Question

I’m starting a new web application that will be made of multiple parts or modules.
My client want to be able to redistribute the application with a subset of modules to some other clients. I read about Areas in mvc2 which seems to be what i’m looking at.
I would also like to develop those modules in side projects and have the right one build according to clients specifications.

Can someone with more experience than me with mvc can confirm that this is possible with areas.

thanks
mateo

Answer 1

I think each module should be a separate project (a single assembly/DLL with its own responsibilities). You’d “connect” each module as a lego :D. Then to redistribute the app with a subset of modules you’d have a build script where you specify the modules that are in and out of the final product. Each version of the product would come in different shapes (as in the lego game) presenting different functionality subsets.

Just to mention, the concept of Areas in MVC is this:

To accommodate large projects, ASP.NET
MVC lets you partition Web
applications into smaller units that
are referred to as areas. Areas
provide a way to separate a large MVC
Web application into smaller
functional groupings. An area is
effectively an MVC structure inside an
application. An application could
contain several MVC structures
(areas).

For example, a single large e-commerce
application might be divided into
areas that represent the storefront,
product reviews, user account
administration, and the purchasing
system. Each area represents a
separate function of the overall
application.