Creating Your First MVC App in ASP.NET MVC

Creating Your First MVC App in ASP.NET MVC

Introduction ASP.NET MVC (Model-View-Controller) is a popular web development framework that follows the MVC architectural pattern. It allows developers to build scalable and maintainable web applications. In this documentation, we will walk you through the process of creating your first MVC app using ASP.NET MVC.

Prerequisites Before getting started, make sure you have the following prerequisites:

1. Visual Studio (any edition) installed on your machine.
2. Basic knowledge of C# programming language and web development concepts.
3. Familiarity with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.

Step 1: Create a New ASP.NET MVC Project

1. Launch Visual Studio.
2. Go to "File" -> "New" -> "Project".
3. In the "Create a new project" window, select "ASP.NET Web Application" and click "Next".
4. Choose a name and location for your project and click "Create".
5. In the "Create a new ASP.NET Web Application" window, select "MVC" and click "Create".

Step 2: Explore the Project Structure Once the project is created, you will see the following files and folders:

• Controllers: Contains controller classes that handle incoming requests and define actions.
• Models: Includes model classes representing data structures and business logic.
• Views: Contains the UI components responsible for rendering the user interface.

Step 3: Add a Controller

1. Right-click on the "Controllers" folder and select "Add" -> "Controller".
2. In the "Add Scaffold" window, select "MVC Controller with views, using Entity Framework" (if you want to use a database) or "Empty MVC Controller" (if you don't need a database).
3. Enter a name for your controller and click "Add".

Step 4: Define Actions in the Controller

1. Open the newly created controller file.
2. Define actions by adding methods inside the controller class.
3. Each action represents a specific functionality and should return a view or perform some operation.

Example:

csharp
public class HomeController : Controller
{
    public IActionResult Index()
    {
        return View();
    }

    public IActionResult About()
    {
        ViewData["Message"] = "Your application description page.";

        return View();
    }
}

Step 5: Create Views

1. Open the "Views" folder.
2. Create a subfolder with the same name as your controller.
3. Inside the subfolder, add a new view file for each action in the controller.

Example:

• Views
  • Home
    • Index.cshtml
    • About.cshtml

Step 6: Configure Routing

1. Open the "App_Start" folder and locate the "RouteConfig.cs" file.
2. Define routes to map incoming URLs to the corresponding controllers and actions.

Example:

csharp
public class RouteConfig
{
    public static void RegisterRoutes(RouteCollection routes)
    {
        routes.IgnoreRoute("{resource}.axd/{*pathInfo}");

        routes.MapRoute(
            name: "Default",
            url: "{controller}/{action}/{id}",
            defaults: new { controller = "Home", action = "Index", id = UrlParameter.Optional }
        );
    }
}

Step 7: Run the Application

1. Press F5 or click the "Start" button to run the application.
2. The default page (usually the Index page) of your application should be displayed in the browser.

Conclusion By following the steps outlined in this documentation, you have successfully created your first MVC app using ASP.NET MVC. You've learned how to create controllers, define actions, create views, and configure routing. This is just the beginning of your ASP.NET MVC journey, and there's much more to explore and learn.