Difference between portal template and ASPX template in Kentico

Question

What is the difference between portal template and ASPX template in Kentico?

Which is preferable?

Answer 1

As a "hardcore" developer and Certified Kentico Trainer I always use and always recommend the use of the Portal Engine over the ASPX Templates.

I say that because the Portal Engine gives a rich UI for creating and configuring templates. From directly within the CMS Desk you can create templates and add web parts to them. You also get a nice property editor dialog with custom selectors for each field type, as well as the macro editor for each field. That means that if a field is expecting a list of document types, the Portal Engine Properties dialog will show you a list of document types with check boxes. It couldn't get easier.

One other major difference is that (at least at this time), the ASPX template development method does NOT support widgets. I'm not sure if that will be changing in 6.0 which is supposed to debut sometime this year.

Another huge benefit is that properly trained content administrators have the ability to make edits to the templates. Again, if they're properly trained, they can edit the template in the design tab in the CMS Desk. That can alleviate a lot of work that normally is overkill for a Developer. Think: "Hey Dev, can you change the static text on this template?" or "Hey Dev, can you move this web part to the other column?".

To play devil's advocate, here are the benefits of ASPX Templates. The Templates are basically master pages, so they are file based and can be easily used in conjunction with source control. This may be a better fit for a code-heavy site (application) where the configuration of the templates is critical.

With ASPX templates it might be easier to write more complex code. For example, if one web part (User Control) directly depends on the state of another web part, then this would be more easily accomplished using ASPX Templates. But you could also argue that your code should be more decoupled and not rely on other web parts existing in the template :P