Keep in mind in regard to UI that SPA is only one design pattern and there is no reason you can't launch multiple HTML browser windows or have the tabbed interface, child windows or pretty much anything else you can imagine and it is just a lot easier in jquery and html than in something that was retrofitted for web and asynchronous connection rether than built for it.

As to your scenario of textboxes etc that is just as easy if not easier using jquery.ui to handle the controls in html and issues with resizing and changing layout based on the user's screen are so much easier that along would make it worth adopting it.

There are some pretty good jquery things on pluralsight too and I recommend them.

And be sure that at least for a month you have the subscription that lets you get the source code for all the lessons you are doing. It *really* helps.


>I finally found one course that helps me to begin to see the light. This is ASP.NET MVC Fundamentals by Scott Allen. The course is dated to 2009. But this is the first one where he goes through very basic explanation of the MVC patterns. I am sure the MVC 2 and then MVC 3 and then MVC 4 changed many things. So I will have to go through all these tutorials, one at a time.
>
>>I do have subscription to Pluralsight and did watch the SPA course by John Papa. To be honest I was very impressed with his app but most of the technical stuff went way over my head. Also, for my application, which is basically straight forward data entry application, following the SPA approach does not seem to be applicable. For example, in my app, user may want to have 2 or more pages opened at the same time. Another thing I don't see as applicable to me is the jqueryUI. Again, my app is "many textboxes, dropdown controls, labels, and buttons" and not much more. So I don't see what benefit jqueryUI will have. Again, technically, I need tons and tons to learn. But this is just my initial feeling.
>>I do however, now, study/watch videos on ASP.NET MVC. Also, very difficult stuff. Especially when the courses are very circular in definitions. For example, the ASP.NET MVC 4 starts with (paraphrasing) "it is a very good approach because it is better than MVC 3"..hah? So I found a course of 2 years ago to see that maybe back then they were really explaining basics rather than trying to impress the viewer with their knowledge.
>>Thank you for your suggestions.
>>
>>>Before you make a decision on this., be sure to watch the entire John Papa course at Pluralsight on SPA ( single page HTML5 applications that use Ajax calls to modify a main page interface.) As to UI, the jqueryUI and related libaries coupled with knockout.js for binding make some many things that used to be such an agony so easy I have to believe this is the wave of the future, certainly for web apps and for desktop as intranet.
>>>
>>>Trust me it is worth your time to spend some time with this stuff before you invest any time in webforms etc. Don't even think about developing a UI framework until you know what jquery-ui, the related grid controls, and Wijmo can do right out of the box with HTML5
>>>
>>>>First, thank you for your message. Just to clarify, I do not want to mix and match. I will decide on either web forms or MVC and - hopefully - will stick with just one technology. But first I want to create a project in VS 2012 and create a main page of the application. I would like to use HTML5 for the main page utilizing responsive design. But now - as I type this - I realize that when creating a project in VS 2012 I have to select either ASP.NET MVC or Web Forms. So it look like before I even create a main page UI I have to make the decision on Web Forms or MVC. Is this correct?
>>>>
>>>>>No. The difference will be how you handle that in the code. With MVC you typical code the .cshtml page as
>>>>>Html.ActionLink( .....) that then points back to the controller rather than a specific URL, but you could just as easily code it to be an
>>>>>a href and point to a stpecific URL.
>>>>>
>>>>>But... why do you want to mix and match. Seems it would become a maintenance issue.
>>>>>
>>>>>>Hi,
>>>>>>
>>>>>>Does it matter - when creating a main page of an ASP.NET application - if the application will be using Web Forms or MVC? Here is what I mean. Typical web (database) application will have a pull-down menu at the top, toolbar below the menu, and optionally a vertical toolbar panel. The menu, toolbars will be entry points to the application features; click on this or that item/button will open the corresponding page. I have not decided if the application will be Web Forms or MVC but only want to start working on creating UI framework. Is this logical? TIA.