PROFESSIONAL ASP.NET MVC 4

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3 PROFESSIONAL ASP.NET MVC 4 FOREWORD xxvii INTRODUCTION xxix CHAPTER 1 Getting Started CHAPTER 2 Controllers CHAPTER 3 Views CHAPTER 4 Models CHAPTER 5 Forms and HTML Helpers CHAPTER 6 Data Annotations and Validation CHAPTER 7 Membership, Authorization, and Security CHAPTER 8 Ajax CHAPTER 9 Routing CHAPTER 10 NuGet CHAPTER 11 ASP.NET Web API CHAPTER 12 Dependency Injection CHAPTER 13 Unit Testing CHAPTER 14 Extending MVC CHAPTER 15 Advanced Topics CHAPTER 16 Real-World ASP.NET MVC: Building the NuGet.org Website INDEX

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5 PROFESSIONAL ASP.NET MVC 4

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7 PROFESSIONAL ASP.NET MVC 4 Jon Galloway Phil Haack Brad Wilson K. Scott Allen

8 Professional ASP.NET MVC 4 Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc Crosspoint Boulevard Indianapolis, IN Copyright 2012 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana Published simultaneously in Canada ISBN: ISBN: (ebk) ISBN: (ebk) ISBN: (ebk) Manufactured in the United States of America No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning or otherwise, except as permitted under Sections 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without either the prior written permission of the Publisher, or authorization through payment of the appropriate per-copy fee to the Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, (978) , fax (978) Requests to the Publisher for permission should be addressed to the Permissions Department, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030, (201) , fax (201) , or online at Limit of Liability/Disclaimer of Warranty: The publisher and the author make no representations or warranties with respect to the accuracy or completeness of the contents of this work and specifically disclaim all warranties, including without limitation warranties of fitness for a particular purpose. No warranty may be created or extended by sales or promotional materials. The advice and strategies contained herein may not be suitable for every situation. This work is sold with the understanding that the publisher is not engaged in rendering legal, accounting, or other professional services. If professional assistance is required, the services of a competent professional person should be sought. Neither the publisher nor the author shall be liable for damages arising herefrom. The fact that an organization or Web site is referred to in this work as a citation and/or a potential source of further information does not mean that the author or the publisher endorses the information the organization or Web site may provide or recommendations it may make. Further, readers should be aware that Internet Web sites listed in this work may have changed or disappeared between when this work was written and when it is read. For general information on our other products and services please contact our Customer Care Department within the United States at (877) , outside the United States at (317) or fax (317) Wiley publishes in a variety of print and electronic formats and by print-on-demand. Some material included with standard print versions of this book may not be included in e-books or in print-on-demand. If this book refers to media such as a CD or DVD that is not included in the version you purchased, you may download this material at For more information about Wiley products, visit Library of Congress Control Number: Trademarks: Wiley, the Wiley logo, Wrox, the Wrox logo, Programmer to Programmer, and related trade dress are trademarks or registered trademarks of John Wiley & Sons, Inc. and/or its affiliates, in the United States and other countries, and may not be used without written permission. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. John Wiley & Sons, Inc., is not associated with any product or vendor mentioned in this book.

9 To my wife, Rachel, my daughters, Rosemary, Esther, and Ellie, and to you for reading this book. Enjoy! Jon Galloway My wife, Akumi, deserves to have her name on the cover as much as I do, for all her support made this possible. And thanks to Cody for his infectious happiness. Phil Haack To Potten on Potomac. K. Scott Allen

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11 ABOUT THE AUTHORS JON GALLOWAY works at Microsoft as a Windows Azure Technical Evangelist focused on the ASP.NET platform. He wrote the MVC Music Store tutorial, helped organize mvcconf and aspconf (free online conferences for the ASP.NET community), and speaks at conferences and Web Camps worldwide. He also has worked in a wide range of web development shops, from scrappy startups to large financial companies. He s part of the Herding Code podcast ( blogs at and twitters He lives in San Diego with his wife, three daughters, and a bunch of avocado trees. PHIL HAACK works at GitHub, striving to make Git and GitHub better for developers on Windows. Prior to joining GitHub, Phil was a Senior Program Manager with the ASP.NET team whose areas of responsibility included ASP.NET MVC and NuGet. As a code junkie, Phil loves to craft software. Not only does he enjoy writing software, he enjoys writing about software and software management on his blog, BRAD WILSON works for Microsoft as a Senior Software Developer on the Azure Application Platform and Tools team on the ASP.NET MVC and Web API projects. Prior to ASP.NET, Brad also worked on the CodePlex and the Patterns and Practices teams at Microsoft, and has acted as a developer, consultant, architect, team lead, and CTO at various software companies for nearly 20 years. He s the co-author of the xunit.net open source developer testing framework, maintains a blog focused primarily on ASP.NET topics at and tweets Brad lives in beautiful Redmond, Washington. K. SCOTT ALLEN is the founder of OdeToCode LLC and a software consultant. Scott has 20 years of commercial software development experience across a wide range of technologies. He has delivered software products for embedded devices, Windows desktop, web, and mobile platforms. He has developed web services for Fortune 50 companies and firmware for startups. Scott is also a speaker at international conferences and delivers classroom training and mentoring to companies around the world.

12 ABOUT THE TECHNICAL EDITOR EILON LIPTON joined the ASP.NET team as a developer at Microsoft in On this team, he has worked on areas ranging from data source controls to localization to the UpdatePanel control. That team is now part of the Azure Application Platform Team, where Eilon is the principal development manager for ASP.NET MVC, ASP.NET Web API, and Entity Framework. Eilon is also a speaker on a variety of ASP.NET-related topics at conferences worldwide. He graduated from Boston University with a dual degree in Math and Computer Science. In his spare time Eilon spends time in his garage workshop building what he considers to be well-designed furniture. If you know anyone who needs a coffee table that s three feet tall and has a slight slope to it, send him an .

13 CREDITS ACQUISITIONS EDITOR Mary James PROJECT EDITOR John Sleeva TECHNICAL EDITOR Eilon Lipton PRODUCTION EDITOR Daniel Scribner COPY EDITOR Caroline Johnson EDITORIAL MANAGER Mary Beth Wakefi eld FREELANCER EDITORIAL MANAGER Rosemarie Graham ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR OF MARKETING David Mayhew MARKETING MANAGER Ashley Zurcher BUSINESS MANAGER Amy Knies PRODUCTION MANAGER Tim Tate VICE PRESIDENT AND EXECUTIVE GROUP PUBLISHER Richard Swadley VICE PRESIDENT AND EXECUTIVE PUBLISHER Neil Edde ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER Jim Minatel PROJECT COORDINATOR, COVER Katie Crocker PROOFREADER Louise Watson, Word One INDEXER Ron Strauss COVER DESIGNER LeAndra Young COVER IMAGE David Madison / Getty Images

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15 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS THANKS TO FAMILY AND FRIENDS who graciously acted as if Jon without sleep is someone you d want to spend time with. Thanks to the whole ASP.NET team for making work fun since 2002, and especially to Brad Wilson and Phil Haack for answering tons of random questions. Thanks to Warren G. Harding for normalcy. Thanks to Philippians 4:4 9 for continually reminding me which way is up. Jon Galloway THANKS GO TO MY LOVELY WIFE, Akumi, for her support, which went above and beyond all expectations and made this possible. I d like to also give a shout out to my son, Cody, for his sage advice, delivered as only a two-year-old can deliver it. I m sure he ll be embarrassed 10 years from now that I used such an anachronism ( shout out ) in my acknowledgment to him. Thanks go to my daughter, Mia, as her smile lights up the room like unicorns. Phil Haack

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17 CONTENTS FOREWORD INTRODUCTION xxvii xxix CHAPTER 1: GETTING STARTED 1 A Quick Introduction to ASP.NET MVC 1 How ASP.NET MVC Fits in with ASP.NET 2 The MVC Pattern 2 MVC as Applied to Web Frameworks 3 The Road to MVC 4 3 ASP.NET MVC 1 Overview 4 ASP.NET MVC 2 Overview 4 ASP.NET MVC 3 Overview 5 MVC 4 Overview 10 ASP.NET Web API 10 Enhancements to Default Project Templates 11 Mobile Project Template using jquery Mobile 13 Display Modes 14 Bundling and Minifi cation 14 Included Open Source Libraries 15 Miscellaneous Features 15 Open Source Release 17 Creating an MVC 4 Application 17 Software Requirements for ASP.NET MVC 4 17 Installing ASP.NET MVC 4 18 Installing the MVC 4 Development Components 18 Installing MVC 4 on a Server 18 Creating an ASP.NET MVC 4 Application 19 The New ASP.NET MVC 4 Dialog 20 Application Templates 20 View Engines 22 Testing 22 The MVC Application Structure 24 ASP.NET MVC and Conventions 27 Convention over Confi guration 28 Conventions Simplify Communication 29 Summary 29

18 CONTENTS CHAPTER 2: CONTROLLERS 31 The Controller s Role 31 A Sample Application: The MVC Music Store 34 Controller Basics 36 A Simple Example: The Home Controller 37 Writing Your First Controller 40 Creating the New Controller 40 Writing Your Action Methods 42 A Few Quick Observations 43 Parameters in Controller Actions 43 Summary 46 CHAPTER 3: VIEWS 47 The Purpose of Views 48 Specifying a View 49 ViewData and ViewBag 51 Strongly Typed Views 52 View Models 54 Adding a View 54 Understanding the Add View Dialog Options 55 The Razor View Engine 57 What Is Razor? 57 Code Expressions 59 HTML Encoding 61 Code Blocks 62 Razor Syntax Samples 63 Implicit Code Expression 63 Explicit Code Expression 63 Unencoded Code Expression 64 Code Block 64 Combining Text and Markup 64 Mixing Code and Plain Text 65 Escaping the Code Delimiter 65 Server-Side Comment 65 Calling a Generic Method 66 Layouts 66 ViewStart 69 Specifying a Partial View 69 Summary 70 xvi

19 CONTENTS CHAPTER 4: MODELS 71 Modeling the Music Store 72 Scaffolding a Store Manager 74 What Is Scaffolding? 74 Empty Controller 75 Controller with Empty Read/Write Actions 75 API Controller with Empty Read/Write Actions 75 Controller with Read/Write Actions and Views, Using Entity Framework 75 Scaffolding and the Entity Framework 76 Code First Conventions 77 The DbContext Class 77 Executing the Scaffolding Template 78 The Data Context 79 The StoreManagerController 79 The Views 81 Executing the Scaffolded Code 82 Creating Databases with the Entity Framework 82 Using Database Initializers 83 Seeding a Database 84 Editing an Album 86 Building a Resource to Edit an Album 86 Models and View Models Redux 88 The Edit View 88 Responding to the Edit POST Request 89 The Edit Happy Path 90 The Edit Sad Path 90 Model Binding 91 The DefaultModelBinder 91 Explicit Model Binding 92 Summary 94 CHAPTER 5: FORMS AND HTML HELPERS 95 Using Forms 95 The Action and the Method 96 To GET or to POST? 97 Searching for Music with a Search Form 97 Searching for Music by Calculating the Action Attribute Value 99 HTML Helpers 100 Automatic Encoding 100 xvii

20 CONTENTS Making Helpers Do Your Bidding 101 Inside HTML Helpers 102 Setting Up the Album Edit Form 102 Html.BeginForm 102 Html.ValidationSummary 103 Adding Inputs 103 Html.TextBox and Html.TextArea 104 Html.Label 105 Html.DropDownList and Html.ListBox 105 Html.ValidationMessage 107 Helpers, Models, and View Data 107 Strongly Typed Helpers 109 Helpers and Model Metadata 110 Templated Helpers 111 Helpers and ModelState 112 Other Input Helpers 112 Html.Hidden 112 Html.Password 112 Html.RadioButton 113 Html.CheckBox 113 Rendering Helpers 113 Html.ActionLink and Html.RouteLink 114 URL Helpers 114 Html.Partial and Html.RenderPartial 115 Html.Action and Html.RenderAction 116 Passing Values to RenderAction 117 Cooperating with the ActionName Attribute 117 Summary 118 CHAPTER 6: DATA ANNOTATIONS AND VALIDATION 119 Annotating Orders for Validation 120 Using Validation Annotations 122 Required 122 StringLength 122 RegularExpression 123 Range 123 Validation Attributes from System.Web.Mvc 124 Custom Error Messages and Localization 125 Looking behind the Annotation Curtain 125 Validation and Model Binding 126 Validation and Model State 126 xviii

21 CONTENTS Controller Actions and Validation Errors 127 Custom Validation Logic 128 Custom Annotations 129 IValidatableObject 132 Display and Edit Annotations 133 Display 133 ScaffoldColumn 134 DisplayFormat 134 ReadOnly 134 DataType 135 UIHint 135 HiddenInput 135 Summary 135 CHAPTER 7: MEMBERSHIP, AUTHORIZATION, AND SECURITY 137 Using the Authorize Attribute to Require Login 139 Securing Controller Actions 140 How the AuthorizeAttribute Works with Forms Authentication and the AccountController 143 Windows Authentication in the Intranet Application Template 145 Securing Entire Controllers 146 Securing Your Entire Application Using a Global Authorization Filter 147 Using the Authorize Attribute to Require Role Membership 148 Extending Roles and Membership 149 External Login via OAuth and OpenID 150 Registering External Login Providers 150 Confi guring OpenID Providers 152 Confi guring OAuth Providers 155 Security Implications of External Logins 155 Trusted External Login Providers 155 Require SSL for Login 156 Understanding the Security Vectors in a Web Application 157 Threat: Cross-Site Scripting 157 Threat Summary 157 Passive Injection 157 Active Injection 160 Preventing XSS 162 Threat: Cross-Site Request Forgery 167 Threat Summary 167 Preventing CSRF Attacks 169 Threat: Cookie Stealing 171 xix

22 CONTENTS Threat Summary 171 Preventing Cookie Theft with HttpOnly 172 Threat: Over-Posting 172 Threat Summary 173 Preventing Over-Posting with the Bind Attribute 174 Threat: Open Redirection 175 Threat Summary 175 Protecting Your ASP.NET MVC 1 and MVC 2 Applications 179 Taking Additional Actions When an Open Redirect Attempt Is Detected 182 Open Redirection Summary 183 Proper Error Reporting and the Stack Trace 183 Using Confi guration Transforms 184 Using Retail Deployment Confi guration in Production 185 Using a Dedicated Error Logging System 185 Security Recap and Helpful Resources 185 Summary 187 CHAPTER 8: AJAX 189 jquery 190 jquery Features 190 The jquery Function 190 jquery Selectors 192 jquery Events 192 jquery and Ajax 193 Unobtrusive JavaScript 193 Using jquery 194 Custom Scripts 195 Placing Scripts in Sections 195 The Rest of the Scripts 196 Ajax Helpers 196 Ajax ActionLinks 197 HTML 5 Attributes 199 Ajax Forms 200 Client Validation 202 jquery Validation 202 Custom Validation 203 IClientValidatable 204 Custom Validation Script Code 205 Beyond Helpers 207 jquery UI 208 Autocomplete with jquery UI 209 xx

23 CONTENTS Adding the Behavior 210 Building the Data Source 210 JSON and Client-Side Templates 212 Adding Templates 212 Modifying the Search Form 213 Getting JSON 214 jquery.ajax for Maximum Flexibility 216 Improving Ajax Performance 217 Using Content Delivery Networks 217 Script Optimizations 217 Bundling and Minifi cation 218 Summary 219 CHAPTER 9: ROUTING 221 Uniform Resource Locators 222 Introduction to Routing 223 Comparing Routing to URL Rewriting 223 Defi ning Routes 224 Route URLs 224 Route Values 226 Route Defaults 227 Route Constraints 230 Named Routes 231 MVC Areas 233 Area Route Registration 233 Area Route Confl icts 234 Catch-All Parameter 234 Multiple URL Parameters in a Segment 235 StopRoutingHandler and IgnoreRoute 236 Debugging Routes 237 Under the Hood: How Routes Generate URLs 239 High-Level View of URL Generation 239 A Detailed Look at URL Generation 240 Ambient Route Values 242 Overfl ow Parameters 244 More Examples of URL Generation with the Route Class 244 Under the Hood: How Routes Tie Your URL to an Action 245 The High-Level Request Routing Pipeline 246 RouteData 246 Custom Route Constraints 246 Using Routing with Web Forms 247 Summary 248 xxi

24 CONTENTS CHAPTER 10: NUGET 249 Introduction to NuGet 249 Installing NuGet 250 Adding a Library as a Package 252 Finding Packages 252 Installing a Package 254 Updating a Package 256 Recent Packages 257 Package Restore 257 Using the Package Manager Console 259 Creating Packages 262 Packaging a Project 262 Packaging a Folder 263 NuSpec File 263 Metadata 264 Dependencies 266 Specifying Files to Include 267 Tools 268 Framework and Profi le Targeting 271 Prerelease Packages 272 Publishing Packages 272 Publishing to NuGet.org 273 Using NuGet.exe 274 Using the Package Explorer 275 Summary 278 CHAPTER 11: ASP.NET WEB API 279 Defining ASP.NET Web API 280 Getting Started with Web API 280 Writing an API Controller 281 Examining the Sample ValuesController 282 Async by Design: IHttpController 283 Incoming Action Parameters 284 Action Return Values, Errors, and Asynchrony 284 Configuring Web API 285 Confi guration in Web-Hosted Web API 286 Confi guration in Self-Hosted Web API 286 Confi guration in Third-Party Hosts 287 Adding Routes to Your Web API 287 Binding Parameters 288 xxii

25 CONTENTS Filtering Requests 290 Enabling Dependency Injection 291 Exploring APIs Programmatically 292 Tracing the Application 293 Web API Example: ProductsController 293 Summary 296 CHAPTER 12: DEPENDENCY INJECTION 297 Software Design Patterns 297 Design Pattern: Inversion of Control 298 Design Pattern: Service Locator 300 Strongly Typed Service Locator 300 Weakly Typed Service Locator 301 The Pros and Cons of Service Locators 304 Design Pattern: Dependency Injection 304 Constructor Injection 304 Property Injection 305 Dependency Injection Containers 306 Dependency Resolution in MVC 307 Singly Registered Services in MVC 308 Multiply Registered Services in MVC 309 Arbitrary Objects in MVC 311 Creating Controllers 311 Creating Views 312 Dependency Resolution in Web API 313 Singly Registered Services in Web API 314 Multiply Registered Services in Web API 315 Arbitrary Objects in Web API 316 Dependency Resolvers in MVC vs. Web API 316 Summary 316 CHAPTER 13: UNIT TESTING 317 The Meaning of Unit Testing and Test-Driven Development 318 Defi ning Unit Testing 318 Testing Small Pieces of Code 318 Testing in Isolation 318 Testing Only Public Endpoints 319 Automated Results 319 Unit Testing as a Quality Activity 319 Defi ning Test-Driven Development 320 The Red/Green Cycle 320 xxiii

26 CONTENTS Refactoring 321 Structuring Tests with Arrange, Act, Assert 321 The Single Assertion Rule 322 Creating a Unit Test Project 322 Examining the Default Unit Tests 323 Test Only the Code You Write 327 Tips and Tricks for Unit Testing ASP.NET MVC Applications 328 Testing Controllers 328 Keeping Business Logic out of Your Controllers 328 Passing Service Dependencies via Constructor 329 Favoring Action Results over HttpContext Manipulation 330 Favoring Action Parameters over UpdateModel 331 Using Action Filters for Orthogonal Activities 332 Testing Routes 333 Testing Calls to IgnoreRoute 333 Testing Calls to MapRoute 334 Testing Unmatched Routes 335 Testing Validators 335 Summary 339 CHAPTER 14: EXTENDING MVC 341 Extending Models 342 Turning Request Data into Models 342 Exposing Request Data with Value Providers 342 Creating Models with Model Binders 343 Describing Models with Metadata 348 Validating Models 350 Extending Views 354 Customizing View Engines 354 Writing HTML Helpers 356 Writing Razor Helpers 357 Extending Controllers 358 Selecting Actions 358 Choosing Action Names with Name Selectors 358 Filtering Actions with Method Selectors 358 Action Filters 359 Authorization Filters 360 Action and Result Filters 360 Exception Filters 361 Providing Custom Results 361 Summary 363 xxiv

27 CONTENTS CHAPTER 15: ADVANCED TOPICS 365 Mobile Support 365 Adaptive Rendering 366 The Viewport Meta Tag 368 Adaptive Styles Using CSS Media Queries 368 Display Modes 370 Layout and Partial View Support 371 Custom Display Modes 371 Mobile Site Template 372 Advanced Razor 373 Templated Razor Delegates 373 View Compilation 374 Advanced View Engines 376 Confi guring a View Engine 377 Finding a View 377 The View Itself 378 Alternative View Engines 380 New View Engine or New ActionResult? 381 Advanced Scaffolding 381 Customizing T4 Code Templates 382 The MvcScaffolding NuGet Package 383 Updated Add Controller Dialog Options 383 Using the Repository Template 384 Adding Scaffolders 386 Additional Resources 386 Advanced Routing 386 RouteMagic 387 Editable Routes 387 Advanced Templates 391 The Default Templates 392 MVC Futures and Template Defi nitions 392 Template Selection 395 Custom Templates 396 Advanced Controllers 397 Defi ning the Controller: The IController Interface 397 The ControllerBase Abstract Base Class 398 The Controller Class and Actions 399 Action Methods 401 The ActionResult 401 xxv

28 CONTENTS Action Result Helper Methods 402 Action Result Types 404 Implicit Action Results 408 Action Invoker 410 How an Action Is Mapped to a Method 410 Invoking Actions 414 Using Asynchronous Controller Actions 414 Choosing Synchronous versus Asynchronous Pipelines 416 Writing Asynchronous Action Methods 416 Performing Multiple Parallel Operations 417 MVC 2 and 3 Using AsyncController 419 Summary 421 CHAPTER 16: REAL-WORLD ASP.NET MVC: BUILDING THE NUGET.ORG WEBSITE 423 May the Source Be with You 424 WebActivator 425 ASP.NET Dynamic Data 426 Exception Logging 430 Profiling 431 Data Access 434 EF Code-Based Migrations 434 Membership 436 Other Useful NuGet Packages 438 T4MVC 438 WebBackgrounder 438 Lucene.NET 439 AnglicanGeek.MarkdownMailer 439 Ninject 440 Summary 440 INDEX 443 xxvi

29 FOREWORD I m thrilled to introduce this book covering the latest release of ASP.NET MVC, written by an outstanding team of authors. They are my friends, but more importantly, they are fantastic technologists. Phil Haack was the Program Manager ASP.NET MVC from the very start. With a background rooted in community and open source, I count him not only as an amazing technologist but also a close friend. While at Microsoft, Phil also worked on a new.net Package Manager called NuGet. Brad Wilson is not only my favorite skeptic but also a talented Developer at Microsoft working on ASP.NET MVC. From Dynamic Data to Data Annotations to Testing and more, there s no end to Brad s knowledge as a programmer. He s worked on many open source projects, such as XUnit.NET, and continues to push people both inside and outside Microsoft towards the light. Jon Galloway is a Technical Evangelist at Microsoft focused on Azure and ASP.NET. In that role, he s had the opportunity to work with thousands of developers who are both new to and experienced with ASP.NET MVC. He s the author of the MVC Music Store tutorial, which has helped hundreds of thousands of new developers write their first ASP.NET MVC applications. Jon also helped organize mvcconf and aspconf a series of free, online conferences for ASP.NET developers. His interactions with the diverse ASP.NET community give him some great insights on how developers can begin, learn, and master ASP.NET MVC. And last but not least, K. Scott Allen rounds out the group, not just because of his wise decision to use his middle name to sound smarter, but also because he brings his experience and wisdom as a world-renowned trainer. Scott Allen is a member of the Pluralsight technical staff and has worked on websites for Fortune 50 companies, as well as consulted with startups. He is kind, thoughtful, respected, and above all, knows his stuff backwards and forwards. These fellows have teamed up to take this ASP.NET MVC 4 book to the next level, as the ASP.NET web development platform continues to grow. The platform currently is used by millions of developers worldwide. A vibrant community supports the platform, both online and offline; the online forums at average thousands of questions and answers a day. ASP.NET and ASP.NET MVC 4 power news sites, online retail stores, and perhaps your favorite social networking site. Your local sports team, book club, or blog uses ASP.NET MVC 4, as well. When it was introduced, ASP.NET MVC broke a lot of ground. Although the pattern was old, it was new to many in the existing ASP.NET community; it walked a delicate line between productivity and control, power and flexibility. Today, to me, ASP.NET MVC 4 represents choice your choice of language, your choice of frameworks, your choice of open source libraries, your choice of patterns. Everything is pluggable. MVC 4 epitomizes absolute control of your environment if you like something, use it; if you don t like something, change it. You can unit test how you want, create components as you want, and use your choice of JavaScript framework.

30 ASP.NET MVC 4 brings you a new ASP.NET Web API (a new framework for building HTTP services), updated default project templates that leverage modern web standards, solid mobile web application support, enhanced support for asynchronous methods, and more. Just as exciting, the ASP.NET MVC code is now released under an open source license that accepts contributions from the developer community. Perhaps code you write will ship with the next version of ASP.NET MVC! I encourage you to visit for fresh content, new samples, videos, and tutorials. We all hope this book, and the knowledge within, represents the next step for you in your mastery of ASP.NET MVC 4. Scott Hanselman Principal Community Architect Azure Web Team Microsoft