You have to love the fact that the ASP.NET MVC Framework is so extensible you can create your own view engines. If you don't like the default Web Forms View Engine, you have your pick of several view engines such as:
- Brail
- NDjango
- NHaml
- NVelocity
- SharpTiles
- Spark
- StringTemplate
- XSLT
and now Sharpy ( too name a few ).
I, personally, use Spark unless the client prefers the Web Forms View Engine, but I guarantee there are developers who love each and every view engine listed above and can tell you a hundred reasons why they like their view engine the best!
Sharpy is interesting because it uses MEF to allow developers to implement their own functions and modifiers. And, Sharpy doesn't allow you to use HTML Helpers or Extension Methods. Sounds crazy, but the developer wanted to create an MVC View Engine that allowed web designers and developers to better collaborate. For better collaboration in the view he thought it was best to keep the number of abstractions and code in the view to as little as possible. Makes sense :)
If you are a previous PHP developer familiar with Smarty and agree with the restrictions of not using HTML Helpers and Extension Methods in the view, take a look at Sharpy here.
David Hayden
Related Posts: