Microsoft has generously offered to “hand over the keys” to these CSS Friendly adapters. To be clear: Microsoft has approved the idea of directly letting the community decide on and implement changes to the ASP.NET 2.0 CSS Friendly Control Adapters.

Personally, I think this is great

Thanks to Brian Demarzo, we have a project already set up at CodePlex, http://www.codeplex.com/cssfriendly. However, I think Brian’s intent was focused towards offered the community a specific packaging option: putting all of the adapter code into a single DLL. A community-wide CodePlex project for these adapters would have a broader goal, I suppose. Perhaps we can morph Brian’s project, with his permission, of course, into something that more people can contribute to. Or, we can agree to start fresh with a new CodePlex project.

What are your thoughts?

Russ, I think this is GREAT. I think we could easily combine the 'stand-alone' version of the adapters with the adapters themselves. In a sense you can even combine them -- I'm sure in time many people will be very happy dropping a DLL that adds functionality rather than adding a bunch of CS files.

As an aside, I actually integrated a community-provided fix to a CSS adapters bug in my code base, but I didn't check it in to CodePlex yet. (The fix was from here: http://forums.asp.net/thread/1518559.aspx).

I think the best solution is the morphing one -- there should be "one" CSS Friendly project, not multiple ones. Either both can be combined and the "standard method of distribution" would be the precompiled DLL but with source code available (similar to the Ajax extenders), or the precompiled version can simply be an alternate method of doing the same. I'm actually a fan of the former, and not out of ownership reasons, but because I would think that most people who use the CSS adapter code don't modify the code files -- and if they did, they should contribute their improvements to the shared source project.

 

I agree with everything you said above. At this point, I think we need to start making these changes and recruiting contributors. There is a backlog of problems mentioned in this forum that should be fixed ASAP. I have not compiled a full list because I'd planned on "mining" this forum for clues when the time came. However, it would be better if others would now step up to the plate and offer to sign on as contributors who can do some of that work, too. I really hope we can get some momentum with multiple contributors because if it is just you and me, we are going to have some pain ahead of us. :)

I'm glad we're on the same page.

The first order of business may be to finalize the approach and get the code organized in a way to make it work. For example, if we're leaning on the project being a library of functionality that can be dropped in to a web site (i.e. the precompiled CSSFriendly.dll) where source code is available, the first thing we need to do is make sure we are 100% happy with the current code-base as it is in CodePlex, and the methods by which I am hooking things like JavaScript files. If this is satisfactory, we can start mining through the forums and get things working.

It would be interesting if anyone had thoughts on how we can unit test these adapters. I'm not too well-versed in TDD (especially for web applications), so if anyone has suggestions, it would be great to hear them.

Hi! I think the idea is great!

I'm using the adapters since the early versions and  I'll love to see this project going on.

I would like to contribute, but I'm not a JavaScript expert at all... i'm not sure how  could I participate,

 

Juan 

It's more HTML, CSS, C#, and WebControls than JavaScript -- at least for the majority of controls.

I'm fine with Html-CSS and WebControls, and I played a lot with the source files....but only in VB

VB... brings up a good question: Do we continue to maintain two language versions of this? Having it in two languages made sense when it was an "illustrative example of how you can create your own adapters" -- but now that it is morphing into more of a "product" that may not be as important. I'd suggest one language, one version, one code-base. I'm all C# (I can do VB but prefer not to), so I'm biased. ;)

Brian, 

I program in VB, I prefer it above C#, but I believe that C# is the choice of most developers here. And I strongly agree that only ONE version of everything should be done.

For these reasons, and also considering that the key people involved, like you, prefer C#, I think that the question is answered! :):) 

Be careful throwing that phrase "key people" around with my name on it. It's a sure way to get me to run away. ;)

Alright, nice. Exactly what I suggested :). I'd be willing to contribute to the source.

If anyone wants to be added to the developer list, send me your CodePlex user name and I'll set you up.

Also, I'm going to set up a suggestions discussion at CodePlex where you can provide suggestions for future releases.
 

Good news! Looking forward to the developments and I'll go on ahead and post an idea to codeplex.
 

To those interested, there are already two fixes added to the code distribution at CodePlex, so check it out!

http://www.codeplex.com/cssfriendly

(Yes, I'm trying to be vigilant in getting some early progress with this to help encourage community involvement.) 

Ah, thanks for the link Russ!

I'll be adding a new issue to the tracker shortly.