Looking for an MVC Grid Control? Try MVC Contrib!

Like most .NET Web Developers I was ecstatic when MVC was released. To put it plainly, I hate WebForms. However I do find myself missing some of the great WebForm controls like the DataGridView. The DataGridView was present in every WebForm application that I wrote. I really appreciated all the subtle bells and whistles that Microsoft added to the grid over the years. I wrote my own grid control for classic ASP and I know firsthand that it is a significant undertaking to make a grid control that if feature rich and flexible enough to handle complex situations. Therefore I was not crazy about taking on the task again… Initially, I adopted jqGrid as my new de facto grid control. From a end user’s perspective, jqGrid provides a top-notch user experience. Unfortunately, the control is heavily dependent on JavaScript so its not always the best solution for Mobile websites. In addition, jqGrid does require a fair amount of plumbing. Although it’s not difficult to implement it does take time and does not provide the rapid development experience that I grew accustomed to with the DataGridView control. For about the last 12 months I went old school. Yes, I have manually been coding my tables by looping over a enumerable list and creating rows and columns. Just like I did ten years ago! Its ridiculous. Luckily, I recently stumbled upon the MVC Contrib Grid. In approximately 10 minutes, I downloaded the library, added a reference to the assembly and fully implemented a grid with paging and sorting! You will not believe how easy it is.