Is the following scenario a reasonable way to get started with a new project?
We are starting a new project. We are used to basically building our own aspx pages and associated js/css/image/other files then plugging specific functionality in key places in pages that pulls data from data sources (cms and other).
The site will have a number of areas that may not use much umbraco/cms. They are data-driven in other ways and very specific to that data and functionality.
So I'm wondering... is it common practice to create sites like you normally would without a cms tool, then use umbraco to create and manage the cms data itself and create user controls that use the nodefactory to go grab that content and plug into a page? In this case the page wouldn't be part of umbraco (not in the nav, not based on any umbraco templates, rather a separate aspx page), but it would pull data from umbraco based on criteria made available to the user control (session, querystring).
We have some pages that actually have multiple locations on the page that pull different but related content types all into a single page (a youtube movie, related articles list, related discussion list, all in their areas of the page). I keep seeing pages like this as an aspx page with multiple user controls, each using the umbraco nodefactory API to pull content from umbraco even though the page itself is not "an umbraco page."
So, take advantage of umbraco's content organization, and workflow permissions, and caching, and all those goodies, but then use that content from normal aspx pages via the nodefactory.
This seems to differ from all the sample videos and default site where all the site "pages" are actually umbraco pages driven by templates and master pages and such.
Thoughts?
Thanks much and WHAT A GREAT PRODUCT! Chose it over Kentico, mojoPortal, SiteFinity, DNN :)
Normaly I would say "that is not THE umbraco way of doing things" but with the great flexibility umbraco provides it's definetly possible to do it!
From my point of view i would tak a different approach. In the frist step create your site Layout (js/css/images/...) and create masterpages from that.
Then go and check which parts of your site are or can be "umbraco driven" and build up DocTypes with the apropiate Masterpages and the Site structure in umbraco.
For the other part of your site create a directory e.g. "/nonumbraco" and add this to your web.config in "umbracoReservedPath" appSetting. Pages there are then not managed by umbraco so you can create aspx pages driven by your other data source in the common look and feel of your site.
As a rule of thumb "use as much of umbraco as possible - it comes for free!!!" and then try to either integrate the other stuff into usercontrols which you can use inside of umbraco or seperate those pages by using reserved paths or even create a virtual directory inside your umbraco web to build up the parts that are not umbraco specific.
Maybe this gave you some ideas how you can accomplish your task. These are my thoughts for this topic
Dear Toby, I am a newbie, I would be grateful to you if you could elaborate on the steps mentioned above. I couldn't undersatnd what you meant by the fllowing -
* Doc Types with the Masterpages (Maserpages means my Visual Studio page?)
* How do I get the content from Umbraco to my VS page?
In your old project you had/have different aspx pages which contain static stuff like logos, menu or footer information and dynamic parts normally your content. You can convert your pages to masterpages where you define all those except the dynamic parts (the content which changes from page to page). For the dynamic stuff you make a document type with fields for the content (RichText normally but can be of any type). When you assign the Masterpage (is called Template inside the Backoffice) to the DocumentType as the Default template you can start adding pages in your content section.
If you would like to learn more about documenttypes i would suggest this free video from umbraco.tv. there is also another free video about UserControls which you can whatch. And a lot more stuff if you subscribe to umbraco tv (it's woth it if you start with umbraco).
Thanks a lot. I went through the videos and gained some knowledge. My project needs are a little different. I need to build a .aspx page. The page should derive the contents of the Umbraco page. How can this be done? Also, if the user updates stuff on Umbraco, the changes should be reflected in the .aspx page.Currently, I am unable to add asp.net controls to the aspx page getting content from umbraco using node id.
I would be grateful to you if you could shed light on this. I have a brief idea on what to do but the whole picture is eluding me.
Baby-Steps Into Umbraco Via UserControls and API?
Is the following scenario a reasonable way to get started with a new project?
We are starting a new project. We are used to basically building our own aspx pages and associated js/css/image/other files then plugging specific functionality in key places in pages that pulls data from data sources (cms and other).
The site will have a number of areas that may not use much umbraco/cms. They are data-driven in other ways and very specific to that data and functionality.
So I'm wondering... is it common practice to create sites like you normally would without a cms tool, then use umbraco to create and manage the cms data itself and create user controls that use the nodefactory to go grab that content and plug into a page? In this case the page wouldn't be part of umbraco (not in the nav, not based on any umbraco templates, rather a separate aspx page), but it would pull data from umbraco based on criteria made available to the user control (session, querystring).
We have some pages that actually have multiple locations on the page that pull different but related content types all into a single page (a youtube movie, related articles list, related discussion list, all in their areas of the page). I keep seeing pages like this as an aspx page with multiple user controls, each using the umbraco nodefactory API to pull content from umbraco even though the page itself is not "an umbraco page."
So, take advantage of umbraco's content organization, and workflow permissions, and caching, and all those goodies, but then use that content from normal aspx pages via the nodefactory.
This seems to differ from all the sample videos and default site where all the site "pages" are actually umbraco pages driven by templates and master pages and such.
Thoughts?
Thanks much and WHAT A GREAT PRODUCT! Chose it over Kentico, mojoPortal, SiteFinity, DNN :)
Hello there!
Normaly I would say "that is not THE umbraco way of doing things" but with the great flexibility umbraco provides it's definetly possible to do it!
From my point of view i would tak a different approach. In the frist step create your site Layout (js/css/images/...) and create masterpages from that.
Then go and check which parts of your site are or can be "umbraco driven" and build up DocTypes with the apropiate Masterpages and the Site structure in umbraco.
For the other part of your site create a directory e.g. "/nonumbraco" and add this to your web.config in "umbracoReservedPath" appSetting. Pages there are then not managed by umbraco so you can create aspx pages driven by your other data source in the common look and feel of your site.
As a rule of thumb "use as much of umbraco as possible - it comes for free!!!" and then try to either integrate the other stuff into usercontrols which you can use inside of umbraco or seperate those pages by using reserved paths or even create a virtual directory inside your umbraco web to build up the parts that are not umbraco specific.
Maybe this gave you some ideas how you can accomplish your task. These are my thoughts for this topic
Toby
Dear Toby, I am a newbie, I would be grateful to you if you could elaborate on the steps mentioned above. I couldn't undersatnd what you meant by the fllowing -
* Doc Types with the Masterpages (Maserpages means my Visual Studio page?)
* How do I get the content from Umbraco to my VS page?
Please shed light on these.
Baggi.
Hi,
okay i will try to make this clearer ;)
In your old project you had/have different aspx pages which contain static stuff like logos, menu or footer information and dynamic parts normally your content. You can convert your pages to masterpages where you define all those except the dynamic parts (the content which changes from page to page). For the dynamic stuff you make a document type with fields for the content (RichText normally but can be of any type). When you assign the Masterpage (is called Template inside the Backoffice) to the DocumentType as the Default template you can start adding pages in your content section.
If you would like to learn more about documenttypes i would suggest this free video from umbraco.tv. there is also another free video about UserControls which you can whatch. And a lot more stuff if you subscribe to umbraco tv (it's woth it if you start with umbraco).
hmm, hope this helps but keep on asking if not ;)
Toby
Hi Toby,
Thanks a lot. I went through the videos and gained some knowledge. My project needs are a little different. I need to build a .aspx page. The page should derive the contents of the Umbraco page. How can this be done? Also, if the user updates stuff on Umbraco, the changes should be reflected in the .aspx page.Currently, I am unable to add asp.net controls to the aspx page getting content from umbraco using node id.
I would be grateful to you if you could shed light on this. I have a brief idea on what to do but the whole picture is eluding me.
/Baggi.
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