Leveraging the power of JavaScript templates within ASP.NET

Throughout my career, I have encountered a recurring issue that has yet to be resolved with an elegant solution. Picture this: You have a basic page with a repeater that is populated on the server side through data binding. Everything works smoothly and efficiently as intended. Then you decide to introduce pagination or make other adjustments to the output using Ajax for enhanced client interaction.

You create a web service to deliver JSON data, but now you face a dilemma. Either you must write intricate client-side code to modify specific fields in each repeater item, completely rebuild the server-side output from scratch, or opt for my recent method of duplicating the first repeated item and updating its fields while discarding the rest.

All existing approaches fall short due to redundant logic required both server side (template in repeater) and client side (JavaScript for displaying JSON data). There has to be a simpler, more effective way to tackle this challenge. One immediate thought is to return pre-populated repeater HTML instead of JSON from the web server, though this may not reduce output size significantly compared to using ASP.NET AJAX Update panel.

My next consideration was JavaScript templates. Is there a feasible method to transform an unprocessed repeater template on the server side into a JavaScript template embedded on the page during loading or included in the web service response? Unfortunately, no existing solutions seem readily available for this task, and I am unable to devise a straightforward approach myself. Any suggestions?

P.S. Disregarding the option of rendering JavaScript templates at page load and populating them using JavaScript without initial server-based rendering (without repeater and data binding) due to performance concerns.

Answer №1

Initially, I am of the belief that utilizing client templates with JSON data, even on the initial load, will not have a negative impact on performance unless we are considering different devices like phones.

Nevertheless, if you opt to use server-side templating/rendering, why not have the server provide the HTML for the repeater? This can be achieved by isolating the repeater logic in a separate user control/page and handling only that page through an AJAX request. It is essential to note that this method is not equivalent to using UpdatePanel--UpdatePanel posts the entire page data (including view-state), resulting in a larger request size. The response size is also increased due to the necessity of containing the view-state. On the server side, the use of UpdatePanel entails loading the complete control tree with state data and post-back event processing. Sending only the necessary HTML would be a more efficient approach and cater to your requirements perfectly - the only drawback being that the HTML may be larger in size compared to JSON.

Lastly, there are intriguing projects such as Script# - Script# converts C# code into JavaScript. You could potentially create something similar (using script# itself) to convert the server-side templating code into equivalent JS code. An alternative approach along these lines could involve using T4 templating to convert a technology-agnostic template into both server-side code (markup + code or pure code) and corresponding JS code.

Answer №2

After carefully evaluating the various methods available, I settled on a unique approach. I developed a custom ASP.NET databound control that is capable of rendering HTML content. When the page is requested with specific query string parameters, instead of the standard rendering process, the control utilizes Response.Clear() and Response.End() to output a JSON version of data based on the parameters. Additionally, during the initial page render, it generates a JavaScript template using reflections to extract variable names from the control's template area.

This innovative method functions effectively, allowing me to easily integrate my control into the page, bind data, and create a dynamic AJAX grid supporting pagination, sorting, and filtering. It does, however, come with a limitation - only variables can be specified in the control's template, as expressions cannot be converted by reflections into JavaScript variables. Despite this restriction, I find the overall functionality satisfactory.

Other potential options I explored included implementing a separate web-service that utilizes reflection to retrieve the data-bound object and generate a grid template based on the type of page. Another idea was to develop a customized update panel that eliminates the use of view state and selectively sends portions of the page for optimal performance.

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