Pro ASP.NET MVC 3 Framework [Paperback]

Steven Sanderson (Author), Adam Freeman (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 27, 2011 | ISBN-10: 1430234040 | ISBN-13: 978-1430234043 | Edition: 3

The ASP.NET MVC 3 Framework is the latest evolution of Microsoft’s ASP.NET web platform. It provides a high-productivity programming model that promotes cleaner code architecture, test-driven development, and powerful extensibility, combined with all the benefits of ASP.NET 4.

In this third edition, the core model-view-controller (MVC) architectural concepts are not simply explained or discussed in isolation, but are demonstrated in action. You’ll work through an extended tutorial to create a working e-commerce web application that combines ASP.NET MVC with the latest C# language features and unit-testing best practices. By gaining this invaluable, practical experience, you’ll discover MVC’s strengths and weaknesses for yourself—and put your best-learned theory into practice.

The book's authors Steve Sanderson and Adam Freeman have both watched the growth of ASP.NET MVC since its first release. Steve is a well-known blogger on the MVC Framework and a member of the Microsoft Web Platform and Tools team. Adam started designing and building web applications 15 years ago and has been responsible for some of the world's largest and most ambitious projects. You can be sure you are in safe hands.

What you’ll learn

• Gain a solid architectural understanding of ASP.NET MVC 3, including basic MVC
• Explore the entire ASP.NET MVC Framework
• See how MVC and test-driven development work in action
• Capitalize on your existing knowledge quickly and easily through comparison of features in classic ASP.NET to those in ASP.NET MVC
• Learn about the latest security and deployment issues, including those related to IIS 7

Who this book is for

This book is for web developers with a basic knowledge of ASP.NET and C# who want (or need) to start using the new ASP.NET MVC 3 Framework.

Table of Contents

Part 1
1. The Big Idea
2. Getting Ready
3. Your First MVC Application
4. The MVC Pattern
5. Essential Language Features
6. Essential Tools for MVC
7. SportsStore I – A Real Application
8. SportsStore II – Navigation & Cart
9. SportsStore III - Administration

Part 2
10. Overview of MVC projects
11. URLs, Routing & Areas
12. Controllers & Actions
13. Filters
14. Controller Extensibility
15. Views
16. Model Templates
17. Model Binding
18. Model Validation
19. Unobtrusive Ajax
20. jQuery

Part 3.
21. Security
22. Authentication & Authorization
23. Deployment

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Adam Freeman is an experienced IT professional who has held senior positions in a range of companies, most recently serving as chief technology officer and chief operating officer of a global bank. Now retired, he spends his time writing and training for his first competitive triathlon.

After a childhood spent at the computer, Steven Sanderson started web development in 1996, first using Perl and later adopting PHP. His last five years of professional experience have focused on ASP.NET, learning what works and what works better, and experiencing a developer's life everywhere from an investment bank to a five-person Internet startup. Steven has led Red Gate's web development team, and spends his free time blogging and keeping up to speed with the latest technology developments. He's followed the ASP.NET MVC framework since its inception and frequently participates in online discussions with its core developers at Microsoft.

Product Details

• Paperback: 852 pages
• Publisher: Apress; 3 edition (June 27, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1430234040
• ISBN-13: 978-1430234043
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7.5 x 1.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (69 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #218,025 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

64 of 77 people found the following review helpful

2.0 out of 5 stars Very disapointing July 16, 2011

By Zasurus

Format:Paperback

I feel that this book has been rushed out to be the first MVC 3 book on the shelf. It is full of errors and not just typo's. These include errors in the code it's self! I have spent several hours wasted trying to work out why my code doesn't work only to find out that the book it's self is wrong!

The graphics included in the book don't always represent the results of the texts (for example screenshots containing tests that you aren't told about and even the down-loadable source code doesn't include!).

The use of some code is even incorrect in some cases! These are only small things that I have seen so far (half way through the book) for example parameter orders incorrect in the tests that do pop up errors when they should but the errors will be slightly wrong causing more wasted time trying to work out what is wrong!

The only reason I am still plodding though on trying to learn from this book is because I have already purchased it, there are no alternatives and deadlines are looming.

I purchased the ALPHA of this book from Apress directly when it was available and have been sending errors via there site for months but NONE of the errors I submitted have been corrected in the final release and have heard nothing from Apress.

If you are trying to learn MVC I suggest finding another MVC 2 book that you know is good and then when you have a grasp of MVC 2 topping up your knowledge on the changes (Razor etc...) in MVC 3 from other sources (or maybe any other books that will be published shortly).

Having said all that if you don't mind all the rushed error prone work and just want to get into MVC 3 right now (as at the time of writing this is the ONLY MVC 3 book out there) getting this book and spending the time to read and follow it (which isn't easy) you will get there or at least to a place that you can ask the right questions to find the answers and understand other examples on the net.

EDIT:
I have had more problems where the book was not explaining what the code was trying to achieve and as the code was wrong several hours were lost trying to establish if it was me that was wrong or the book... A few examples of solution are:

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12 of 12 people found the following review helpful

2.0 out of 5 stars Plagued with Errata September 15, 2011

By Eric Sieg

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

This book is written by someone who clearly knows a lot about MVC 3 and there is a lot of good information about MVC 3 inside. However, there are a LOT of errata that make going through this book a lot slower and take longer than it should. At first, I it was merely an annoyance as it was pretty easy to figure out what was messed up and account for it. Pictures were wrong (but the text was right), many (most?) of the code samples were not bolded correctly, etc. However, if you do hit an error where the solution is not obvious (for me, it was Chapter 9) your progress comes to a screaming halt and lots of frustration ensues.

That said, I think this book is anywhere from a 1 star book to a 4 star book depending on the reader's needs. If you are looking for a book to walk you through setting up an MVC 3 project and take you through it step by step, this is probably a 1 star book. The main walk through chapters (7-9) are riddled with constant errors and the final solution (even the code you can download) has errors. For example, when you change an existing product in the store and save the changes - they don't actually save. If you want to walk through the various aspects of making an MVC 3 site, I highly recommend the MVC tutorials at the main mvc site. If you mostly just care about how EF interacts with MVC, this is a 1 star or 2 star book.

However, outside of EF/MVC 3 interaction and a step by step walkthrough, this is a pretty solid book. The unit testing examples are frequent and very helpful. If you are interested in setting up DI, this seems to do a good job of walking you through using Ninject. Routing, Models, Razor, and security all seem adequately covered. The writing is reasonably easy to follow and interesting. It is too bad that the Technical Reviewer and Editor did such a terrible job on this book as it really should have been a 4.5 star publication if they'd done their jobs.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful

2.0 out of 5 stars Hi All the codes samples are not working September 12, 2011

By Yoseph

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

I was ready to read about MVC and bought this book.
I like the theoretical part of it, but all the code samples I have seen so far are not working and I feel I am wasting my time to try the sample codes.
Either the Authors need to provide code samples online or they need to revise this book. THey should feel our pain in wasting our time and effort