Clarification of Umbraco 6/7.0.2's MVC architecture required please???
I was wondering if someone could clarify exactly what is going on inside Umbraco MVC when compared with the classic method of using webforms and XSLT? For me the confusion lies with the continued use of an XML cache of the website and also the change/consolidation of property types in Umbraco 7.
In the Umbraco context, I'm still finding this mix of architecture a little confusing, and the key for me here is the continued existence of the cached XML "view" of the entire website, the umbraco.config file which lives inside APP_DATA and is created on application start-up.
So questions spring to mind like...
1. Do Umbraco MVC views continue to read data directly from the Umbraco.config rather than a SQL data layer as you would expect in a "normal" MVC application? Is the XML file effectively a read only datasource within the datalayer for MVC as well as web forms or are the two architectures kept seperate?
2. As there has been some movement of built-in property types, why hasnt there been measures put in place to ensure upgraded sites don't lose data? The preferred storage format is now JSON on some leaving me no choice but to dump my related links datatype for example and re-create it so that it works (UI is busted otherwise). This means all previous XML data is lost. Upon opening the umbraco.config I can see the new data in JSON format. Which within an XML file looks a little odd!
3. If two seperate data layers exist could we not retain the XML data in it's original format for datatypes which would save having to (yet again) modify XSLT code?
Not understanding the new architecture fully, may mean some of these questions are a bit pointless....but if someone could point me in the right direction so that I get a better understanding of what's going on under the hood....it will help me during the upgrade process for other sites I control.
One thing I would like to point out, is after having to go through the painful schema change in Umbraco 4.0.4 -> 4.5. I would've thought an overriding ambition would have been to ensure 100% compatibility of existing sites upon upgrade. But yet again this doesnt appear to be the case!
Clarification of Umbraco 6/7.0.2's MVC architecture required please???
I was wondering if someone could clarify exactly what is going on inside Umbraco MVC when compared with the classic method of using webforms and XSLT? For me the confusion lies with the continued use of an XML cache of the website and also the change/consolidation of property types in Umbraco 7.
In the Umbraco context, I'm still finding this mix of architecture a little confusing, and the key for me here is the continued existence of the cached XML "view" of the entire website, the umbraco.config file which lives inside APP_DATA and is created on application start-up.
So questions spring to mind like...
1. Do Umbraco MVC views continue to read data directly from the Umbraco.config rather than a SQL data layer as you would expect in a "normal" MVC application? Is the XML file effectively a read only datasource within the datalayer for MVC as well as web forms or are the two architectures kept seperate?
2. As there has been some movement of built-in property types, why hasnt there been measures put in place to ensure upgraded sites don't lose data? The preferred storage format is now JSON on some leaving me no choice but to dump my related links datatype for example and re-create it so that it works (UI is busted otherwise). This means all previous XML data is lost. Upon opening the umbraco.config I can see the new data in JSON format. Which within an XML file looks a little odd!
3. If two seperate data layers exist could we not retain the XML data in it's original format for datatypes which would save having to (yet again) modify XSLT code?
Not understanding the new architecture fully, may mean some of these questions are a bit pointless....but if someone could point me in the right direction so that I get a better understanding of what's going on under the hood....it will help me during the upgrade process for other sites I control.
One thing I would like to point out, is after having to go through the painful schema change in Umbraco 4.0.4 -> 4.5. I would've thought an overriding ambition would have been to ensure 100% compatibility of existing sites upon upgrade. But yet again this doesnt appear to be the case!
Thanks in advance
Martin
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