Chapter 8. Introducing ASP.NET MVC
This chapter covers
ASP.NET, and specifically Web Forms, is an awesome technology for building software for the World Wide Web. When Microsoft introduced it back in 2002, it represented an absolute break from the past. It became possible to program for the web platform with a high-level infrastructure that provided abstractions typical of a smart client environment, like holding state across multiple requests or adopting an event-driven approach to handle what was going on with the UI.
ASP.NET grew in popularity in the developer community until some people began asking for more control over markup and the possibility of effectively testing web apps. These demands are the reason Microsoft began thinking about a new incarnation of ASP.NET technology, based on a simpler model that leverages a widely known pattern for the UI layer, called Model-View-Controller (MVC). This vision led to the birth of ASP.NET MVC.
Although ASP.NET MVC is still ASP.NET, its programming model is different than that of Web Forms, so it deserves its own chapter to introduce its basic concepts. We’ll start with a simple project and then move toward more complex requirements and features.