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Question

Using Visual Studio to make non aspx code-behind pages

Answer 1

+2 A:

First, there is not a lot of bloat in an ASPX page, if you don't want the bloat. You can get rid of pretty much everything other than the @ Page directive tag. You can turn off viewstate, as well, if you do not want bloat on the client side, so I see no reason to reinvent the wheel.

If you want far less bloat, consider ASP.NET MVC. If I am guessing correctly, you will see the RTM at MIX, as Microsoft loves to release things at conferences. If not, it is RC2, so RTM is not that far away. In ASP.NET MVC, the ASPX pages can be extremely thin, as they are just views.

If you want to tackle this your own way, you can do what you want with HTTP Handlers to handle the type. I would not leave it as .htm or .html, as you will make it so you cannot serve a standard .html file on your server, which is not good. This solves the handling issue, which is only half your battle.

I am not sure the best way to handle Intellisense. One way is to reference, as shown on Stagner's blog: http://weblogs.asp.net/joestagner/archive/2008/05/12/add-custom-javascript-intellisense.aspx

I have not tried this with custom extensions, although it should work. You can also create your own custom XSD (XML) file, ala: http://vyasashutosh.blogspot.com/2007/05/providing-custom-intellisense-in-vsnet.html

Personally, I would use the ASPX model and thin out what you don't need. you can even whack the templates if you would like so you can do this with every page. You cannot get rid of the @ page directive, but if that is too much bloat, I am not sure ASP.NET is the model you wish to work with.

Gregory A Beamer 2009-03-09 17:07:46

I love that people get defensive about the UI.Page class, heh, i'm VERY familiar with handlers, modules, and the ui.Page (controls...) I am looking to re invent the wheel but with improvements (eg rubber tread, steel bearings..) Thanks for the links!

rizzle 2009-03-09 17:11:36

Creating custom XSD looks cool, but how do i get visual studio to build some XSD whilei'm typing in the IDE?

rizzle 2009-03-09 17:16:09

Answer 2

+1 A:

Not that i agree with you, but you can create protected variables on code behind and use them the way you are trying.

At code Behind:

protected string myVar1 = "Hello World"

At Html:

<html>
   <body>
     <div><%= myVar1 %>
   </body>
</html>

Again, I just want to make it clear that working this way is going one step back and I advise against it.

Sergio 2009-03-09 17:10:37

this wouldn't work in a .html file, visual studio won't just parse html files nor will it expose those variables at the same level as the code behind class. But thanks, for offering an answer even though you disagree :)

rizzle 2009-03-09 17:13:45

Answer 3

+1 A:

Try MVC framework.

else use PHP, DJANGO, ROR or some other framework that supports templates fully.

TheVillageIdiot 2009-03-09 17:12:11

Answer 4

A:

I believe if you inherit your class from the abstract UI.TemplateControl, you will get this functionality. I'm browsing through the interfaces to see if simply implementing a specific interface will get this for you, but, I'm guessing if you want this functionality this is what you'll need to do.

overslacked 2009-03-09 17:33:27

Answer 5

A:

Or try using spark for asp.net it attempts to remove the need for inline script tags by using xml markup IE

<% foreach( string key in collectionOfItems.Keys ) %>
<div><% =key %></div>
<% } %>

becomes something like

<foreachcollectionOfItems.Keys >
<div>$key</div>
</foreach>

note my example is better crap and wrong but you get the idea. google it... spark

cdmdotnet 2010-06-14 22:27:56

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Using Visual Studio to make non aspx code-behind pages

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