Part 2. Journeyman techniques

In part 2, you’ll take your existing knowledge of ASP.NET MVC and stretch it by incrementally applying more progressive techniques. The concepts in part 2 are often appropriate when applications grow larger in complexity or larger in breadth. Your authors have learned these techniques in developing real projects for clients of Headspring Systems as well as by conducting independent research.

Part 2 covers more advanced techniques for using ASP.NET MVC 2, expanding on several concepts from the first part of this book and introducing some higher-level topics. Chapter 8 talks about domain models, exploring a real-world example and some of the key concepts of domain modeling. Chapter 9 dives into extending the controller, looking at key extension points, such as action filters and action results. Chapter 10 looks at advanced view techniques, including master pages, partials, child actions, and custom view engines. Chapter 11 goes through one of the more important topics—security—and how to protect your site against attacks. Chapter 12 introduces taking advantage of AJAX in ASP.NET MVC and using jQuery to perform AJAX techniques. Chapter 13 covers one of the major extension points in ASP.NET MVC—controller factories—and how to leverage dependency injection and Inversion of Control containers to reduce coupling in your code. Chapter 14 looks at one of the new extension points of ASP.NET MVC 2, value providers, as well as looking at custom model binders. Finally, part 2 concludes with chapter 15, which dives into another new feature of ASP.NET MVC 2: validation.

Fully understanding the concepts in part 2 will require a great deal of practice. Don’t rush the learning practice. Use the provided sample code to explore the concepts, and then try to apply the concepts on your own before moving on. Once you feel comfortable with the topics in part 2, you’ll be ready to begin mastering ASP.NET MVC in part 3.