Jalal @ Work

Asp.net MVC is a new framework for web development. Lets have a quick look at it.

Installation:

To use it with Visual Studio 2008 and Sql Server Express 2005 / Sql Server 2005, download the MVC installer from the link following link: http://www.asp.net/mvc/download/

While the installer runs, it may ask you to install the Visual studio 2008 Service Pack 1 if it is not already installed. Download the installer from the following link: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=FBEE1648-7106-44A7-9649-6D9F6D58056E&displaylang=en

If everything goes fine, you will see the MVC template under the visual stuido projects.

Learning:

The following link has many tutorials and materials to learn about MVC: http://www.asp.net/mvc/learn/

The NerdDinner tutorial/application is good to get started.

Basics:

Asp.net MVC Element: (Model)

Model acts as the wrapper of the data and business logic. It can use a separate project in the solution to fetch data using any popular ORM framework like LINQ to SQL, NHibernate or SubSonic.

Asp.net MVC Element: (View)

View are the UI elements like aspx pages, master pages, ascx controls that renders output in the browser, takes input from the users and sends them back to the server.

Asp.net MVC Element: (Controller)

In MVC every url is mapped to a method in some class, these classes are called controller. Controller determines how to interact with Model and View. Controllers take request from the View and contact the appropriate Model and then calls back a View again. All request handling decisions are made here.