>> Which open source license?
>I've never built an open-source app before so I will start doing research on the licenses.
I favour LGPL as it is an open-source license that allows commercial use. (Always useful for getting the next job) 

• Is there an existing open source database design we can use?

>I'll dig around and see if I can't find something we can start from.

 I have written several CMS databases some generic, some highly focussed.

• Are we working within VS2005 or VS2008?

>VS08 seems more practical because of the compliance between it and the MVC

 That is sensible, however it will be some days before I get my laptop upgraded to VS2008 Pro.

• Are we going for XHTML compliance using the W3C tests?

>>I personally believe we should - one of the most decisive factors  of the MVC framework is the ability to control exactly what comes out of the pipe. This would be a great way to show how having control over the output can lead to better web-based applications. It will also add test cases.

>>What database - I run SQL2005 on my laptop.

>I am personally much more comfortable with SQLServer 2005 as I am sure most ASP.NET developers are.. I personally say SQL 2005
I am running SQL2005 developer edition.

• How to structure the solution so it is testable - MVC is supposed to promote ease of testing.

I honestly don't know but I will look around to see what people are saying about testing the MVC. On a side note, what testing  framework? NUnit, MBUnit, MSTest, XUnit....

 For the data layer (and business layer) NUnit 2.4.6 (or later). On my my previous contract, we had great success with NUnitASP - it has to be compiled with a reference to the web site to be tested. NUnitAsp is very effective at:

• Regress testing of the site navigation
• Screen scraping and submitting the scrape to the W3C web service for checking.
• Simulating cycles of activity
• It could cope with some AJAX.NET
  
• It could test for some of the other accessibility issues for screen reader access.
  

I will contact one of the Guru's I have corresponded with and sound out his interest.

mrfleck:

I have a dedicated server that I can setup a project page / forum or wiki or something if you guys want. If so, do you want anything specific?

Could you set up sqlserver with remote access so those who don't have sql server can contribute?

TATWORTH:

That is sensible, however it will be some days before I get my laptop upgraded to VS2008 Pro

VWD 2008 express works fine with MVC and Ajax and as far as i know has no compatibility issues with other versions of VS

I've started discussions over at codeplex, I don't particularly like the forums (these are much better.. heh) but we probably need to move to a more private / organized discussion.  

 

If you would like to join this project please respond here, send me a PM or email me at chanceusc_AT_gmail_DOT_com with your codeplex login so that I can add you.  _at_=@   _dot_ = .

There are a few discussions already started on Codeplex regarding information that we need to agree upon before moving forward. Please voice in your opinions. 

http://www.codeplex.com/MVCMS 

 

srulyt:

mrfleck:

I have a dedicated server that I can setup a project page / forum or wiki or something if you guys want. If so, do you want anything specific?

Could you set up sqlserver with remote access so those who don't have sql server can contribute?

 

 

I say let's wait and see how we flesh this out first. I am fortunate enough to work for a place that is letting me use the server for that, but I cannot open it up for stuff liek that. I think codeplex is fine for most stuff. I would be happy to put up a wiki or a forum package and give everyone access to it if you don't like codeplex for that. I can the redirect those domains to either codeplex or to a project site, up to everyone here.  I will post this over at codeplex as well and then continue discussion over there.

TATWORTH:

Two places for the source code spring to mind -- www.sourceforge.com or www.codeplex.com.

I prefer the former.

Once the database schema can be agreed, I can generate all stored procedures and DAL in both C# and VB.NET. 

 I'm repository agnostic. ;)  So, a comment here, though, sure, DB schema is a good place to start the discussion.  We should also start talking about our default implementation of said back end (I would assume SQL Express using LINQ to SQL, just b/c it's the new hotness and all that, but I figure you all might have differing views). 

this might be too far into the weeds, but if we're doing LINQ to SQL, I'll recommend table valued functions rather than sprocs if anything returns a set.  Why?  Well, because sprocs return 'flat' data, whereas udfs are treated like tables and therefore any LINQ stuff you do to them that's of the deferred execution nature will still occur in the DB as if the UDF were actually a table or view.  I kinda like that behavior for flexibility; though I'm open if others dislike it.

paul.vencill:

 I'm repository agnostic. ;)  So, a comment here, though, sure, DB schema is a good place to start the discussion.  We should also start talking about our default implementation of said back end (I would assume SQL Express using LINQ to SQL, just b/c it's the new hotness and all that, but I figure you all might have differing views). 

paul

we have begun discussing implementation on codeplex

check out the discussions on http://codeplex.com/mvcms

 

Yeah, sorry; posted before reading the rest of the posts.  Waiting for access rights now.

Paul

Paul - you should have access now.

 

If you would like to join this project, please either PM me, send an email to chanceusc_@_gmail_._com  (remove the _s), or post here with your codeplex login name.

 

 

I never imagined this would get such a response.  But this is good!

I registered a domain for this and setup a Blog site and a forum.  http://www.mvcstarterkits.net.  The forums is at http://forums.mvcstarterkits.net.

I can see some of you have started the process.  I am just putting this blog out there for all of you to contribute to.

If some of you would like to be administrators on this I can give you the credentials for the blog and the forums and the Helm control panel to manage the site.  I'd also like to get a Wiki up for the project.  If anyone knows a good Wiki and easy to use, please let me know.

ChanceUSC, since you got things started with a CodePlex site, maybe you'd like to be an administrator on this also.  I'm in the process of setting up a CodePlex project also for the Starter Kits.  Your CodePlex project is great for CMS projects.  The Starter Kits project can be a catchall for other MVC projects. 

You can also manage a CMS Forum at this site.  You can be the administrator of it.  Just let me know if that what you want and I'll set it up and give you access.

If anyone is interested in moving forward with this, you can contact me at the blog shown above, or email me at king at mvcstarterkits dot net. 

Actually chance above has been kicking butt on this. We registered mvcms.net and .com and have already started the process of creating the project infrastructure. Also, he has got hosting donated for the sites and the project. I would recommend you give him your codeplex id and join on in. I am pretty sure we are goign to stick with the mvcms codeplex setup and domains. Come on over, this should be a great project!!!

 

Hi guys,

Any chance you'll publish the project soon on CodePlex? I'd like to follow the discussion but unfortunately am involved in too many other projects at the moment to commit to contributing.

Something I think I can help with though is the membership/authentication/user administration side of things. If you get a chance, take a look at the MVC Membership Starter Kit I've created, which is available on CodePlex:

http://www.codeplex.com/mvcmembership/

Hopefully you can find something in there to help get this project off the ground a bit quicker.

Troy

Troy - I went ahead and added you to the project so that you can follow it. I haven't had a chance to go over your mvc membership starter kit code but I'm sure it would be extremely useful. 

TroyGoode:

Something I think I can help with though is the membership/authentication/user administration side of things. If you get a chance, take a look at the MVC Membership Starter Kit I've created, which is available on CodePlex: http://www.codeplex.com/mvcmembership/ Hopefully that can find something in there to help get this project off the ground a bit quicker

I wa just looking at this the other day.

It looks good.

Thanks

Can someone publish the project so we can add to the discussions?

I vote we use Moq for the mocking framework! You'll love it when you start using it.

As for which testing framework to use, I vote we use NUnit AND VSTest! Here's a little trick i use at the top of every test file.

#if !NUNIT
using TestClass = Microsoft.VisualStudio.TestTools.UnitTesting.TestClassAttribute;
using TestMethod = Microsoft.VisualStudio.TestTools.UnitTesting.TestMethodAttribute;
using TestInitialize = Microsoft.VisualStudio.TestTools.UnitTesting.TestInitializeAttribute;
using TestCleanup = Microsoft.VisualStudio.TestTools.UnitTesting.TestCleanupAttribute;
#else
using NUnit.Framework;
using TestClass = NUnit.Framework.TestFixtureAttribute;
using TestMethod = NUnit.Framework.TestAttribute;
using TestInitialize = NUnit.Framework.SetUpAttribute;
using TestCleanup = NUnit.Framework.TearDownAttribute;
#endif
using NUnit.Framework.SyntaxHelpers;
using Assert = NUnit.Framework.Assert;
using Moq;

Now if i define the NUNIT compilation symbol, it runs in NUnit, if I don't define it, it runs in VSTest.

I just love the NUnit Assert.That( x, Is.Not.Null ); syntax helpers, its just so darn human readable. And with the above usings it works in VSTest as well.