#model view controller

MVC (Model-View-Controller) is a software architectural pattern that divides an application into three main components: Model, View, and Controller. ASP.NET, developed by Microsoft, leverages this architecture to create scalable, maintainable, and testable web applications. In this article, we’ll explore the MVC architecture in ASP.NET, how it works, and why it's a preferred pattern for developers.

What is MVC Architecture?

The MVC architecture separates an application into three interconnected components:

Model: Represents the application’s data and business logic. It directly manages the data and rules of the application, usually interacting with the database in ASP.NET MVC applications.

View: Responsible for displaying the data from the Model to the user. In ASP.NET, Views are typically Razor Pages or HTML markup that dynamically render content based on the data from the Model.

Controller: Acts as a bridge between the Model and View. It handles user requests, processes them (interacting with the Model as necessary), and decides which View to render. In ASP.NET MVC, Controllers are C# classes that manage the flow of data and handle business logic.

How MVC Works in ASP.NET

The request/response cycle in an ASP.NET MVC application follows this pattern:

Routing: The ASP.NET routing engine processes the user’s request and maps it to the correct Controller and action method.

Controller: Receives the request, processes it, and may interact with the Model to retrieve or update data.

Model: Contains the logic for data fetching, updating, or processing.

View: After processing the data, the Controller selects a View, which renders the data and generates an output (typically an HTML page).

Response: The generated View is returned to the user as an HTTP response.

This clear separation ensures that each component focuses on its own responsibilities, resulting in clean and maintainable code.

Key Components of ASP.NET MVC

Models in ASP.NET MVC

Models are responsible for representing the data and business logic of the application. They typically interact with the database, apply validation, and execute business rules. ASP.NET MVC models can use plain C# classes or the Entity Framework for database operations.

Example of a simple Model:

Views in ASP.NET MVC

Views present the data to the user and are generally Razor pages (.cshtml files) that combine HTML and C# code. Razor syntax allows developers to generate dynamic content while maintaining clean code.

Controllers in ASP.NET MVC

Controllers handle user input, processing the data, and determining which View to display. Each action method in a Controller corresponds to a specific endpoint.

Advantages of MVC Architecture in ASP.NET

Separation of Concerns: The business logic (Model), user interface (View), and input logic (Controller) are separated, making the application easier to manage, develop, and test.

Testability: Each component can be independently tested, improving the reliability of the application.

Scalability and Maintainability: As the application grows, features can be added without affecting existing functionality.

Extensibility: ASP.NET MVC is highly extensible, allowing developers to customize components like routing, filters, and dependency injection.

Better Control Over HTML and URLs: MVC gives developers full control over HTML and URLs, essential for building SEO-friendly applications.

MVC in ASP.NET vs. WebForms

Before ASP.NET MVC, developers commonly used WebForms, which followed an event-driven model. While WebForms is easier for beginners, it hides much of the complexity of HTTP, leading to less control over HTML and URLs. MVC, on the other hand, provides full access to underlying web protocols, giving developers more flexibility and control for building modern web applications.

ASP.NET MVC provides a powerful, flexible framework for building web applications with a clear separation of concerns. By leveraging the Model-View-Controller pattern, developers can build scalable, maintainable, and testable applications. Whether for simple websites or complex web applications, ASP.NET MVC offers the tools and structure for success.

When I first started programming in JS, it felt like every article I read would mention MVC, Model-View-Controller. It would always come up somehow, in blogs, in class, in conversation. But it was the kind of thing that no one ever took the time out to explain (and I didn’t take the time out to look up) so I took the term for granted. It was just kind of something I associated with frameworks. Angular? Backbone? Yea, of course those are all MVC frameworks.

Since then, I’ve done my fair share of research and my students have done their fair share of asking about MVC.  So I’ve decided to write a guide to MVC - What is it? Why do you need it? What the advantages and disadvantages?

So really, what is MVC?

MVC is a design pattern. It’s a way of organizing the structure of applications that have user interfaces. An MVC framework will give you objects / classes that will help you organize your code into the following categories:

View: The View is simply everything your user can see, the UI, the output of your application.

Model: This is the actual data and content backing your application.

Controller: The controller goes between your model and your view and defines what happens when the user interacts with your UI.

Why do I need it?

Let’s talk about your latest cool application, PuppyJam. It’s a website that lists instruments for dogs. You have a database full of instrument information and the HTML/CSS of your UI views. But how do you connect them? Should each page of PuppyJam have it’s own JS file that fetches the appropriate information from the database? What if you have some JS that could be used across multiple pages? If you have similar views, should you just copy and paste the same HTML over and over?

Using an MVC framework will help organize your code into objects that fit the MVC categories and help control the flow of data.

Why is this awesome? I’m not totally convinced…

The best part about an MVC framework is that is decouples your View and the Controller logic. They become two separate, modular objects, such that they don’t need to know about each other. This makes it easier to make changes to either and easier to debug.

This separation also makes your code more reusable. Perhaps you have two Views that require the same logic in the background. Well, now you can reuse your Controller for those two Views!

Sounds great! So why do non MVC frameworks exist?

Sometimes our greatest strength is also our greatest fault - the worst part about an MVC framework is that is decouples your View and Controller logic.

As an application grows, you’ll start creating more Views, likely nesting views, and you’ll probably start to see Views that require similar Controllers. Let’s say you have two Views and the two Views require similar, but not identical Controller logic. Well, instead of writing two Controllers that are similar, you might just write the logic of both controllers onto the same one, such that each View is backed by more logic than it needs. Or you might write three Controllers, one for the shared logic and two for the independent logic, creating more than one Controller per View.

Now you have a soup of views and controllers and it takes you a frustratingly long amount of time to figure out which Controller knows what if you need to debug something.

So what do I do?

Topics

Authentication

Password Digests - save a hashed version of password only

Flash vs Flash.now

Session Hash

Session Tokens

CSRF Protection - Cross-Site Request Forgery

Snippets

Partials

Projects

99Cats - add authentication

User

Session

Cat

CatRentalRequest

Models, Views, Controllers

Partner: Matt Corley

Learnings

Syntax to create an approve/deny resource & button

resources :cat_rental_requests, only: [:create, :new] do post "approve", on: :member post "deny", on: :member end

Redirect a route

get 'session', :to => 'sessions#new'

Set root

root to: redirect("/cats")

Must use = in ERB tags `` if you want to render whatever is in the tags. If you don't, will throw error later down the line, very difficult to pinpoint origin

I’ve started working on a new character generator in Java and decided to try to piece it together using this Model View Controller design pattern I’ve heard so much about.

For those that don’t know, and for those that do know please correct me if I’m wrong. First off we have the view which the user interacts with. The view triggers actions in the controller. The controller then changes the model. The model then dispatches and event so that the view can update to show the changes to the model.

This is a very simplified description of what MVC is and I may be wrong on this, I’ve seen some very conflicting descriptions and diagrams claiming what MVC is. But I digress, onto my confusion.

As mentioned earlier I’m trying to make a character Generator in Java using this pattern and... I’m not quite sure how this is supposed to work out. Is there some glue code that passes the objects around? Does the view hold a copy of the control, or does the control have a copy of the view?

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