Asp.net Mvc News & Articles

Further evidence of Microsoft's growing commitment towards interoperability and open source -- the ASP.NET MVC source code has been released under the Microsoft Public License (MS-PL).

ASP.NET MVC 1.0 was officially released at MIX09 a couple of weeks ago. It provided developers with an alternative to developing ASP.NET applications using Web Forms. The Model-View-Controller approach is designed for tighter control over the application and provides the ability for Test Driven Development (TDD).

Haven't heard of the MS-PL? It is an OSI-approved open source license. According to Scott Guthrie's blog, the MS-PL license means "no platform restrictions and provides broad rights to modify and redistribute the source code".

This announcement follows the news that Microsoft's new Web Platform Installer will include PHP and the ability to download and install a number of open source web content management solutions.

Microsoft has also made SharePoint Designer 2007 free to download. It's not open source, but it's another step to demonstrating their desire to have developers work on their systems and to open doors to the greater open source community.

Can't wait to see what they do next.

MIX09 is now over, but many of the sessions are still available to view. Of particular note are the ASP.NET MVC tutorials that will help you better understand this new development framework.

Phil Haack, a Senior Program Manager with the ASP.NET team who has been an integral part of the ASP.NET MVC Framework, did two of these sessions:

• ASP.NET MVC: America’s Next Top Model View Controller Framework: The building of a simple application that demonstrates some of the key capabilities of the MVC framework. You'll also see some new tooling features that should help you develop apps based on the MVC framework more easily.
• ASP.NET MVC Ninjas on Fire Black Belt Tips: Get some good tips and tricks on making the most of the MVC framework.

Phil indicates on his blog that he intends to offer these demos in blog format in the near future, so keep an eye out for those.

In addition to these sessions, Jared Eischen and John Stockton of Ascentium did a session on using MVC to build mobile device views of your website. And you'll find some sessions covering the future of ASP.NET. All sessions are available on a special website that contains many of MIX09 sessions.

Sessions are downloadable as PPT, Zune Video or Windows Media Video.

You can get ASP.NET MVC 1.0 using the Web Platform Installer, download a free eBook covering the first chapter of the Wrox book on the subject and find a newly updated MSDN section telling you everything you need to know about ASP.NET MVC.

It is clear that Microsoft is excited about this new framework and wants to ensure you have everything you need to get up to speed quickly.

ASP.NET MVC 1.0 RC2 didn't stick around too long. ASP.NET MVC 1.0 is officially available for download.

Not designed to be a replacement for ASP.NET Web Forms, the new Model-View-Controller (MVC) framework is simply an alternative approach that also enables test-driven development. This is the first time Microsoft has provided robust support for it in the hugely popular ASP.NET web technology framework.

You will want to consider the MVC pattern when you want full control over the application, have a big development team that can be split into different roles for the development process (i.e., user interface developers, business logic developers) and want to implement Test Driven Development (TDD) practices.

Not even expected, RC2 was really all about some improvements to the Installer: .NET Framework v3.5 SP1, and a Server-only Install. So it shouldn't really a surprise that the RTM has come out so quickly.

The ASP.NET MVC package works with Visual Studio 2008 and with the free Visual Web Developer 2008.

Getting ever so closer to the final release, Release Candidate 2 (RC2) of ASP.NET MVC is up for downloading. This new release candidate is all about the Installer and not so much about tooling or the runtime -- good news for those who have already invested serious learning time.

[Editor's Note:  ASP.NET MVC 1.0 is now available for download.]

The gang at Microsoft has been working on the new ASP.NET MVC -- Model-View-Controller --  framework for a while. In February they announced the MVC Framework v0.1 Relelase Candidate 1 was available and there was very likely a flock of developers downloading it, anxious to see how it works.

We provided an overview of the framework when it was announced. The MVC pattern is designed to separate the user interface from the business logic of an application, resulting in easier testing of the application. The three components of this pattern are defined as follows:

• Model: Represents the state of an application, often mapping to a database table
• View: Displays the UI for the application
• Controller: Controls how the input into the UI is handled, manipulates the model and determines which UI to present to the user

For many .NET developers, the MVC framework is a completely new way of developing applications. An approach, very unfamiliar and maybe somewhat scary to take on.

Luckily experienced .NET developers joined together and wrote a book on the framework called Professional ASP.NET MVC 1.0. Written by Scott Hanselman, Scott Guthrie, Rob Conery and Phil Haack for Wrox, the book provides a review of the basic concepts of the MVC framework, or pattern, how it differs from ASP Web Forms, explores the structure OOTB and more advanced concepts.

The book, available on Amazon, has not yet been released, but you are lucky enough to get a freebee that should entice you to buy it when it does become available. Guthrie, a Vice President in the MS Developer Division, kicks off the book with a full tutorial on building an MVC application -- called NerdsDinner. He says he agreed to write the chapter in return for Wrox's providing it as a free PDF download.

Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution No Derivatives license, you can download it and do with it what ever you want. The key is to learn this new framework quickly and easily.

So ahead, download your copy now, along with the source code and start learning how to write ASP.NET MVC applications.

The Model-View-Controller (MVC) concept has been around for quite awhile, but this is the first time Microsoft has provided robust support for it in the hugely popular ASP.NET web technology framework. Not designed to be a replacement for ASP.NET Web Forms, their MVC framework is simply an alternative approach that also enables test-driven development.

This first release candidate is expected to be the only release candidate, with the final, production build following close behind.