Professional ASP.NET MVC 3 [Paperback]

Jon Galloway (Author), Phil Haack (Author), Brad Wilson (Author), K. Scott Allen (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 9, 2011 | ISBN-10: 1118076583 | ISBN-13: 978-1118076583 | Edition: 1

New edition of the top book on MVC from the top ASP.NET experts at Microsoft!
MVC 3 is the latest update to Microsoft's Model-View-Controller technology, which enables developers to build dynamic, data-driven web sites. This in-depth book shows you step by step how to use MVC 3. Written by top ASP.NET MVC experts at Microsoft, the latest edition of this popular book covers new and updated features such as the new View engine, Razor, NuGet, and much more. The book's practical tutorials reinforce concepts and allow you create real-world applications. Topics include controllers and actions, forms and HTML helpers, Ajax, unit testing, and much more.

• Shows developers and programmers how to use ASP.NET MVC 3, Microsoft's new version of its Model-View-Controller technology for developing dynamic, data-driven web sites
• Features an expert author team?all are members of Microsoft's ASP.NET team
• Uses a step-by-step approach to explain all major features and functionalities and provides practical tutorials to allow you to create real-world applications
• Goes into theory as well as practical application and covers such topics as Razor, NuGet (PowerShell inside Visual Studio 2010), and new layout features

Move your development skills to the next level with MVC 3 and Professional ASP.NET MVC 3.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

A complete look at the new features of ASP.NET MVC 3

ASP.NET MVC 3 is the eagerly anticipated revision of Microsoft's approach for creating data-driven dynamic applications. Written by a team of Microsoft insiders, this in-depth book shows you how to use the new features and exciting capabilities of ASP.NET MVC 3. Beginning with a short introduction to the ASP.NET MVC framework, this resource quickly shows you each step to install and create an ASP.NET MVC project. In addition, practical tutorials reinforce concepts and prepare you to create real-world applications.

Professional ASP.NET MVC 3:

• Describes what views are and explores the Razor syntax, NuGet, unit testing, and much more

• Explains the role of Controllers in the MVC framework and what role models play in binding and data access strategies

• Demonstrates how to display and process forms

• Covers the new features added in the April 2011 Tools Update, such as scaffolding and HTML5 project templates

• Walks you through performing client and server validation of your models

• Uncovers tips for making use of the membership, authorization, and security features

• Highlights how TDD applies to ASP.NET MVC

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Wrox Professional guides are planned and written by working programmers to meet the real-world needs of programmers, developers, and IT professionals. Focused and relevant, they address the issues technology professionals face every day. They provide examples, practical solutions, and expert education in new technologies, all designed to help programmers do a better job.

About the Author

Jon Galloway works at Microsoft as part of the Server and Tools online group, where he focuses on the ASP.NET community and the ASP.NET website.

Phil Haack is a senior program manager at Microsoft on the Web Platform and Tools team. His areas of responsibility include ASP.NET MVC and NuGet.

Brad Wilson has nearly 20 years of experience in professional software development and web development. He currently works on the ASP.NET MVC project at Microsoft.

K. Scott Allen is the founder of OdeToCode LLC where he provides custom development, consulting, and mentoring services for clients around the world.

Product Details

• Paperback: 432 pages
• Publisher: Wrox; 1 edition (August 9, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1118076583
• ISBN-13: 978-1118076583
• Product Dimensions: 7.4 x 0.8 x 9.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (35 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #374,527 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 21 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Recommended August 11, 2011

By eXists

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

Got the Kindle version.

As someone who's already worked on a project with the first version of MVC a couple of years back, this was a good refresher and a quick way to get to know all the new MVC3 features. This includes: Razor for Views; Validation mechanisms are much easier now, there used to be way too many options to pick from; jQuery Templates; NuGet etc.

Favorite Chapters:
- Ch.7 on Security, it's very well written with quick and easy to use solutions. Great stuff! MVC 1 & 2 developers need to fix a security hole in the default authentication template if you've used it.
- Ch.12 on Testing, good examples and valuable tips towards the end.

Least favorite Chapters are:
- Ch. 11 on Dependency Injection, it's extremely abstract and that's perfectly fine for the first section given the design pattern discussion, but it becomes harder to follow subsequently with not even a single attempt to show an IoC container in action with some real code. It just doesn't seem to accomplish its intended goal, unfortunately this chapter is poorly done, needs better examples and better ways to describe the problem it's trying to solve. It's a shame since this is a key concept for building complex MVC solutions.
- Ch. 9 on Routing, it's definitely more of a "under the hood" reference type chapter, doesn't mean it isn't important, just boring to read through.

Some chapters are missing the full source code but you could just google/download the MVC Music Store application which has most of it. Also, some examples include NuGet packages which is pretty convenient to load and run within Visual Studio 2010. Another really minor issue is that chapters probably need a bit more accompanying graphics/images which help set the context than just code/text for long stretches such as the AJAX chapter.

Worth mentioning that the book feels more like a reference book rather than a walk-through with step-by-step instructions so some sections however essential can make you want to skip some pages.

Overall, the book does what it's supposed to as far as new MVC 3 features; it will not however prepare you enough for any Production ready solutions i.e. solution architecture is MIA.

I would've liked a chapter on how to structure enterprise applications which as you'll find out are quite different from a base application like MVC Music Store. A couple of sample approaches would go a long way. Yes, there are some on codeplex but it would be better to hear from the "MVC elite" how they would design real-world complex solutions.

23 of 25 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Not so much a 'Professional' book as a 'here is some cool stuff' reference August 20, 2011

By James Skemp VINE™ VOICE

Format:Paperback

Having used ASP.NET MVC since around the time 1.0 was released I was a little interested in what Professional ASP.NET MVC 3 would bring to someone like myself. Would this book provide enough new content to someone like me who's tried to keep up on the framework? So when I was contacted by someone at Wiley to receive a copy for review I was of course interested.

The following review will take into consideration my particular experience with the framework. For new users I highly recommend you stick with the music store tutorial available from the official ASP.NET MVC Web site. Unlike Professional ASP.NET MVC 1.0 this book does not contain a full tutorial to get you started. Also, this is one of my longer reviews, so if you just want to skip ahead the last three chapters provide a summary of my thoughts.

Professional ASP.NET MVC 3 consists of 14 chapters and an index, over the course of 400 pages. There are significantly fewer images than one might expect, but don't worry, that's a good thing, as there's a good deal of text and code.

Speaking of code you'll find they've used NuGet to distribute some code examples, but this seems to be based on whether the author choose to use it than being something consistent throughout the book. (I think you too will know which author wrote particular chapters/sections based upon whether NuGet code is available.) Speaking of authors there are four who worked together on this book, and I was pleasantly surprised to see that each chapter's author was noted.

As is the case with Wrox books, the physical book itself is top notch.

Given that this version of the book isn't for beginners I was a little alarmed after reading chapters 1 and 2, as they contained a large amount of introductory content within. Chapter 3 finally started including some newer information within, but again there was still a lot of introductory content contained within. I've noted that chapter 4 seems to go back to the review of introductory topics, like chapter 1 and 2.

In fact, I would argue that it isn't until chapter 7 that we start getting into the more 'professional' topics, with information about securing your application (including a note about vulnerabilities with MVC 2 code, which I hadn't seen mentioned previously). I also found chapter 8, regarding AJAX, to be a rather great chapter.

Chapter 9 takes us back to more introductory topics when it discusses routing, but it does contain a deeper look into more advanced routing, and is written by Phil Haack, so you couldn't ask for much more.

Chapter 10 covers NuGet, but outside of creating and distributing packages (which most people won't do), the information can easily be found in introductory tutorials.

And now we get to the part where the more advanced topics are covered. Chapters 11 through 13 cover dependency injection, unit testing, and extending MVC. For the first two these are items which 'professional' developers should be using, according to some schools of thought. However, if you've already researched these items and made the decision not to go down this path (at this time or ever), these chapters won't sway you.

Chapter 11 could really benefit with a unified example, and chapter 12's shining point are the ASP.NET MVC-specific tips and tricks. Chapter 13 covers the extendability of MVC, but it is my opinion that the majority of people won't have to go down this route very often, if it all.

Finally we get to the last chapter, chapter 14. The title, "Advanced Topics," would work much better as a section. Instead we have a number of topics consolidated into one chapter instead of mini-chapters for each. What's really telling is the first chapter where we read that "[t]here are a lot of really cool advanced topics we glossed over to avoid getting lost in the weeds as we covered the fundamentals of ASP.NET MVC." Is this an ASP.NET MVC fundamentals, or professional book?

Maybe I'm reading too much into it, but this really seems to suggest that this isn't so much a 'professional ASP.NET MVC' book, but rather a collection of really cool or advanced features of ASP.NET MVC. So this is not like their 'Beginning/Professional _' series of books, but rather another type altogether. So, unlike that series, just because you've read the music store tutorial does not necessarily mean that your next step is this book. Instead you're much more likely to find what you need next online, perhaps even on the blogs of the writers. Later, as you try to move closer to the metal you might find use for the techniques covered in this book, but once again you're more likely to find what you need already online (and rare is the need for more than one of the book's topics to be required at that particular moment in time).

As such, as much as I'd like to give this book 4 stars I find myself needing to give it only 3. I consider this much more of a reference book when you need to start digging in closer to the metal. Perhaps if the book took the music store application (something it starts with and then seems to forget as the book progresses) and built upon it with the more advanced information contained within the book would have a wider appeal. But as it is the content of the book ranges oddly between beginner topics and much more specific information.

For these reasons I give Professional ASP.NET MVC 3 3 of 5 stars.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful

1.0 out of 5 stars Typos, Typos, and More Typos! March 5, 2012

By Jason D. Enochs

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

This book contains a lot of great information. I love the fact that they also cover NuGet. I'm glad that I purchased the book but I must give the book only one star is because the book is a collection of typos strung together, one after the other.

The first thing I always do is download the Errata from the publisher and make the corrections in my book. This doesn't even come close to covering all of the mistakes that you will find in this book! Also, some of the errors listed on the publishers "Errata" list are not errors at all (someone needs to vet the list).

Each author wrote one (or more) chapters but it is obvious that they did not read each others work. Instead, they assumed that certain information would be covered in other chapters. For example, on page 109 you will see this sentence, "The data annotations you saw in Chapter 4 can have a dramatic influence..." The problem is that data annotations are not covered in Chapter 4 (other than [HttpPost]). The author assumed annotations would be covered in Chapter 4 because that chapter covers the Model. Now, flip to the index and look up "Data Annotation" and it points you to Chapter 6. I could list dozens of these examples from throughout the book.

If you disagree with me then turn to Chapter 3 and see how many typos you can find in that chapter alone. Chapter 3 is a short Chapter (28 pages) and here are just a few....

>> Page 42, next to last paragraph starts with "Notice that unlike the sample in Code Snippet 3-3,...should say 3-2. Also, every code snippet reference throughout the chapter that references a snippet after 3-8 is wrong because snippets 3-9 and 3-10 are not provided....well actually they are but they are numbered 3-11 & 3-12 thus throwing off every number after that!

>> Page 45, last sentence, "...,you could create the ShoppingCartSummaryViewModel class, shown as follows: but then shows you a class called ShoppingCartViewModel....DOOHH!

>> Page 47, Two entire lines under Figure 3-3 are printed again in the first bullet that follows. Did anyone read this before it was printed?

>> Had enough yet? There are more. I didn't even list the Chapter 3 mistakes that are listed in the publisher's Errata listing (one of which is not a mistake at all).

If you are not going to take the time to proofread and edit your book, don't bother writing it in the first place!