My first web app is coming along. I am building a prototype, which I review with users to discover new requirements. My biggest problem is when I find a new requirement and have to make large changes. The first time I tried this, everything crashed. I didn't have much invested in my prototype, so I just threw it away and started over. Later on, that gets to be harder to do. I found the biggest problem is the database entity diagrams (.edmx files). Things are better if I delete any tables that will change from the entity diagram, then re-add the modified tables. "Rebuild" is also a help.

Are there other hints for making very large changes?

I plan to re-write from scratch after the prototype is done. That lets me "design in" the CSS, validation, error handling, etc. But also, I'm just afraid of a lot of junk auto-generated code laying around. Opinions?

What changes are you referring to specifically? With EF, there's an Update Model feature that brings in changes without redoing the entire model. However, if you haven't renamed any of your tables, columns, relations and so on, redoing the model may be quicker.

Not sure what you mean by this.

If you want to rename code, you may want to look into Refactoring tools such as Refactor! from DevExpress or Resharper. They let you change / rename code (and do a whole lot more) through projects without breaking dependencies.

Finally, larger applications tend to break less if you have a high separation of concerns. So, if you have SQL Code directly in a SqlDataSource control, things will break in many locations when you change the database. If you abstract data access away to a separate data layer, you can minimize the places where you have to fix or change anything.

But I guess it all depends on the type of changes you're referring to. Changes to CSS or your data model require different handling than changes to the model, the UI, your client side validation and so on.

Cheers,

Imar

__________________
Imar Spaanjaars
http://Imar.Spaanjaars.Com
Follow me on Twitter

Author of Beginning ASP.NET 4.5 : in C# and VB, Beginning ASP.NET Web Pages with WebMatrix
and Beginning ASP.NET 4 : in C# and VB.
Did this post help you? Click the button below this post to show your appreciation!