Advantage of Asp.Net MVC

Asp.net  is a part of .net platform for creating,building, deploying and running web applications using C#,VB etc .we can develop a web application by using Asp.Net Web Form and Asp.Net MVC. Asp.Net MVC is advanced technology that is most widely used nowadays . MVC is a great thing available for developers that makes work of developers easy and more flexible .

MVC stands for Model-View-Controller . MVC separates the code in 3 different things that make the code cleaner , flexible and easy to understand and modify . So Today I am going to tell some of big advantages or some good things that Asp.Net MVC provides as compared to Web-forms . This is not a comparison of Web-forms and MVC this is just overview or advantages or features that Asp.Net mvc provides us

1. Rapid Application Development ( RAD ) :- So first I will start with biggest advantage of Asp.net Mvc and this is the thing that is most in demand in Enterprises and everywhere in development area . This is Rapid application development . Asp.Net MVC provides Database First Approach for developing WebApplications . This approach is used with Scanfolding Technique this technique is like a magic provided in Asp.Net MVC . Scanfolding technique tells if you have designed your database in good manner that means if you have Created Normalized Database with all like Primary keys, foreign keys ,One-many , many-many relationships then you need not to do more effort for developing rest on your application in Asp.Net MVC Rest of things will be created with less efforts using scanfolding . With Asp.Net MVC you can have your simple basic website ready within 1 minute after you created your Database . So that was explanation to RAD in Asp.Net MVC

In Pic below we are choosing MVC5 scanfolding template


Then it automatically generate code for us

2. Partial Layouts :- In Asp.Net we ofter use User controls that were used for code reusability we create a user control then where we require that type of code that we coded in user control we call that user control there . In similar way Partial Layouts is provided in Asp.Net MVC .Partial Layouts are very useful things provided in Asp.Net MVC . Partial Layouts are like Master Pages that we use in Asp.Net web-forms . These are used as master pages or master layouts that can be called in any view in Asp.Net MVC . Like in php we use include ( "partialheader.php" ); to include some header in all pages or some specific pages so instead of writting that code in all pages we call then there . Similar in Asp.Net Web-Forms We use content placeholders and contentplaceholders are placed in Master Pages and when we call these master pages and use then in child forms then code of child forms is placed in content placeholder area In the similar way Partial layout works . The partial layout contains @Renderbody in Razor view then replace the child page or code of  page that is calling it

3. MVC Is  Stateless : Asp.Net was Statefull by using viewstates or sessions but Asp.net MVC is stateless . It will be wrong to say mvc is stateless it would say http is stateless . By stateless i mean there is nothing in http that holds the user session or that record the activity of user when user logged in etc so this was maintained or state was maintained using viewstate and sessions . This was used in asp.net Webforms because they contain server controls that contains viewstate and that postback the values and update viewstates But there is not server controls in Asp.Net MVC So it does not maintain states . It has divided the code in three patterns model-view-controller that handles everything That's why it says MVC is stateless But in actual http is stateless that why MVC is stateless

4. No Events : As we came to know there are no server controls in Asp.Net MVC so there are no events for any control as there are not server controls All this is handled by connection of controllers with views where views hold your html code or designing code and controller hold your logics code .

Difference Between ViewState and Session in Asp.Net

"View State and Session "
  The Two main State Management things used in Asp.net Web applications . We cannot even think of an application without ViewState and Session . So today i decided to gave an overview of what is the difference between viewstate and session why these two terms exist and what are their usage To clearify this difference i am giving some points below

1. So First of all what is a Session ? -- A Session is a Time or a span of time upto which user used that webapplication or for how much session of how much period of time user has used your webapplication will be called session . Session contains some values that will be used throughout the user interaction with the webapplication and used in more than one webpage that user navigate So we can say that it is a variable in simple sense that takes our value from one page to another and Session got distroyed or killed automatically after a particular span or time or it is automatically destroyed or cleared when like user signout of application or when user close the browser

A live example would be a web application where a user login . Each user that logs into your system will have a unique session. We can hold additional data into the session which can be used as the user browses your site. We can hold the username, userrole, userpermissions simply by adding it to the session:


Session[“userrole”] = “programmer”; 
Session[“username”] = “Ageek”; 

Session[“userpermissions"] = “cangotohell”; 

A Session  stores the information on the server side  . It stores the values or it uses server memory for storage of data that it holds in . Session variables will use different new and unique session variables for each different user that logs in to web application . large amount of data can be stored on the session, web sites that have a large amount of traffic not use this method, because it will put a severe load on the server memory.

2. Now What is ViewState ? -- so we are clear with session now comes the turn of viewstate . So ViewState is also used for holding our important data But in case of viewstate data is kept in the single viewstate page . It means viewstate data is not taken from one page to another page in this point it is different from session . 

ViewState is only used to Track to analyse the changes that occur to current page during postbacks of data to pages .The viewstate of page can be viewed if you right click on webpage and then clickon view page source then you will see some code of lines similar to below code --

<input type="hidden" name="__VIEWSTATE" id="__VIEWSTATE" value=””></input>

If you are having large number of viewstate fields then it will make the postbacks very slow as all viewstate values will be needed to updated during postbacks so it will make the webpage open slower

Data can be written into viewstate like we do in sessions . But it can retain that data only with life cycle of page after that it will be changed or updated .If you closes that page or redirects to another page then viewstate data will be reset .

How to fill data in viewstate and how to access that data 

ViewState[“PreviousPage”] = “http://www.google.com”; 

Retrieving data form ViewState:

string PreviousPage = ViewState[“PreviousPage”].ToString();  

How To Create Printable Bootstrap Page

Every Day Is a New Learning Day . Today, I learnt a new thing with bootstrap When We use the page becomes responsive it will adapt its width and height and change it accordingly to the screen on which we are viewing that webpage that's the magic of Bootstrap .

 BUT there is one thing need to be noticed that is When we print that page . Like i needed to give one functionality in my web application to the client . Client wants a button when client click on that button a print preview of current page is given to client and page will be downloaded as .PDF file 

But Now you may face some problem as below :-

Bootstrap - Print layout and breaks after each grid column

Grid stacks when printing Bootstrap page

you may search How to Create Printable bootstrap page So solution is below


when you see in your print preview or .PDF file you can see bootstrap  layout will be not there . This is because bootstrap make the columns and rows by using some inbuilt classes these classes are by default included in bootstrap.min.css file but you have to set them to be allowed in all media As bydefault it is set to screen only


When you try code below in your html page you can see it is not printing your page with bootstrap enabled 

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
  <head>
    <meta charset="utf-8">
    <meta http-equiv="X-UA-Compatible" content="IE=edge">
    <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1">
    <title>Bootstrap 101 Template</title>

    <!-- Bootstrap -->
    <link href="css/bootstrap.min.css" rel="stylesheet">

    <!-- HTML5 Shim and Respond.js IE8 support of HTML5 elements and media queries -->
    <!-- WARNING: Respond.js doesn't work if you view the page via file:// -->
    <!--[if lt IE 9]>
      <script src="https://oss.maxcdn.com/html5shiv/3.7.2/html5shiv.min.js"></script>
      <script src="https://oss.maxcdn.com/respond/1.4.2/respond.min.js"></script>
    <![endif]-->
  </head>
  <body>
   <div class="container">
  <div class="row">
  <div class="col-md-6">Column1</div>
    <div class="col-md-6">Column2</div>
  </div>
</div>

    <!-- jQuery (necessary for Bootstrap's JavaScript plugins) -->
    <script src="https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.11.1/jquery.min.js"></script>
    <!-- Include all compiled plugins (below), or include individual files as needed -->
    <script src="js/bootstrap.min.js"></script>
  </body>
</html>

Steps To Create your Bootstrap Webpage Printable

1. Replace every col-md- with col-xs-
 e.g. :- replace every col-md-6 to col-xs-6 This is the thing that worked for me to get me rid of this problem you can see what you have to replace

Replace following code 

   <div class="container">
  <div class="row">
    <div class="col-md-6">Column1</div>
    <div class="col-md-6">Column2</div>
  </div>
</div>


With this code in our given example 

<div class="container">
  <div class="row">
    <div class="col-xs-6">Column1</div>
    <div class="col-xs-6">Column2</div>
  </div>
</div>

How To use Crystal Reports in Asp.net

Download zip code file  for Crystal Report Demo App
Download Code For How To use Crystal Reports in Asp.net

Setting Up Sql Server Database 

1. Open you Sql Server Management Studio
2. Connect to SQl Server
3. Then  in Right panel Right click on Databases and Click on New Database
4. Now A New Dialog Box Appears 
5. Fill Database name: TestReports and Hit Enter . Now Table will be successfully created
   
   
6. Now in the Query window execute the following scripts to create table
   
   
7. After successfull creation of tables insert some dummy data in tables using following query code
   
   
8. Now Our Database work is over Now we go to Visual Studio for code

Now Do Code in Visual Studio
Start your Visual Studio .Click on New project choose Asp.net Web Form  Application and Give a appropriate name and choose location and Hit Enter .

Getting Dataset Ready For Report

1. Right click on Project Folder in solution Explorer and click on Add then in further sub-menu click on New item
   
   
2. Now a Popup window appears scroll and choose DataSet give name "Customers" and Click on Ok to add DataSet
3. Now Customers Dataset will be added in solution explorer . Now Double click on it 
4. It will open DataSet Designer Now right click on and create new DataTable 
5. After Creating DataTable it will be empty by default now we will add column to it similar to our column in table in database 
6. Right click on DataTable that we have created and Create new Column and give it name try to give the name similar to name of columns in Table in Database

Adding Crystal Report

1. Right click on Project Folder in solution Explorer and click on Add then in further sub-menu click on New item 
2. Now a Popup window appears scroll and choose Crystal Report give it name and Click on Ok
   
   
3. Now Crystal Report Gallery window popup after some time 
4. Now choose "Using the Report Wizard"  and click ok
   
   
5. Now a window will popup and tell you to choose your dataset that we have created in above steps
6. Choose your Datatable under Customers DataSet and Click ok
7. Now your Dataset fields will be added on Field Explorer . Field explorer is available on left side of visual studio window
8. In Field explorer under Database Expert you all datatable fields will be available
   
   
9. you can drag these fields to crystal Report Details Section When you add them in  Details Section Its Header will automatically added to Page Header Section
10. you can do some design of your Crystal Report like shown below :-

Designing Form

1. Now  we will add a Aspx form that will be used to view our Crystal Report
2. Right click on Project Folder in solution Explorer and click on Add then in further sub-menu click on New item 
3. Now a Popup window appears scroll and choose WebForm give it name and Click on Ok  
4. Now delete the existing code Add Following Code To Aspx Form

<%@ Register Assembly="CrystalDecisions.Web, Version=13.0.2000.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=692fbea5521e1304"
    Namespace="CrystalDecisions.Web" TagPrefix="CR" %>

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<head runat="server">
    <title></title>
</head>
<body>
    <form id="form1" runat="server">
        <center>
    <CR:CrystalReportViewer ID="CrystalReportViewer1" runat="server" AutoDataBind="true" Width="1000" />
            </center>
    </form>
</body>
</html>




Adding Csharp ( C# ) Code

1. Now go to Csharp code of New Added Webform and Add code similar to code below :-
2. Add this code under your partial class -- 



protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
    {
        ReportDocument crystalReport = new ReportDocument();
        crystalReport.Load(Server.MapPath("~/CustomerReport.rpt"));
        Customers dsCustomers = GetData("select * from Testtable");
        crystalReport.SetDataSource(dsCustomers);
        CrystalReportViewer1.ReportSource = crystalReport;
    }

    private Customers GetData(string query)
    {
        string conString = ConfigurationManager.ConnectionStrings["constr"].ConnectionString;
        SqlCommand cmd = new SqlCommand(query);
        using (SqlConnection con = new SqlConnection(conString))
        {
            using (SqlDataAdapter sda = new SqlDataAdapter())
            {
                cmd.Connection = con;

                sda.SelectCommand = cmd;
                using (Customers dsCustomers = new Customers())
                {
                    sda.Fill(dsCustomers, "DataTable1");
                    return dsCustomers;
                }
            }
        }
    }