Future ASP.NET features for UID / HTML developers
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The document summarizes future features for ASP.NET that will improve the experience of UI/HTML developers. It discusses the history and issues with traditional WebForms and how newer approaches like ASP.NET MVC and view engines like Razor address these issues. It provides more control over markup, easier testing, and integration of UI developers alongside technical developers. However, legacy WebForms applications will still present challenges for a while.
Future ASP.NET features for UID / HTML developers
- 1. Future ASP.NET features for UID / HTML developers Mark Everard September 2010
- 2. ASP.NET WebForms History Baby Steps – WebForms in ASP.NET 4.0 Giant Leaps – MVC View Engines, Razor, HAML Overview
- 3. Developed as the Display technology for the first release of ASP.NET in 2000 Designed to mimic Windows (form) application development Provided better code separation than classic ASP .aspx (markup files) .aspx.cs / .aspx.vb (codebehind files) Event driven and provides a means of maintaining state between sequential requests (ViewState) WebForms History
- 4. Some side effects……… Markup that was abstracted and difficult to change Single form elements encompassing the page Large page weights. Non-standards based markup Difficult javascript integration … … … … And probably many more... Sorry
- 5. Introduces some new features that will make your lives a little easier…. Full control over client IDs More of a focus on semantic and standards based markup But the overriding framework remains ViewState Server Controls (runat=server) WebForms 4.0
- 6. WebForms generates ID attributes for any server created markup (allows the server to uniquely identify each element even if componentised in the code) ctl00_ContentPlaceholder1_ListView1_ctrl0_Label1 Not very friendly (although following a pattern). Not good for any JS interaction with the DOM Client IDs
- 7. WebForms 4.0 offers 4 modes of operation for Client ID generation AutoID (.NET 3.5 behaviour) Predictable (Default) — Trims any “ ctl00 ” ID string and if a list/container control concatenates child ids (example: id=”ParentControl_ChildControl”) Static —Hands over full ID naming control to the developer – whatever they set as the ID of the control is what is rendered (example: id=”JustMyId”) Inherit —Tells the control to defer to the naming behavior mode of the parent container control ClientIDMode
- 8. Developers are also beginning to find WebForms a pain (though not necessarily for the same reasons as you guys) Hard to write unit tests for Is an abstraction too far -> masks the true simplicity (RESTFUL nature) of the Http protocol Bye-bye WebForms
- 9. ASP.NET MVC Model / View / Controller Simpler framework Easier to test No ViewState No Postbacks No WebControls ~ runat=server FULL CONTROL OVER MARKUP – Yay The Future
- 10. ASP.NET MVC built on top of the WebForms framework Still working with .aspx (Page / View) .ascx (User control / Partial View) .master (MasterPage) Views will now contain some code within them (just for display -> loops to output lists) <%=foreach(var comment in Model.comments) { %> <li><%:comment.Body%></li> <%= } %> ViewEngines
- 11. Other ViewEngines available that use files with different extensions and different code syntax Razor (likely to become the default view engine) .cshtml files @foreach (var comment in Model.comments { <li>@comment.Body</li> } NHaml - markup language to produce xhtml markup – Can be a real time saver – never have to manually produce Xhtml – the Nhaml view is rendered as full XHTML ViewEngines
- 12. UID developers to Work alongside technical developers No longer create static templates in isolation Create fully integrated views to be dropped into a solution Create UI tests (Selenium) against those Views I have a dream…
- 13. Only ‘Greenfield’ projects will be MVC / WebForms 4.0 Still have to deal with existing pitfalls for some while yet Legacy applications EPiServer support for MVC is coming – but not this year at least Not so fast
- 14. Developing HTML views for ASP.NET applications will get a lot easier and more enjoyable in the very near future ………. Conclusion
Editor's Notes
- #4: Primary display technology – though ASP.NET is more than just WebForms Strongly Typed and compiled .aspx files taught to contain little or no code (AKA spaghetti code) - .aspx domain of UID / CodeBehind for TD Event driven – button click event / dropdown list index changed – where as the underlying web framework (Http GET Post) is more simple than that Just functions as request / response Political choice to bring across all VB windows developers to the new web paradigm Postbacks – would perform a Http Post of the entire page / form with viewstate containing the hashed value of the previous state of every servber control
- #5: How many more can they think of?
- #8: Visual Studio to show Page with Simple server controls with different client ids modes
- #9: Full test coverage is the safest way to ensure quality Many WebForm .Net developers won’t know the basic differences between a GET and a POST
- #10: Simple MVC app walkthrough Concept of Model Controller responsibility View HtmlHelpers
- #11: <%: %> Html encode notation
- #12: Simple Nhaml example Razor example
- #13: Fully integrated development
- #15: Fully integrated development