ASP.NET MVC Framework Unleashed

In this book, world-renowned ASP.NET expert and member of the Microsoft ASP.NET team Stephen Walther shows experienced developers how to use Microsoft’s new ASP.NET MVC Framework to build web applications that are more powerful, flexible, testable, manageable, scalable, and extensible.   Writing for professional programmers, Walther explains the crucial concepts that make the Model-View-Controller (MVC) development paradigm work so well and shows exactly how to apply them with the ASP.NET MVC Framework. From controllers and actions to views and models, Walther demonstrates how to apply each ASP.NET MVC Framework feature in real-world projects.   In Part II, you’ll walk step-by-step through building a full-fledged ASP.NET MVC blog application that implements capabilities ranging from data access to validation. Through this case study, you’ll learn how to build ASP.NET MVC applications using test-driven development processes that enable rapid feedback, greater productivity, and better quality.   Throughout, Walther presents extensive code examples, reflecting his unsurpassed experience as an ASP.NET instructor, a leading commercial developer, and now as a member of Microsoft’s ASP.NET development team.   Understand how to: Build enterprise-scale web applications far more rapidly and effectively Develop web applications that are easier to maintain and extend over time Gain unprecedented control over the appearance of your website or application Expose intuitive URLs that are friendlier to search engines and users alike Create ASP.NET MVC models that contain all your application’s business, validation, and data access logic Make the most of HTML helpers, model binders, action filters, routing, and authentication Efficiently deploy your ASP.NET MVC applications Use the lightweight JQuery JavaScript library to easily find and manipulate HTML elements Create ASP.NET MVC applications using unit test and mock object framework

Table of Contents:
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