ASP.Net and HTML Front End

[Chris Kennedy]

I am fine designing .net apps by myself. For my company to start utilising
..net properly we need systems and approaches in place where we can integrate
web designers designing the frontend and web developers designing the code
behinds. Our designer mainly hand codes, how do I get him to give me a HTML
layout with pointer to where e.g. labels will go and convert that into into
aspx page with a code behind. I want to do this from the .net IDE, not with
hand coding links etc, and get the benefits of such a coding environment.
One drawback is I am currently using VB.net standard, I need to prove the
viability of such an unproven technology (from our company's perspective)
before thay will even think of buying Visual Studio and Source Safe. Can
anyone point me in the right direction with either advice or pointers to
resources.

 

[Kevin Spencer]

Hi Chris,

Our solution is to use external CSS for all of our layout. We bundle our
interface functionality into custom Server Controls that are basically divs
with other HTML objects inside them. No attributes or inline styles. Each
Server Control has a CSS class name, and the designer develops the CSS
classes which give them the appropriate look/layout, as well as positioning
them in the page. This way, the programmers don't have to think much about
layout, and the designers never have to worry about code. You can see some
excellent examples of external CSS for layout at http://csszengarden.com.
Every page on that site uses the same HTML, with different external style
sheets.

As far as "unproven technolgy," perhaps you should remind your boss that
..Net has been out for more than 2 years now, and is currently in pre-release
for it's THIRD version.

--
HTH,
Kevin Spencer
..Net Developer
Microsoft MVP
Big things are made up
of lots of little things.

 

[Chris Kennedy]

Actually sorry I reread what you said and got it. How do you approach issues
such layout within the server control, are talking custom server controls or
user controls. Regards, Chris.

 

[Kevin Spencer]

Hi Chris,

The difference between Server Controls and User Controls in this case is
negligible. Both types of Controls render HTML. So, you can use either, or
both.

As far as handling the styling of the elements within the controls, again,
take a look at http://csszengarden.com. When you define a CSS class, you can
also define the characteristics of any HTML elements that are contained
within the HTML element (div) that has the class name. For example, if you
have several lines of text in the Control, and one line needs to look
different than another, you can use <H1> for one line and <H2> for the
other. By defining the style of H1 and H2 in the class definition of that
CSS Class, you can control how each line of text looks inside the Control.
H1 and H2 elements that are not contained in that Control will not use those
styles; only HTML elements inside the outer div. In other words, you simply
use different types of HTML elements inside the Control, and define in the
CSS class definition how each HTML element inside that outer div should be
styled.

Good luck!

--
HTH,
Kevin Spencer
..Net Developer
Microsoft MVP
Big things are made up
of lots of little things.