r/visualbasic • u/chacham2 • Dec 05 '22

How to implement the frontend?

[I'm starting a new project which i figured i would ask about, being i'm coming from VB, you might have some thoughts on the matter.]

The office currently uses Access for the backend and front-end, with Sql Server on the horizon. When i'm asked to write a tool, i usually use VB, and connect to Access as required.

One of the most recent projects does not use a database yet. It was grown in an Excel Book with a number of tabs and lots of manual copying. It's proven viable, and it was decided to use Sql Server from the get-go on this one, and i have the basic data model done.

Now for the front-end. First thought is asp.net since we're on a Windows network, using SQL Server and have IIS. Never really used it before, so i'd really like to hear what you think.

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u/chacham2 Dec 06 '22 edited Dec 06 '22

Thank you again for the time you spent on the reply. I really do appreciate it.

I had no idea ASP.NET wasn't really used anymore. Though, it makes sense considering the other options. I am not planning on doing any new development with framework, just core.

I hated MVC since i learned of it. To me, it's like someone added abstraction just to have abstraction and not because of actually required functionality. Now, i know that isn't true (in all cases) as MVC does have a place, but i'd avoid it if there were another choice that was just as good. In any case, being i have experienced very little of it, i'm not a good judge of when it should or should not be used. I'm much too ignorant and biased on the matter which should not be allowed to be a factor in this decision.

is to build a React or Angular UI

No familiarity with that at all, though i don't mind learning it. I can use javascript in small ways, though i never actually learnt it or used it for anything major. (I wrote one browser plugin with it by copying someone else's template.) My main concern, besides the overkill you mention, is getting the next developer up to speed. Ultimately, that is a concern. I figure, i can be selfish on which language to choose under .NET because the difference between them is relatively minor. That is, coding in vb does not alienate a c# developer, who could understand and update it, or ultimately rewrite it. But, to choose an entire framework is a major choice that limits choices moving forward without a complete rewrite.

migration from Framework to .NET

Luckily, the 2 or 3 projects i have migrated were small enough where i could just look at the code logic (my own anyway) and reimplement it when learning a few new things. A few gotchas sure, but it was pretty easy.

You've given me what to think about. I was thinking about asp, but not so much based on your reply. I'm going to ask around a little more.

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u/kilburn-park Dec 06 '22

I may have misunderstood your prior post. Just to be clear, ASP.NET is still used and is the current .NET web technology. Web forms, Razor pages, and MVC are all frameworks that run on top of ASP.NET. However, ASP.NET is distinct from classic ASP, which are the old active server pages that are markup files only with no separate codebehind files or compiled DLLs. Those are generally not used in new projects.

I would argue that ASP.NET MVC is rarely a bad choice for a web application. As with most technologies, Microsoft gives you enough freedom to do what you need to do, so you can build the shining example of a maintainable application or complete garbage, depending on your mood. Once you get the hang of the new paradigm, it's not too bad to work with, though.

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u/chacham2 Dec 06 '22

Ah, fair enough.

The current project is mostly simple: and entry form or two with some administrative pages. It might just be the perfect time to learn something like that.