Trying to build a Drupal-like CMS in ASP.NET MVC - Newbie Questions

Question

I am new to ASP.NET MVC, and the ASP.NET technology in general, so, please, excuse the stupidity of my questions. I have a lot of experience with php development and CMS customization (Drupal and Wordpress mainly), and I wanted to know whether some techniques could be applied in asp.net mvc. I want to know what exactly could be modified without recompiling an already built application

1. Can I edit the views without recompiling the app. Can I create custom themes ?
2. Can I add plugins compiled as dlls and use them at runtime. Can I "mark" the assembly in such a way that the web application will check on the next request and will reference it, without me manually adding it to the project and recompiling. I've heard that this is possible.

I will make sure to add more when something comes up. The reason I am asking is because I'd like to try and develop a Drupal-like CMS (custom types, views, etc) in asp.net mvc. The dynamism of php will be quite a challenge to replicate in a compiled technology, yet I am ready to try.

Answer 1

If you are looking for something like Drupal on the ASP.NET platform, you want to use Orchard. You will find the same concepts and powerful modules as in Drupal and it's running on ASP.NET MVC which ensure you take control of the rendered HTML.

Answer 2

Kooboo is fantastic, but what about the user experience? I think a content management should be easy to use by the end customer. Is Kooboo really end user friendly? I guess not. When creating a cms the first to consider is the user that in the end will use the system. I don't want to create a system that makes customers rely on a programmer.

If you are creating a system for delivery, start thinking on how your customer will use it, that will probably make your system awesome!! In .NET you can do whatever you want with no exception. Learn like me - The hard way! Start with a new solution and create whatever you want.

Look at the Kona website and you will learn a lot. In that application you have a good starting point when creating your cms.

Answer 3

I have a similar background, but without Drupal. I'm also doing something similar.

Yes, you should be able to do all this. Obviously for the views, you would have to compile if you change any code-behind, assuming you use code-behind.