Our Highlights from Kentico 12 MVC

23/09/2019
2 min read

Kentico launched their latest iteration back in November 2018, Kentico 12 MVC. A huge step away from previous Kentico versions available in Web Forms, Kentico 12 introduced a landmark change as the platform was brought forward onto the architecture of choice for developers today, MVC.

Since its launch our in-house development team have been getting to grips with Kentico 12 MVC and putting it through its paces. Exploring how an MVC can empower development teams through a simplified and modular approach to development, we asked them to share their Kentico 12 MVC highlights. 

Here’s our top five feature highlights:

1. ASP.NET MVC Development Model 

“ASP.NET MVC is a superior platform to work on than ASP.NET Web Forms – it’s modern, fast, and allows us to reuse common elements more easily with minimal development effort. It make it simpler to segregate distinct areas of each page into reusable components that are both robust and maintainable. It’s much easier to transform the work provided by front-end developers into functional back-end code than it used to be, which has quality and maintenance benefits for clients. MVC promotes a development style where the developer embeds metadata in the source code, and the metadata is used by the site to automatically define certain mappings and formatting’s. This declarative approach is beneficial because it allows us to include changes in source control that were previously done in the database and could not be version controlled. It’s also quicker for developers to build things declaratively.”

Tom – Kentico Developer

2. Page Builder

“Kentico 12 introduced Page Builder for MVC which finally provides a viable alternative to the Portal Engine approach. This allows content administrators to build up pages from a series of bespoke page components.

The easy to use drag and drop Widgets support content personalisation and can be adapted to fit bespoke page requirements. This ease of use allows both marketeers and content admins to take back control of their website vs relying on the support a development team.”

Chris – Solutions Architect

3. Widget Zone Overhaul

“The Widget Zones for Kentico 12 MVC have changed from the old Portal Engine. Previously, we needed to create specific Zones that would allow for Custom Layouts and had no control over where Widgets could be used.

With Kentico 12 MVC, developers can create Zone Layouts which can define columns in each widget area but also limit what widgets are usable. For example, we can set a right column in an inner page to only allow Call to Action widgets, and not allow large full-page carousels. This means that the site will always look as intended and not have components that look out of place, squashed or stretched.”

Ben – Kentico Developer

4. Custom Form Components

“The introduction of Custom Form Components which provide full control over HTML and Form Layouts is excellent. We can be really stripped back and use pretty much the exact HTML from the Front-end style guide.

Form Builder Components and Layouts are created in a very similar to the Page Builder which makes it easier to train clients on how to use Kentico 12.”

Liam – Kentico Developer

5. Future Proofing

“It is a feature of the modern, digital world that technologies become obsolete over time. The ASP.Net Web Forms technology that has previously been the recommended development approach with Kentico is due to be retired by Microsoft. In time this means the ability to maintain ASP.Net Web Forms will become more costly and resource to do so scarcer.

“Adopting the latest stable technologies such as MVC in Kentico 12 represents a longer life for web projects and lower TCO in the long-term.”

Jonathan – Managing Director

The launch of Kentico 12 in November 2018 marked the initial phase of their transition to MVC with further releases including additional features and bug fixes expected over the next 12 months. We have already started to see a surge in businesses embracing this change.

Whilst Web Forms is gradually being phased out, it is expected that Kentico will continue to support this architecture for the next few years.

Thoughts. Opinions. Views. Advice.

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