asp.netPRO Cover Article and SmartNavigation
Has anyone seen the current issue of asp.netPRO, and the cover article - 10 Rock-Solid UI Tips? Here’s the link to the article, but you need to have a subscription to see it. I’ve got a couple problems with the article, but my main complaint is Tip 1, Use SmartNavigation. SmartNavigation is supposed to eliminate the repainting of web pages between posts on uplevel browsers using a hidden iframe. If you have ever tried using SmartNavigation in your pages, you would find that it does not work if you are using a more traditional HTML/CSS page model (apposed to the VB-like model VS.Net tries to force you to use). Just do a search of the MS newsgroups on SmartNavigation, and you will see hundreds of problems with this technology, and a lot of recommendations that it should not be used (especially with external CSS). My problem with the article is that nowhere is it acknowledged that SmartNavigation is known to cause problems. As the author you have a responsibility to alert your readers to any known issues of the technology you are using, and this tip is very misleading. IMHO. use SmartNavigation in only the most basic WebForms, and becareful using it with any advanced browser technologies (i.e. Element Behaviors, CSS, Scripting).
Don XML