January 27th, 2009

A Guide to Learning ASP.NET MVC Release Candidate 1

Now that the ASP.NET MVC Release Candidate is available for download, how do you learn how to start using it to build applications? Here’s a guide to resources for learning about ASP.NET MVC Release Candidate 1.

First, read Scott Guthrie and Phil Haack’s blog entries which discuss the new features added with this release:

Next, navigate to the http://www.asp.net/mvc site — the official Microsoft website for all things ASP.NET MVC — and read the 14 new and updated tutorials:

Creating a Movie Database Application

Stephen Walther builds an entire ASP.NET MVC application from start to finish. This tutorial is a great introduction for people who are new to the ASP.NET MVC Framework and who want to get a sense of the process of building an ASP.NET MVC application.

Understanding Models, Views, and Controllers

Confused about Models, Views, and Controllers? In this tutorial, Stephen Walther introduces you to the different parts of an ASP.NET MVC application.

ASP.NET MVC Overview

Learn about the differences between ASP.NET MVC application and ASP.NET Web Forms applications. Learn how to decide when to build an ASP.NET MVC application.

Understanding the ASP.NET MVC Execution Process

Learn how the ASP.NET MVC framework processes a browser request step-by-step.

Using ASP.NET MVC with Different Versions of IIS

In this tutorial, you learn how to use ASP.NET MVC, and URL Routing, with different versions of Internet Information Services. You learn different strategies for using ASP.NET MVC with IIS 7.0 (classic mode), IIS 6.0, and earlier versions of IIS.

Creating Page Layouts with View Master Pages

By taking advantage of view master pages, you can create a common layout for the pages in your ASP.NET MVC application. In this tutorial, Stephen Walther introduces you to view master pages. You learn how to create a two-column page layout.

Passing Data to View Master Pages

In this tutorial, Stephen Walther explains how you can pass database data to a view master page. He demonstrates how to create an Application controller that modifies the view data returned by every controller action within an ASP.NET MVC application.

Understanding Action Filters

In this tutorial, you are introduced to action filters. You learn how action filters work and how to implement custom action filters. We create a custom action filter that logs the stages of processing a controller action and action result to the Visual Studio Output window.

Improving Performance with Output Caching

In this tutorial, you learn how you can dramatically improve the performance of your ASP.NET MVC web applications by taking advantage of output caching. You learn how to cache the result returned from a controller action so that the same content does not need to be created each and every time a new user invokes the action.

Creating Model Classes with the Entity Framework

In this tutorial, you learn how to use ASP.NET MVC with the Microsoft Entity Framework. You learn how to use the Entity Wizard to create an ADO.NET Entity Data Model. Over the course of this tutorial, we build a web application that illustrates how to select, insert, update, and delete database data by using the Entity Framework.

Authenticating Users with Forms Authentication

Learn how to use the [Authorize] attribute to password protect particular pages in your MVC application. You learn how to use the Web Site Administration Tool to create and manage users and roles. You also learn how to configure where user account and role information is stored.

Authenticating Users with Windows Authentication

Learn how to use Windows authentication in the context of an MVC application. You learn how to enable Windows authentication within your application’s web configuration file and how to configure authentication with IIS. Finally, you learn how to use the [Authorize] attribute to restrict access to controller actions to particular Windows users or groups.

Adding Dynamic Content to a Cached Page

Learn how to mix dynamic and cached content in the same page. Post-cache substitution enables you to display dynamic content, such as banner advertisements or news items, within a page that has been output cached.

Providing Website Navigation with SiteMaps

Learn how to take advantage of SiteMaps to describe the navigational structure of your website. In this tutorial, you learn how to create a custom Menu HTML helper that generates menu links from a SiteMap automatically.

The first tutorial should be especially useful because it contains a step-by-step walkthrough of building a database-driven web application with ASP.NET MVC. In particular, the tutorial discusses the new tooling support in Visual Studio that makes it easy to add new controllers and views.