I've seen some references to using Backbone.js with a CMS. I will be starting on a new project soon that will be using Kentico CMS. I'd like to use Backbone.js for the client side framework to make a "web app" experience that has it's content managed through Kentico (similar to the example Backbone gives on their website for USAToday).
Has anyone ever done this? It seems difficult due to Kentico's web framework. I'm sure it is possible to do, but at what cost? What functionality will be lost on the Kentico side? Will content managers still be able to change layout, rearrange webparts, add/delete webparts, update content within webparts, add/delete pages?
Any help or examples would be amazing! Thanks.
Kentico CMS comes with a RESTful API that is able to manipulate with all objects and documents in the system. So it's up to you what you implement on the client side. If you want to achieve push capabilities you will probably want to utilize SignalR (ASP.NET encapsulation of WebSockets). There is nice library that provides communication between Backbone.js and SignalR called Backbone.signalr. Last thing you should have a look at is a new system of events introduced in Kentico CMS 7 enabling to hook up to any document or object change.
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We have huge enterprise application written in angularjs.
Now we have to migrate to angular, so we have ruled out an option of hybrid approach angular suggests using "ngUpgrade".
So now we are creating a new application in angular, which means we have 2 applications "angularjs(old)" and angular(new).
So to switch between these two applications can be done without refresh using angular-spa.
I was trying to find if there is another framework, where navigating between two apps happens without refreshing(without refreshing entire page by navigating to new html).
Possible solution:
Use a new Angular application as a wrapper, then just use iframe to show the application you want depends on the context - old or new. The issue you might face is changing the iframe, but I guess you can use postMessage to communicate between the apps.
A bit more sophisticated:
Use Angular Elements to create your hybrid app.
I really recommend you to watch Erin talks from the last Angular connect about how Google made the migration from js to Angular.
I've recently tried the micro-frontend architecture described here:
https://www.martinfowler.com/articles/micro-frontends.html
Each app on different code repository, runtime build and quite easy to implement. Take a look :)
I am learning MEAN Stack. I started from learning Angular(from angular.io) now I am learning node.js and express.js
My question is, if there is angular for front end in MEAN Stack then why there are views and template engines in express.js at back-end? Are they alternative for each other or complements each other? what is the boundary for the role and responsibility of these two?
I am looking forward for someone's help in clarifying of my concept for role these two technologies(express' views and angular) used in mean stack.
In order to answer your question, let me explain what is angular and what are template engines in express?
What is Angular?
Angular is a platform that makes it easy to build applications with the web. Angular combines declarative templates, dependency injection, end to end tooling, and integrated best practices to solve development challenges. Angular empowers developers to build applications that live on the web, mobile, or the desktop.
what is template engine?
A template engine enables you to use static template files in your application. At runtime, the template engine replaces variables in a template file with actual values and transforms the template into an HTML file sent to the client. This approach makes it easier to design an HTML page.
Some popular template engines that work with Express are Pug, Mustache, and EJS. The Express application generator uses Jade as its default, but it also supports several others.
So,
Angular is a framework with a templating component baked in. You use it to create Single page Web Applications which means that DOM modification is happening on the client side and the app exchange with server only data. If your concern is template it is plain HTML.
Whereas, template engines' rendered views are sent to client each time by server whenever request is made each time a new page is rendered on server and sent to the client which is Great for static sites but not for rich site interactions.
If there is angular for front-end in MEAN Stack then why there are views and template engines in express.js at back-end?
This is because not every time generating views from angular is recommended sometimes it is better to use Template Engines to generate views and send the rendered page to a client, generating views at client side has its own pros and cons and generating views at server side has its own.
Generating views using template engines (i.e. at server-side):
pros:
Search engines can crawl the site for better SEO.
The initial page load is faster.
Great for static sites.
cons:
Frequent server requests.
An overall slow page rendering.
Full page reloads.
Non-rich site interactions.
Generating views using angular engines (i.e. at client-side):
pros:
Rich site interactions
Fast website rendering after the initial load.
Great for web applications.
Robust selection of JavaScript libraries.
cons:
Low SEO if not implemented correctly.
The initial load might require more time.
In most cases, requires an external library.
So, after knowing the pros and cons, you yourself can better decide that in particular case which one is better for you. Mean Stack has provided options for developers.
As far as your question regarding the role of these two technologies is concerned, Angular is a lot more view generator only, It has features like routing, it as services two-way data binding etc while the template engines are meant to render HTML so that it can be sent to the client.
I hope you will find this answer useful.
References:
what is the template engine?
what is angular?
pros/cons
Angular is a full-fledged front-end framework that comes with its own way of doing templating, using angular-specific markup in your HTML. If you use Angular as your framework, you're more or less stuck with their way of templating within the Angular portion of your application.
Angular Features
It is a framework written in Javascript language
Manages state of models
Integrates with other UI tools
Manipulates DOM
Allows writing custom HTML codes
It is meant for javascript developers to create dynamic web pages in a quick time
NodeJS
It serves the web
It is runtime built on javascript engine in google chrome
It can be considered as a lightweight server which can serve client requests in a more
simpler way than java does
It performs communication operation with databases, web-sockets,
middleware etc.
Why we use angular for Tempting not Express/Node tempting Engine
Server-side rendering is the most common method for displaying information onto the screen. It works by converting HTML files in the server into usable information for the browser.
Whenever you visit a website, your browser makes a request to the server that contains the contents of the website. The request usually only takes a few milliseconds, but that ultimately depends on a multitude of factors:
Your internet speed
how many users are trying to access the site and
how optimized the website is, to name a few
Once the request is done processing, your browser gets back the fully rendered HTML and displays it on the screen. If you then decide to visit a different page on the website, your browser will once again make another request for the new information. This will occur each and every time you visit a page that your browser does not have a cached version of.
It doesn’t matter if the new page only has a few items that are different than the current page, the browser will ask for the entire new page and will re-render everything from the ground up.
How client-side rendering works
When developers talk about client-side rendering, they’re talking about rendering content in the browser using JavaScript. So instead of getting all of the content from the HTML document itself, you are getting a bare-bones HTML document with a JavaScript file that will render the rest of the site using the browser.
This is a relatively new approach to rendering websites, and it didn't really become popular until JavaScript libraries started incorporating it into their style of development.
See Examples HerePratical Example
Basically template engines in Express are mostly used for displaying 404 and other server error messages. I find them ideal for such use cases. Using template engines for complex front end rendering is bad and not a good practice.
Express JS is a web framework on top of nodejs http module. Whereas Angular JS is a front end framework which doesnot depend on NodeJs server to run. Conceptually both are similar in few features like routing whereas implementation is different
over the last 2 months I taught myself Angular JS and ionic and have built a pretty effective iOS and Android client for a specific idea I have in mind. I am now embarking on prototyping a website for myself that this client will talk to.
The website will be pretty simple:
a) I am thinking the front end will be using a responsive bootstrap theme like this one: http://startbootstrap.com/template-overviews/freelancer/
b) The website will have a login function, and after login, allow subscribers to upload 'coupon' - that consists of a name, description and expiry date. This needs to be stored in the DB. I also plan to offer a search and edit functionality via the website
c) Now, I also want the backend to expose a REST API like, say, this form:
http://server.com/api/login
http://server.com/api/getAllCoupons
http://server.com/api/getCoupon/id=foo
etc
I've been researching various options and have come across:
1) Mean.io
2) Yeoman
3) Strongloop
At this stage, given I am completely new to web development, and only have an idea of Angular JS and a bit of Node js, I am confused on what to use
My criteria really is ease of use. I'd like a framework that lets me get up and running with a website and an API connected to it that can get data out of the website DB
Do you have a recommendation on the simplest and quickest way to go about it? I want to continue focusing on my mobile app and need the website to be as painless as possible.
Thank you
I want to implement a web-based API (using ASP.NET Web API 2) and consume it by the client Side library (Sencha Ext JS).
My application should include
A simple user registration form.
A login page for admin.
CRUD operations for users' submissions.
Notes:
I do not want to include any backend code (i.e C#) in the we application, I want to implement it using the HTML/Javascript only, that is Ext JS.
I want the Web API to be RESTful.
I want to protect admin pages.
I want to use the SQL Server to store users' submissions.
All of that requirements should be implemented using the ASP.net Web API 2 and Ext JS only.
So far, I did initial search and I got a lot of learning for either the ASP.net API 2 or the Ext JS. But I couldn't have a guide that help me to fulfill the above requirements or help me to have both technologies work together.
Pleas help me on either way.
Or generally, can you help me get started work in combining both: Asp.net Web API 2 and any client side that consumes it, such as Sencha Ext JS or any other client side. It is not necessarily to be Ext JS.
Thank you so much.
Thanks to StackOverflow.com
If it were me, I'd use the DirectAPI for asp.net https://github.com/elishnevsky/ext-direct-mvc
You create webapi controllers, just like you normally would. The only difference is the the controllers that need to be used by EXT should inherit from DirectController.
If you follow the directions on that page, you'll end up with a globally available proxy object that matches the name of the controller and the public methods hanging off of the controller become methods of that object.
That is, server side controller MyAwesomeController with method DoSomething() becomes MyAwesome.DoSomething.
If you attribute the method as [NamedArguements] you can create methods such as
DoSomething(int id, int foo)
and pass from javascript as DoSomething({id: 20, foo: 30});
Since it is still just a controller, you can attribute permissions and return json as you would in any other situation.
If you get stuck, use the debugger and spend the time to figure out what's really going on. This all works in 4.x and I've tried it in 5.x and it still works there as well. But I wouldn't jump into 5.x just yet as there are still several bugs that need to be worked out by the sencha team before it is ready for prime time.
ExtJs has a REST proxy for the data. So what you try to do should be possible. The proxy can be configured and be finetuned.
I used the JSON proxy. ExtJs has very powerful filter and sort capabilities, both server and client side. In my experience difficulties arose when filtering and sorting server side. There is only sparse documentation on how the parameters are passed and which configurations have what effects.
Since you also develop the REST api, you can adapt to those details. You just have to do some research.
Here is not the place to ask about guides. For Asp I cannot help you, I never touched it. If you use ExtJs, you are free to choose you backend. For ExtJs, the start is pretty straight forward :
get Sencha cmd and generate a skeleton app.
follow the tutorial
create one file per class definition.
the API docs are great. If you still lack something SO is great too.
what you have to find out by yourself is the exact way parameters are passed to the backend and how to format the response.
I have a website in which we have used asp.net, c# and SQL database. In this website we are frequently retrieving/submitting the details from database. Now we are redesigning this website. How about using Angularjs while redesigning? Will it make the development easier?
Or please let me know if we have better framework for this.
If you are using basic asp.net, then not really.
You have a page which includes a .cs "code behind" file and a ".aspx" file that are coupled and work together.
Why would you suddenly need a client side model? This is more relevant for "Asp.net MVC".
Now you could do some work arounds and start working "ajax + json oriented" to insert angularjs, but you will need a lot of changes.
Now, if you are planning on a large redesign, I would try looking at web api(you dont have to change your whole site, but maybe you will prefer to create a service that will work with your database to fetch data and return your angular js client json's that will data-bind with your views).
Now if you didn't understand me, I'd google "Asp.net web api" up and then google some "Asp.net web api and angularjs" up.
Yes, AngularJS can be used to simplify the front-end side of your website development.
Their developer overview provides a great brief on how to do data binding: https://docs.angularjs.org/guide/databinding