chapter, we will walk through your first lines of code built on top of the ASP.NET MVC Framework. After this
primer, you will be ready for more advanced topics.
Throughout this chapter, we will take you through creating a new ASP.NET MVC Framework web application
project, creating your first routes, controllers, and views. We will comb through the default application and explain
each part. Then we will extend it, and you will create your first controller and view. Before the first example, let
us explore the MVC pattern and the default application template provided with the framework.
1.1 Picking Apart the Default Application
In this section, we will understand what the MVC pattern is and create our first ASP.NET MVC Web Application. We
will focus first on the controller because in the Model-View-Controller triad, the controller is in charge and decides
what model objects to use and what views to render. The controller is in charge of coordination and executes first
when the web request comes in to the application. The controller is responsible for deciding what response is
appropriate for the request.
The Model-View-Controller pattern is not new. In fact, it is quite old. A core tenet of the MVC pattern is to
separate control logic from the view, or a screen. A view is responsible for rendering the user interface. By
separating domain logic and decoupling data access and other calls from the view, the user interface can now stay
the same even while logic and data access changes within the application. In figure 1.1, you will see a simple
diagram of the model-view-controller triad. Note that the controller has a direct relationship with the view and the
model, but the model does not need to know about the controller or the view. The web request will be handled by
the controller, and the controller will decide which model objects to use and which view objects to render.
Figure 1.1 A simple diagram depicting the relationship between the Model, View, and Controller. Note: the solid lines indicate a
direct association, and the dashed lines indicate an indirect association (graphic and description used with permission from
Wikipedia)
To begin, we will open up Visual Studio 2008 SP1 and create our project. The edition of Visual Studio 2008 makes
some difference. While there are some workarounds to using the ASP.NET MVC Framework without SP1,
System.Web.Abstractions.dll and System.Web.Routing.dll are in the GAC as of SP1. You can use Visual Studio
2008 Professional, a Team Edition sku, or Visual Web Developer Express SP1. It is very important to note that the
ASP.NET MVC Framework builds on top of web application projects, and while it is possible to make it work with
Web Sites, the development experience is optimized for use with Web Application Projects.
NOTE:
You must already have the MVC Framework installed to proceed. The MVC Framework is an independent release
that builds on .Net 3.5 Service Pack 1. You can also deploy your application by including the MVC Framework
assemblies in the /bin folder of your web application if you need to run on a server with only .Net 3.5 SP1
installed. If you are fond of Red Gate's .Net Reflector: http://www.red-gate.com/products/reflector/), you want
to be sure to familiarize yourself with the
System.Web.Mvc
namespace in the
System.Web.Mvc
assembly.
The examples in this book will use Visual Studio 2008 SP1, but you can find information on using Visual Web
Developer Express 2008 SP1 on the ASP.NET MVC website: http://www.asp.net/mvc/.
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