Front Controller Pattern.

[Ashish]

Is anyone aware of a good Front Controller Pattern implementation in
ASP.Net, we are developing a new product, and contemplating whether we
should use Front Controller Pattern implementation, due to the
flexiblity it provides for navigation and loading views etc....

any pointers/comments would be appreciated.

regards
-ashish

[garethdjames]

Inherently ASP.NET uses a Page Controller pattern.

If you plan to use the Front Controller pattern you will be fighting
against the framework, there are various ways to implement the Front
Controller, here is one: -

http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/de...ollerInASP.asp

If you do implement the Front Controller then forget about post back
events and viewstate, its commands and handlers.

Sorry to be so negative but any decision to implement the Front
Controller should not be taken lightly.

I have implemented sites using the Front Controller pattern using
struts and it works very well, but there are certain types of sites
that the implementation best fits the FC pattern

[Ashish]

thanks for the Reply,

the problem with us the ever changing navigation graphs of the
application, and that causes us to recompile the whole application,

we want to build something where the navigation, the business logic and
layout of pages is seperated cleanly, and that would help us in better
automated unit testing too,

do you think that there is a considerable difference in development time
between FrontController and PageController ?


ga**********@gmail.com wrote:

Inherently ASP.NET uses a Page Controller pattern.

If you plan to use the Front Controller pattern you will be fighting
against the framework, there are various ways to implement the Front
Controller, here is one: -

http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/de...ollerInASP.asp

If you do implement the Front Controller then forget about post back
events and viewstate, its commands and handlers.

Sorry to be so negative but any decision to implement the Front
Controller should not be taken lightly.

I have implemented sites using the Front Controller pattern using
struts and it works very well, but there are certain types of sites
that the implementation best fits the FC pattern

[garethdjames]

If your major problem is changing navigation paths then Front
Controller can help, it abstracts the physical page from the logic.

Are you using event handlers and the post back model? of so its not
easy to continue to do so with the front controller,

Imagine developing without control state and events,

I'd take a look at struts if I were you