Blog: Posts from November, 2009

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Posts from November, 2009

Sunday, November 8, 2009Print Subscribe

Component DataViewExtender allows control over selection mode of rows displayed in data controller grid views via SelectionMode property. The default property value is Single.

Here is the snippet of DataViewExtender definition from Customers.aspx page generated with Web Site Factory premium project from Northwind database. The SelectionMode property is set to Multiple.

<div factory:activator="Tab|Customers">
    <div id="view1" runat="server">
    </div>
    <aquarium:DataViewExtender ID="view1Extender" runat="server" 
        TargetControlID="view1" Controller="Customers" View="grid1" 
        ShowInSummary="true" SelectionMode="Multiple" />
</div>

Here is how the page is displayed in a web browser.

We will also change the data controller ~/Controllers/Customers.xml to expose a new action a6 with command argument MyCommand on the action bar.

<actionGroup id="ag5" scope="ActionBar" headerText="Actions">
    <action id="a1" commandName="ExportCsv" headerText="Download" 
       description="Download items in CSV format." />
    <action id="a2" />
    <action id="a3" commandName="ExportRowset" headerText="Export to Spreadsheet" 
       description="Analyze items with spreadsheet&lt;br/&gt; application." />
    <action id="a4" commandName="ExportRss" headerText="View RSS Feed" 
       description="Syndicate items with an RSS reader." />
    <action id="a5"/>
    <action id="a6" commandName="Custom" commandArgument="MyCommand" 
        headerText="MyCommand" description="My custom command."/>
</actionGroup>

You can see the action displayed as a menu option on action bar of the grid view grid1.

Let’s add a business rule class Class1 and link it to the ~/Customers/Customers.xml data controller via /dataController/@handler attribute as described at /blog/2009/04/filtering-and-business-rules.html and /blog/2009/04/externalfilter-and-modal-views.html.

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Web;
using MyCompany.Data;

public class Class1: BusinessRules
{
    [ControllerAction("Customers", "grid1", "Custom", "MyCommand", ActionPhase.Execute)]
    public void MyCommand()
    {
        foreach (string customerId in Arguments.SelectedValues)
        {
            // do something here
        }
    }
}

Property SelectedValues is an array of string values. You might need to convert each value to the appropriate data type when writing custom business rules.

Set the breakpoint inside of foreach loop, open the page in a web browser, select a few records, and execute the action. The Visual Studio debugger will show the selected values as pictured below.

Labels: AJAX, Application Factory, ASP.NET 3.5, Data Aquarium Framework

Thursday, November 5, 2009Print Subscribe

Side-by-Side With SharePoint

If you are developing line-of-business applications with Microsoft SharePoint Business Data Catalog then you are well aware of complexities and limitations that it brings to your everyday development tasks.

Now you have a wonderful alternative to have “true” native ASP.NET/AJAX applications run side-by-side with your MOSS or Microsoft SharePoint Services. Data Aquarium Framework has been enhanced to offer a companion Web Site Factory premium code generation project that allows quickly producing ASP.NET/AJAX web sites that look remarkably like Microsoft SharePoint in a matter of minutes.

Is goes well beyond the SharePoint styling and provides ASP.NET/AJAX programming model that requires very little development experience and delivers amazing features, such as automatic adaptive filtering, smooth and responsive user interface, and cutting-edge business rules development to promote code reusability.

Code OnTime Designer allows point-and-click configuration of the application pages and data controllers further speeding up the delivery of final products that you are working on.

SharePoint Business Data Catalog plays an important role in bringing your business data into the familiar SharePoint web site presentation model. Building business applications with it is especially gratifying when you accomplish any meaningful results since the challenge is quite significant.

You can feel total satisfaction while meeting little challenge all day long with Data Aquarium Framework and Web Site Factory. Web Site Factory code generator project automatically creates ASP.NET/AJAX applications that have zero dependency on Microsoft SharePoint, can be developed with free tools such as Microsoft Web Developer Express, and still look as good if not better then Microsoft SharePoint sites. Just select you programming language and point to your database. In a few clicks a perfect SharePoint-style application is ready.

Be prepared to answer questions of your customers about that new version of SharePoint that looks so smooth and responsive!

Once again, applications produced with Web Site Factory are not SharePoint applications. These are standard ASP.NET/AJAX web sites that can be developed with standard development tools and require the skill set that you already possess.

The look and feel of these applications is controlled 100% by CSS style sheets. A typical Web Site Factory application looks virtually identical in major modern browsers. Here is the page of an application with the style sheets disabled.

Here is the same page with the standard style sheets applied to it.

You have a choice of all security models supported by ASP.NET. It can be based on standard Windows Authentication. You can also Internet-enable your application and use built-in Membership Manager. This feature is working in conjunction with the standard ASP.NET Membership API.

Please take a look at the live preview of Web Site Factory at /blog/2009/11/web-site-factory-preview-3.html.

You could standard building “Business Data Catalog 2.0” applications in minutes instead of days and weeks and get all the credit you deserve. Simply run Web Site Factory applications side-by-side with your SharePoint or MOSS instance and enjoy simplified development, zero external dependencies and complete source of every single bit of your projects.

No mysteries any more, no wasted time. Business Data Catalog of the future is delivered in Data Aquarium Framework.

Visit us at http://codeontime.com/subscriptions.aspx and subscribe to Premium Projects and Code OnTime Designer.

Labels: Application Factory, Data Aquarium Framework, SharePoint, Web 2.0

Sunday, November 1, 2009Print Subscribe

Web Site Factory Preview 3

The new premium project Web Site Factory has been released and available to active premium project subscribers. Web Site Factory is based on Data Aquarium Framework and features sophisticated page layouts and professional user interface themes modeled after Microsoft SharePoint. The entire source code is included.

The final release supports four different standard page layouts that are consistently applied to all automatically generated pages. You can use Code OnTime Designer to modify this pages and to create the new ones.

You will find the live demo projects at:

Simple Page Layout
http://dev.codeontime.com/demo/websitefactory1
http://dev.codeontime.com/demo/websitefactory2 (integrated membership)
Tabbed Page Layout:
http://dev.codeontime.com/demo/websitefactory3 (integrated membership)
Inline Page Layout
http://dev.codeontime.com/demo/websitefactory4 (integrated membership)
Stacked Page Layout
http://dev.codeontime.com/demo/websitefactory5 (integrated membership)

Simple Page Layout

Simple layout provides a single data view on each page. A field summary of the selected record is displayed on the side bar on left-hand side of the page.

Tabbed Layout

Tabbed master-detail layout will place each data view on a dedicated tab so that only one data view is visible at any time. The details of the selected master record are automatically displayed on the side bar.

Inline Page Layout

Inline master-detail layout is similar to the tabbed layout with one exception. The tabs are not displayed. A set of tasks named after each data view is displayed at the top of the side bar instead. The details of the selected master record are automatically displayed on the side bar.

Stacked Layout

Stacked master-detail layout lists all data views. This allows simultaneous access to all master and child records. The details of the selected master record are automatically displayed on the side bar. Stacked pages are usually longer than the height of the window. The side bar summary automatically keeps itself in the view when browser window content is scrolled.

Conclusion

Learn more about Web Site Factory project features at /blog/2009/10/web-site-factory-preview-2.html. The article provides screenshots of Web Site Factory applications displayed in major modern web browsers.

Labels: AJAX, Application Factory, ASP.NET, ASP.NET 3.5, Data Aquarium Framework