ASP.NET MVC Framework Unleashed

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