Given my previous (angry) post about my experience with webparts framework, I need to plan a conversion between current solution and a new one. While areas where such conversion is needed aren't many, there will be a lot of code to write and I will also need to update my objects database schema / structure.
Portal themes are based on standard ASP.NET themes so I won't need to change that. However, webpart zones must be replaced by standard controls like panels to host all modules. I will also change logic to apply containers which were integrated into webparts via webpartchrome classes: such code must be replaced. I plan to drop drag&drop functionalities which were integrated into webparts framework as that would be much work to implement that now. I will also need to modify modules classes to enable editors and so on.
As a list:
- modules must now be changed to enable editors. That will probably be an annotation or attribute applied to class in order to simplify installation;
- webpart zones must be replaced by standard controls like panels;
- I need to change page logic in order to let all modules be surrounded by a container, if selected by admin;
- I need to plan a way to let module developers include their editors (for module contents) into a portal-wide set of standard editors, something which was provided by webparts framework out of the box;
- code to move modules between zones must be implemented as it was provided by webparts too;
- drag&drop ? There's a lot of work to implement that so I think I will skip that for now;
- must implement a way to register modules in a catalog and present them to users so they will be able to add them to portal zones;
- some kind of personalization must be available to modules and that needs to be implemented.
There's a lot of work to do, unfortunately. And I need to be quick, quick, quick ! Welcome Diavolo 4.2... !