ASP.NET MVC Framework Unleashed

Stephen Walther has lived a year in Borneo, taught classes on metaphysics at Harvard and MIT, helped found two successful startups, and has run a training and consulting company. He currently is a Program Manager on the Microsoft ASP.NET team where he works on the Microsoft Ajax framework. He has spoken at numerous conferences including PDC, MIX, TechEd, ASP.NET Connections, and VSLive.

Introduction 1

How This Book Is Organized      1

What You Should Know Before Reading This Book     2

What Software Do You Need?      2

Where Do You Download the Code Samples?     3

If You Like This Book          3

 

Part I Building ASP.NET MVC Applications

Chapter 1 An Introduction to ASP.NET MVC     7

A Story with a Moral         7

What Is Good Software?      8

Avoiding Code Smells    9

Software Design Principles      10

Software Design Patterns      11

Writing Unit Tests for Your Code     12

Test-Driven Development     13

Short-Term Pain, Long-Term Gain      14

What Is ASP.NET MVC?      14

ASP.NET MVC Is Part of the ASP.NET Framework      14

The Origins of MVC      15

The Architecture of an ASP.NET MVC Application     16

Understanding the Sample ASP.NET MVC Application     17

ASP.NET MVC Folder Conventions     19

Running the Sample ASP.NET MVC Application     19

 

Chapter 2 Building a Simple ASP.NET MVC Application 23

Starting with a Blank Slate     23

Creating the Database          25

Creating the Model          27

Creating the Controller      30

Creating the Views          37

Adding the Index View     38

Adding the Create View      42

 

Chapter 3 Understanding Controllers and Actions     47

Creating a Controller          47

Returning Action Results      51

Returning a View Result      52

Returning a Redirect Result      55

Returning a Content Result     57

Returning a JSON Result     59

Returning a File Result     63

Controlling How Actions Are Invoked     65

Using AcceptVerbs      65

Using ActionName     70

Using ActionMethodSelector     72

Handling Unknown Actions     76

Testing Controllers and Actions      78

 

Chapter 4 Understanding Views 83

Creating a View          83

Using View Data           87

Typed and Untyped Views     88

Creating Strongly Typed Views      94

Preventing JavaScript Injection Attacks      95

Using Alternative View Engines      97

Creating a Custom View Engine      99

Testing Views          105

Test the View Result     105

Test HTML Helpers      108

Test a Custom View Engine     114

 

Chapter 5 Understanding Models     119

Creating a Data Model     120

Creating a Data Model with the Microsoft Entity Framework     120

Listing Records          124

Getting a Single Record      126

Creating Records     127

Editing Records           128

Deleting Records     131

Using the Repository Pattern     132

Creating a Product Repository      133

Using the Dependency Injection Pattern      138

Creating a Generic Repository     139

Using the Generic Repository with the Entity Framework     141

Using the Generic Repository with LINQ to SQL     144

Extending the Generic Repository      147

Testing Data Access           149

Testing with a Mock Repository     150

Testing with a Fake Generic Repository     155

 

Chapter 6 Understanding HTML Helpers 159

Using the Standard HTML Helpers     160

Rendering Links     160

Rendering Image Links     161

Rendering Form Elements      162

Rendering a Form      166

Rendering a Drop-Down List     167

Encoding HTML Content     169

Using Antiforgery Tokens     169

Creating Custom HTML Helpers      173

Using the TagBuilder Class      176

Using the HtmlTextWriter Class     180

Creating a DataGrid Helper      183

Adding Sorting to the DataGrid Helper      190

Adding Paging to the DataGrid Helper     192

Testing Helpers     201

 

Chapter 7 Understanding Model Binders and Action Filters     207

Understanding Model Binders     207

Using the Default Model Binder      210

Binding to Complex Classes     212

Using the Bind Attribute      218

Using Bind with Classes      221

Using Prefixes When Binding      225

Using the Form Collection Model Binder     228

Using the HTTP Posted File Base Model Binder     231

Creating a Custom Model Binder      233

Understanding Action Filters     236

Creating a Log Action Filter      237

 

Chapter 8 Validating Form Data 241

Understanding Model State      241

Understanding the Validation Helpers     245

Styling Validation Error Messages      247

Prebinding and Postbinding Validation      248

Validating with a Service Layer      251

Validating with the IDataErrorInfo Interface     258

Testing Validation           264

 

Chapter 9 Understanding Routing     269

Using the Default Route      269

Debugging Routes           274

Creating Custom Routes     275

Creating Route Constraints      277

Using Regular Expression Constraints      278

Using the HttpMethod Constraint     280

Creating an Authenticated Constraint     280

Creating a NotEqual Constraint     283

Using Catch-All Routes      285

Testing Routes           288

Using the MvcFakes and RouteDebugger Assemblies     289

Testing If a URL Matches a Route      289

Testing Routes with Constraints      292

 

Chapter 10 Understanding View Master Pages and View User Controls     295

Understanding View Master Pages      295

Creating a View Master Page      295

Creating a View Content Page      300

Setting the Master Page from the Controller     302

Setting the Master Page Title      303

Nested Master Pages      306

Passing View Data to Master Pages      308

Understanding View User Controls     311

Passing View Data to User Controls     314

Using a View User Control as a Template     319

 

Chapter 11 Better Performance with Caching     325

Using the OutputCache Attribute      325

Don’t Cache Private Data      330

What Gets Cached?      331

Setting the Cache Location      333

Varying the Output Cache by Parameter     335

Varying the Output Cache      337

Removing Items from the Output Cache      341

Using Cache Profiles     343

Using the Cache API           344

Using the HttpCachePolicy Class     345

Using the Cache Class      347

Testing the Cache          353

Testing the OutputCache Attribute    353

Testing Adding Data to the Cache     355

 

Chapter 12 Authenticating Users     365

Creating Users and Roles      365

Using the Web Site Administration Tool      365

Using the Account Controller      367

Authorizing Users           368

Using the Authorize Attribute     368

Using the User Property      372

Configuring Membership      374

Configuring the Membership Database      375

Configuring Membership Settings      378

Using the Membership and Role Manager API      381

Using Windows Authentication      385

Configuring Windows Authentication      385

Authenticating Windows Users and Groups     386

Testing Authorization      390

Testing for the Authorize Attribute      390

Testing with the User Model Binder      393

 

Chapter 13 Deploying ASP.NET MVC Applications     401

Configuring IIS for ASP.NET MVC     401

Integrated Versus Classic Mode     402

Using ASP.NET MVC with Older Versions of IIS     403

Adding Extensions to the Route Table     403

Hosted Server           408

Creating a Wildcard Script Map      410

Mixing ASP.NET Web Forms and ASP.NET MVC     414

Modifying the Visual Studio Project File      415

Adding the Required Assemblies     415

Modifying the Web Configuration File     416

Modify the Global.asax File     422

Using Web Forms and MVC     424

Bin Deploying an ASP.NET MVC Application     424

 

Chapter 14 Working with Ajax     427

Using the Ajax Helpers      427

Debugging Ajax          428

Posting a Form Asynchronously     430

Displaying Progress     435

Updating Content After Posting      443

Performing Validation      447

Providing Downlevel Browser Support      452

Retrieving Content Asynchronously      454

Highlighting the Selected Link     459

Creating a Delete Link     462

Providing Downlevel Browser Support      468

Using the AcceptAjax Attribute      473

 

Chapter 15 Using jQuery     479

Overview of jQuery       479

Including the jQuery Library     480

jQuery and Visual Studio Intellisense      481

Using jQuery Selectors      482

Adding Event Handlers     487

Using jQuery Animations      489

jQuery and Ajax          491

Using jQuery Plug-Ins     498

 

Part II Walkthrough: Building the Unleashed Blog Application

Chapter 16 Overview of the Application     505

What Is Test-Driven Development?      505

Why Do Test-Driven Development?      506

The KISS and YAGNI Principles      507

Waterfall Versus Evolutionary Design      507

TDD Tests Are Not Unit Tests      508

Tests Flow from User Stories      508

Unit Testing Frameworks      509

Bibliography of Test-Driven Development     509

 

Chapter 17 Database Access     511

Creating the Unleashed Blog Project     511

Creating Our First Test     514

Creating New Blog Entries     520

Refactoring to Use the Repository Pattern       524

Creating a Fake Blog Repository     526

Creating an Entity Framework Repository      530

Creating the Database Objects      531

Creating the Entity Framework Data Model     532

Creating the Entity Framework Blog Repository     534

Using the Entity Framework Repository      537

 

Chapter 18 Creating the Routes     543

Creating the Controller Tests     543

Creating the Route Tests      553

Creating the Archive Routes     561

Trying Out the Archive Controller      564

 

Chapter 19 Adding Validation 567

Performing Validation in the Simplest Possible Way     567

Refactoring the Test Code     573

Validating the Length of a Property     576

A Web Browser Sanity Check     578

Refactoring to Use a Service Layer     581

Adding Business Rules      586

 

Chapter 20 Paging, Views, and Ajax     593

Adding Paging Support     593

Adding the Views      605

Adding Ajax Support      612

 

Chapter 21 Adding Comments     621

Implementing Comments      621

Adding Comments to the Database      633

Displaying Comments and Comment Counts      637

 

Part III Appendixes

Appendix A C# and VB.NET Language Features     647

Type Inference       647

Object Initializers       648

Anonymous Types     649

Nullable Types          651

Extension Methods           652

Generics          654

Lambda Expressions          655

LINQ          656

 

Appendix B Using a Unit Testing Framework     659

Using Visual Studio Unit Test     660

Understanding the Test Attributes      666

Using Assertions      669

Running the Tests      669

Limiting Visual Studio Test Results      671

Using NUnit           672

Creating an NUnit Unit Test Project     672

Creating a Test         674

Running Tests           676

 

Appendix C Using a Mock Object Framework 679

Understanding the Terminology      680

Installing Moq          680

Using Moq to Create a Class from an Interface     681

Returning Fake Values     690