To learn some of the more recent technologies I have been working on a new project for the last couple months. The main goal was to learn ASP.NET MVC, jQuery, SubSonic 3.0 and further explorer Twitter’s API. After several weeks it turned into a full-fledged web-based Twitter application project. Here is a full list of the technologies under the hood of the newly launched CouponFollow website (learn more about CouponFollow.com here and today’s press release here).
- ASP.NET MVC
- jQuery (including jQuery UI, and several plugins)
- SubSonic 3.0
- Linq to Twitter
- Twitter API
- Argotic Syndication Framework
- ShareThis API
- Zero ClipBoard
ASP.NET MVC
I really love programming in "spaghetti code" style, but it did bring some frustration… At one time I was able to code "Classic" ASP very well. Since then it has taken me a long time to adjust to programming with ASP.NET WebForms. It was always a struggle to control the code and html. I found myself having to "hack" a lot of things together, and spent more time than necessary just to do basic things… Basic things that could be accomplished easier in other languages. So ASP.NET MVC was a little frustrating at first only in the sense that I found myself asking "why did it take so long Microsoft… why!"
Its been years since Classic ASP. For those asking if ASP.NET MVC will replace ASP.NET WebForms, the answer is No. Someone (sorry forget where I read it) said it is a "fork" and both will be supported. Personally, I feel ASP.NET MVC is much cleaner, and thus allows much easier visualization of the code and workflow than the dirty ASP.NET WebForms. And that makes me feel good about it. The bottomline, it makes programming fun again (at least for me).
SubSonic 3.0
I’m a huge fan of SubSonic, because it is simple, it works well, and it makes my life easier. The latest version, SubSonic 3.0, is very different than the previous 2.0 version. I found myself lost a few times, but quickly realized that many features are done different ways, or have been moved to different locations… they aren’t "gone". I loved 2.0 and am still adjusting to 3.0, but it rocks so far (and actually I’m already I’m finding it harder to go back to using 2.0). It uses the TT files to automatically build the DAL, rather than a separate executable.
As a side note, I don’t follow many blogs religiously for extended periods of time, but I have done so for quite a while now with Rob’s blog. I highly recommend checking out his SubSonic project.
jQuery
This has been challenging for me to wrap my head around because I was never a great JavaScript coder. It took me a little while, but now I love it and can’t believe I have been coding with out it. There are many free plugins, for just about everything. Basically if you think of something you need, it’s very likely that a plugin already exists. It’s just fantastic, plus it plays really nice with ASP.NET MVC. I won’t go into crazy details as there is already a lot about it published all over the web.
Twitter API
The Twitter API is much simpler to work with than the Facebook API, and in many ways. However, there is no sandbox currently so be careful if you’re building something private. Since the call back page is trying to hit the live site when you first set it up, this caused an issue when testing Twitter Connect (OAuth). I ended up just copying the end of the url (OAuth token) and pasting it to the localhost location. It seemed to work. Next I created a test user account on Twitter and set the Tweets to private. This allowed me to work in a “sandboxy” environment.
Linq To Twitter Library
LINQ to Twitter is a LINQ Provider for Twitter original created by Joe Mayo. This is a great example of what can be done with Linq, and allows full usage of the Twitter API. This really saved me time and simplified the process of working with the Twitter API. Plus, the open source TwitterOMatic project was an invaluable resource for learning how to implement the Linq to Twitter library. If you are looking to work with the Twitter API in .NET, this is definitely worth checking out.
Argotic Syndication Framework
I have used Argotic Syndication Framework before and it is rather nice. I wanted to find out the best way to implement it in ASP.NET MVC, so I googled it. I found two articles that really helped me through the process and implemented it. The first was about using RSS as an ActionResult. The second about using the Argotic Syndication with ASP.NET MVC. On top of the RSS version, I created an Atom ActionResult as well.
ShareThis API
I was going to create my own Share area using jQuery, but I liked the ShareThis script and feel people are accustomed to seeing it. However, I did want to make it fit in with my site so I checked out the ShareThis API and learned how to customize the button. It is pretty straighforward, but there is a great tutorial on WebMonkey which I found to be very useful.
Copying to a ClipBoard
I really love the copy to clipboard feature seen on RetailMeNot. After playing around on their site I quickly found out they are using a free open source library called Zero Clipboard. This library utilizes Adobe Flash to place the information in the clipboard when the user interacts with an object on the page. It is worth checking out. I had a lot of trouble fiddling with this. It took me about 8 hours straight before I finally got it the way I wanted it, haha (Actually, I think there is a small bug with it, ahh!).