De informatica y otros demonios…

I don’t use .Net, I think is just another computing platform. I used to programm in C# a lot when I was studying, specially those last years with DirectX and Direct3D projects.

Only recently I got in touch again with .Net, this time with ASP.NET 2.0 (I know it is now 4.0) only to confirm my previous toughts about it. Even being the Web Forms a good idea I don’t know why MS is always trying to reinvent the wheel??? Themes and Skins are totally innecesary, we already have CSS. Are ViewStates really necessary? I don’t think so.

Well, after  learn the principles of ASP.NET 2.0, the Data access routines and such. There comes the GridView. A poorly designed control to encourage a miryad of third party grid controls, none of them for free or opensource (It’s certainly dificult to find an opensource-like programming library for .Net)

So, Here I am, programming my own true free-opensource ASP.NET 2.0 Grid Control. In Mono btw. Its still part of an small project I am making but I will pack it separately so you could use it at will (Just naming the source of course, )

There are some of the functionalities so far.

1. CSS based styles: All styles are defined as a bunch of CSS classes in a separate CSS file.
2. JSON based definitions: All metadata needed to implement the functionalities are declared in a JSON file. I particulary don’t like XML much. So I also included a JSON parser (Hashtable-based).
3. Better paging (as IMHO): I use page ranges, so only a few ahead numbered links are displayed, plus, a next range button and the last page button. The same backguards when apply.
4. Column Sorting: Normal column sorting.
5. Row selector: Using some Javascript to highlite the selected rows.
6. Field-to-image mapping: Nice trick to map some column values to images.

This are some functionalities to come soon

1. Full CRUD ops (Capture, Update, Delete): As usual, maybe with some extra goodies.
2. Smart Filters: This is one you will like (when implemented)
3. Column graphers (featuring OpenFlashChart)

And of course there are some screenshots as it is now…