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Thursday, February 02, 2012
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Firefox 10 was recently released and it has come out with a set of its own web developer tools similar to Firebug. I typically use Google Chrome, but I do like Scratchpad and thought I would at least peek at the new web developer tools.
First, Firefox Scratchpad. I mentioned this in a post awhile ago: jQuery and JavaScript Development using Firefox Scratchpad. I dig this tool. I like being able to run JavaScript Code against a website based on the current tab. Now they have added line numbers and syntax highlighting! Would really love if Scratchpad had code completion, line breaks, etc.
The other feature in Firefox 10 Web Developer Tools worth mentioning is the Inspector. It's cool. Not sure it is better than Firebug's inspector, but it is starting to grow on me. Just like with Firebug you can select a DOM element, look at the HTML, see the CSS Style and Properties, and even modify those properties on the fly. Here is a peek of me inspecting the title image of my Orchard Web Developer Website. You can even click and hold on a breadcrumb to navigate to other items. It's a nice interface based on my minimal testing.
I doubt any Firefox developers will run to this from Firebug, but this is just the beginning.
Check out a video from Mozilla describing the web developer tools in Firefox 10.
Wednesday, February 01, 2012
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Big day for announcements yesterday. First, Umbraco 5 RTM was released, and then Twitter Bootstrap 2.0 was also released! This means I will have to update by Twitter Bootstrap Orchard Theme as well as start one for Umbraco!
Lots of good changes to Bootstrap 2.0 and I recommend you read the announcement for the full list of changes. The change I was really looking for was the
- New 12-column, responsive grid system
The Twitter Bootstrap Responsive Web Design will now adapt to the screen size whether it be a desktop, tablet, or smartphone display.
In truth, however, the whole template has apparently changed as look at this list of changes:
- Completely overhauled documentation for nearly every component
- A brand new Customize page to tailor your Bootstrap experience
- New 12-column, responsive grid system
- New table styles with a common base class for improved compatibility with other tools
- New form styles with smarter defaults, requiring less HTML
- Icons, graciously provided by Glyphicons
- New, smarter navigation components
- New buttons, button groups, and button dropdowns
- New, simpler alert messages
- New javascript plug-ins like carousel, collapse, and typeahead
Lots of great stuff here to kickstart your new web application or website.
Download Twitter Bootstrap from GitHub!
On Saturday I blogged about Umbraco 5 RC3 and the Umbraco 5 Tutorials I am planning to write thinking I had a month before Umbraco 5 would be released. In fact, I wrote a simple tutorial on how to Install Umbraco 5 for Orchard Web Developers as a way to kick off the tutorials.
Well, I pressed the trigger a bit early on that first tutorial as Umbraco 5 was released 3 days later on Tuesday, January 31st! As I mentioned before, this is the first version based on ASP.NET MVC and Razor and is the perfect time to get your feet wet with this CMS if you are an ASP.NET MVC Developer.
Download Umbraco 5 from CodePlex and get started!
Saturday, January 28, 2012
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Now that I have a really good understanding of Orchard CMS and have built quite a few Orchard Websites, Themes, and Modules, I've been setting my sites on another content management system, called Umbraco. I've looked at Umbraco in the past, but Umbraco 4 is based on ASP.NET WebForms and XSLT, which I have purposely chosen not to use ever since ASP.NET MVC was released. However, Umbraco 5, which apparently has been in development for about 2.5 years, is based on ASP.NET MVC 3 and Razor. Now we're talking! Even better, Umbraco 5 is close to being released as Umbraco 5 RC3 was released just a few days ago.
If you are an ASP.NET MVC Developer and looking for a content management system based on ASP.NET MVC, you may want to start looking at Umbraco 5 in addition to Orchard CMS. I've been working with Umbraco 5 over the past month and continue to develop with it during the evenings. Now that I feel more comfortable developing Umbraco Websites and simple packages, I am starting some Umbraco 5 Tutorials that not only talk about Umbraco 5 but also compare it to Orchard CMS. There tutorials are obviously geared toward beginners or those ASP.NET MVC Developers who know a thing or two about Orchard and are curious about Umbraco 5. The first Umbraco 5 Tutorial talks about Installing Umbraco 5 and discusses some of the similar concepts and processes during installation.
Of course, if you are an Umbraco Web Developer and interested in Orchard CMS, the Umbraco Tutorials as well as my Orchard Tutorials on Sarasota.me and DavidHayden.me should be useful for learning Orchard, too.
Either way, download Umbraco 5 RC3 and have fun!
Update: Download Umbraco 5 RTM!
Related Posts: ASP.NET MVC Tutorials
Saturday, December 03, 2011
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I just mentioned the sale O'Reilly is having on HTML5 Books, and it turns out they are also having a sale on JavaScript Books.
Some really, really good books on JavaScript. I own and have read most of them and consult a lot of them on a daily basis for the various JavaScript Patterns and Practices.
I have written a few book reviews on some of them, but many of them I have not.
I would do some googling as to ones people recommend. I personally read a lot and have enjoyed most of them.
Check out the O'Reilly sale on JavaScript books.
O'Reilly is having a sale today on HTML5 Books and Videos.
I have read a few of the HTML5 Books and, if you are interested, you can read the book reviews:
In general, if you are new to JavaScript and HTML5, I would jump on the Head First HTML5 Programming Book at 50% off. Although sometimes the explosion of media in the book can be a bit much, the information on JavaScript and problem-solution approach to using the new programming features of HTML5 are awesome! HTML5 The Missing Manual is great for those new to HTML5 and looking for information not only on the programming features of HTML5, but a lot on the new tags and semantic markup. The online resources mentioned in HTML5 The Missing Manual are worth the price of the book alone.
If you are interested in HTML5 but have been waiting on a deal, O'Reilly's 40% - 50% off deal on HTML5 Books and Videos is a good deal.
Btw, O'Reilly is having a sale on JavaScript books as well!
Friday, September 30, 2011
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I spotted ASP.NET MVC 3 for Visual Studio 11 Developer Preview on Microsoft Downloads last night. I haven't installed it yet so I don't know if you can install it side-by-side with ASP.NET MVC 4. My guess is yes, since we've always been able to install different versions of ASP.NET MVC at the same time in Visual Studio.
Download it now.
I have added this download to the list of ASP.NET MVC 3 Tutorials, Links, and Downloads.
David Hayden
Thursday, September 15, 2011
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The ASP.NET MVC 4 Developer Preview has been added to the full list of ASP.NET MVC Tutorials, Resources, and Samples.
As part of the Microsoft Build Conference, Microsoft has released the ASP.NET MVC 4 Developer Preview that can be installed and ran side-by-side with ASP.NET MVC 3. You can download the preview bits here. Note there is a version for Visual Studio 2010 and Visual Studio 2011, so make sure you download the correct package.
The following are new features of ASP.NET MVC 4 as mentioned in the release notes:
- Enhancements to Default Project Templates - The template that is used to create new ASP.NET MVC 4 projects has been updated to create a more modern-looking website.
- Mobile Project Template - If you’re starting a new project and want to create a site specifically for mobile and tablet browsers, you can use the new Mobile Application project template. This is based on jQuery Mobile, an open-source library for building touch-optimized UI.
- Display Modes -The new Display Modes feature lets an application select views depending on the browser that's making the request. For example, if a desktop browser requests the Home page, the application might use the Views\Home\Index.cshtml template. If a mobile browser requests the Home page, the application might return the Views\Home\Index.mobile.cshtml template.
- jQuery Mobile, the View Switcher, and Browser Overriding - jQuery Mobile is an open source library for building touch-optimized web UI. If you want to use jQuery Mobile with an ASP.NET MVC 4 application, you can download and install a NuGet package that helps you get started.
- Recipes for Code Generation in Visual Studio - The new Recipes feature enables Visual Studio to generate solution-specific code based on packages that you can install using NuGet. The Recipes framework makes it easy for developers to write code-generation plugins, which you can also use to replace the built-in code generators for Add Area, Add Controller, and Add View. Because recipes are deployed as NuGet packages, they can easily be checked into source control and shared with all developers on the project automatically.
- Task Support for Asynchronous Controllers - You can now write asynchronous action methods as single methods that return an object of type Task or Task<ActionResult>.
- Azure SDK - ASP.NET MVC 4 Developer Preview supports the September 2011 1.5 release of the Windows Azure SDK.
ASP.NET MVC 4 and jQuery Mobile
If you are interested in developing mobile websites with ASP.NET MVC 4 using jQuery Mobile, you may be interested in the tutorial that walks you through creating a mobile website here.
David Hayden
Related Posts: List of ASP.NET MVC Tutorials, Samples, and Downloads
Wednesday, September 07, 2011
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 Nerddinner 3.0 has been added to the list of ASP.NET MVC 3 Resources, Tutorials, and Samples!
Nerddinner 3.0 was released and has been updated to ASP.NET MVC 3.0 and Razor. In addition to those obvious enhancements, it looks like Nerddinner may have been turned into a technology playground as it also includes:
For experienced developers none of these libraries and technologies are a big deal, but for those new to ASP.NET MVC 3 and Razor this sample application may have gone a bit over the edge as new ASP.NET MVC Developers try to not only tackle the MVC Design Pattern but a host of libraries and other new technologies at the same time. It may be officially easier to learn ASP.NET MVC 3 from Orchard CMS than Nerddinner :)
If you are interested in sample applications for ASP.NET MVC 3 and Razor, Nerddinner 3.0 will hopefully be another good example to learn the new technology. If you haven't at least dipped your toe into ASP.NET MVC 3, you better get crackin'!
Learn more here.
David Hayden
Wednesday, August 31, 2011
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Microsoft has made it possible for ASP.NET Web Developers to enjoy a free video training course on WebMatrix.
The WebMatrix Training is pretty basic and mainly just provides a quick overview of the WebMatrix interface and a few web development tasks you can do with it. The training consists of 6 parts:
- Introducing WebMatrix
- Sites and Files
- Coding ASP.NET Web Pages
- Working with data
- Reporting and deployment
- Enabling PHP and MySQL
There isn't any real coding of ASP.NET Web Pages, however. The video mainly just shows that WebMatrix includes syntax highligting and intellisense. Enabling PHP and MySQL was part of installing WordPress from the Web Gallery, so if you are interested in a quick walkthrough of installing WordPress on your Windows PC you can watch it as part of the training.
You did get some overview of IIS Express, SQL CE, and the Web Pages Framework, but I was waiting for the trainer to mention the Razor Templating Engine but he just kept referring to the files as markup. Still not sure if he is familiar with Razor or not :), but it wasn't necessary to know for the video anyway.
If you haven't played at all with WebMatrix then watch the video just to familiarize yourself with it. I use WebMatrix to create all my custom Orchard Themes so I use it quite a bit. I have probably downloaded and installed Orchard via the WebMatrix Web Gallery well over 200 - 300 times alone :) In fact, I am a bit disappointed the trainer didn't install Orchard with WebMatrix as opposed to WordPress. Creating a new Orchard Website with WebMatrix is really easy!
Check out the link to the free WebMatrix Training on the ASP.NET Website.
David Hayden
Sunday, August 21, 2011
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  I have been using Redis with ServiceStack.net and Spine.js / Backbone.js for a number of Single-Page Web Applications. My exposure to Redis in these applications has been nothing short of amazing. Redis is far more than a key value store and its implementation of various data structures and functionality, like Lists, Sets, Pub/Sub, etc. will get you wondering how you can take advantage of these features in the real-world.
This is where a book like Redis Cookbook helps. It's goal isn't to teach you the basics of Redis. It'll take you all of about 1 hour to install Redis and get familiar with the various commands. The goal of Redis Cookbook is to take you to the next level by showing you various real-world problems solved by using the additional data structures. Exposure to these problem-solution scenarios will help you better understand the usefulness of the features and how best to use them. If you are just getting started with Redis, these real-world scenarios will probably provide you that aha moment you've been looking for.
The key to the book is Chapter 3, Leveraging Redis, which goes into examples like:
- Using Redis as a Typical Key Value Store.
- Implementing OAuth on Top of Redis
- Using Redis' Pub/Sub Functionality to Create a Chat System
- Implementing Inverted-Index Text Search with Redis
- Analytics and Time-Based Data
- Implementing a Job Queue with Redis
- etc...
Even if you don't find those examples useful or valuable, the real value is the explanation of the various data structures and ways to use them to solve problems that go beyond the problems mentioned in the book. In addition to explaining how to use the data structures, the book even discusses how not to use the Lists, Sets, Sorted Sets, etc. to avoid performance issues and other problems. I had my doubts about the book since it was fairly thin ( 76 pages ), but the problem-solution-discussion approach works well for teaching not only how to use Redis, but how the data structures help solve patterns of common problems faced in many applications.
If you have read the online documentation and samples for Redis and it is still not clear as to the usefulness of the data structures in your applications and how to use them, the Redis Cookbook should help you bridge that gap in your knowledge and give you a far better appreciation for Redis.
I received Redis Cookbook as part of OReilly Blogger Review Program.
Friday, August 05, 2011
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 If you are interested in learning CoffeeScript, you may be interested in a free book called Smooth CoffeeScript.
The current version of the free book is 230 pages and broken out into various parts:
- Preface
- Language
- Introduction
- Basic CoffeeScript
- Functions
- Data Structures
- Error Handling
- Paradigm
- Functional Programming
- Searching
- Object Orientation
- Regular Expressions
- Modularity
- Appendix
- Language Extras
- Binary Heaps
- Performance
- Command Line Utility
- Reference and Index
I haven't personally read the book, but it looks like a lot of care, thought, and hard work went into writing it. If you are looking for a new book on CoffeeScript, give Smooth CoffeeScript a try.
On a related note, you may also be interested in my review on CoffeeScript: Accelerated JavaScript Development as well as another free online book on CoffeeScript, called The Little Book of CoffeeScript.
Don't forget the Try CoffeeScript Chrome Extension for practing your CoffeeScript from the convenience of your browser.
David Hayden
Sunday, July 31, 2011
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Filed: Web Developer Tools
 Sweet. PhoneGap 1.0 was released on Friday!
I think most developers are familiar with PhoneGap, but in case you aren't:
“PhoneGap, an HTML5 platform, allows developers to use foundation web technology (HTML, CSS and JavaScript) to create native mobile applications. Using PhoneGap, developers can write their app once and deploy it to six major mobile platforms and app stores, including iOS, Android, BlackBerry, webOS, Bada and Symbian. PhoneGap has been widely recognized as a game-changer for mobile app development. The open source code is downloaded approximately 40,000 times every month, more than 600,000 times in total.”
If you are interested in developing mobile applications using HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, PhoneGap is a pretty easy way to go.
Learn more about the release of PhoneGap 1.0 here.
David Hayden
 If you are interested in learning a quick way to get up and running with Node.js, check out the free, online Node.js Beginner Book. The book does a good job of getting you up and running on Node.js as well as helping you understanding blocking and non-blocking IO, event-driven callbacks, routing, and ways to architect and modularize your Node.js applications.
The table of contents includes:
- About
- Status
- Intended audience
- Structure of this document
- JavaScript and Node.js
- JavaScript and You
- A word of warning
- Server-side JavaScript
- "Hello World"
- A full blown web application with Node.js
- The use cases
- The application stack
- Building the application stack
- A basic HTTP server
- Analyzing our HTTP server
- Passing functions around
- How function passing makes our HTTP server work
- Event-driven callbacks
- How our server handles requests
- Finding a place for our server module
- What's needed to "route" requests?
- Execution in the kingdom of verbs
- Routing to real request handlers
- Making the request handlers respond
- How to not do it
- Blocking and non-blocking
- Responding request handlers with non-blocking operations
- Serving something useful
- Handling POST requests
- Handling file uploads
- Conclusion and outlook
The whole Node.js tutorial is on a single HTML Page and can be completed in a couple of hours. Just make sure you have Node.js installed as well as your favorite text editor to start developing Node.js applications.
Read the Node.js Beginner Book here.
David Hayden
Saturday, July 30, 2011
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  I purchased a copy of the CoffeeScript: Accelerated JavaScript Development Book by Trevor Burnham from Pragmatic Programmers. The book is lightweight at 136 pages with 6 chapters and 4 appendices:
- Getting Started
- Functions, Scope and Context
- Collections and Iteration excerpt
- Modules and Classes
- Web Interactivity with jQuery
- Server-side Apps with Node.js excerpt
- Answers to Exercises
- Ways of Running CoffeeScript
- Cheat Sheet for JavaScripters
- Bibliography
In The Trenches
Although lightweight, this won't be an “easy” book to read, because let's face it, you are learning a completely difference language - CoffeeScript. The writing style is fine and sure CoffeeScript compiles to JavaScript, but the syntax is completely different. I found myself reading a paragraph explaining CoffeeScript Code and then writing code in either TextMate or the Try CoffeeScript Chrome Extension over and over and over again. You can't just read the book at the pool. You have to be at your computer typing in the code samples and experimenting as you read through the chapters.
How It Helps
What really makes this book worthwhile is that it doesn't just regurgitate the CoffeeScript Documentation, which I think is pretty darn good for open source software. The book does a really nice job of explaining the new syntax, the reasons behind the generated JavaScript, and how it helps JavaScript developers avoid those common JavaScript pitfalls by implementing common JavaScript Patterns. Ultimately you will be grinning ear to ear as you realize how much less code you have to write, how much easier it is to maintain and understand the code you have written, and how much more consistent your code will be.
Who Is It For?
If you are an awesome JavaScript Developer, you probably don't need this book. You already understand the nuances of JavaScript and recommended patterns you need to follow. The CoffeeScript Documentation will be enough. However, if you are still coming to grips with JavaScript and some of its pitfalls as well as developing application using Object-Oriented JavaScript, I think you will find the more detailed explanations and examples easier to understand how CoffeeScript helps you, the patterns it follows, and the reasoning behind the JavaScript it outputs. Even though I feel very comfortable progamming in JavaScript, it was nice to have the additional background and context on JavaScript when it came to learning the CoffeeScript Syntax.
Even though I am pretty annoyed at having to learn yet another language :), CoffeeScript just makes sense. It is much easier to write and maintain compared to JavaScript. If you read the CoffeeScript Documentation and it doesn't quite click as to its benefits other than writing cleaner code, the CoffeeScript: Accelerated JavaScript Development Book will fill in some of those missing pieces nicely.
Check out other reviews on Amazon.
David Hayden
Wednesday, July 27, 2011
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Filed: Microsoft .NET Developer Tools
If you haven't heard, Microsoft released Visual Studio LightSwitch 2011 today. There is a free 90 day trial if you are interested.
I went ahead and installed LightSwitch on my development machine for kicks and it installed two project templates within Visual Studio 2010.
Without any instruction I created a simple LightSwitch Application in C# that manages a list of Contacts. It's really easy to create the Contacts Table and an Editable Grid Screen that provides basic CRUD against the Database Table. The whole process took me about 5 minutes.
That's where I stopped, but it is definitely easy to get a simple forms-over-data application up and running. The next step is to deploy the application as a 2-tier desktop application and 3-tier web application when I get more time.
If you are interested in Visual Studio LightSwitch 2011, check out the 90-day trial.
David Hayden
Developer Resources:
If you enjoy CoffeeScript and the Chrome Browser, what better combination than to use the Try CoffeeScript Chrome Extension that allows you to type in CoffeeScript and have JavaScript displayed in real-time as you type! It's just like Try CoffeeScript on GitHub with the exception of two things: 1) The extension loses the CoffeeScript you entered when the window hides and 2) you can't run the CoffeeScript to see the results. However, for those that just want to enter CoffeeScript and see what the results look like in JavaScript, the Chrome Extension is very handy!
Update: 7/30/2011
Great news! The Chrome extension will now persist the CoffeeScript as well as has a new “Try CoffeeScript” button on the bottom that allows you to run it! Absolutely fantastic extension!!!
Check out the Chrome Try CoffeeScript Extension here.
If you are a Visual Studio Developer and haven't checked out Web Workbench Visual Studio 2010 Extension for CoffeeScript, you better check that out, too!
David Hayden
Filed: .NET Developer Tools
Related Post: Chrome 12 JavaScript Debugger and De-Obfuscate Source
Tuesday, July 26, 2011
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 Mozzilla has a useful list of resources for learning JavaScript that is divided into Introductory, Intermediate, and Advanced Levels.
You can find useful free ebooks on JavaScript, like Eloquent JavaScript, examples of JavaScript Design Patterns, as well as JavaScript Videos from Douglas Crockford. All in all a nice assortment of free material on the Internet for learning JavaScript.
If you are looking for a good book on JavaScript, I highly recommend JavaScript Patterns . It's one of those books I enjoyed reading as well as continually refer to time and time again.
Check out the list of JavaScript Resources on the Mozilla Developer Network.
David Hayden
Related Resources:
Sunday, July 24, 2011
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This ASP.NET MVC 3 Performance Profiler as well as the recent ASP.NET MVC 4 Roadmap were recently added to the long list of ASP.NET MVC 3 Tutorials and Resources.
MVC-Mini-Profiler is a free, open-source ASP.NET MVC 3 Performance Profiler on Google Code.
Per the website, the profiler includes powerful and comprehensive database profiling capabilities. To enable wrap your database connection with a profiling connection. The built in database profiler support any kind of DbConnection. It also supports Entity Framework and Linq2SQL.
The ASP.NET MVC 3 Performance Profiler also detects SELECT N+1 queries and duplicate query detection as well as profiles AJAX Calls!
For more on performance profiling ASP.NET MVC 3 Web Applications and MVC-Mini-Profiler, check out Google Code.
David Hayden
Filed: Microsoft .NET Developer Tools
Related: Tampa ASP.NET MVC Developer Group
Thursday, July 21, 2011
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Although I am a huge Orchard CMS fan, DNN 6 was just released and it looks like a pretty nice update for those website developers that prefer to build websites using DotNetNuke. Some of the new features include:
- Complete Conversion to C# - Although a C# version of DNN has been available for awhile, the DotNetNuke 6 primary platform is now C#.
- Windows Azure and Amazon S3 Compatibility- If you want to run DNN in the Cloud, you can now do that.
- Sharepoint and E-Commerce Enhancements - If you are willing to pay for the professional or enterprise versions of DNN 6, you have some extra SharePoint and E-Commerce functionality.
- In-App Payments - Buy your DNN Modules right within DotNetNuke itself.
- and more...
I hear there are already 20 - 25 code check-ins for a 6.0.1 maintenance release, so always take that into consideration before you upgrade your website to DNN 6 or any major version of any software.
You can learn more about the release of DNN 6 here.
David Hayden
Related Posts:
Tuesday, July 19, 2011
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Filed: Microsoft .NET Developer Tools
If you are not interested in JetBrains DotPeek .NET Decompiler ( which you can download standalone or bundled with ReSharper 6 ) or Telerik's JustDecompile .NET Decompiler now that RedGate's Reflector is no longer free, you can alway download the free ILSpy.
ILSpy is a free open-source .NET Decompiler that has recently been released as version 1.0 and includes the following features:
- Assembly browsing
- IL Disassembly
- Decompilation to C#
- Supports lambdas and 'yield return'
- Shows XML documentation
- Saving of resources
- Search for types/methods/properties (substring)
- Hyperlink-based type/method/property navigation
- Base/Derived types navigation
- Navigation history
- BAML to XAML decompiler
- Save Assembly as C# Project
- Find usage of field/method
- Extensible via plugins (MEF)
Learn more about ILSpy here.
David Hayden
Thursday, July 14, 2011
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Filed: Microsoft Web Developer Tools
This is pretty cool news if you are a small business website developer or hobbyist using Microsoft Expression Web 4 to develop websites. Service Pack 2 was just released and it includes a number of neat enhancements. Two of the new enhancements I particularly enjoy after using it for about an hour are jQuery Intellisense and Snippets!
jQuery Intellisense
jQuery is extremely popular for developing rich interactive websites and what self-respecting IDE would not have intellisense for jQuery. In Service Pack 2 you now get jQuery Intellisense in Expression Web 4.
Snippets
Most Web Development IDE's support snippets, allowing the web developer to drag and drop commonly used code fragments from your snippet library to the design or code surface. In Service Pack 2, the developer now has Snippets in Expression Web 4.
Download Expression Web 4 SP2 from Microsoft Downloads here.
David Hayden
Related Posts:
The Microsoft ASP.NET MVC Developer Team published their first ASP.NET MVC 4 Roadmap that emphasizes better tooling for Visual Studio via Recipes, better mobile support for phones and tablets, and better integration with cloud services like Windows Azure.
You can view the ASP.NET MVC 4 Roadmap here.
I have added the roadmap to my long list of ASP.NET MVC Tutorials and Resources.
David Hayden
Related Link: Tampa ASP.NET MVC Developer Group
Filed: Microsoft .NET Developer Tools
Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 SP1 Released. Here are the download links.
Related Posts:
David Hayden
Monday, July 11, 2011
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I am a huge fan of Orchard CMS, which is a free, open-source content management system ( CMS ) built on ASP.NET MVC and using a number of libraries that I have been developing with for years - NHibernate, Autofac, DynamicProxy, Lucene, etc.
Recently Orchard 1.2 was released which includes a number of bug fixes and performance enhancements. In my humble opinion, if you haven't looked at Orchard, version 1.2 is a good time to look at it for a few good reasons:
- Orchard Performance: Although not perfect, the performance is the best it has been. Orchard 1.2 was all about performance enhancements and bug fixes and the improvement in performance is noticeable.
- Ease of Use: Lots of subtle changes to the UI make workflow simpler for add pages, layers, and widgets as well as picking media, etc.
- Rich Gallery of Modules: Although the themes are still pretty weak, there is a really nice gallery of modules to add functionality to your Orchard CMS website.
- Orchard Designer Tools: The new Orchard Designer Tools make creating themes and customizing Orchard much more simpler now. If you are a web developer or web designer, you will appreciate the Shape Tracing and URL Alternates in the Orchard Designer Tools.
If you are looking for a small business website, blog, portfolio, etc., Orchard CMS is a pretty good choice. I recommend installing Orchard via WebMatrix!
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