Need help with MVC building a site

[MvcNoob]

Hi guys/girls, so here is the background. I am in the process of building a CMS to form the foundation of a series of related websites I am building and I need a tutor/sounding board/guru.

The CMS is being built with C#/MVC/X/Y/Z because I am tired with messing around with php etc. Years ago I ran a commerce website based on Joomla and Virtuemart. I did extensive customisations to suit my needs, but Joomla is a complete mess as far as I am concerned. But that is besides the point as I am rolling my own using the skills I have and a pile of frameworks that I have built over the last 15-odd years. I am a total noob when it comes to MVC/HTML/CSS/Js. I learn quick, know the basics, but I need someone experienced to teach me hands on.

What I would like is to be able to sit with a person in front of a PC and ask questions, try stuff, other person showing me & explaining. Then I go away and implement. If the person can help implement bits & pieces, then also OK. Maybe an hour or two at a time, once every week/2 weeks etc. That is more or less the way I see it, but open to suggestions.

About me: I am experienced dev with 35 years dev experience in several languages. Used C# from when it was introduced. Built large systems over the years. I am a big proponent of properly structured software i.e. SOLID principles. So if you explain something I will get it. I know a little bit of HTML, CSS & MVC. I know very little about JavaScript, X/Y/Z/ JS framework (I know of them). Know very little about deploying a stable web app and all that stuff like IIS settings, etc.

The project is a new venture my wife and I is starting up. It's much more than a standard web shop, hence my decision to roll my own. I have already done a lot of the back-end i.e. all business functionality for Products, Reviews, comments ect etc and created a set of Services Layer APIs. So the Controllers really just need to build the models etc.

About you: You know the above-mentioned technologies/frameworks, etc. You like sharing knowledge. Whether you are fully employed or not, doesn't matter. I am totally flexible in terms of hours. I will happily pay for your time and towards travel expenses. I have lots of projects coming in the next months where I will need help so if you are a freelancer then maybe its a good way to start to work together.

Currently based in Blouberg area but moving to D'ville in Dec.

Any takers?

Oh yes this post is from a new account to protect the innocent..

 

[CamiKaze]

Take an MVC course obviously.
I doubt that anyone uses MVC to the T on this forum.

 

[MvcNoob]

Take an MVC course obviously.
I doubt that anyone uses MVC to the T on this forum.

Sure that is a good suggestion, but lot of courses have a lot of fluff that I dont need. But yes maybe I will look at Pluralsight. Any other good places?

The thing is that I have lots of questions that a course format will not address. Think I would still like a F2F type of arrangement to supplement a course. Anyway lets see if there are any takers

 

[envo]

linda mvc 5 tpb

not gonna type it in google for you

 

[MvcNoob]

linda mvc 5 tpb

not gonna type it in google for you

Tx

 

[rward]

Are you want to get more information about MVC's but you're rolling your own?
Or you have a framework in mind that you want to use and you need someone to help you get up to speed with it?

 

[MvcNoob]

Are you want to get more information about MVC's but you're rolling your own?
Or you have a framework in mind that you want to use and you need someone to help you get up to speed with it?

I am rolling my own CMS. The desired end result is a web shop with Products, Reviews, Comments, Ratings etc etc and then some more. Also social integration e.g. FB, Twitter etc. But I am not only selling. There will be a lot of other participants and contributors. More like a C2C trading platform. Reasons behind rolling my own is that we will do a couple of similar and related sites. These sites will also talk to each other. And I need to maintain and extend the sites.

My chosen stack (for now at least) is C#/MVC/Some Js frameworks/HTML5/CSS3. The site needs to have responsive design and I have a bit of experience with this. I.e.media queries etc.

All the 'business' functionality sits behind a services layer that abstracts all the domain models etc. I have implemented a lot of the services already as this is pure back-end stuff (domain + infrastructure + persistence).

So the controllers would just be responsible for the navigation, building the page models from the services layer and then returning so that views can bind. I am a bit thin on everything on the user side. Think controller outward. So that includes the HTML for the views. CSS styling and the whole Javascript/AJAX stuff. The site will not be a SPA, but needs to be very interactive, so would likely use lots of AJAX into the controller methods. E.g. async loading of images and fading in (like this site http://www.onarchitects.co.za/#!viljoen/c1nh7 ). Not sure what JS frameworks I would need. Probably jQuery/Bootstrap, but really dont knwo at this stage. Maybe Knockout for it's MVVM capabilities.

So if someone can teach me, great. If they can help with dev, also great. Like I mentioned before,it's a new venture we are starting. Later on there will be some iOS/Android development as well. But I would like to get it off the ground. I can do a course as suggested, but a knowledgeable person's input is always beneficial. I would prefer to not fall into the traps I currently don't know exist.

Will also need good designer to do the visuals.

Not sure if that answers your question?

 

[flippakitten]

The question is, why re-invent the wheel?

Why not start with something like OpenCart? It's already MVC based, has a massive user / developer base and a stack of plugins.
Fully customizable.

I know it's PHP but it's all there, ready and waiting.

 

[MvcNoob]

The question is, why re-invent the wheel?

Why not start with something like OpenCart? It's already MVC based, has a massive user / developer base and a stack of plugins.
Fully customizable.

I know it's PHP but it's all there, ready and waiting.

Well yes there are amazing cart frameworks and platforms out there e.g. bigcommerce

But what I am planning is more than just a shopping cart. Which is what most of these things do (incl OpenCart). Been there done that. I used Joomla/Virtumart many years ago. I need to build more a C2C trading platform than just a cart. None of the open source cart systems can do that without MAJOR panelbeating. And with each new release of the cart framework, you have to re-panelbeat to bring your customisations with. Got the T-shirt.

and I promised my self never PHP again. Ever...

So yes, I know it seems silly to roll my own. I asked myself the same question and talked to a few people. If I can find a feasible established alternative, I will be more than happy to look into it. Just inheriting cart functionality from an existing framework is such a small piece of the bigger picture that it does not necessarily become the deal-breaker so to speak

 

[flippakitten]

Well yes there are amazing cart frameworks and platforms out there e.g. bigcommerce

But what I am planning is more than just a shopping cart. Which is what most of these things do (incl OpenCart). Been there done that. I used Joomla/Virtumart many years ago. I need to build more a C2C trading platform than just a cart. None of the open source cart systems can do that without MAJOR panelbeating. And with each new release of the cart framework, you have to re-panelbeat to bring your customisations with. Got the T-shirt.

and I promised my self never PHP again. Ever...

Cool cool, totally understandable, was just throwing it out there.

MVC and me are not friends, I know the principles but in practice, find it very overly complicated in most implementations.
Like you say lot's of Panelbeating... To change one page you have to edit 10 files, not very efficient.

Anyway, I would be happy to help where I can but for what you're looking for and your chosen environment, don't think I will be of much help.

Goodluck, sounds like quite an exciting project.

 

[MvcNoob]

Cool cool, totally understandable, was just throwing it out there.

MVC and me are not friends, I know the principles but in practice, find it very overly complicated in most implementations.
Like you say lot's of Panelbeating... To change one page you have to edit 10 files, not very efficient.

Anyway, I would be happy to help where I can but for what you're looking for and your chosen environment, don't think I will be of much help.

Goodluck, sounds like quite an exciting project.

Tx bud..

On the other hand, I find the concept of MVC very logical. I have done a lot of dev using MVVM and binding, and MVC is close to that. To me, MVC (and MVVM) provides the kind of separation of concerns that I like and prefer. Presentation in one layer (View:HTML/CSS); behaviour in another (Js/Controller) and data in another (Model classes).

 

[flippakitten]

Tx bud..

On the other hand, I find the concept of MVC very logical. I have done a lot of dev using MVVM and binding, and MVC is close to that. To me, MVC (and MVVM) provides the kind of separation of concerns that I like and prefer. Presentation in one layer (View:HTML/CSS); behaviour in another (Js/Controller) and data in another (Model classes).

Yep, Good MVC is another story, a lot of implementations are just too abstracted.

JS is something for the views layer.
ie. to add a comment you would make an AJAX call to the comment controller which would do any work, like check star ratings to adjust and the save the data to the DB.

One thing someone taught me was, if needed, their's no reason why the view isn't allowed to access the model.
I tried to research that but there are so many conflicting arguments and it makes some actions simple, so why not.

 

[rward]

Right - you probably want to look at Emberjs or AngularJs.

If you have the backend all done up already and it can be accessed via an API then those will fit in easily.

 

[MvcNoob]

JS is something for the views layer.
ie. to add a comment you would make an AJAX call to the comment controller which would do any work, like check star ratings to adjust and the save the data to the DB.

Correct

One thing someone taught me was, if needed, their's no reason why the view isn't allowed to access the model.
I tried to research that but there are so many conflicting arguments and it makes some actions simple, so why not.

I tend to agree. To me, the Model is the page model. The view binds to the various elements of the page model. No reason why user interactions with the view cannot propagate to the model, which in turn can be POSTed back to the Controller. That is how I see it anyway.

Right - you probably want to look at Emberjs or AngularJs.

If you have the backend all done up already and it can be accessed via an API then those will fit in easily.

Cool will look at it

 

[RVR]

With regards to reviews, also see if it's possible to add some "upvote" feature, it's useful if one person suggest something and few others agree by upvoting then you are able to see if its viable to to create something or get that product listed.

And you can also monetize site using affiliates, it's great once you get some steady traffic coming in

 

[MvcNoob]

With regards to reviews, also see if it's possible to add some "upvote" feature, it's useful if one person suggest something and few others agree by upvoting then you are able to see if its viable to to create something or get that product listed.

And you can also monetize site using affiliates, it's great once you get some steady traffic coming in

Thanks yes, all of that is in place already in the back-end:
- Product views are counted to determine popular products
- Users' views are logged so they can go back
- Toggle wishlist
- Product question with up/down vote to track popular/helpful questions e.g. FAQ.
- Product question answers with up/down vote to track most useful answers
- Product reviews incl ratings with up/down vote to track popular/helpful reviews
- Product rating only
- Product review comments with up/down vote to track popular/helpful review comments
- Product Facebook like
- Product Tweets
- Product Pins to PInterest
- Articles similar to products
- User flagging of all text based responses for moderation
- Auto-moderation and flagging for manual moderation
- Metrics for products sold together
- All upvotes and downvotes are tracked
- Related products
- Bundled products
- Equivalent products
etc
etc

All of this just need the front-end and styling.

Come to think of it, it would be great to add suggestions for making a web shop better. Here's a new thread to add your suggestions:
http://mybroadband.co.za/vb/showthr...to-put-into-a-webshop?p=16196602#post16196602