.net – Where and how is the _ViewStart.cshtml layout file linked

asp.net-mvcasp.net-mvc-3netrazor

Here's the About.cshtml from the default MVC 3 template:

@{
    ViewBag.Title = "About Us";
}

<h2>About</h2>
<p>
     Put content here.
</p>

I would expect that a reference to the _ViewStart file would be found in the About.cshtml, but clearly it's not.

I've looked in global.asax and web.config, but I can't find out how the About.cshtml file is "linked" with the layout from the _ViewStart file.

Everything works as expected, I'd just like to know what's going on under the hood…

Best Answer

From ScottGu's blog:

Starting with the ASP.NET MVC 3 Beta release, you can now add a file called _ViewStart.cshtml (or _ViewStart.vbhtml for VB) underneath the \Views folder of your project:

The _ViewStart file can be used to define common view code that you want to execute at the start of each View’s rendering. For example, we could write code within our _ViewStart.cshtml file to programmatically set the Layout property for each View to be the SiteLayout.cshtml file by default:

Because this code executes at the start of each View, we no longer need to explicitly set the Layout in any of our individual view files (except if we wanted to override the default value above).

Important: Because the _ViewStart.cshtml allows us to write code, we can optionally make our Layout selection logic richer than just a basic property set. For example: we could vary the Layout template that we use depending on what type of device is accessing the site – and have a phone or tablet optimized layout for those devices, and a desktop optimized layout for PCs/Laptops. Or if we were building a CMS system or common shared app that is used across multiple customers we could select different layouts to use depending on the customer (or their role) when accessing the site.

This enables a lot of UI flexibility. It also allows you to more easily write view logic once, and avoid repeating it in multiple places.

Also see this.

This is the style that Microsoft tends to use in their examples.

It appears that the guidance in this area may have changed, as StyleCop now enforces the use of the C# specific aliases.

C# – the difference between const and readonly in C#

Apart from the apparent difference of

having to declare the value at the time of a definition for a const VS readonly values can be computed dynamically but need to be assigned before the constructor exits.. after that it is frozen.
const's are implicitly static. You use a ClassName.ConstantName notation to access them.

There is a subtle difference. Consider a class defined in AssemblyA.

public class Const_V_Readonly
{
  public const int I_CONST_VALUE = 2;
  public readonly int I_RO_VALUE;
  public Const_V_Readonly()
  {
     I_RO_VALUE = 3;
  }
}

AssemblyB references AssemblyA and uses these values in code. When this is compiled:

in the case of the const value, it is like a find-replace. The value 2 is 'baked into' the AssemblyB's IL. This means that if tomorrow I update I_CONST_VALUE to 20, AssemblyB would still have 2 till I recompile it.
in the case of the readonly value, it is like a ref to a memory location. The value is not baked into AssemblyB's IL. This means that if the memory location is updated, AssemblyB gets the new value without recompilation. So if I_RO_VALUE is updated to 30, you only need to build AssemblyA and all clients do not need to be recompiled.

So if you are confident that the value of the constant won't change, use a const.

public const int CM_IN_A_METER = 100;

But if you have a constant that may change (e.g. w.r.t. precision).. or when in doubt, use a readonly.

public readonly float PI = 3.14;

Update: Aku needs to get a mention because he pointed this out first. Also I need to plug where I learned this: Effective C# - Bill Wagner

Best Answer

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This is the style that Microsoft tends to use in their examples.

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