ASP.NET MVC 3 – Software Architecture and Design in C#

Architecturecdesignorganization

I am starting on a relatively large and ambitious ASP.NET MVC 3 project and just thinking about the best way to organize my code. The project is basically going to be a general management system that will be capable of supporting any type management system whether it be a blogging system, cms, reservation system, wikis, forums, project management system, etc…, each of them being just a separate 'module'. You can read more about it on my blog posted here : http://www.ryanzec.com/index.php/blog/details/8 (forgive me, the style of the site kinda sucks).

For those who don't want to read the long blog post the basic idea is that the core system itself is nothing more than a users system with an admin interface to manage the users system. Then you just add on module as you need them and the module I will be creating is a simple blog post to test it out before I move on to the big module which is a project management system.

Now I am just trying to think of the best way to structure this so that it is easy for users to add in there own modules but easy for me to update to core system without worrying about the user modifying the core code. I think the ideal way would be to have a number of core projects that user is specifically told not to modify otherwise the system may become unstable and future updates would not work. When the user wants to add in there own modules, they would just add in a new project (or multiple projects). The thing is I am not sure that it is even possible to use multiple projects all with their own controllers, razor view template, css, javascript, etc… in one web application. Ideally each module would have some of it own razor view templates, css, javascript, image files and also need access to some of the core razor view templates, css, javascript, image files which would is in a separate project.

It is possible to have 1 web application run off of controllers, razor view templates, css, javascript, image files that are store in multiple projects?

Is there a better was to structure this to allow the user to easily add in module with having to modify the core code?

Best Answer

I am starting on a relatively large and ambitious ASP.NET MVC 3 project and just thinking about the best way to organize my code. The project is basically going to be a general management system that will be capable of supporting any type management system whether it be a blogging system, cms, reservation system, wikis, forums, project management system, etc…

Ambitious is an understatement, and from reading your linked blog post, it seems like you've focused more on what hip cool technologies you are going to use than exactly what it is your super-app is really going to do...

That said, the best thing I think you can do is carefully study Orchard's source code. It has achieved a high degree of modularity and is built on MVC3.

Related Solutions

C# Architecture – Module Interaction in a Module-Core Program

module A, a graphical user interface, needs to get some data from a database

This is indicative of an incorrect module design.

The point of dividing the code into modules is compartmentalization of functionality. This means that each module should have a specific area of functionality, and do that only.

A GUI module should only handle the user interface.

A database module should only interact with the database.

Passing information from one to the other should happen at a higher level. This might be your core module. Or, depending on what you are trying to do, it might make sense to add another layer.

Example:

If the user clicks on a button "Get my Data", an event handler in the GUI module calls a core method requesting data. This core method then calls the database module to get the data.

C# – In ASP.NET MVC/Razor, how to add initializer JavaScript to a “control”

I'm not entirely sure I've identified the right problem, but if I have, this may help:

We created a class called ScriptManager which lets us add arbitrary javascript files and/or functions to the bottom of all our pages when they are rendered. Give this a try:

public class ScriptManager
{
    public List<string> scripts = new List<string>();
    public List<string> scriptFiles = new List<string>();
}
public static class HtmlExtensions
{

    [ThreadStatic]
    private static ControllerBase pageDataController;
    [ThreadStatic]
    private static ScriptManager pageData;

    public static ScriptManager ScriptManager(this HtmlHelper html)
    {
        ControllerBase controller = html.ViewContext.Controller;

        // This makes sure we get the top-most controller
        while (controller.ControllerContext.IsChildAction)
        {
            controller = controller.ControllerContext.ParentActionViewContext.Controller;
        }
        if (pageDataController == controller)
        {
            // We've been here before
            return pageData;
        }
        else
        {
            // Initial setup
            pageDataController = controller;
            pageData = new ScriptManager();
            return pageData;
        }
    }
}

Then, at the bottom of your _Layout.cshtml page:

@foreach (var script in Html.ScriptManager().scriptFiles.Distinct())
{
    @Html.Script(script);
}
@foreach (var script in Html.ScriptManager().scripts)
{
    @Html.Raw("<script type='text/javascript'>")
    @Html.Raw(script)
    @Html.Raw("</script>")
}

Finally, you use it in a partial view like:

@{
  Html.ScriptManager().scriptFiles.Add(Url.Content("~/Scripts/jquery.blockUI.js"));
 }

You lose the ability to tell the client about the scripts in the header of the page, but they will be included on all pages you use a partial view that uses the blockUI (for example).

Best Answer

Related Solutions

C# Architecture – Module Interaction in a Module-Core Program

C# – In ASP.NET MVC/Razor, how to add initializer JavaScript to a “control”

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