Re: any reason not to use csla for a new .net 2.0 project?

I know you were specifically looking for concerns / negative
experiences...  Mine are more positive, but nobody else seems to have
replied, so here goes: 

We're currently about a month and a half into implementing our first
production project using CSLA (so I'm not exactly an expert on the
subject).  Our project is winforms based, and it's also the first time
I've gone with directly data binding business objects to controls - this
not only makes for rapid development, but also gives a rich interface.
Honestly, I find CSLA's way of enabling validations on your properties,
and specifically getting the list of errors flowing back to the UI using
databinding a great asset.  I have a slight concern as to how this would
work on a WebForm, you would most likely need to post back to the server
a whole lot, or more likely you would only update the UI when the user
is finished with the form and clicks a button (like displaying a
validation summary).  I haven't had a chance to look into this properly
since we are not focusing on web technologies for this project, but it
would be one of the first things I'd R&D if I had to make a decision,
since it's one of those practicality issues that might make you go with
something different.  I'm fairly certain that there's a satisfactory
solution for it however, perhaps even a rich way of doing it with AJAX.

Our particular project is also quite tight on deadlines, so we
immediately started using CodeSmith to get things moving rapidly - I'm
extremely satisfied with CodeSmith, it really saves a LOT of time.  We
are currently using it to generate the base business classes, as well as
the CRUD stored procs from a table definition - whilst this pretty much
works like a charm, I'm still of the opinion that the process should be
the other way around (i.e. we should generate the DB schema from the
object definitions), but I haven't had a decent look at how CodeSmith
could help us achieve that.   In my opinion, the CSLA templates are of
good quality and (if you must) endlessly customizable.  I would
recommend trying out CodeSmith even if you aren't gonna use CSLA, but
the two do complement each other really nicely.

As with any framework, you occasionally run into a situation where there
is a lack of flexibility, or where your design goes against the grain of
the framework.  So far, I've managed to dodge these by taking some time
to understand how the framework wants you to work (as opposed to
assuming that I know better), and generally I've been convinced to do
things their way.  In any case, CSLA also seems to be pretty lenient in
terms of flexibility, so you will probably be able to come up with
work-arounds if you get stuck.

For some reason, I've found the literature on the 'net to be a bit
lacking around CSLA, so I would recommend the book - although not
strictly necessary, it should give you a good idea regarding the overall
design and intentions of the framework.  Many people have also commented
that it has a steep learning curve, but I think that if you are
comfortable with your OO concepts, you will be fine.

-- Daniel.


-----Original Message-----
From: Discussion of building .NET applications targeted for the Web
[mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Jeff
Sent: 11 May 2007 08:33 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: [DOTNET-WEB] any reason not to use csla for a new .net 2.0
project?

getting started on a new project using .net 2.0 that will be asp.net app
and possibly a winform app for off line users that will synch back up
later.   i have heard about csla and read about it in the past.  usually
we develop with db/entity/dal/bll/ui layers.  any reason not to spend
some time learning more about csla for this new project?  also wanting
to look at codesmith and the csla templates.  can anyone tell me that
has used csla if there are any concers i should have about adapting this
model?

thanks.

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