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We are about to embark on the development of several complex business/intranet applications (lots of data, many functions, admin panels, doesn't need to be simplified for public use). With the advent of people doing real work on their phone browsers and tablets.. responsive design and 508/ARIA accessibility also creep into the mix of requirements.

We like a lot of what we find in the out-of-the-box Twitter Bootstrap (TB) (x-browser, jQuery, HTML/CSS template, lots of helper functions so we don't need HTML experts to make good looking pages, others). But, its layouts seem to drive us toward minimalistic (few controls/ less data on one screen), narrow (960-width) designs.

Does it make sense for us to even use TB if we're going to bloat and stretch the designs? Or are their better CSS/HTML/JS templates/kits out there for .Net "business applications"? Or any others that are still in favor that we should consider?

JohnZastrow
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5 Answers5

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You have to choose the framework that you fell must comfortable with.

I like both Bootstrap, jQuery UI and YUI Library and use them a lot. I recently changed work and my first project was to change the entire internal admin application, and for this I have chosen Bootstrap.

Bootstrap with Knockout in ASP.NET MVC to be more detailed...

just as a tease on using Bootstrap... this is view of one of the segments:

enter image description here

and the main navigation menu:

enter image description here

to help others, the Main Menu is available on JsBin

it's a normal 3 columns .span2 with a wrapper called .super-menu and that style has only the width as:

.super-menu { width: 480px; }

witch means: 3 x .span2 + 3 x margin-left = (3 x 140) + (3 x 20) = 480px

balexandre
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  • As a longtime user of the jQuery UI library, I've just gotten interested in Bootstrap (within the past week, in fact). I'm curious how you achieved that layout in your dropdown menu! – BradBrening Apr 25 '12 at 20:06
  • one can tweak it's way into the CSS and add one's own rules as well, Bootstrap and any other CSS Framework only give you as much, one creativity and CSS knowledge can close the gap from what one want and what they provide out-of-the-box. – balexandre Apr 25 '12 at 20:50
  • added code as description for main menu. – balexandre Apr 25 '12 at 21:00
  • Good response all. My impression is that TB provides some maturity by standing on the shoulders of tested, accepted projects like jQuery, extending proven concepts, and weaving their own glue when needed. It hasn't been around the block as long as some others, but it seems to have enough maturity for us to invest some R&D in. It tries to do more than others (like HTML5Boilerplate) - and we do need it to do more - but without an impossibly long and steep learning curve like some other projects I've seen. We don't want to fiddle with design.. and OTS design sprinkled with some graphics is OK. – JohnZastrow Apr 25 '12 at 22:12
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    @balexandre That's excellent. Our shop is comprised of a bunch of former Java folks, so we're all .Net MVC all the time. We'll definitely look into your project. – JohnZastrow Apr 25 '12 at 22:17
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Ironically, I think Bootstrap is even more useful for intranet/business apps than public-facing ones.

Some reasons I love using Bootstrap for internal apps:

  • Consistent interface (can be a con of public sites seeking a "unique" look)
  • Handles all the cross-browser, cross platform (mobile) issues you would have to deal with yourself
  • Proven to be efficient and flexible
  • Exponentially growing ecosystem ensures stability, support resources
  • Can easily be customised to your business' look and feel and then shared across developers or teams for re-usability
  • Built-in fluid application layout (addresses your narrow/minimalistic design concern)
  • Spend less time on interface concerns and more time on making sure your SQL queries over 3 years of sales history don't take 30 minutes to run
  • Components built on jQuery. Who doesn't love jQuery??
  • It's awesome :)

Edit:

If you're worried about more fancy plugins and features, the Github repo has almost 30,000 watchers and over 5,000 forks. Anything you can think of is probably being done or already completed - like a datepicker.

Terry
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  • good points all and much in line with my novice observations. The opportunity to blend in the occasional jQuery UI, and homegrown pieces when needed should offer good flexibility. For example, we wrote a monster complex editable tree component for the JBoss Seam in the app we're replacing... now we get to rewrite everything, but hopefully start from someone else's initial efforts. – JohnZastrow Apr 25 '12 at 22:23
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I've worked with jQuery mobile and enjoy it. Here's a project: http://2012barleadershandbook.philadelphiabar.org/

It seems like more of stripped down template that is easy to extend. http://jquerymobile.com/

If you're adding video, remember to use something like fitvids: http://fitvidsjs.com/

Wesley Terry
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Net Magazine's been name dropped quite a few in the last couple of days.

Ethan Marcotte name-dropped foundation and Fluid Baseline Grid in an interview there. Several more (too many to list individually, imo) were listed in this round-up of tools for responsive web design.

devstruck
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I would have to say no, the twitter bootstrap is still much too young to take on more complex applications. Though it is growing everyday, it is still missing a lot of UI elements that allows for easier content/data placement and organization - such as a proper datepicker, a content slider with better control over the content (pulling content from ajax, videos, auto resize, etc...), a more proper accordion that allows for better control over the content through javascript (auto height/width, on hover toggling) and it is still lacking on other things such as dialogs, animations/effects and widgets.

I would stick to the more mature frameworks we still have today such as jQuery UI or the YUI library and wait for the bootstrap to mature into what those frameworks are today.

Andres I Perez
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    Bootstrap is a CSS framework with some nice JS components. jQuery UI is a JS component library with some nice CSS stability. Nothing says you can't use jQuery UI plugins instead of the Bootstrap ones. In fact you don't even need to include bootstrap.js unless you like relying on the `data-attribute` style API. Most of what you listed is trivial to do and in some cases, like saying there are no [dialogs](http://twitter.github.com/bootstrap/javascript.html#modals), you are completely wrong. – Terry Apr 25 '12 at 19:57
  • @Terry With all the components available on the bootstrap i actually see it becoming something close to what jQueryUI is right now. I am not assuming that the bootstrap is the same as jQueryUI or YUI but its not even close to what you can do with them and as such i would never use it on an application that will require massive data to pass through it, there is just not enough on the way of of modifications and flexibility. With the bootstrap i am stuck inside a grid that i can't break out of off without heavily modifying the source, and that to me is just not flexible enough. – Andres I Perez Apr 26 '12 at 12:58
  • @Terry Coupled with the lack of proper organization plugins, again such as a proper dialog plugin (a modal is not a dialog, just a form of one, i want to be able to have a informational dialog that allows me to interact with the background and a modal is the opposite of that, hence the backdrop - think Windows dialogs). As a heavy bootstrap user i stand by my post, i don't recommend it for heavy applications, i have to work too much, i can easily recreate the eye candy in 500-600 CSS lines and not 3k+. – Andres I Perez Apr 26 '12 at 12:58