title: challenges in upgrading Bootstrap Themed ASP MVC site, how to upgrade bootstrap + keep previous CSS / @Helper / Transpiler
body: <p>I've built an ASP MVC site and used bootstrap, Jquery, knockout and signalR, and inherited a  mix of 3rd party MVC code integrated with controls like syncfusion. (I don't have a choice in this matter, company decision)</p>
  
  <p>After coding the HTML helpers in the views, </p>
  
  <blockquote>
    <p>I manually applied all the bootstrap styles took sometime and got it
    to work. <strong>Now, with upgrade/changes to bootstrap (RC 3.1) I am finding
    myself back to square one, hunting through the code and replacing it manually, lots of
    changes.</strong> Can you please share a better way to transpile/emit/bind the
    bootstrap CSS classes into the helpers (<em>i.e. in an independent way</em> of the
    technology helper, whether its ASP HTML MVC helper, Syncfusion HTML
    MVC helper, Rad or FluentBootStrap)</p>
  </blockquote>
  
  <p>Please provide a solution/recommendation to apply bootstrap CSS to ASP MVC pages</p>
  
  <ul>
  <li>That's easy to separate and maintain and CSS upgrade's Programmtically </li>
  <li>or globally configurable/settable/applicable</li>
  <li>I've been thinking extension classes might be a good option, but not sure how I can achieve this, if you've can show me how to get the custom bootstrap CSS bound so I can programatically apply it or globally, </li>
  <li><p>Is there a transpiler or Razor Declaritve Helper (I know about the nuget package, I tried applying it, and it turned out to be more of a template, than declarative extension binding, and I couldnt use it with other libraries  Syncfusion or DevExpress)</p></li>
  <li><p>or some other way, I would greatly appreciate it.</p></li>
  </ul>
  
  <p><strong>Here is an example of what I do currently, with the Syncfusion library</strong></p>
  
  <pre><code>@Html.Syncfusion().Menu("myMenu").AutoFormat((Skins)ViewData["Themes"]) - performance hog       
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>or better option 2 below</p>
  
  <p><a href="http://mvc.syncfusion.com/demos/ui/tools/Menu/Appearance" rel="nofollow">http://mvc.syncfusion.com/demos/ui/tools/Menu/Appearance</a></p>
  
  <pre><code>@(Html.Syncfusion().Button("btnNormal")
                          .Text("Save")
                          .Width(100)
                          .Height(50)
                          .ContentType(ContentTypes.TextAndImage)
                          .ImageUrl(Url.Content("~/Content/Images/Button/icon_save.png"))
                          .CustomCSS("CustomCss_Button") )  
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>-> I changed/upgraded manually to BootStrap RC 3.1,  I changed this last part to the bootstrap  </p>
  
  <pre><code>.CustomCSS("btn-default dropdown-toggle btn-primary"))  
  </code></pre>