Introduction
Get your facts first, and then you can distort them as much as you please.
—Mark Twain
ASP.NET was devised in the late 1990s at a time when many companies in various industry sectors were rapidly discovering the Internet. The primary goal of ASP.NET was to make it possible for developers to build applications quickly and effectively without having to deal with low-level details such as HTTP, HTML, and JavaScript intricacies. That was exactly what the community loudly demanded at that time. ASP.NET is what Microsoft delivered to address this request, exceeding expectations by a large extent.
Today, more than ten years later, ASP.NET is showing signs of age, and many started even questioning the real necessity of having a web framework at all. It’s an amazing time, and several options exist. There are Web Forms and ASP.NET MVC applications, and then there are more JavaScript-intensive client applications (single-page applications) that just use a server-side back end for delivering the basic layout of the few pages they actually expose and for ad hoc services such as bundling.
Curiously, with the Web Forms paradigm, you can still write functional applications even though ASP.NET MVC addresses more closely the present needs of developers. The most common scenario of Web Forms is applications for which you focus on presenting data and use some third-party high-quality suite of controls for that. ASP.NET MVC is for everything else, including the scaffolding of client-side single-page applications.
The way web applications are changing proves that ASP.NET MVC probably failed to replace ASP.NET Web Forms in the heart of many developers, but it was the right choice and qualifies to be the ideal web platform for any application that needs a back end of some substance; in particular (as I see things), web applications that aim at being multidevice functional. And yes, that likely means all web applications in less than two years.
Switching to ASP.NET MVC is more than ever the natural follow-up for ASP.NET developers.
Who should read this book
Over the years, quite a few people have read quite a few books and articles of mine. These readers are already aware that I’m not good at writing step-by-step, reference-style books, in the similar manner that I’m unable to teach the same class twice, running topics in the same order and showing the same examples.
This book is not for absolute beginners; but I do feel it is a book for all the others, including those who are still fairly new to ASP.NET MVC. The higher your level of competency and expertise, the less you can expect to find here that adds value in your particular case. However, this book benefits from a few years of real-world practice; so I’m sure it has a lot of solutions that might also appeal to the experts, particularly with respect to mobile devices.
If you use ASP.NET MVC, I’m confident that you’ll find something in this book that makes it worthwhile.
Assumptions
This book expects that you have at least a minimal understanding of ASP.NET development.
Who should not read this book
If you’re looking for a step-by-step guide to ASP.NET MVC, this is not the ideal book for you.
Organization of this book
This book is divided into three sections. Part I, provides a quick overview of the foundation of ASP.NET and its core components. Part II, focuses on common aspects of web applications and specific design patterns and best practices. Finally, Part III, is about JavaScript and mobile interfaces.
System requirements
You preferably have the following software installed in order to run the examples presented in this book:
One of the following operating systems: Windows 8/8.1, Windows 7, Windows Vista with Service Pack 2 (except Starter Edition), Windows XP with Service Pack 3 (except Starter Edition), Windows Server 2008 with Service Pack 2, Windows Server 2003 with Service Pack 2, or Windows Server 2003 R2
Microsoft Visual Studio 2013, any edition (multiple downloads might be required if you’re using Express Edition products)
Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Express Edition or higher, with SQL Server Management Studio 2012 Express or higher (included with Visual Studio; Express Editions require a separate download)
Depending on your Windows configuration, you might require Local Administrator rights to install or configure Visual Studio 2013 and SQL Server 2012 products.
Code samples
Most of the chapters in this book include exercises with which you can interactively try out new material learned in the main text. You can download all sample projects, in both their pre-exercise and post-exercise formats, from the following page:
http://aka.ms/programASP-NET_MVC/files
Follow the instructions to download the asp-net-mvc-examples.zip file.
Installing the code samples
Perform the following steps to install the code samples on your computer so that you can use them with the exercises in this book.
Unzip the asp-net-mvc-examples.zip file that you downloaded from the book’s website (name a specific directory along with directions to create it, if necessary).
If prompted, review the displayed end-user license agreement. If you accept the terms, select the Accept option, and then click Next.
Using the code samples
The folder created by the Setup.exe program contains one subfolder for each chapter. In turn, each chapter might contain additional subfolders. All examples are organized in a single Visual Studio 2013 solution. You open the solution file in Visual Studio 2013 and navigate through the examples.
Errata & book support
We’ve made every effort to ensure the accuracy of this book and its companion content. Any errors that have been reported since this book was published are listed on our Microsoft Press site:
http://aka.ms/programASP-NET_MVC/errata
If you find an error that is not already listed, you can report it to us through the same page.
If you need additional support, email Microsoft Press Book Support at [email protected].
Please note that product support for Microsoft software is not offered through the aforementioned addresses.
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