Alloy tutorial

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Hi,

Is there tutorial on how to get from empty episerver project to Alloy demo kit one, with explanations to advanced features?

Nemanja

#148773
May 23, 2016 20:17
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Check out 

http://world.episerver.com/blogs/Janaka-Fernando/Dates/2015/8/introducing-alloy-demo-kit/

and the release notes in the repository.

Hope that helps you get started...

#148775
May 23, 2016 21:48
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Hello Daniel,

Thanks for the response,this was great read but not exactly what i was looking for.
In alloy example there are a lot build in things, that i'm not sure how they work like this question:
http://world.episerver.com/forum/developer-forum/Developer-to-developer/Thread-Container/2014/2/Alloy-MVC-N00b-question/


I kinda figured out this myslef but then i wondered how can i drag and drop my Page in ContentArea and see something rendered and then i found TemplateCoordinator class
that i think is converting everythink into partialPage.

But is there any other way to specifiy how i whant my page to render if it's a block? Can i specifiy on page type level paths to two different views and say this is in context of a page, this in context of a block.

In alloy project there is a lot stuff in Business folder that i don't fully understand, and would like to read step by step tutorial from empty to alloy project.

I guess i'll have to search for specific issues when i come accros them 


#148779
May 24, 2016 7:33
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You can either simply put a partial view in the shared folder with the correct name and Episerver will use it automatically. Or create a controller and decorate it with an attribute to help Episerver know that this controller can be used for partial views.

Check out blog here for some more details.

https://tedgustaf.com/blog/2013/how-to-render-pages-in-a-content-area/

For learning Episerver I recommend first going through 

  • Editor handbook
  • Administrators handbook
  • Getting started section under documentation here on Episerver world
  • Joel Abrahamssons ebook about Episerver development
  • And lastly the documentation for Episerver cms under documentation here on world

That should answer most questions on Episerver development :)

...and also for certification.

#148781
Edited, May 24, 2016 8:39
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Hello

As a trainer I recommend you to take one of the online course (or go togheter and order a on site beginner course, since I like to go to Serbia :)). If your company does not want to make that investment there are a couple of ways to go forward.

Start by looking at this video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BbN7qrZp2z8

Then, read the stuff here while going through Alloy:

http://world.episerver.com/documentation/cms/

Good luck!

#148782
May 24, 2016 8:52
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Hi Henrik,

I'll take a look at the videos, and see about the training :)

Thx for help

Nemanja

#148783
May 24, 2016 8:59
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There is also a getting started guide which would require some basic knowledge of building .net websites.

http://world.episerver.com/documentation/cms/get-started-with-cms/

#148785
May 24, 2016 10:41
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Hi Alf,

I already looked at that one and created page, what i would like to see is path from that get started to alloy demo kit,

explaining what is done and why, just to get bigger picture 

Thanks for help!

#148788
May 24, 2016 11:09
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Unfortunately Alloy is not always an example of "best practices", more an example of what you CAN do rather than what you SHOULD do.

I would not say it's a good practice to copy Alloy Templates and put your own styling. You'll definitely get more features than you need.

I would ask myself these questions

  • What do I want do to?
  • What is only content and separate from business logic or content logic.
    Example: you have a list of links
    * Should the editor just add links using the Link Item Collection, Content Area or the XHTML property?
    * Should the list be automatically fetched from content in Episerver (for example children to a specific page)?
    * Should the list be fetched from an external system?
  • From there I would look at the content type structure based on design and functionality
    Example: the "normal page" and "image listing page" are identical, except that the image listing page also have images
    * Should I create two separate page types
    * Should I only create only one page type, but be able to add the image list as a block?
    * Should I only create one page type, as the normal page will also be able to have an image list?
  • How should everything be rendered
    * Try to keep your website as normal ".net website" as possible using Episerver as the data container to start with. However I would recommend that you use the episerver:property web control (WebForms) or PropertyFor HTML extension method (MVC) when rendering properties.
    * When it comes to special rendering Alloy has quite alot of examples, however they are no documentation on why, how or exactly which code is related to which functionality.

I'm afraid I can't give you more help than that, but I hope I gave some some steps how to go from a solution with a simple page

#148794
May 24, 2016 12:04
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If you loke to learn more of Content Area and TempleDescriptor you should read Valdis blog serie about it

http://blog.tech-fellow.net/2015/04/26/content-area-under-the-hood-part-1/

#148795
May 24, 2016 12:13
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Thx guys,

@Alf this makes sense what you wrote thx.
@Henrik thx for the link

Nemanja

#148797
May 24, 2016 12:56
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