Replicate Webforms GridView in ASP.NET MVC

Question

Is there a realistic way to implement a webforms stylegridview in ASP.NET MVC, with inline editing?

I have found various solutions to get a grid with inline editing working in MVC using JQuery add-ins but so far they have been very messy, require an unrealistic amount of work and that all gets worse when you want to add client and server side validations.

I develop a lot of sites that have fairly extensive administration sections to them. So far I have spent longer doing one page with MVC (which still does not work) than I would have doing the whole administration section of a site. Grids with inline editing work really well for somethings, say maintaining a list of countries and marking some as active or inactive. I know I can easily make this open a "details/edit" page, or even handle it with an AJAX popup, but neither of these options provides as clean a user experience as inline editing for things this simple.

Has anyone found an easy way to achieve inline grid editing or do I need to go for a hybrid MVC / winforms site (which I really didn't want to do).

Thanks Andrew

Answer 1

The Java Script Framework Ext JS has some good support for all different types of grids. This is something you could easily use with ASP .NET MVC, I'm sure there are some other solutions both client and server side out there as well.

Answer 2

I have had luck with incorporating Dynamic Data with ASP.NET MVC for just this very purpose. This hybrid solution can give you all the perceived benefits of a foward facing MVC site while giving you a quick and easy way to create CRUD functionality on all your data for admnistrative purposes. To be honest, if your user base isn't that large, designing the whole application in Dynamic Data is a legitimate option, especially once you get comfortable enough with it to use it past its basic "scaffolding" abilities.

As far as actually finding a packaged solution for providing ASP.NET GridView functionality in ASP.NET MVC, good luck. I have yet to find any solution that doesn't require some sort of melding with javscript frameworks or incomplete solutions like those offered by MVC Contrib. If you do find one, please let me know.

Answer 3

Check this out- http://stephenwalther.com/blog/archive/2008/06/25/asp-net-mvc-tip-9-create-a-gridview-view-user-control.aspx