If you're new to Kentico, want to get up to speed with the latest versions, or simply want to see what Kentico's MVC offering is then you really should consider looking at the Kentico 12 MVC developer training. This training provides a focused walkthrough of the basics of Kentico and MVC while you build a simple, functional site that provides a good base knowledge for starting your own projects.
What is it?
The Kentico MVC for Developers course is targeted at people who are either new to Kentico or wishing to switch over to the MVC development model having used Kentico previously. If you've done Kentico online training before, then you'll notice that the format of the training has changed a little.
What does it cover?
There are two key parts (at time of writing) to this training course. The first covers a broad spectrum of topics ranging from creating page types in Kentico to some best practice tips for putting an MVC application together. The two parts are titled Kentico MVC - Essentials and Kentico MVC - Builders.
Kentico MVC - Essentials
The essentials course delivers a little more than you might expect. Rather than just focusing on the bare essentials of working with Kentico using APS.NET MVC, there is also some focus on best practice.
The table of contents for the essentials are as follows:
- Introduction to Kentico MVC - Essentials (3 min)
- Kentico MVC development basics (95 min)
- Creating page types (75 min)
- Creating a multicultural website (55 min)
- Routing and URLs (45 min)
- Displaying content on the live site (130 min)
- Working with workflows and localized data (55 min)
- Creating a navigation menu (45 min)
- Working with media libraries (60 min)
- Handling 404 errors (45 min)
- Optimizing performance and deploying websites (105 min)
- Kentico MVC Essentials conclusion (5 min)
As you can see, there are an estimated 12 or so hours of content here. Working through these modules at the anticipated pace, it's getting close to 5 hours before you have anything to show for your efforts in terms of content in the browser. At first, this might seem frustrating, but what you're doing - as well as learning about the way Kentico functions - is setting up a good solution structure and implementing to good SOLID principals to give your application a strong foundation. It's quite refreshing to see this approach, as this will help reinforce good practice for less experienced members of the team.
The more time you spend working through the examples, the longer this would be. The more seasoned developers looking for very quick pointers can download the final solution from GitHub and take a look at what is going on, but there is value in running through the modules if you are new to the world of Kentico and MVC.
Kentico MVC - Builders
The Kentico MVC - Builders content was a later addition to the Kentico 12 training. If you have had the time to complete this course already and the builder modules do not sound familiar, then I would heartily recommend logging in to the training portal and check out this content.
The modules listed for this portion of the training are:
- Introduction to Kentico MVC - Builders (3 min)
- Introduction to page builder and form builder (30 min)
- Page builder and form builder overview (60 min)
- Creating a builder-enabled website page (90 min)
- Creating advanced widgets (180 min)
- Advanced features of page builder (60 min)
- Form builder overview (30 min)
- Creating a form component and validation rule (90 min)
- Traditional ASP.NET MVC forms (45 min)
- Conclusion (20 min)
So this time we're looking at just over 10 hours of content. This really should serve to give you some impression of the importance of getting the page builders and form builders right and how much of a step-change they add to the Kentico MVC development model. While the majority of the essentials part of the course focuses on the general MVC model, the builders are totally new for Kentico EMS 12 and allow more flexibility that we've previously seen to marketers in MVC solutions.
Where can you get it?
There are two ways to get access to this training. For anyone who isn't a partner, you can sign up for training via the Kentico website. The cost of this is currently £390 (approximately $490). If you're fortunate enough to be/work for a Kentico partner then you can register for free (talk to whoever manages your account about this partner benefit and how to activate it). In addition to that, if you want to train any of your customers, you can also sign them up with a 50% discount.
Once you're signed up, you can see all of your registered courses and certifications in the learning portal and can track your progress.
What should you do next?
If you're looking for some training in Kentico 12 MVC, I'd recommend looking into this course and working your way through it. Not only doe sit cover the basics of how Kentico works, but it also covers some best practice along the way.
If you've got this nailed, then why not take a look at the follow-on course: Kentico Customization for Developers? This replaces the Advanced developer course and is a little more focused on v12. At the end of this, you also get a voucher to go and sit the certification exam. What better way to prove your new-found knowledge - other than producing some awesome sites using Kentico EMS of course.