Introducing New Visual Studio 2010 Templates for WebUI Studio

Earlier this month, we have successfully launched WebUI Studio 2010 RC which includes hundreds of new components for Silverlight 3, Silverlight 4, and WPF 4. Although the main highlight in this upcoming release is ClientUI, we have added the ASP.NET lineups with 8 new WebEssentials components and predefined templates. WebEssentials has been discussed several times. Check out the past blog here and discover its key feature.

For those who haven’t downloaded the RC, I strongly suggest you to grab one here and test drive it yourself. Feel free to compare it with competing products and make your decision wisely. Should you have any questions or doubts, our friendly Sales team is ready to assist you.

On every product release, the real deal is always about how many new components it delivers or what new technology does the new version of an existing product support. And the results we usually expect are how it handles a massive amount of data swiftly, how it simplified a complex navigation system into a user-friendly one, etc.

Often times, we are too focus in those areas and eventually forget the rudimentary aspect. A third-party control should deliver innovative features which work out-of-the-box and easy to be implemented in business or real-world scenarios.

Starting this release (2010 RC specifically), several basic project templates are bundled to help you get started your mega-sized project quickly leveraging the powerful WebUI Studio products. These templates are installed automatically and are available from the new project dialog.

Select your desired platform and you can see the available templates. Or, click on Intersoft Solutions node to see all templates. This blog discusses the ASP.NET template only.

Empty Web Site Template

Let’s start with the basic, select “Intersoft Empty Web Site”. As the name implies, this template only have a blank default.aspx page. However, all essential assemblies are included inside the bin folder. The Web.config has been preconfigured to run at the most optimal setting. Simply said, you can drag-drop any controls to the designer and run it immediately. No more annoying SmartWebResources error message or any error messages.

Above is inside the Web.config. In addition to the SmartWebResources, several settings are inserted, such as: WebGrid’s exporting and Pivot Chart feature.

Basic Web Site Navigation Template

As the world’s internet population increases, the number of new website – and web application – grows rapidly every day. This is a challenging situation for every website owner, not only he has to provide great and updated content, but also well-defined and easily-spotted navigation. No one wants visitors to leave the site just because they can’t navigate to a specific page.

This is what we want to focus, by providing a basic template with predefined navigation infrastructure so that you can focus on building the content. This template includes several dummy pages linked to a master page.

The master page contains a list box control with predefined items. When clicked, it will redirect you according to the clicked item. Switch to the master page’s code behind to learn in details.

To connect a new page, you need to add a new aspx and linked it to the master page. In the aspx.cs, set the selected index to a specific number. In the master page’s .cs file, add a new case method according to the selected index. Next, add a new WebListBox item and set the necessary properties.

Assuming that your new page is MyNewPage.aspx and the selected index is 5.

Here is the result in IE8 browser.

Business Scenario Template

WebUI Studio is after all geared toward the development of powerful line-of-business applications with intensive data processing and extensive usage. Two business scenarios templates are available in the RC currently, a scheduling website template and an enterprise data management application.

Powered by WebScheduler, the scheduling template provides a very solid foundation for starter. It features WebPaneManager with vertical horizontal layout separation, WebNavPane to host the navigation item, a basic registration form, and a fully-functional navigation. Like the other two basic templates, all business scenarios templates include complete assemblies and preconfigured Web.config.

WebScheduler is also preconfigured with default settings and attached to a dummy database. You can later customize the field to meet your requirements.

The next template focuses more on data management using WebGrid bound to Northwind’s [Customer] and [Employees] tables. Most basic features are enabled, such as: filtering and paging. Instead of using the built-in editing feature, the “add new row” feature is done in a separated form.

Conclusion

These project templates are designed as a generic solution for WebUI Studio and Visual Studio 2010 developers so that you can enjoy a seamless development process without having to deal with advanced project configuration. It also gives you the basic idea of what you can build and deliver with WebUI Studio lineups. In the future, more creative templates will be added. What business templates would you like to see? Voice it out now.

Download WebUI Studio 2010 RC now and start using the above template. If you have any further suggestions or questions, feel free to post in Intersoft Community.

Regards,
Jemmy.