that we have some very basic example of the Csla +MVC + ExtJs.  This is the first step towards the MVC ProjectTracker, and it was used by me to explore couple of architectural decisions I needed to make in order to put MVC, Csla, and TDD together.

I have published the first 3 posts that are the portion of the 6-8 post series that should explain the architecture, implementation, unit testing in this demo implementation.  The links for the initial posts are:

http://nermins.net/post/2008/09/Implementing-MVC-site-using-CSLA-and-ExtJs-–-Part-1---Introduction.aspx

http://nermins.net/post/2008/09/Implementing-MVC-SIte-using-Csla-and-ExtJs---Part-2---Solution-Structure.aspx

http://nermins.net/post/2008/09/Implementing-MVC-Site-using-Csla-and-ExtJs---Part-3---UI,-ExtJs-Customer-DropDown-List.aspx

Anyone interested, please copy and paste them in your browser’s url, and check it out.  Keep in mind that we are still missing few more posts on the topic, but let me know if you feel that we are going in the right direction so far.

Nermin

Hi Nermin
In a word I can't wait... What you have mentioned and the couple of examples you surrgested sounds great. And i think looking at the testing and AJAX aspects is a good idea.

I think its good that you have chosen these two but it would have been nice if you had done an example with ASP.Net AJAX as well... maybe you could provide small samples of how you would go about using it if you can't do a full sample... just an idea.

I would encourage you to focus on the testing aspects that you mentioned. For me this is one of the biggest challenges I find with CSLA. So having some real examples of how you can go about doing this from start to finish would be extremely valuable. With this, it may be a good idea to include some of the techniques used in the deepdata example. The reason for this is from what I can see this is one of the better ways of being able to conduct tests and as services become more widely used having the tests go to this level would be well worth while.

One thing that I would be keen to see is how you go about using the MVC model with master pages. The reason why i mention this in particular is that it seems to be the weakest point in Microsoft???s MVC implementation. MVC says that all data required should be passed to the view, but so far when master pages are introduced, you have the controller calling the view calling the controller and passing the data back the view. I know there is an action filter option but I really don???t like this because it seems a little limiting in terms of dynamically changing master pages, etc, etc. I don???t think this is a new problem (see http://weblogs.asp.net/stephenwalther/archive/2008/08/12/asp-net-mvc-tip-31-passing-data-to-master-pages-and-user-controls.aspx) but there were a few different options suggested here http://forums.asp.net/t/1293325.aspx (you might need to read through it a bit) but ultimately the solution may be more a framework one. In any case it will be interesting to see how you do this.

Anyway, I better leave it there. The only thing I would encourage is to keep us up to date and show us anything you have sooner rather than later ;)

Cheers
Anthony