I am having a little problem in my workplace where we have a IIS 6 server where Orchard (1.7) will not run. We are planning an upgrade but that's going to take some time.
Since we are using this site on IIS6 only to run one particular custom module we wrote for Orchard (basically a MVC module with its own Controllers/Actions etc.) I was thinking that a temporary solution could be to rip that module out of Orchard and run it independently.
Of course this extraction needs to take into account how many ties I have with the framework. I was wondering if there is some kind of guide to perform this and if there is something I need to take specially into account.
I am using the Users in Orchard so I would probably have to rewrite some users code. I am also using the Authorizer, which again may mean I need to re-wire something else.
It seems like a daunting job so I am looking for some quick tips on how to proceed if you know any.
Thanks a lot!
It all depends on what components you actually use within your module.
Hard to write any tutorial on this, really.
Regarding Orchard.Users - you could drop all related code usages and rely on the default ASP.NET roles-based authentication/authorization model.
If dependency injection is what you want to keep, then you need to integrate it yourself (for Autofac, but other DI containers will also work). Feel free to copy and change any Orchard components that you use, stripping the unneeded code.
In my opinion the hardest thing to strip out and replace would be any code that relies on content items - hope you don't have it. Rewriting this pieces sounds like an overkill. But if you just use IRepository, going for plain NHibernate or EF instead should be quite easy.
Related
VS2013 update 5, MVC5 using Areas
I have a stand-alone function programmed for a website. The functionality is a specific user interface to collect survey responses in a particular way. It has several controllers, a model and a group of views. The functionality is completely contained in an Area of the project, except for the Shared _Layout file that provides the main menu for consistency.
'Is it possible for me to' / 'how do I' compile this Area into a single or set of .dll file(s) that I could then add conveniently to other websites? I'm assuming creating something for transfer/download is very standard functionality. For example, I used Elmah.MVC for this site. What I want to do is pretty much create a package that can be downloaded in a similar way to how we integrate Elmah.MVC into a site. (Be certain I'm not talking about creating error logging software, I'm only using Elmah.MVC as an example of software that is easily integrated into other website applications.)
I've never compiled any website functionality into a .dll(s) for use elsewhere and would appreciate either some specific guidance, or perhaps what would be easier is to provide a link with a good step by step tutorial or explanation for how to do this. Most of what I've found on the web describes bits and pieces of doing this, but it's not enough for me to feel confident with it.
It seems to me there are a lot of 'moving parts' to taking a particular piece of an MVC application and turning it into something that is easily added to other projects.
A particular issue I don't quite grasp is the difference in downloaded packages between getting code and getting just the .dll(s). For instance, when I download an MVC5 site, I get controllers, models and views, but when I download Elmah I get a .dll and no code files. Also, I do understand the concept of transforms, but I'm just struggling right now with even getting from my programmed application into a 'package' regardless of the transforms that make it easy to integrate into another website.
These are just some of my questions I have about how to perform this particular process in developing deliverable and/or shareable software.
What you are looking to do is create a portable MVC Area project. A Portable Area is a set of reusable multi page functionality can be dropped into an application to provide rich functionality without having to custom build functionality that is literally the same in every application. An MVC Portable Area is really just a dll that contains the views, controllers, scripts, etc… needed to use in a website that is either a Web Forms website or an MVC website. A developer can use them for a reusable widget or a complete engine. I have actually used them for both. Here is a link with some basic info to get started. http://elegantcode.com/2012/04/06/mvc-portable-areas/
I have a question for professional Orchard developers?
Given that I can create new ContentTypes and ContentParts using the UI, when should you use the UI to create new Content Types/Parts versus creating a custom module and coding everything. What are the tradeoffs? Is there a time to combine the approaches and create some of your content types/parts in the UI and then extend them further using code?
What are the advantages of each method? (For example, it seems to me that deploying changes is easier using code...but still possible using the UI using the Import/Export module?
UI it seems you get things done pretty quickly, but is less flexible and portable than writing code?
What are the things you HAVE to do in code?
I tend to start by using the UI to test ideas and just adding templates to my theme to display these new parts. I also use the UI when I just want to add a new part to an existing type.
Where I find making a very simple module with my types specified in migrations useful is where I have a site in production that I know will need upgrading in the future. I have a dev version of the site that I play about with and then when ready to go live I create a migration that will upgrade the site.
This also means I can test the migration before going live and I don't need to have a list of manual changes required to make to the live site that is prone to mistakes.
I have an existing ASP.NET MVC 4 project that already uses ServiceStack for REST services, and I just read all about ServiceStack.Razor and would love to move the entire project onto ServiceStack. Right now there is only one controller and view besides the built-in AccountController, and that controller just returns the view and the view is really just HTML; everything else is HTML/CSS/JS + ServiceStack REST.
The only real legacy constraint here is that this new app still needs to make use of SimpleMembership. At present I'm using a custom auth provider to authenticate against SimpleMembership and I would like to be able to continue to do so.
So, what would be the best recommended path to achieve this end? Can I get what I want by modifying my existing project by removing some references, or should I start fresh with an empty ASP.NET app and move the old stuff into it? Can I have SimpleMembership without introducing dependencies that will step all over ServiceStack.Razor?
If you were to start a new solution using only servicestack then MVC would never be there to get in the way.
I use servicestack.razor and love it. It is a lot simpler than MVC in my opinion. Moving everything to the new solution is pretty much going to be copy and paste since what you have works. I wouldn't hesitate and would make the move sooner than later. In the end you are not gaining anything from MVC. You only gain using servicestack. A big deal for me is self-hosting and eventually moving to mono.
This is a question that will have answers based off opinion so I suspect you will receive a few. I have not personally performed such a migration so this is only opinion but is how I would approach it. However, my recommended approach would be:
Retain the existing application/ Given its current simplicity, creating a new app and moving existing items into it seems unnecessary.
You should be able to use your existing auth solution via SimpleMembership and use ServiceStack.Razor. I would proceed as such however it does depend on what other ServiceStack features you may use which could cause conflict. A ServiceStack expert could comment more on this. Even if that did occur, you would be able to work around it relatively easy. At worst, implementing a simple handler would get around almost all issues from an authentication perspective.
Working with different razor engines is relatively easy to do and you can use/enable/disable existing or new build engines via a few lines of code. See here for an example. This should alleviate any concerns around dependencies of other built in or custom engines.
Consider looking at ASp.Net 4.5.1/VS 2013 (since your project is in early days) as it has enhanced membership support and is moving to a more "less dependent" model of components via the Owin stack Asp.Net 4.5.1 and VS 2013. Katana is a microsoft project that also provides some Owin based authentication components see here and here which you could use now and this would remove a lot of dependencies and enable you to migrate other framework with relative ease. Downside is that Katana/Owin has a little ramp up time/learning curve. Again, given your project is in its formative days I would recommend looking into Katana and the ASP.Net vNext stuff as this will make it easier for you and means you dont have to migrate to the new version once it is released.
I'm fairly new to Kohana but I like the framework. I've hit a bit of an issue where I need to build a theme system into my application. It is very much application specific and there really won't be any reason to share it down the track. Initially I built it into the modules system within Kohana but now need to expand it. I haven't seen much reference for it but is it best practice to build all support classes like this into the modules or is it best practice to keep application-specific classes etc housed within application/classes?
On a side note, are there any good theme-system examples for Kohana? I really like how Drupal manages its themes and sub-themes and was wanting to emulate a very basic version of this inside my application.
I'd agree with that, anything specific to the application and has no real reuse should be put into the application directory. I like to use modules for fairly generic modules. Examples would be:
contact - Many websites have contact forms.
email - Can be used in lots of places.
etc ...
For your case, you might consider building a templating engine and putting that into a module (it's generic), then simply housing the application specific theme into the application directory where your module can load and use it.
What is a (free) technology which requires the least amount of code for creating a website with the following requirements:
Sign-up/login
Form for adding your personal info. which gets databased
Each person can view and edit their own info
Admin can view and edit any
The form needs to be easily customizable and extensible (by the website's owner, not during run-time)
Is there a beginner tutorial for such a thing?
(For me, this question is about a friend who wants me to do this, but I want him to do it himself so I don't have to get roped into maintenance. I also want to keep it more general for the sake of Stack Overflow and future readers.)
Edit: I thought I remembered some ASP.NET tutorials that were mostly drag/drop or things where it was all but made for you from the database schema (which can be made with SSMS's GUI) but I can't seem to find them now.
Responding to posts below requesting specifics: this site will be for potential clients to sign-up and enter their company's info and fill out a form about their advertising needs.
I thought about putting this on SU instead, but since there was likely going to be some coding involved (I assumed no-code was an unreachable goal) SO seemed more appropriate.
Your friend can consider a framework like drupal. It has a bit of a learning code but, you can create a website with everything you ask for without code. You may want to modify it to change the look but there are themes for that.
Also, some hosts like godaddy.com have this installed and you do not have to worry about the complex installation procedures. Just start modifying the content of the site, select a built in template and go...
PhpBB? I think you need to specify what the website is going to be used for before you can get better/more specific answers.
... have a look at Drupal or Joomla, expect a learning curve nevertheless.
Is this friend a programmer as well? If so, I'd suggest building such a site using a PHP framework. Deploying an existing forum/wiki is also an option of course, but will probably have much more features than you describe. But if s/he's not a programmer, I don't see how s/he will be able to develop a site like that in a reasonable amount of time.
Why not using a CMS like wordpress, drupal and co. ?