Modern Web Development: Understanding domains, technologies, and user experience(Developer Reference)

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 About This Book 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

About the Author :
Dino Esposito is CTO and co-founder of Crionet, a startup providing software and IT services to professional tennis and sports companies. Dino still does a lot of training and consulting and is the author of several other books on web and mobile development. His most recent book is  Architecting Applications for the Enterprise, Second Edition, written along with Andrea Saltarello. A Pluralsight author, Dino speaks regularly at industry conferences and community events. You can follow Dino on Twitter at @despos and through his blog at http://software2cents.wordpress.com.