ASP.NET SPA Naming Conventions

As we started embracing rich client side technologies such as Single Page Applications and some popular JavaScript libraries, we will all face the challenges of diversities in .NET and JavaScript. One of those diversities is the naming convention.

As Javascript is based on java, its naming conventions will be similar to that of Java. For example in JavaScript we use camel casing for methods, where as we use Pascal casing in .NET. Similarly .NET naming guidelines discourage the use of underscores, but they are freely used in JavaScript.

With SPA technologies we need to pass data between the JavaScript objects and .NET objects. That means objects will be passed from one technology to another. The objects defined in .NET will be used in JavaScript and similarly objects defined in JavaScript will be used in .NET.

Being a hardcore .NET developer I could say use .NET naming conventions throughout, why should I learn or use other naming convention? On the counter argument, there is a popular saying, be a Roman in Rome, so we have to follow JavaScript naming conventions in JavaScript. Doing so will make our code readable by non .NET folks. So the dilemma is to use .NET naming conventions or JavaScript naming conventions.

As ASP.NET is a conglomeration of technologies, we should find an amicable solution for this. I would recommend to use a hybrid naming conventions. I propose to use JavaScript naming conventions in JavaScript and .NET naming conventions in .NET. For the objects that will be passed across layers use .NET naming convention. By following this approach, the .NET side will have a clean naming conventions and JavaScript will have a hybrid naming convention.