As a C# developer I much prefer to use Razor but I am sure there are heaps of umbraco front end guys who prefer XSLT because it is something they are more familiar with.
When Umbraco 5 looked like it was going to be the way forward there was basically no future for XSLT in Umbraco and so it was a pretty compelling reason to learn razor. Now that 5 is dead it doesn't look so clear cut. In the CG2012 key note the fact that Umbraco 5 had become difficult to use for non developers was highlighted and maybe killing XSLT was going to alienate some of the front end only users who have contributed a lot to the project.
My vote would be that if you are comfortable using XSLT and you can achieve everything that you need then you shouldn't beat yourself up about using it. Personally I will be using razor to rid myself of XSLT and .ascx controls aswell but that is just what works for me.
The simple answer is that nothing will become of Umbraco 5. Development has ended. I think there will be one more release (or it may already be out there) to fix some of the worst issues for any live sites that are stuck with it.
Here is a link to the roadmap for Umbraco 4 http://our.umbraco.org/contribute/roadmap so you can see where the project is heading. As you can see implementing MVC into version 4 is in there. I am not sure how this will affect support for XSLT so it could always turn out that my previous comments are invalid but I don't see anything in there that says XSLT will be dropped altogether. Maybe somebody who was involved with the roadmap can answer that question.
How many developers still use XSLT?
Hey guys,
Just a general question - how many developers with umbraco of course still use XSLT as opposed to Razor?
I understand there are some advantages using Razor - shorter code etc but is it really that bigger of a deal if one were to use XSLT instead?
Does anyone have any documentation on learning Razor and how it works with umbraco?
Many thanks in advance.
Jordy
Hi Jordy,
Gareth Evans has done a lot of work on the razor side of things and has documented it here
http://umbraco.com/follow-us/blog-archive/2011/2/23/umbraco-47-razor-feature-walkthrough-%E2%80%93-part-1.aspx/
As a C# developer I much prefer to use Razor but I am sure there are heaps of umbraco front end guys who prefer XSLT because it is something they are more familiar with.
When Umbraco 5 looked like it was going to be the way forward there was basically no future for XSLT in Umbraco and so it was a pretty compelling reason to learn razor. Now that 5 is dead it doesn't look so clear cut. In the CG2012 key note the fact that Umbraco 5 had become difficult to use for non developers was highlighted and maybe killing XSLT was going to alienate some of the front end only users who have contributed a lot to the project.
My vote would be that if you are comfortable using XSLT and you can achieve everything that you need then you shouldn't beat yourself up about using it. Personally I will be using razor to rid myself of XSLT and .ascx controls aswell but that is just what works for me.
Cheers
Hi Richard,
Thanks for your post and info on Razor - I've met Gareth before, very nice guy and switched on!
I am pretty familiar with XSLT and it would be a bit of a hassle trying to learn C# as my skills are purely front end development.
What will come of umbraco 5? will they release a new version that still has xslt? or is it back to the drawing board for them?
Thanks again!
Jordy
Hi Jordy,
The simple answer is that nothing will become of Umbraco 5. Development has ended. I think there will be one more release (or it may already be out there) to fix some of the worst issues for any live sites that are stuck with it.
Here is a link to the roadmap for Umbraco 4 http://our.umbraco.org/contribute/roadmap so you can see where the project is heading. As you can see implementing MVC into version 4 is in there. I am not sure how this will affect support for XSLT so it could always turn out that my previous comments are invalid but I don't see anything in there that says XSLT will be dropped altogether. Maybe somebody who was involved with the roadmap can answer that question.
Ah yeah fair enough - thanks again for all the info Richard! :-)
Hey
I used XSLT in some of the old projects ,but now XSLT is no more using in umbraco it's replaced with Razor.
I think its only if you come by an Umbraco running version 4.x you need to refresh your XSLT skills :)
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