ASP.NET MVC Introduction and Features

What does MVC stand for?

The MVC (Model-View-Controller)  is an architectural pattern that separates a web application into three important logical components:

• Model
• View
• Controller 

Model

The first thing in MVC is the Model, which represents the shape of the data. A class in C Sharp is used to describe a model. The model component corresponds to all the data-related logic that the user works with. 

For example, in your application, you have a table that stores all the categories or all the product details. Then, that product will be a model itself.

The model represents all of the data in your application. It can be a table that you are storing inside SQL Server, or it can be a model, which will be a combination of multiple tables, and so on. This model can either represent the data transferred between views and controllers or any business-related data model that will represent all the tables of the database. So, if you have ten tables in your database, we will have at least ten models corresponding to them.  

Right now, you can assume that all the tables in your database will be a class file, which will be a model, and all the properties of that class file will be the columns of the table. 

View

After, the model we have views in MVC, which is the user interface. The view component is used for all the user-interface(UI) logic of the application and is responsible for displaying data on the screen. Whatever you see on the website with your eyes is the UI view.  

For E.g. the Customer view will include all the user interface components such as navbars, dropdowns, text boxes, etc., that the final thing users interact with, instead of “.aspx” as a syntax which we have used in ASP.NET in the past, we now use “*.cshtml” extension of the view.

Controller

We also have something known as a controller. It acts as a connection between view and model to process all the business logic and incoming request. So, the controller acts as an interface between model and view to process all the business logic, and it manipulates the data using a model and interacts with the view to render the final output. 

So, this is just a short overview of how models, views and controllers work.  

For example: a user clicks on a button. The controller is the first thing that will receive that request, and the controller will have lots of action methods. Based on those action methods, the controller will redirect this request to one of the action methods, and the controller will 

use the model to fetch all the data it needs to display inside the view. 

Once the view is rendered, it will pass all of that to the controller, and the controller will then pass a response which will be sent back, and the user will finally be able to see the page. 

So, the controller can be treated as the heart of your application. That is where we will have all the logic of your application, and it is the one that will be interacting with models and views. With that in place, now can you see that the request first comes to the controller and its action methods. 

Features of ASP.NET MVC

• A powerful URL-mapping component lets you build applications with comprehensible and searchable URLs. Uniform Resource Locators do not have to include file-name extensions and are designed to support URL naming patterns that work well for SEO (search engine optimization) and Representational State Transfer (REST) addressing.
• ASP.NET MVC (Model-View-Controller) lets you use features such as forms, Windows authentication, URL authorization, output and data caching, membership and roles, health monitoring, session and profile state management, configuration system, and the provider architecture.
• Debugging and Error Handling: We can easily diagnose problems that occur in our WebForm application. Debugging and error handling are well supported within ASP.NET Web Forms so that our applications compile and run effectively.
• It supports all the existing vast ASP.NET functionalities, such as  Master Pages, Authorization and Authentication, User Controls, Data Binding, Memberships, ASP.NET Routing, etc.
• ASP.NET MVC Utilizes the component-based design of the application by logically dividing it into Model, View, and Controller components. It enables the developers to manage the complexity of large-scale projects and work on individual components.
• ASP.NET MVC supports for using the markup in existing ASP.NET page (.aspx files), master page (.master files) and user control (.ascx files) markup files as view templates. You can use existing ASP.NET features with the ASP.NET MVC framework, such as in-line expressions (<% = %>), nested master pages, templates,  localization, declarative server controls, data-binding, and so on.

FAQs

1. What are the benefits of MVC in asp net?
   The advantages of ASP.net MVC are: 
   It enables complete control over the rendered HTML.
   It provides clean SoC(separation of concerns).
   Easy integration with JavaScript frameworks.
   RESTful URLs that enables SEO.
   It enables Test TDD(Driven Development).
    
2. What is an action filter in ASP.NET MVC?
   ASP.NET MVC(Model-View-Controller)provides Action Filters for executing filtering logic either before or after an action method is called. ASP.NET MVC Action Filters are custom attributes that provide declarative means to add post-action and pre-action behaviour to the controller's action methods.
    
3. What is the role of Model in Model-View-Controller?
   The model stands for the M in MVC (Model-View-Controller). The data model represents the core information that your application is being used to access and manipulate. The model is the center of your web application, the viewer and controller serve to connect the user with the data model in a friendly way.

Key takeaways

In this blog, we have discussed ASP.NET MVC(Model-View-Controller) and its features. We also discussed how Model, View and controller works.

Apart from this, you can also expand your knowledge by referring to these articles on Features Of ASP Net and ASP Full Form.

Recommended Readings:

• Spring MVC Flow

If you are pursuing a new career in Web Development, we suggest you get your fundamentals crystal clear with our Full Stack Development course. 

Happy Learning, Ninja!