Overview

Developing and designing AJAX Web applications has always been a complex process that required many different skills and knowledge of various coding languages. Development Platform & Frameworks target simplification of AJAX development process by offering a visual development environment that flattens the traditional multi-layered development into as less layers as possible requiring minimal skill set. As a result, building line of business AJAX Web applications became simpler, faster and most cost-effective.

Even though there are many efficient development tools in the market, they still require web knowhow and coding skills in HTML, CSS or XAML when it comes to web design or modifications of default themes and skins. But no more! A new RIA Platform preview version combining the proven ease of drag and drop application development with an innovative visual web design tool is here. This cutting-edge Control & Theme Designer enables developers and designers to build DHTML or Microsoft Silverlight user interfaces (UIs) with unmatched simplicity compared to traditional DHTML design or to any other existing controls/UI customization frameworks in the market.

Designing Web UI demands graphical skills as well as comprehensive knowhow in HTML & CSS or XAML with Silverlight. With the abundance of popular browsers in the market, there is also a need for cross browsers awareness when styling the UI. Using the new Control & Theme Designer on the other hand, does not require writing HTML or CSS or any technical skills. The web design tool allows developers and designers to set the styling properties and images for each object and automatically applies those styles to any supported browser or device.

Graphical skills are obviously still needed to edit images but the web design tool provides easy management of all the images that comprise controls or other UI elements and enables editing them in an any existing graphics design software with a point & click ease.

Let's Start

Web design until now: Using standard web tools the developer/designer has to edit the HTML or an equivalent rendering XSLT and struggle with its complexity to understand which image goes where:

Web design from now on: Using the new web design tool, the developer/designer opens a theme designer within the Visual Studio .NET IDE:

And get to see the whole picture on a friendly view:

And simply point & click the pictures, override only the selected images then edit with any standard graphics designers’ tools such as Photo-Shop or Paint.NET or even provide an alternative image:

Styling

Web design until now: The developer/designer had a complicated structure of styling which includes CSS’s of all kinds and local definitions, which always ends in not knowing which property overrides the correct styling. Not to mention each unique browser’s behaviors and CSS properties:

Web design from now on: Using the new web design tool, CSS and the load of properties and definition files become a nightmare history…

The developer/designer can simply edit visual properties of colors & sizes at any desired level, not having to calculate which styling property overrides the other, and it will automatically work well for in any browser:

Behaviors & Extreme lay outing

Web design until now: The developer had to find out which JavaScript file and HTML/XSLT files affected which controls layout or behavior… and then struggle with those client side resources in a multi level, multi layers, multi standards environment…

Web design from now on: Using the new web design tool, developers can visually and easily manage any control’s resources, scripts and lay-outs within hierarchical clear environment with clear rules, services, in an IntelliSense supportive environment (future):.wgx.

Summary

We have seen that web design can be as simple as point and click and doesn't necessarily require to know various languages and proficiencies in HTML, CSS or JavaScript in order to design web applications.

• Theme customization with the new visual designer

About Eyal Albert

Sorry, no bio is available This author has published 6 articles on DotNetSlackers. View other articles or the complete profile here.