New ASP.NET Single Page Application Template
I downloaded last version of ASP.NET and Web Tools 2012.2 and digging around in Single Page Application project template. It has changed a lot compared to last beta (it was not part of stable version) and it is interesting to me to see what’s going on. I also found some good resources about SPA-s to share with your.
New default project
There is new default project for SPA-s now and it looks different than previous one. Now there is support for multiple to-do lists and of course, new design.
When we take a look at project structure we will still see almost same set of files than before but there are some changes.
Upshot is gone
Big surprise to me is the fact that I cannot find upshot anymore. It was there, it provided a little bit complex but still very powerful data layer with local caching and connection detecting etc. But now it’s gone. I actually hoped to see some progress on upshot library and support for local cache based data source.
Now it seems to be up to developers to handle data caching logic which is also not bad option as upshot code was at least for me a little bit hard to follow and debug. Now there is pure jQuery and Knockout and less JavaScript code than before.
Getting started
When searching some more information I found very good postings series by John Papa: Building Single Page Apps with Knockout, jQuery, and Web API – Part 1 – The Story Begins. Take a look at postings and examples the series provides. Although it is ten postings the postings are not too long and they are very well focused. Also I suggest reading John Papa blog post Inside the ASP.NET Single Page Apps Template Beta that explains how new SPA template works.
Conclusion
As upshot is gone and there is enough reading now about SPA-s in ASP.NET I think I come out with some new ideas when I have gone through all the materials. It’s good to see the progress and I’m happy because SPA template is back again. Hopefully it is now simpler beast to manage than it was during upshot days.