Asp.net-mvc – How to implement a site with ASP.NET MVC without using Visual Studio

asp.netasp.net-mvc

I have seen ASP.NET MVC Without Visual Studio, which asks,
Is it possible to produce a website based on ASP.NET MVC, without using Visual Studio?

And the accepted answer is, yes.

Ok, next question: how?

Here's an analogy. If I want to create an ASP.NET Webforms page, I load up my favorite text editor, create a file named Something.aspx. Then I insert into that file, some boilerplate: 

<%@ Page Language="C#"
  Debug="true"
  Trace="false"
  Src="Sourcefile.cs"
  Inherits="My.Namespace.ContentsPage"
%>

<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en">
  <head>
    <title>Title goes here </title>
    <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="css/style.css"></link>

    <style type="text/css">
      #elementid {
          font-size: 9pt;
          color: Navy;
         ... more css ...
      }
    </style>

    <script type="text/javascript" language='javascript'>

      // insert javascript here.

    </script>

  </head>

  <body>
      <asp:Literal Id='Holder' runat='server'/>
      <br/>
      <div id='msgs'></div>
  </body>

</html>

Then I also create the Sourcefile.cs file: 

namespace My.Namespace
{
    using System;
    using System.Web;
    using System.Xml;
    // etc... 

    public class ContentsPage : System.Web.UI.Page
    {
        protected System.Web.UI.WebControls.Literal Holder;

        void Page_Load(Object sender, EventArgs e)
        {
            // page load logic here
        }
    }
}

And that is a working ASPNET page, created in a text editor. Drop it into an IIS virtual directory, and it's working.

What do I have to do, to make a basic, hello, World ASPNET MVC app, in a text editor? (without Visual Studio)

Suppose I want a basic MVC app with a controller, one view, and a simple model. What files would I need to create, and what would go into them?

Best Answer

ok, I examined Walther's tutorial and got a basic MVC site running.

The files required were: 

Global.asax
App_Code\Global.asax.cs
App_Code\Controller.cs
Views\HelloWorld\Sample.aspx
web.config

That's it.

Inside the Global.asax, I provide this boilerplate:

<%@ Application Inherits="MvcApplication1.MvcApplication" Language="C#" %>

And that MvcApplication class is defined in a module called Global.asax.cs which must be placed into the App_Code directory. The contents are like this: 

using System.Web.Mvc;
using System.Web.Routing;

public class MvcApplication : System.Web.HttpApplication
{
    public static void RegisterRoutes(RouteCollection routes)
    {
        routes.IgnoreRoute("{resource}.axd/{*pathInfo}");

        routes.MapRoute(
            "Default",                      // Route name
            "{controller}/{action}/{arg}",  // URL with parameters
            new {                           // Parameter defaults
              controller = "HelloWorld",
              action = "Index", 
              arg = "" }                 );
    }

    protected void Application_Start()
    {
        RegisterRoutes(RouteTable.Routes);
    }
}

The Controller.cs provides the logic to handle the various requests. In this simple example, the controller class is like this: 

using System.Web.Mvc;
namespace MvcApplication1.Controllers
{
    public class HelloWorldController : Controller
    {
        public string Index()
        {
            return "Hmmmmm...."; // coerced to ActionResult
        }

        public ActionResult English()
        {
            return Content("<h2>Hi!</h2>");
        }

        public ActionResult Italiano()
        {
            return Content("<h2>Ciao!</h2>");
        }

        public ViewResult Sample()
        {
            return View();  // requires \Views\HelloWorld\Sample.aspx
        }
    }
}

The Controller class must be named XxxxxController, where the Xxxxx portion defines the segment in the URL path. For a controller called HelloWorldController, the URL path segment is HelloWorld. Each public method in the Controller class is an action; the method is called when that method name is included in another segment in the url path . So for the above controller, these URLs would result in invoking the various methods:

  • http:/ /server/root/HelloWorld (the default "action")
  • http:/ /server/root/HelloWorld/Index (same as above)
  • http:/ /server/root/HelloWorld/English
  • http:/ /server/root/HelloWorld/Italiano
  • http:/ /server/root/HelloWorld/Sample (a view, implemented as Sample.aspx)

Each method returns an Action result, one of the following: View (aspx page), Redirect, Empty, File (various options), Json, Content (arbitrary text), and Javascript.

The View pages, such as Sample.aspx in this case, must derive from System.Web.Mvc.ViewPage.

<%@ Page Language="C#"
  Debug="true"
  Trace="false"
  Inherits="System.Web.Mvc.ViewPage"
 %>

That's it! Dropping the above content into an IIS vdir gives me a working ASPNET MVC site.

(Well, I also need the web.config file, which has 8k of configuration in it. All this source code and configuration is available to browse or download.)

And then I can add other static content: js, css, images and whatever else I like.

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