Post #340,488
3/14/11 10:35:59 AM
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.NET question -- it can't be this hard, can it?
We've got a web app that we need to skin for various customers. Each one is going to sit on its own (sub)domain. We'll feed a different stylesheet for each domain.
We also need to pass a hidden field in the form, with a unique code per customer. In PHP this would be trivial, but I'm being told there's no way to do this in .NET. It would have been trivial in classic ASP, but that's not what we're using.
So first question: Is this really not possible in .NET?
Second, it's clearly at least much harder do do this in .NET than in classic ASP, meaning it was a design decision that "you shouldn't do that". Why not?
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Drew
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Post #340,500
3/14/11 2:43:13 PM
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ASP.NET has a HiddenField control
ASP.NET has a HiddenField control that does exactly what it's name suggests, so I'm not sure why it would be an issue.
It really sounds like there is something else going on here though. How can you have a per customer shopping cart but not be able to handle some additional bit of information per customer? Even if there is some technical reason why they can't use a HiddenField control in the application framework, it should be possible to add the HTML hidden field to the text of the HTML directly. It would be ugly, but it would work.
As for being much harder, there is really not such thing as a trivial ASP.NET application. There is a lot of setup and tear down in even the simplest of applications, and most .NET frameworks make it worse.
Jay
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Post #340,502
3/14/11 2:57:10 PM
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That's what I'm thinking
This just can't be hard. But our framework is typical of these things: No one ever writes HTML any more, so without knowing the language better than I do I have to rely on my expectations of what should be hard and what should be easy.
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Drew
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Post #340,522
3/14/11 8:43:50 PM
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What's it written in?
The primary languages that Microsoft want you to use in the .Net framework are C# and VB.Net, both easy enough to understand.
As far as this being "hard" -- what he said. It's no more than defining the field as <asp:HiddenField ID="HiddenField1" Runat="server" /> on your .aspx web page and putting "container_variable = HiddenField1.Value" in the code in your Page_Load event.
When the page reloads, ASP.Net can detect if the value changed and you deal with it in the ValueChanged event for the HiddenField1 control. If the value hasn't changed, then the HiddenField1_ValueChanged method is not triggered.
"Chicago to my mind was the only place to be. ... I above all liked the city because it was filled with people all a-bustle, and the clatter of hooves and carriages, and with delivery wagons and drays and peddlers and the boom and clank of freight trains. And when those black clouds came sailing in from the west, pouring thunderstorms upon us so that you couldn't hear the cries or curses of humankind, I liked that best of all. Chicago could stand up to the worst God had to offer. I understood why it was built--a place for trade, of course, with railroads and ships and so on, but mostly to give all of us a magnitude of defiance that is not provided by one house on the plains. And the plains is where those storms come from."
-- E.L. Doctorow
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Post #340,524
3/14/11 8:51:41 PM
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This is at at least one removed...
... since I'm not and have never been a .NET programmer. However I've worked closely with several over the years with different projects and got an insight into how a typical .NET programmer needs to think.
It sounds a bit like you're approaching the problem with a PHP+HTML mindset when you need a Microsoft mindset. .NET has a reputation for doing it's best to turn a web-site into an application and doing a lot of shenanigans with the HTTP+HTML to make that work. Whoever wrote your framework was probably deeply in Microsoft mode.
Wade.
Q:Is it proper to eat cheeseburgers with your fingers?
A:No, the fingers should be eaten separately.
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Post #340,531
3/14/11 11:37:46 PM
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Truth
Say the word "stateless" and they look at you like you sprouted a third eye.
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Drew
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Post #340,802
3/23/11 10:21:01 PM
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Got an update for us?
"Chicago to my mind was the only place to be. ... I above all liked the city because it was filled with people all a-bustle, and the clatter of hooves and carriages, and with delivery wagons and drays and peddlers and the boom and clank of freight trains. And when those black clouds came sailing in from the west, pouring thunderstorms upon us so that you couldn't hear the cries or curses of humankind, I liked that best of all. Chicago could stand up to the worst God had to offer. I understood why it was built--a place for trade, of course, with railroads and ships and so on, but mostly to give all of us a magnitude of defiance that is not provided by one house on the plains. And the plains is where those storms come from."
-- E.L. Doctorow
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Post #340,803
3/23/11 10:32:31 PM
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Yeah
Someone finally realized that yes, you can take the subdomain part from the URL and use that as the key in a DB lookup. Then just keep doing that on each pageload. No need to pass the code in a hidden field.
Don't ask why we didn't start with that idea. That got shot down harder than the hidden field.
fml
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Drew
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Post #340,806
3/23/11 11:17:25 PM
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Well, at least you are getting paid!
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Post #340,807
3/23/11 11:42:53 PM
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Yup ... better than the alternative
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Drew
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