dmtyry / example-aspnet-mvc

Example C# MVC project. Creating a comic book catalog.

example-aspnet-mvc

https://teamtreehouse.com/library/aspnet-mvc-basics

Setup

• ASP.NET Web Application for Visual C#
• Leave Create directory for solution unchecked.
• Create new Git repository checked.
• Select Empty template.
• Select MVC for Add folders and core references for.

Adding a Controller

• Right click Controllers folder in the project > Add > Class
• Filename for a controller class must end in Controller so Visual Studio can distinguish controllers from regular classes.
• Our controller must inherit from the MVC controller base class and include using System.Web.Mvc
• Controller must be public so its accessible.
• See Controller/ComicBooksController.cs

Adding Action Method

• Methods need to be public so its accessible.
• http://localhost:62466/ComicBooks/Detail via ComicBooksController.cs
• http://localhost:62466/Sarn/Test via Sarn.Controller.cs

    public class ComicBooksController : Controller
    {
        public string Detail()
        {
            return "Hello";
        }
    }

• URL routing is controller/action
• ContentResult, ViewResult, and RedirectResult are a type of action result type.
• Had to modify the return type to ActionResult. In order to find out that was the correct type to return that works for both ContentResult and RedirectResult you can hover over those types and click on F12 (to view the code) or ALT+F12 (to peek the code).

Adding View

• In View folder right click Add > MVC 5 View Page (Razor) to add a view or right click on a controller method.
• You may need to create a folder for each controller and have the view be inside that folder. See View/ComicBooks/Detail.cshtml
• Razor is a view language allowing you to create views by combining C# and HMTL.
• For Razor, you can edit without having to recompile.
• ViewBag is an object built into MVC that allows you to pass data from a controller to a view. See Controller/ComicBooksController.cs
• Using a dynamic type like ViewBag you don't get intellisense in the view when developing using Razor. See strongly typed view below
• ViewBag variables are not case-sensitive.

Add Third Party Files

• Once you add it in the root of the project, you'll need to click on the Show All Files icon to see it in Visual Studios

//generates a link in Razor
@Html.ActionLink("Comic Book Gallery", "Index", "ComicBooks", new { area = "" }, new { @class = "navbar-brand" })

Adding Data Model

• Data modeling is the noun in a website
• Models > ComicBooks.cs

ViewBag.artists = new string[]
{
    "Script: Dan Slott",
    "Pencils: Humberto Ramos",
    "Inks: Victor Olazaba",
    "Colors: Edgar Delgado",
    "Letters: Chris Eliopoulos"
};

• Since the data in artists appears to be the artist and a role, we can break this down into an artist model

    // strongly typed view - by putting object into the view vs. ViewBag.ComicBook = comicBook;
    return View(comicBook);  // will automatically look in the views folder

• Instead of using the ViewBag method, you can make comicBook be a strongly typed view. To make the view strongly typed, go to the view and add @model ComicBookGallery.Models.ComicBook. See Details.cshtml.
• Doing it this way allows the intellisense to work.

// sometimes you need to wrap a Razor statement in parenthesis
@(Model.Favorite ? "Yes" : "No")

• By typing in foreach and then hitting tab twice triggers a prebuilt Visual Studio codesnippet generating

foreach (var item in collection)
{

}

• CTRL + ; = search project.
• constructor can not have a return value and shares the same name as the class name.

// allow nullable
public ActionResult Detail(int? id)

Debugger

• F11 - Step Into
• F10 - Step Over
• Shift + F11 - Step Out

Set default page

• /App_Start/RouteConfig.cs or Global.asax > right click RouteConfig > Goto Definition
• Custom routes = non-default routes.

<h4>@Html.ActionLink(@comicBook.DisplayText, "Detail", new { id = comicBook.Id })</h4>
<a href="@Url.Action("Detail", new { id = comicBook.Id})">
    <img src="/Images/@comicBook.CoverImageFileName"
            alt="@comicBook.DisplayText"
            class="img-responsive" />
</a>

// new { id = comicBook.Id }

• ^ Object initializer syntax