Get the Most out of WebGrid in ASP.NET MVC

In this article on MSDN Magazine, Stuart Leeks introduces WebGrid and shows how it can be used in ASP.NET MVC 3, then takes a look at how to really get the most out of it in an ASP.NET MVC solution.
This article looks at how to fit the WebGrid component into an ASP.NET MVC environment to enable developers to be more productive while rendering tabular data. Focus is on WebGrid from an ASP.NET MVC aspect:

• creating a strongly typed version of WebGrid with full IntelliSense
• hooking into the WebGrid support for server-side paging
• adding AJAX functionality that degrades gracefully when scripting is disabled

The working samples build on top of a service that provides access to the AdventureWorksLT database via the Entity Framework. If you’re interested in the data-access code, it’s available in the code download, and you might also want to check out Julie Lerman’s article, “Server-Side Paging with the Entity Framework and ASP.NET MVC 3,” in the March 2011 issue(msdn.microsoft.com/magazine/gg650669).

Read the entire article on MSDN

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WebMatrix and a PHP tutorial

During the last week, MS announced the launch of all new tools for developers to ease them creating and deploying websites.

• IIS Developer Express: A lightweight web-server that is simple to setup, free, works with all versions of Windows, and is compatible with the full IIS 7.5.
  
• SQL Server Compact Edition: A lightweight file-based database that is simple to setup, free, can be embedded within your ASP.NET applications, supports low-cost hosting environments, and enables databases to be optionally migrated to SQL Server.
  
• ASP.NET “Razor”: A new view-engine option for ASP.NET that enables a code-focused templating syntax optimized around HTML generation.  You can use “Razor” to easily embed VB or C# within HTML.  It’s syntax is easy to write, simple to learn, and works with any text editor.
  

Together they are termed as WebMatrix, the all new tool for development and deployment integrating the above mentioned technologies. This new tool, WebMatrix, and the first preview beta of it is now available for download.

As usual ScottGu's blog is detailing the use of WebMatrix and creating simple applications utilizing these tools. While Brian Swan is leveraging the power of WebMatrix to another step by explaining how to create PHP websites using WebMatrix.

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