Modern Web Development: Understanding domains, technologies, and user experience

Master powerful new approaches to web architecture, design, and user experience
This book presents a pragmatic, problem-driven, user-focused approach to planning, designing, and building dynamic web solutions. You’ll learn how to gain maximum value from Domain-Driven Design (DDD), define optimal supporting architecture, and succeed with modern UX-first design approaches. The author guides you through choosing and implementing specific technologies and addresses key user-experience topics, including mobile-friendly and responsive design. You’ll learn how to gain more value from existing Microsoft technologies such as ASP.NET MVC and SignalR by using them alongside other technologies such as Bootstrap, AJAX, JSON, and JQuery. By using these techniques and understanding the new ASP.NET Core 1.0, you can quickly build advanced web solutions that solve today’s problems and deliver an outstanding user experience.

Microsoft MVP Dino Esposito shows you how to:

• Plan websites and web apps to mirror real-world social and business processes
• Use DDD to dissect and master the complexity of business domains
• Use UX-Driven Design to reduce costs and give customers what they want
• Realistically compare server-side and client-side web paradigms
• Get started with the new ASP.NET Core 1.0
• Simplify modern visual webpage construction with Bootstrap
• Master practical, efficient techniques for running ASP.NET MVC projects
• Consider new options for implementing persistence and working with data models
• Understand Responsive Web Design’s pros, cons, and tradeoffs
• Build truly mobile-friendly, mobile-optimized websites

• For experienced developers and solution architects who want to plan and develop web solutions more effectively
• Assumes basic familiarity with the Microsoft web development stack

Table of Contents

Introduction     xvii
PART I: UNDERSTANDING THE DOMAIN      
Chapter 1: Conducting a thorough domain analysis     3
Domain-driven design to the rescue     4
Introducing design driven by the domain     4
Clearing up common misconceptions about DDD     4
Introducing the ubiquitous language     6
Creating a vocabulary of domain-specific terms     6
Keeping business and code in sync      8
Introducing the bounded context     10
Discovering bounded contexts     10
Implementing bounded contexts     12
Introducing context mapping     15
Examining relationships between bounded contexts     15
Introducing event storming     17
Having unlimited modeling space     17
Finding events in the domain      17
Leading the discussion     18
Summary     18
Chapter 2: Selecting the supporting architecture      19
It’s all about business logic     19
Examining the application logic     20
Examining the domain logic     21
Exploring patterns for the business logic     22
Using a single model     24
Exploring the elements of an object-oriented domain model     24
Putting business rules inside     26
Discovering aggregates     28
Exploring the role of domain services     30
Implementing command and query separation     32
Working with the Command and Query Separation principle     33
Implementing CQRS      36
Introducing message-based formulation     39
Ad-hoc infrastructure     39
Introducing event sourcing     43
Summary     46
Chapter 3: UX-driven design     47
Why a top-down approach is better than a bottom-up one     48
Foundation of the bottom-up approach      48
Planning with a top-down approach     50
Looking at user experience from an architectural perspective      52
UX is not UI     52
Explaining UXDD in three steps     55
Why UXDD is beneficial to nearly everybody     59
Summary     62
Chapter 4: Architectural options for a web solution      63
Assessing the available web solutions     64
Deciding on the best framework     64
Laying out a solution     65
Examining the role of ASP.NET Core 1.0     66
Considering ASP.NET as the starting point     66
Examining the architectural dependencies in ASP.NET Core 1.0     68
Exploring the reasons to choose ASP.NET Core 1.0     69
Determining if you should use ASP.NET Web Forms     72
Examining a common scenario     72
ASP.NET Web Forms at a glance     73
What’s still good with Web Forms     73
Why you should move away from Web Forms     74
Determining if you should use ASP.NET MVC      76
ASP.NET MVC at a glance     76
What’s good with ASP.NET MVC     77
Weak points of ASP.NET MVC     78
Examining the role of ASP.NET Web API      79
Moving from WCF to Web API     79
Comparing ASP.NET Web API and ASP.NET MVC     80
Talking about REST     82
Using Web API in ASP.NET Core 1.0     82
Single-page applications      83
Setting up a SPA     84
Hybrid SPA     84
Weak points of a SPA     85
Summary     85
Chapter 5: The layered architecture      87
Beyond classic three-tier systems     87
Working with a three-tier architecture today     88
Fifty shades of gray areas     89
The presentation layer     90
The user experience     90
The input model     91
The view model     92
The application layer     92
Entry point in the system’s back end     93
Orchestration of business processes     94
The domain layer     95
The mythical domain model      95
The equally mythical concept of domain services     96
A more pragmatic view of domain modeling     96
The infrastructure layer     97
Current state storage     97
Event stores     98
Caching layers     99
External services     99
Summary     100
PART II: DEVELOPMENT     
Chapter 6: ASP.NET state of the art     103
Web flavors     103
The web could have been different     104
Classic web is the winner      104
ASP.NET is feature-complete     105
No more to add is no more to add     105
Is it full potential or software obsolescence?     106
ASP.NET Core 1.0 has no new functions     106
It’s about the new runtime     106
It’s about the business model      107
It’s about the development model     107
What is the state of ASP.NET?     108
Chapter 7: Whys, wherefores, and technical aspects of ASP.NET Core 1.0      109
The background of ASP.NET Core     110
The cost of a large memory footprint     110
Reconsidering the cloud as the silver bullet     111
Making the case for the necessity of a different programming model     111
The impact on everyday work     112
The ASP.NET Core runtime at a glance     113
The DNX host      113
Hosting web applications in DNX     115
ASP.NET Core HTTP pipeline     116
ASP.NET Core for ASP.NET developers     118
Creating a new project     118
Application startup     122
Application settings     126
Authentication     128
Other aspects of web programming     129
Summary     132
Chapter 8: Core of ASP.NET MVC     133
Routing incoming requests     134
Simulating the ASP.NET MVC runtime      134
Exploring the URL routing HTTP module     137
Using application routes      138
Exploring the controller class     145
Looking at aspects of a controller     145
Writing controller classes     147
Processing input data     152
Manual parameter binding      152
Model binding     153
Producing action results      158
Wrapping results     158
Returning HTML markup     160
Returning JSON content     167
Summary     169
Chapter 9: Core of Bootstrap     171
Bootstrap at a glance     171
LESS and the foundation of Bootstrap     172
Setting up Bootstrap     174
Putting Bootstrap into perspective     175
Responsive layouts      176
The grid system      176
Screen-based rendering     178
Taxonomy of today’s web elements     183
Restyling basic HTML elements      183
Restyling list HTML elements     193
A look at more advanced components     196
Bootstrap extensions     202
Autocompletion     202
Date picking      209
Custom components     211
Summary     215
Chapter 10: Organizing the ASP.NET MVC project     217
Planning the project solution     217
Mapping projects to the Layered Architecture pattern     218
Application startup     220
Examining application services     225
Adding in other assets     227
Creating presentation layouts      228
Serving resources more effectively     231
Working with Bundling     231
Using minification     236
Examining other aspects     238
Exploring error handling     238
Configuring user authentication     241
Summary     246
Chapter 11: Presenting data      247
Structuring an HTML view     247
Exploring the view model     247
Examining the page layout     250
Presenting the elements of a view       254
Displaying a list of data items     258
Creating a grid view     258
Adding paging capabilities     263
Adding scrolling capabilities to page elements     268
Adding a detail view     271
Popover views     271
Drill-down views     274
Summary     277
Chapter 12: Editing data      279
A common form for the login page     279
Presenting the form     279
Processing posted data     281
Input forms     284
The Post-Redirect-Get pattern     284
Form validation     286
Modal input forms     296
Quick tips for improving the user experience      304
Using date pickers is great, but...     305
Using autocompletion instead of long drop-down lists     307
Miscellaneous tips for large input forms     310
Summary     311
Chapter 13: Persistence and modeling      313
Examining the different flavors of a model     313
The persistence model     314
The domain model     315
The input model     317
The view model     318
Designing a persistence layer     319
Using an implicit and legacy data model     320
Using Entity Framework     322
The Repository pattern     326
Polyglot persistence     328
Polyglot persistence by example     329
Costs of polyglot persistence     330
Summary     332
PART III: USER EXPERIENCE
Chapter 14: Creating more interactive views      335
Exposing JSON content     336
Creating JSON endpoints     336
Negotiating content     339
Solving the cross-origin puzzle     340
Designing a Web API      344
Purpose of the ASP.NET Web API     344
Web API in the context of ASP.NET MVC     345
Securing a standalone Web API     346
Pulling content      349
The Ajax core     349
The jQuery tools     351
Binding data to the current DOM     354
Pushing content to the client     357
ASP.NET SignalR at a glance     358
Monitoring remote tasks     359
Other scenarios for ASP.NET SignalR     362
Summary     363
Chapter 15: Pros and cons of responsive design      365
Foundation of Responsive Web Design     365
A brief history of RWD     366
CSS media queries     366
RWD and device independence     371
Adapting RWD to non-desktop devices     373
Dealing with images     374
Dealing with fonts     376
Dealing with orientation     378
Summary     379
Chapter 16: Making websites mobile-friendly      381
Adapting views to the actual device     381
The best of HTML5 for mobile scenarios     382
Feature detection     384
Client-side device detection     386
A look into the future     389
Device-friendly images      390
The ImageEngine platform     390
Resizing images automatically     391
Serving device-friendly views      392
What’s the best way to offer mobile content?     392
Server-side detection      394
Summary     399
Index     401

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