I always used asp.net webforms with the MVP pattern, it works great for what I need, I basically create a project where all my business rules reside, validation etc... and I then implement my views in the webforms project.
Now we're starting to use asp.net MVC and using the MVP patter doesn't make much sense, right? So what could be a good approach to create a scalable and testable project using MVC that won't make me create my data objects and do validation on the controllers. I don' want to have the same code in different places...
If a web user wants to update his/her profile on the site, there would be some validation rules for when a submit button is pushed, like email address cannot be empty, must be valid and must not exist in the database.
These same rules should be applied if I try to update his profile using the internal admin section without having to duplicate the code there...
If you can point me to a good sample project that deals with this would be great!
Thanks in advance!
You should use the MVC pattern with ASP.Net MVC.
The NerdDinner tutorial is a pretty detailed example for MVC, you can also get a book that includes the tutorial (you might want to wait for the version that covers ASP.Net MVC 3). There are plenty of resources on Microsoft's ASP.Net site.
You can always consult Google.
ASP .NET MVC was built with the Model-View-Controller (MVC) pattern in mind. That would be the pattern you'd want to use.
In addition to the resources magnifico provided, I know others have recommended the some other tutorials. I don't know if these have been updated to the latest version of the framework, but they should still serve as decent beginners.
MVC Storefront series
MVC Music Store
Also the Microsoft Patterns & Practices group recently released Project Silk which gets into more advanced techniques involving a lot of AJAX management of the UI. There's interesting stuff there.
Related
I'm sorry if this is a stupid or obvious question, but I've spent the better part of a week researching, and I really can't find any resources that explain what MVC 4 and Razor are, and what they are intended to do in web development. I'm not necessarily asking for a really detailed description, even a link to a website or the name of a book that doesn't explain MVC 4 by referencing other technologies that I have also never used. I've looked through articles, articles and tutorials on everything from MSDN to graduate papers and I just don't get it.
I know what MVC the design pattern is, but one of the main things I can't get a straight answer to is what the difference is between MVC the pattern and MVC 4 the framework. As a web developer, will I ever have to change or make use of the frameworks, or is it something that is supposed to "stay out of your way" (to quote another SO post.) Is it something that gets generated by VS and I will never have to touch?
Again, I'm sorry if this is obvious, maybe I'm trying to make this more complicated than it actually is. All I have been looking for is a straight forward answer with concrete examples that don't contradict or complicate it any further.
Please...I'm at my wits end here. My last question was apparently too vague and got voted down and closed, so I tried to be more specific, but part of my problem is what are the right questions to ask.If there is anything that can say to clarify,please tell me.
I certainly don't want to discourage you any more than you appear to be at the moment, but in my opinion, if you can't make head or tail of the huge amount of material that already exists on MVC, then perhaps you are just not ready for it yet. That's OK - in fact Microsoft recognise that MVC is complicated, which is why they introduced the ASP.NET Web Pages framework (which is what gave birth to Razor syntax).
My advice would be to follow the link and download WebMatrix. Then follow some of the Web Pages tutorials. That way you can get your head around Razor without worrying too much about MVC for the time being.
Incidentally, ASP.NET MVC is a web development framework that enables you to build web applications based on the MVC pattern. You need to understand how MVC works in order to make use of the framework. You need to understand what Models are, what Views are and the role that Controllers play in the whole thing.
The framework itself is not an example of MVC.
Razor is a templating syntax that allows you to intermix C# (or VB) with HTML to output dynamic content in a View in MVC or a page in the Web Pages framework.
I know it may seem confusing, but it seems to me that you are over complicating things.
The simple matter is that MVC is a design pattern. That is, it's an abstract thing.. a philosophy of sorts. It's not a concrete thing. A design pattern simply gives you a description of how the pattern is supposed to work, and while it may give you a sample implementation, in general it leaves that implementation up to you.
ASP.NET MVC (whichever version) is a specific application framework that uses the MVC pattern as its basis. In other words, it's a concrete implementation of the MVC design pattern.
In fact, the ASP.NET MVC implementation isn't even a "true" implementation of the MVC design pattern, as certain compromises are necessary to make it work in a web based model. So it's really more "MVC design pattern inspired".
You're overthinking things. Just accept that ASP.NET MVC is a framework library that implements and MVC design pattern.
As for Razor, it's merely a templating library. That is, it allows you to define a page layout as text, and insert values at specific places (place-holders). It also allows code to be executed during the process of rendering a template, although this is discouraged in MVC except for very simple cases.
Razor is also used in ASP.NET WebPages technology, in those cases it tends to be more like PHP or classic asp in that all code exists in code blocks within the template itself. Both ASP.NET and WebPages use the Razor templating engine (also called a View Engine) but they use them in different ways.
I'm a big fan of what ASP.NET MVC is doing, on many levels.
I'm about to take part in re-build of a very highly trafficked website, and I'm not which framework would be best (if any).
The site will need the following:
To support Javascript-heavy, highly interactive pages
But at the same time, provide underlying semantic HTML for search engines
Support multiple languages
Be skinnable
Expose a RESTful web-service API for partners
As far as I can tell, there's no reason not to use ASP.NET MVC for this.
I can present semantic HTML and layer Javascript on top using jQuery.
Multiple languages can be catered for using Resource files (same as at present).
Skinning can be done with CSS (it won't involve changes to the markup).
I can centralize business logic so that the Controllers and the WCF web-service use the same code.
But are there potential drawbacks to using MVC that I haven't considered?
I don't want to be the guy who picks a technology because it's cool but finds later down the track that it isn't very suitable for the job.
ASP.NET MVC is not good when all your doing is making a website that needs server-side code (but that's also true about ASP.NET also).
In your case I think MVC would be a great way to go. MVC has proven itself on high traffic websites (e.g. this one). However you must remember that MVC is new and changing. A library may not exists to do a specific task which means you'll have to write that code yourself.
Good luck on your rebuild!
You're good to go with MVC given what you've said about your project.
As far as I'm concerned, ASP.NET MVC is really only NOT good for situations where you have a large codebase in WebForms (meaning you have a lot of ASP.NET user controls, custom controls, etc). It's also not good if you are going to have people working on it who don't know what it's all about. Other than that, it's a pretty nice technology.
My two cents:
ASP.NET MVC is a great option but there is a little learning curve involved, so make sure your project plan/timeline has this handled. There might be developers on your team who might not be comfortable working with ASP.NET MVC, and this can cause possible delays (a lot of developers are still working in ASP.NET 1.1!).
#Alex: Lack of controls. Some features (like TreeView or Menu) are already implemented as Controls and it would be waste of time to reimplement them using mvc.
IMO the idea of using controls in ASP.NET MVC doesnt make much sense. You can create a treeview control using jQuery easily. Classic ASP.NET server controls carried a lot of baggage (viewstate etc) and hence ASP.NET MVC did not use any of those controls (though you can use helpers).
Finally, ASP.NET MVC is an alternative, not a replacement to Web Forms. I would not use ASP.NET MVC as it is still evolving, and my team is not very comfortable with it, but I guess slowly more and more programmers would shift to this (better) option.
I do not like ASP.NET MVC because of following reasons:
1.
Ugly routing API, there http://ayende.com/Blog/archive/2008/11/05/a-case-study-of-bad-api-design-asp.net-mvc-routing.aspx
is description of what is wrong.
By the way, friendly urls can be easily implemented without mvc
http://demo.liveui.net/bugtracker/Tasks/7
2.
Poor object model. It is proved that good software should consist of reusable components. There is nothing that can be reused in ASP.NET MVC based web site. For example, if you implemented smart drop down list once it will be difficult to use it again (even on the same web site).
3.
Lack of controls. Some features (like TreeView or Menu) are already implemented as Controls and it would be waste of time to reimplement them using mvc.
If I were you I would try to find some CMS and customize it for WebSite needs.
To responses:
YES. I know about ASP.NET controls disadvantages, but the question is about ASP.NET MVC. One can write a book about what is good and what is bad in ASP.NET but I do not think it is appropriate to discuss it here.
There are better ways of implementing MVC without using asp.net MVC. I have done it in the past, even before asp.net MVC came live. MVC is a pattern, not a technology, I do not understand why some people call it a Technology. You can separate all concerns by removing the code-behind from webforms and create your own controllers and routers and you will still have the advantage of the webform controls, etc to which most asp.net developers are used to use. asp.net mvc is nice for people whom do not really have the time to properly create an MVC app in a webforms environment and also to those whom do not have the time to architect a better solution. in conlcusion, asp.net mvc is good but there is a much better way of doing it and finally, MVC is NOT a technology.
I'm curious to know if any basic CMS code has been written for ASP.NET MVC.
The reason I ask is, I'm making a data-driven website for a client, and I've already spent a significant amount of time building it from the ground-up in MVC, but now the client wants content management facilities.
Basically they want to be able to add/edit/remove articles and have revision control.
It would be great if I could somehow 'bolt on' the content management without having to start again from scratch, developing it under an existing CMS.
Should I build the article management and revision control myself, or should I re-use some existing package?
N2 does what you describe - "bolts on" to existing ASP.NET solutions (including MVC).
Also, kooboo is interesting http://www.kooboo.com
(I know this question is old, but it still comes high up for the relevant search terms.)
Today I discovered Meek, http://www.adventuretechgroup.com/labs-meek/, and it was very simple and unobtrusive to add to my MVC project, which I believe is what the original poster would have wanted - bolting on CMS as a feature rather than having it take over your entire site.
Piranha CMS is well suited to bolting on to an existing application. The author of it describes why and how here. To quote straight from that source:
"Our focus is content management and to have a transparent and lightweight API for developers. Piranha CMS has almost no components or helpers that render any HTML at all, it simply provides a database, a manager interface and a routing mechanism for retrieving the correct data for the current request.
In the case of you having an existing website you could actually bypass the routing completely, add one page at a time in the manager interface and then manually load the Page model in you existing page. This would allow you to keep your original application exactly the same but manage the content form the manager interface."
If you are still looking, I've published my new open source CMS here:
MVCwCMS
I'm actively working on it so I will push more updates soon.
Here is also a quick summary as to how Telerik Sitefinity does it:
http://www.sitefinity.com/mvc-cms
in brief - allows you to plug in standard system.web.mvc.controller classes as widgets, lets you use the API for anything including model binding, standard Razor for a view engine etc.
There is also Oxite which I believe is more of a blog engine.
Heve a look at AtomicCms it's a free open source content management system based on ASP.NET MVC 1.0
http://atomiccms.codeplex.com
Check for Orchard ;-)
It is based on asp.net mvc.
I'm struggling to find a good reference application for ASP.NET MVC. By "reference", I specifically mean an application that flexes all of the framework's features in the Microsoft-sanctioned manner, such as:
Master pages
Partial views
Strongly-typed models
Authentication
Custom routes
etc...
The open source examples that are out there (CodeCampServer, SutekiShop) either add significantly to the base framework or don't use all of the baked-in features.
Have you seen Rob Connery's MVC Storefront Webcast Series?
http://www.asp.net/learn/mvc-videos/#MVCStorefrontStarterKit
Source Code:
http://www.codeplex.com/mvcsamples/
I asked more or less the same question here: What are some projects which are examples of best practices for ASP.NET MVC?
As for official, the closest would be Rob Connery's which was mentioned.
This isn't official but you could check out Kigg:
http://www.codeplex.com/Kigg
It's a sizable Asp.net MVC Digg-clone with some decent code in it. Used on dotnetshoutout.com
I would consider the Nerd Dinner MVC reference app: http://nerddinner.codeplex.com/ for people just starting
While this might be a little late to the show, I believe that the ASP.net team would like people to start using the MVC Music Store as the official mvc reference example. The Music Store application is using the Razor view engine with Entity Framework's code first approach (also demonstrates database first) along with examples of dependency injection, test driven development, jQuery integration and getting and using NuGet packages.
A second reference example seems to be more on the cutting edge of things and is provided by the Patterns and Practices people. This is called the Silk Project and takes advantage of the latest web standards like HTML5, CSS3 and ECMAScript 5 along with modern web technologies such as jQuery, Internet Explorer 9, and ASP.NET MVC3.
These together would probably show you the newest in ASP.net MVC development along with some pretty neat ideas and examples.
When I first heard about StackOverflow, and heard that it was being built in ASP.Net MVC, I was a little confused. I thought ASP.Net was always an example of an MVC architecture. You have the .aspx page that provides the view, the .aspx.vb page that provides the controller, and you can create another class to be the model. The process for using MVC in ASP.Net is described in this Microsoft article.
So my question is. What Does ASP.Net MVC provide that you wouldn't be able to do with regular ASP.Net (even as far back as ASP.Net 1.1)? It is just fancy URLs? Is it just for bragging rights for MS to be able to compare themselves with new technologies like Ruby On Rails, and say, "We can do that too"? Is there something more that ASP.Net MVC actually provides, rather than a couple extra templates in the File->New menu?
I'm probably sounding really skeptical and negative right now, so I'll just stop. But I really want to know what ASP.Net MVC actually provides. Also, if anybody can tell me why it's Model-View-Controller and not in order of the layers of View-Controller-Model or Model-Control-View depending on whether you are going top to bottom, or vice versa, I'd really appreciate that too.
EDIT
Also, it's probably worth pointing out that I've never really cared for the web forms (AKA server controls) model either. I've only used it minimally, and never on the job.
.aspx doesn't fulfill the MVC pattern because the aspx page (the 'view') is called before the code behind (the 'controller').
This means that the controller has a 'hard dependency' on the view, which is very much against MVC principles.
One of the core benefits of MVC is that it allows you to test your controller (which contains a lot of logic) without instantiating a real view. You simply can't do this in the .aspx world.
Testing the controller all by itself is much faster than having to instantiate an entire asp.net pipeline (application, request, response, view state, session state etc).
Scott Guthrie explained it in this post "ASP.NET MVC Framework"
It enables clean separation of concerns, testability, and TDD by
default. All core contracts within
the MVC framework are interface based
and easily mockable (it includes
interface based
IHttpRequest/IHttpResponse
intrinsics). You can unit test the
application without having to run the
Controllers within an ASP.NET process
(making unit testing fast). You can
use any unit testing framework you
want to-do this testing (including
NUnit, MBUnit, MS Test, etc).
It is highly extensible and pluggable. Everything in the MVC
framework is designed so that it can
be easily replaced/customized (for
example: you can optionally plug-in
your own view engine, routing policy,
parameter serialization, etc). It
also supports using existing
dependency injection and IOC container
models (Windsor, Spring.Net,
NHibernate, etc).
It includes a very powerful URL mapping component that enables you to
build applications with clean URLs.
URLs do not need to have extensions
within them, and are designed to
easily support SEO and REST-friendly
naming patterns. For example, I could
easily map the /products/edit/4 URL to
the "Edit" action of the
ProductsController class in my project
above, or map the
/Blogs/scottgu/10-10-2007/SomeTopic/
URL to a "DisplayPost" action of a
BlogEngineController class.
The MVC framework supports using the existing ASP.NET .ASPX, .ASCX, and
.Master markup files as "view
templates" (meaning you can easily use
existing ASP.NET features like nested
master pages, <%= %> snippets,
declarative server controls,
templates, data-binding, localization,
etc). It does not, however, use the
existing post-back model for
interactions back to the server.
Instead, you'll route all end-user
interactions to a Controller class
instead - which helps ensure clean
separation of concerns and testability
(it also means no viewstate or page
lifecycle with MVC based views).
The ASP.NET MVC framework fully supports existing ASP.NET features
like forms/windows authentication, URL
authorization, membership/roles,
output and data caching,
session/profile state management,
health monitoring, configuration
system, the provider architecture,
etc.
Primarily, it makes it very easy to create testable websites with well defined separations of responsibility. Its also much easier to create valid XHTML UIs using the new MVC framework.
I've used the 2nd CTP (I think they're on five now) to start work on a website and, having created a few web applications before, I have to say its hundreds of times better than using the server control model.
Server controls are fine when you don't know what you're doing. As you start to learn about how web applications should function, you start fighting them. Eventually, you have to write your own to get past the shortcomings of current controls. Its at this point where the MVC starts to shine. And that's not even considering the testability of your website...
No more auto-generated html IDs!!! Anyone doing any sort of javascript appreciates this fact.
ASP.Net with it's code behind is almost MVC - but not - the one big thing that makes it not is that the codebehinds are tied directly to the aspx's - which is a big component of MVC. If you are thinking of the codebehinds as the controller - the should be completely decoupled from the view. The new .NET MVC rounds this out - and brings a complete MVC framework. Though there are existing ones for .NET already (see Spring.NET).
I looked through a couple simple examples such as this one. I can kind of see the difference. However, I don't really see how MVC uncouples the view from the controller. The view still references stuff that's in the controller. I do see how it makes it much easier to test, and that at least in MVC the controller doesn't have any knowledge of the view. And you wouldn't have to process the view to call methods in the controller. I can see that's quite a leap, even though at first glance it may not seem like much.
I do agree with #Will about fighting server controls. I've never worked in a situation where they were actually used, but many people I know who have, have run into quite a few limitations with them.
Article about ASP.net MVC Vs ASP.net Web form
http://weblogs.asp.net/shijuvarghese/archive/2008/07/09/asp-net-mvc-vs-asp-net-web-form.aspx