Discussion: Integrating Designers' Work into VS.NET Projects

[George Durzi]

I'd like to get some real world feedback from developers out there who have
to work with the "design" folks to integrate look and feel stuff into a
vs.net web project.

A lot of designers use web page design specific products such as Macromedia
Dreamweaver when building sites. What happens when you as a vs.net developer
have to work with a designer to integrate their look and feel into your
vs.net project?

Most of the designers I know have never used vs.net and still work in the
world of include files, as opposed to user controls. Do you take their look
and feel template, and do a one time "translation" for it to fit into the
structure of your vs.net project?

How do you handle ongoing changes to the look and feel of the site?

I'd imagine things might get more complex if you're using page inheritance
in your web project?

 

[Kevin Spencer]

Hi George,

Good topic of discussion. It points up the difference between software
developers and interface designers, and the problem of integrating the 2
together.

Our solution to this dilemma is to separate the interface layer into 2
layers: Content and Layout. Our content is provided by custom Server
Controls, each of which has a div or table that contains the content. There
are no attributes or CSS styles applied to the Server Controls' HTML
content, only a CSS class. Once the Server Control is completed, the
designer designs a CSS class for that Control, which positions the various
elements of the Control, as well as the Control itself. The CSS class
definition also controls the styles of the various elements of the Control.
All the designer needs to know is what are the component HTML elements of
the output from the Server Control. They can then take total control over
where and how the Control appears on a given Page. This modular design also
allows the Server Controls to be easily re-used in multiple pages, and even
multiple applications.

The result of this is that our developers don't need to think about design
at all, and our designers can customize the look of the application without
the developers having to touch any code at all, and without worrying about
how their work might affect the functionality of the Controls.

--
HTH,
Kevin Spencer
..Net Developer
Microsoft MVP
I get paid good money to
solve puzzles for a living

 

[George Durzi]

That's a very clean way of doing it. The css attribute on the custom server
control allows the interface designers to control the look and feel of the
custom server control without the developers having to worry about that
stuff