JQuery UI + ASP.NET UpdatePanel – Is it worth it

asp.netjquery-uiupdatepanel

I really like the looks of jQuery UI and I'd love to integrate it into my ASP.NET Web Applications. I like the themes and how easy it is to use the widgets. I'm currently using AJAX Control Toolkit controls like the Calendar and ModalPopup. I'm hoping to replace them with the DatePicker and Dialog widgets, but I hear they have issues with UpdatePanels. There are workarounds for these issues, but I wonder, is it worth it?

Which leads into my question(s):

Has anyone had luck using jQuery UI widgets exclusively (instead of AJAX Toolkit Controls) in an ASP.NET Web Application that occasionally uses UpdatePanels?
Are there any best practice resources for getting jQuery UI and UpdatePanels to play nice?

Update:
Based on the answers so far, it seems that the best thing to do is replace UpdatePanels with $.ajax and PageMethods. That should allow me to use jQuery UI without any issues and also improve my AJAX performance.

Best Answer

No, it's not worth it. If the toolkit's calendar and modalpopup extenders are working for you, then just hold on to them.

In future projects, stay away from asp.net ajax and use jQuery exclusively. This way you wont run into any of the updatepanel problems. ASP.NET 4.0 Webforms are going to make using jQuery much easier in the past, because you will have more control of how controls get named when they are rendered to HTML.

Website:

The Web Site project is compiled on the fly. You end up with a lot more DLL files, which can be a pain. It also gives problems when you have pages or controls in one directory that need to reference pages and controls in another directory since the other directory may not be compiled into the code yet. Another problem can be in publishing.

If Visual Studio isn't told to re-use the same names constantly, it will come up with new names for the DLL files generated by pages all the time. That can lead to having several close copies of DLL files containing the same class name, which will generate plenty of errors. The Web Site project was introduced with Visual Studio 2005, but it has turned out not to be popular.

Web Application:

The Web Application Project was created as an add-in and now exists as part of SP 1 for Visual Studio 2005. The main differences are the Web Application Project was designed to work similarly to the Web projects that shipped with Visual Studio 2003. It will compile the application into a single DLL file at build time. To update the project, it must be recompiled and the DLL file published for changes to occur.

Another nice feature of the Web Application project is it's much easier to exclude files from the project view. In the Web Site project, each file that you exclude is renamed with an excluded keyword in the filename. In the Web Application Project, the project just keeps track of which files to include/exclude from the project view without renaming them, making things much tidier.

Reference

The article ASP.NET 2.0 - Web Site vs Web Application project also gives reasons on why to use one and not the other. Here is an excerpt of it:

You need to migrate large Visual Studio .NET 2003 applications to VS 2005? use the Web Application project.

You want to open and edit any directory as a Web project without creating a project file? use Web Site project.

You need to add pre-build and post-build steps during compilation? use Web Application project.

You need to build a Web application using multiple Web projects? use the Web Application project.

You want to generate one assembly for each page? use the Web Site project.

You prefer dynamic compilation and working on pages without building entire site on each page view? use Web Site project.

You prefer single-page code model to code-behind model? use Web Site project.

Web Application Projects versus Web Site Projects (MSDN) explains the differences between the web site and web application projects. Also, it discusses the configuration to be made in Visual Studio.

Javascript – How to localize the jQuery UI Datepicker

For those that still have problems, you have to download the language file your want from here:

https://github.com/jquery/jquery-ui/tree/master/ui/i18n

and then include it in your page like this for example(italian language):

<script type="text/javascript" src="/scripts/jquery.ui.datepicker-it.js"></script>

then use zilverdistel's code :D

Best Answer

Related Solutions

.net – ASP.NET Web Site or ASP.NET Web Application

Website:

Web Application:

Javascript – How to localize the jQuery UI Datepicker

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