Introduction
There has been a great deal of discussion recently regarding whether Microsoft’s comparatively recent Model View Controller (MVC) technology should inevitably supplant .NET Online Forms as the preferable web application development tool? but as anticipated, there is no proper answer, and with reason; both present distinct methods for accomplishing the same goal.
Some simply adore MVC and believe it’s fantastic while others still find .NET more compatible. Not to mention, every customer has their own different set of requirements and preferrable working style. There are its own unique advantages of the .NET framework and MVC framework both—for the same reason why it gets difficult to choose between them.
If you also happen to be on the list of clueless customers who don’t know whether to choose MVC or .NET development services, let me put you at ease! I’ve attempted to highlight some of the pros and cons of both frameworks below. This is not an attempt to persuade you one way or another, but rather to offer a better knowledge of why the two frameworks emerge as viable development alternatives for your business.
Let’s get started!
What is the MVC framework?
MVC is an acronym for Model-View-Controller. It is a pattern used in software design. This pattern is distinct from the MVVM pattern.
MVC is a design that emphasises separation of concerns, which implies that the View, Model, and Controller are all self-contained. As a consequence, teamwork, application maintenance, and testing become simpler and easier.
So, what this Model, View, and Controller are all about?
Model
In MVC, the Model is a collection of classes or projects that encapsulate your business logic. It encapsulates all business logic, such as modifying data for your company/application, as well as data access procedures, such as connecting to a database and retrieving data. In MVC, the Model communicates directly with the Controller.
View
In MVC, the View represents the pages that are displayed to user controls, i.e., the user interface component, which may be composed of HTML, CSS, jQuery, or JavaScript. In fact, the View component is entirely responsible for presenting data. It receives data from the Controller and returns it to the Controller. It has no direct communication with the Model.
Controller
The Controller is the foundation of the MVC architecture. Each request is routed to the Controller, which then asks for the appropriate information from the Model and provides it to the View in a variety of forms. It acts as a link between View and Model, acting as a communicator and validator.
How is ASP.NET MVC different from ASP.NET Web Forms?
ASP. NET framework is built on the MVC design pattern, which enables us to construct applications quickly, easily, and with complete control. It is not a replacement for Web Forms, but a complementary technology that keeps you current with emerging web technologies such as HTML5, Ajax, Web API, SignalR, OAuth, and Identity 2.0. You are not required to master them in order to learn MVC, but they are useful inside MVC.
Advantages of MVC:
1. The architecture of the project
One of the benefits of ASP.NET MVC is that it enforces concern separation. As a result, the odds of things becoming more complicated are quite slim.
2. Development with a test-driven approach and reusability
In MVC, the controller is a distinct class, which enables automated testing via Test-Driven Development.
Because controllers are not tied to a particular view, they may be reused for different views.
3. Performance
Because ASP.NET MVC does not allow view states, there will be no automated state management, which decreases the size of the page and thus improves performance.
4. Complete control over HTML
Because ASP.NET MVC does not enable server controls, the only choice is to use HTML input controls, which ensures that the final HTML generated is correct. Additionally, we will be aware of the ‘id’ of each element. Thus, it becomes simple to integrate an ASP.NET MVC application with third-party JavaScript libraries such as jQuery.
5. Support for concurrent development
Because the layers of ASP.NET MVC are loosely connected, one developer can work on the Controller, another on the View, and a third on the Model. This is referred to as concurrent development. Additionally, some of the .Net development tools work as a boon for developers that ultimately add to its overall performance.
6. SEO, URL routing, and REST
Rich routing capabilities enable you to consider each URL as a resource capable of being accessed via RESTful APIs.
Additionally, a user-friendly and readable URL boosts SEO.
NET MVC supports a variety of view engines, including aspx, razor, and custom ones.
7. Existing ASP.NET Framework Capabilities
Because ASP.NET MVC is built on top of the existing ASP.NET framework, it enables developers to make use of several useful features such as forms authentication, windows authentication, caching, session and profile state management, and so on.
Disadvantages of MVC:
1. More effort required for learning
The absence of an event-driven programming paradigm and ViewState makes ASP.NET MVC an extremely difficult framework to master for developers with little or limited expertise in developing online or web apps.
What Are .NET Web Forms?
The concept of .NET WebForms was developed out of a desire to address a persistent difficulty inherent in the construction of traditional ASP web pages. ASP pages in their classic form included both web code and related code-behind functionality in a single location: the ASP page.
Thus, a web page can rapidly devolve into lengthy spaghetti-code-filled texts that are frequently illegible and unmaintainable. For instance, the code to process page submissions was placed within the same page, which would then either redirect the user or require the user to stay on the current page but display a separate portion. This method of event handling proved cumbersome.
Microsoft sought to solve this worry by bringing their successful event-driven, “visual” windows programme development process to web development. As a result, they developed a framework that is more akin to the popular Visual Basic or Visual C++ desktop/forms development environments. Suddenly, developers could divorce view code from logic code by concentrating the majority of their web controls on a single page and containing all of the page’s code-behind, or “smarts,” on a whole different page.
The Benefits of NET Webforms
1. Rapid Application Development (RAD)
The processes behind the operation of controls and pages inside an event-driven framework are abstracted away, such that the web developer is typically not required to understand the inner workings of the process.
Drag & Drop controls include the majority of functionality by default. Third-party solutions are abundant, and controls like Grids automatically create HTML and JavaScript for the developer.
By simply specifying attributes on controls, applications with validation may be swiftly constructed.
Web application development is simple for newcomers to “pick up and go.”
2. Cost
Due to the fact that WebForms is an older, more legacy framework, the majority of .NET web developers have expertise with it, or more precisely, the desktop application event-driven framework from which it was developed — knowing the Web Forms framework implies a shorter learning curve.
3. Additional Maturity
As the old joke goes, “regardless of your age, I will always be younger.” While MVC is a relatively new .NET technology, WebForms was first and has a bigger and more comprehensive legacy implementation.
The Drawbacks of .NET Web Forms
- There is very little control over the HTML generated on the website.
- While the ability to drag and drop controls of HTML promotes rapid application development (RAD), the disadvantage is that the developer has limited control over the HTML generated on the page.
- Initially, a significant difficulty with Web Forms was the inability to control the HTML generated on the page, which meant that control ID generation was frequently left to chance.
- ID management gets compromised, making it more difficult to use client-side frameworks like jQuery, because control IDs, and even control nesting/hierarchies, are not always constant.
- While Microsoft has taken measures to address this in the most recent release of MVC, insufficient time has elapsed to assess if they have completely remedied the issue.
Conclusion
No single answer is infallibly superior to the others. The application framework should be picked in accordance with the demands and resources of the development organisation. If your development cycle demands a faster response than anticipated, Web Forms may be the best alternative for your business.
If your development project has the patience necessary to build an application from scratch, MVC may be the superior alternative. Again, neither framework is infallible, but one may be a better fit for your development team’s structure and resources.
