ASP.NET MVC (Model View Controller) Architecture

Introduction

This article is intended to provide basic concepts and fundamentals of ASP.NET MVC (Model View Controller) architecture workflow for beginners.
“M” “V” “C” stands for “MODEL” “VIEW” “CONTROLLER”. ASP.NET MVC is an architecture to develop ASP.NET web applications in a different manner than the traditional ASP.NET web development. Web applications developed with ASP.NET MVC are even more SEO (Search Engine) friendly.
Developing ASP.NET MVC application requires Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 or higher.

MVC Interaction with Browser

Like a normal web server interaction, MVC application also accepts requests and responds to the web browser in the same way.

Inside MVC Architecture

The entire ASP.NET MVC architecture is based on Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 and in addition uses LINQ to SQL Server.

What is a Model?

1. MVC model is basically a C# or VB.NET class
2. A model is accessible by both controller and view
3. A model can be used to pass data from Controller to view
4. A view can use model to display data in page.

What is a View?

1. View is an ASPX page without having a code behind file
2. All page specific HTML generation and formatting can be done inside view
3. One can use Inline code (server tags ) to develop dynamic pages
4. A request to view (ASPX page) can be made only from a controller’s action method

What is a Controller?

1. Controller is basically a C# or VB.NET class which inherits system.mvc.controller
2. Controller is a heart of the entire MVC architecture
3. Inside Controller’s class action methods can be implemented which are responsible for responding to browser OR calling views.
4. Controller can access and use model class to pass data to views
5. Controller uses ViewData to pass any data to view 

MVC File Structure & File Naming Standards

MVC uses a standard directory structure and file naming standards which are a very important part of MVC application development.
Inside the ROOT directory of the application, there must be 3 directories each for model, view and Controller.
Apart from 3 directories, there must have a Global.asax file in root folder, and a web.config like a traditional ASP.NET application.

• Root [directory]
  • Controller [directory]
    • Controller CS files
  • Models [directory]
    • Model CS files
  • Views [directory]
    • View CS files
  • Global.asax
  • Web.config