Building Portals, Intranets, and Corporate Web Sites Using Microsoft Servers

Chapter 5. Portal Framework ”.NET

Just as a building needs a foundation, walls, and a roof, an application or a web site needs a framework. Indeed, a portal is essentially a combination of a web site and one or more applications. A framework is required to coordinate programming activities and maximize consistency and object reuse.

I have found that building .NET applications on a common framework shortens development time and reduces the number of software errors. As we have built one .NET solution after another, we have improved and extended the framework. We have also brought the framework to our clients as a way of transferring .NET knowledge and speeding up projects.

The most fortunate aspect of Microsoft's portal platform is that the current generation of server products is all marching to the beat of the .NET drummer . Whether you are creating a user control in Content Management Server, a web part in SharePoint Portal Server, or a class in Commerce Server, you build objects in .NET using Visual Studio .NET. This commonality is a tremendous step forward for the Microsoft portal platform, offering advantages over competitive solutions based on a hodgepodge of tools and languages.

This chapter explains what a framework should do, the key elements of the framework, and how you can build your own portal framework with .NET. There is not room to print all the code for a complete framework in this chapter. My goal is to illustrate the elements of the framework and suggest ways that you can implement a framework that meets your special requirements.