Book Image

ASP.NET MVC 2 Cookbook

Book Image

ASP.NET MVC 2 Cookbook

Overview of this book

ASP.NET MVC, one of the latest web development platforms from Microsoft, brings the power of MVC programming to ASP.NET development. It simplifies the task of application development and maintenance for developers. However, ASP.NET MVC is filled with so many features that developers end up looking for solutions to the many problems that are encountered in their routine development tasks.ASP.NET MVC 2 Cookbook will provide solutions for the very specific problems that are encountered while developing applications with the ASP.NET MVC platform. It consists of many recipes containing step-by-step instructions that guide developers to effectively use the wide array of tools and features of ASP.NET MVC platform for web development ASP.NET MVC Cookbook is a collection of recipes that will help you to perform your routine development tasks with ease using the ASP.NET MVC platform. In this book you will be walked through the solution to several specific web application development problems. Each recipe will walk you through the creation of a web application, setting up any Visual Studio project requirements, adding in any external tools, and finally the programming steps needed to solve the problem. The focus of the book is to describe the solution from start to finish. The book starts off with recipes that demonstrate how to work effectively with views and controllers – two of the most important ingredients of the ASP.NET MVC framework. It then gradually moves on to cover many advanced routing techniques. Considering the importance of having a consistent structure to the site, the book contains recipes to show how to build a consistent UI and control its look with master pages. It also contains a chapter that is packed with many recipes that demonstrate how to gain control of data within a view. As the book progresses through some exciting recipes on performing complex tasks with forms, you will discover how easy it is to work with forms to jazz up the look of your web site. Building large applications with ease is one of the prime features of the MVC model. Therefore, this book also focuses on tools and features that make building large applications easier to manage. As data plays an important role in the MVC architecture, there are ample recipes dedicated to cover data validation, access, and storage techniques. Finally, the book demonstrates how to enhance the user experience of your visitors by controlling the data at the application, session, caching, and cookie level. By the end of this book, you will have explored a wide array of tools and features available with the ASP.NET MVC platform

Related Content you might be interested in

Current Title:

Small book image
ASP.NET MVC 2 Cookbook
Jan, 2011 | 332 pages
No titles found
Table of Contents (16 chapters)
ASP.NET MVC 2 Cookbook
ASP.NET MVC 2 Cookbook
Credits
Credits
About the Authors
About the Authors
About the Reviewers
About the Reviewers
www.PacktPub.com
www.PacktPub.com
Preface
Preface
Free Chapter
1
Working with the View
Working with the View
Introduction
Using magic strings and the ViewData dictionary
Creating a strongly typed view
Decoupling a strongly typed view with a View model
Centralizing display logic with templated helpers
Using a partial view to segment view code
Rendering a child view with Html.RenderAction
Loading a view template from a database with NVelocity
Consuming a JSON with jQuery
2
Taking Action in Your Controllers
Taking Action in Your Controllers
Introduction
Exposing JSON using a JsonResult with Json.NET
A custom ActionResult to return an image
Specifying the size of an ImageResult
Creating a CAPTCHA system
Generating a PDF order summary
Implementing a controller factory for use with StructureMap
3
Routing
Routing
Introduction
Creating a route to support a reporting engine
Making hackable URLs for a product catalog
Filter your matches with routing constraints
Using wildcard parameters to support slug URLs
Creating a 404 page via routing
Moving routes out of Global.asax
Supporting pagination in your URLs
Supporting content hierarchies with a custom RouteHandler
Creating a blacklist route constraint
4
Master Pages
Master Pages
Introduction
How to create a master page
Determining the master page in the ActionResult
Controlling which master page is used with a view base class
Setting the master page from a controller base class
Passing data to the master page
Rendering data in a master page from another view
Creating nested master pages
5
Working with Data in the View
Working with Data in the View
Introduction
Reintroducing for and foreach
Handling an array of checkboxes
Handling an array of radio buttons
Working with a pageable set of data
How to navigate sortable data
Deleting a record with an intermediary "Are you sure?" page
Adding a jQuery delete link with confirmation
Master/detail page with inline details via jQuery and a partial view
Creating a master/detail page with modal pop-up and JSON
6
Working with Forms
Working with Forms
Introduction
Using HTML helpers to create forms
Building a custom HTML helper to display a WYSIWYG
Centralizing create and edit forms for reuse
Adding custom attributes to form elements
Defining a default button with jQuery
Hijaxing a form with jQuery
Performing an auto post-back with a select list
Autocomplete with jQuery UI
7
Simplifying Complex Applications
Simplifying Complex Applications
Introduction
Centralized formatting of common types with templated helpers
Making templated helpers for custom types
Using areas to separate application components
Creating a "portable area" to use across multiple applications
Using input builders of MvcContrib
Generating forms with Html.InputForm()
Leaving breadcrumbs for your users with MvcSiteMap
Displaying tabular data in a grid
8
Validating MVC
Validating MVC
Introduction
Basic input validation
Data annotations
Client-side validation with jQuery
Custom validators
Remote validation with jQuery
9
Data Access and Storage
Data Access and Storage
Introduction
Mocking your data layer with NBuilder
Adding support for LINQ to SQL
Going old school with ADO.NET
XML documents as a data store
10
Application, Session, Cookies, and Caching
Application, Session, Cookies, and Caching
Introduction
Keeping track of anonymous visitors versus logged-in users
Maintaining a user's information while at your site
Remembering a previous visitor
Caching your product catalog for faster response times
Using output caching to cache an entire page
Using partial views to cache pieces of a page individually
Exposing an application API to your presentation layer

About the Reviewers

Tim Cromarty has been working in IT for well over 20 years in a variety of positions and responsibilities. In the late '80s' he was an Oracle developer, and worked for a variety of companies including Oracle UK, ITV, Banks and Local Government. Then, in the late '90s'-he became involved in Java and web development working primarily for the European offices of US-based organizations. More recently, Tim has held a number of director level positions managing large multi-million pound global organizations.

As a developer, he enjoys learning new programming languages, techniques, and practices. He has been using .NET since the first version and has also spent plenty of time developing in C, Java, Perl, PHP, SQL, PL/SQL (he could go on...), but his current focus is .NET—especially MVC.

Based in Hampshire, England, Tim is currently an independent software consultant and technologist providing technical and managerial consultancy in Microsoft ASP.NET, MVC, jQuery, JavaScript and AJAX, as well as managing multiple web development projects, e-commerce, and community websites.

His blog can be found at http://blog.clicktricity.com.

I am married with an amazing 4-year-old son. My ambition is to stop lying about my age when I reach 30... My wife thinks I'm a nerd because my idea of relaxing is to read a programming manual!

Buu Nguyen is a Microsoft MVP in ASP.NET. He is currently the Vice President of Technology at KMS Technology—a global software services company. During his past seven years of experience in software development, he has been involved in the development of multiple applications ranging from Java and .NET enterprise applications to Ruby on Rails web applications.

Buu is an active community participant who has conducted training for Microsoft, published technical articles, developed open source software, and been a frequent speaker at technical conferences, including those organized by Microsoft.

Besides his industrial and community engagement, Buu is a part-time university lecturer who teaches courses in software architecture, J2EE, and ASP.NET.

Baskin I. Tapkan has recently joined Verifications, Inc—a consumer reporting agency specializing in systems integrations—as a senior software/web developer/architect. Baskin is a technology evangelist and has been programming for over 20 years, starting with Turbo Pascal and QBasic. He has been coding in the .NET framework since its release and now focuses on the ASP.NET MVC and WCF Services. Prior to joining the Verifications Inc., he has been a software architect at Healthland, Inc., a consultant with Magenic, and a systems design engineer at Imation Corporation. He has over 12 years of industry experience in manufacturing, healthcare, education, and consumer services, working on various database-driven applications. Baskin holds a Master's Degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Wyoming. Baskin is an avid windsurfer and an upcoming kite boarder currently residing in Twin Cities, MN. He enjoys his few weeks of vacation at the Columbia River Gorge.

Previous Section
Next Chapter