This topic contains information about key features and improvements in the .NET MVC . This topic does not provide comprehensive information about all new features and is subject to change. In case you are looking for ASP.NET MVC Hosting, you can always consider HostForLife.eu and you can start from our lowest Standard Plan € 3.00/month to host your ASP.NET MVC site.

When using ASP.NET MVC to post data that might contain HTML or other potentially dangerous data, the default behavior as of the Release Candidate is to throw an exception, preventing the posting of the data.  This is a well-known feature of ASP.NET that was introduced several versions ago, and the typical way to avoid it (when necessary for the applications function) is to add validateRequest=false either to the @Page attribute or to the <pages /> section in web.config.  Notably, this doesnt actually work with ASP.NET MVC RC (and v1.0 I presume).

The reason for this is because of the way ASP.NET MVC processes requests.  In traditional web forms, the page itself is responsible for handling the request, but in MVC the controller has this responsibility.  The ASPX page in MVC is simply the view, and in fact a particular request might not even render a view, completely bypassing the Request Validation features of the Page.

Instead, request validation has been moved to the controller, which is where any logic for writing possibly dangerous data to the database would reside.  If it is necessary to bypass Request Validation in an ASP.NET MVC application, then the way to achieve it is with an attribute on the controller or action involved.

We were trying to add a post with an <img /> tag in it to test out one of the features of the blog.  Unfortunately, we initially got a request validation exception when we tried to post the content, and after adding validateRequest=false to the <pages /> section in web.config, the error persisted.  A little bit of research revealed the need to update the controller associated with the post (not the one used to render the Add view) with the ValidateInput(false) attribute, like so:

[ValidateInput(false)]
public ActionResult Create([Bind(Prefix=””)] Models.BlogEntry entry)
{

}

Top Reasons to host your ASP.NET MVC Website with HostForLife.eu

There are many reasons why so many people choose HostForLife over any other web hosting provider each year. Whether you’re beginner or an experience webmaster, HostForLife offers the perfect solution for everyone.

You’ll have highly trained, skilled professional technical support people ready, willing, and wanting to help you 24 hours a day. Your web hosting account servers are monitored from three monitoring points, with two alert points, every minute, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. The followings are the list of other added-benefits you can find when hosting with us:

1. World-class 24x7 Customer Support
Will your hosting company promptly answer questions and resolve issues - at 3 am on a Sunday? Even some providers claiming “24x7” support will not - but HostForLife will. Our outstanding uptime is backed by true 24x7 customer support. An expertly trained technician will respond to your query within one hour, round the clock. You will also get qualified answers. Other hosting companies typically have very low - level support staff during the night or weekends. HostForLife always has knowledgeable, top - level  support standing by, day or night, to give you the answers you need.

2. Commitment to Outstanding Reliability
Reliability, Stability, and Performance of our servers remain out TOP priority. Even our basic service plans are equipped with standard service level agreements for 99.99% uptime. Advanced options raise the bar to 99.99%. Our state-of-the-art data centers combine servers and SAN storage with full redundancy and operational tools with proprietary service management techniques. Full backup and recovery capabilities are implemented, including redundant power supplies, cooling and connectionsto major data networks.

3. “Right-size” plans for maximum value
HostForLife offers a complete menu of services. IT professionals select only what they need - and leave behind what they don’t. The result is an optimal blend of cost and performance. We offer IT professionals more advanced features and the latest technology - ahead of other hosting companies.

4. Profitable, Stable, Debt-free Business
Financial stability is the bedrock of a hosting provider’s ability to deliver outstanding uptime, cost-effective service plans and world-class 24x7 support.  HostForLife’s customers are assured of our financial integrity and stability - a stark contrast to the ups and downs they may have experienced with other providers.

5. The Best Account Management Tools
HostForLife revolutionized hosting with Plesk Control Panel, a Web-based interfaces that provides customers with 24x7 access to their server and site configuration tools. Some other hosting providers manually execute configuration requests, which can take days. Plesk completes requests in second. It is included free with each hosting account. Renowned for its comprehensive functionally - beyond other hosting control panels - and ease of use, Plesk Control Panel is available only to HostForLife’s customers.

6. 30-Day Money Back Guarantee
HostForLife 30 day money back guarantee ensures you have the ability to cancel your account anytime within your first 30 days under our full 30 day money back guarantee (less one-time account setup free). So what are you waiting for? Sign up today, risk free…

7. Simplicity with FREE 1-Click Installation
HostForLife was designed with ease of use in mind. From one click installations of your favourite website applications to our much talked about drag and drop website builder, you can rest assure your stay with us is going to be a smooth one. HostForLife offers the most extensive set of scripts on the web allowing you to build complicated websites with little or no programming knowledge at all. From blogs to forums to powerful e-commerce solutions, Super Green has something that is right for you.

This topic contains information about key features and improvements in the .NET MVC . This topic does not provide comprehensive information about all new features and is subject to change. In case you are looking for ASP.NET MVC Hosting, you can always consider HostForLife.eu and you can start from our lowest Standard Plan € 3.00/month to host your ASP.NET MVC site.

Model binding in the ASP.NET MVC framework is simple. Your action methods need data, and the incoming HTTP request carries the data you need. The catch is that the data is embedded into POST-ed form values, and possibly the URL itself. Enter the DefaultModelBinder, which can magically convert form values and route data into objects. Model binders allow your controller code to remain cleanly separated from the dirtiness of interrogating the request and its associated environment.

Tip 1 : Prefer Binding Over Request.Form

If you are writing your actions like this ..

[AcceptVerbs(HttpVerbs.Post)]
public ActionResult Create()
{
    Recipe recipe = new Recipe();
    recipe.Name = Request.Form[“Name”];

    // ...

    return View();
}

.. then you are doing it all wrong. The model binder can save you from using the Request and HttpContext properties – those properties make the action harder to read and harder to test. One step up would be to use a FormCollection parameter instead:

public ActionResult Create(FormCollection values)
{
    Recipe recipe = new Recipe();
    recipe.Name = values[“Name”];

    // ...

    return View();
}

With the FormCollection you don’t have to dig into the Request object, and sometimes you need this low level of control. But, if all of your data is in Request.Form, route data, or the URL query string, then you can let model binding work its magic:

[AcceptVerbs(HttpVerbs.Post)]
public ActionResult Create(Recipe newRecipe)
{
    // ...

    return View();
}

In this example, the model binder will create your newRecipe object and populate it with data it finds in the request (by matching up data with the recipe’s property names). It’s pure auto-magic. There are many ways to customize the binding process with “white lists”, “black lists”, prefixes, and marker interfaces. For more control over when the binding takes place you can use the  UpdateModel and TryUpdateModel methods.

Tip 2 : Custom model binders

Model binding is also one of the extensibility points in the MVC framework. If you can’t use the default binding behavior you can provide your own model binders, and mix and match binders. To implement a custom model binder you need to implement the IModelBinder interface. There is only method involved - how hard can it be?

public interface IModelBinder
{
    object BindModel(Controller Context controllerContext,
                     ModelBindingContext bindingContext);
}

Once you get neck deep into model binding, however, you’ll discover that the simple IModelBinder interface doesn’t fully describe all the implicit contracts and side-effects inside the framework.  If you take a step back and look at the bigger picture you’ll see that model binding is but one move in a carefully orchestrated dance between the model binder, the ModelState, and the HtmlHelpers. You can pick up on some of these implicit behaviors by reading the unit tests for the default model binder.

If the default model binder has problems putting data into your object, it will place the error messages and the erroneous data value into ModelState. You can check ModelState.IsValid to see if binding problems are present, and use ModelState.AddModelError to inject your own error messages.

Both the controller action and the view can look in ModelState to see if there was a binding problem. The controller would need to check ModelState for errors before saving stuff into the database, while the view can check ModelState for errors to give the user validation feedback. One important note is that the HtmlHelpers you use in a view will require ModelState to hold both a value (via ModelState.SetModelValue) and the error (via AddModelError) or you’ll have runtime errors (null reference exceptions). The following code can demonstrate the problem:

[AcceptVerbs(HttpVerbs.Post)]
public ActionResult Create(FormCollection Form0
{
    // this is the wrong approach ...
    if (Form[“Name”].Trim().Length == 0)
        ModelState.AddModelError(“Name”, “Name is required”);

    return view();
}

The above code creates a model error without ever setting a model value. It has other problems, too, but it will create exceptions if you render the following view.

<%= Html.TextBox(“Name”, Model.Name) %>

Even though you’ve specified Model.Name as the value for the textbox, the textbox helper will see the model error and attempt to display the “attempted value” that the user tried to put in the model. If you didn’t set the model value in model state you’ll see a null reference exception.

Tip 3 : Custom Mode Binding via Inheritance

If you’ve decided to implement a custom model binder, you might be able to cut down on the amount of work required by inheriting from DefaultModelBinder and adding some custom logic. In fact, this should be your default plan until you are certain you can’t subclass the default binder to achieve the functionality you need. For example, suppose you just want to have some control over the creation of your model object. The DefaultModelBinder will create object’s using Activator.CreateInstance and the model’s default constructor. If you don’t have a default constructor for your model, you can subclass the DefaultModelBinder and override the CreateModel method.

Tip 4 : Using Data Annotations for Validation

.NET 3.5 SP1 shipped a System.ComponentModel.DataAnnotations assembly that looks to play a central role as we move forward with the .NET framework. By using data annotations and the DataAnnotationsModelBinder, you can take care of most of your server-side validation by simply decorating your model with attributes.

public class Recipe
{
    [Required(ErorrMessage=”We need a name for this dish.”)]
    [Regular Expression(“^Bacon”)]
    public string Name { get; set; }

    // ...
}

The DataAnnotationsModelBinder is also a great sample to read and understand how to effectively subclass the default model binder.

Tip 5 : Recognize Binding and Validation As Two Phases

Binding is about taking data from the environment and shoving it into the model, while validation is checking the model to make sure it meets our expectations. These are different different operations, but model binding tends to blur the distinction. If you want to perform validation and binding together in a model binder, you can – it’s exactly what the DataAnnotationsModelBinder will do. However, one thing that is often overlooked is how the DefaultModelBinder itself separates the binding and validation phases. If all you need is simple property validation, then all you need to do is override the OnPropertyValidating method of the DefaultModelBinder.

Tip 6 : Binders Are About The Environment

Earlier we said that “model binders allow your controller code to remain cleanly separated from the dirtiness of interrogating the request and its associated environment”. Generally, when we think of binder we think of moving data from the routing data and posted form values into the model. However, there is no restriction of where you find data for your model. The context of a web request is rich with information about the client.

Conclusion

Model binding is beautiful magic, so take advantage of the built-in magic when you can. We think the topic of model binding could use it’s own dedicated web site. It would be a very boring web site with lots of boring code, but model binding has many subtleties. For instance, we never even got to the topic of culture in this post.

Top Reasons to host your ASP.NET MVC Website with HostForLife.eu

There are many reasons why so many people choose HostForLife over any other web hosting provider each year. Whether you’re beginner or an experience webmaster, HostForLife offers the perfect solution for everyone.

You’ll have highly trained, skilled professional technical support people ready, willing, and wanting to help you 24 hours a day. Your web hosting account servers are monitored from three monitoring points, with two alert points, every minute, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. The followings are the list of other added-benefits you can find when hosting with us:

1. World-class 24x7 Customer Support
Will your hosting company promptly answer questions and resolve issues - at 3 am on a Sunday? Even some providers claiming “24x7” support will not - but HostForLife will. Our outstanding uptime is backed by true 24x7 customer support. An expertly trained technician will respond to your query within one hour, round the clock. You will also get qualified answers. Other hosting companies typically have very low - level support staff during the night or weekends. HostForLife always has knowledgeable, top - level  support standing by, day or night, to give you the answers you need.

2. Commitment to Outstanding Reliability
Reliability, Stability, and Performance of our servers remain out TOP priority. Even our basic service plans are equipped with standard service level agreements for 99.99% uptime. Advanced options raise the bar to 99.99%. Our state-of-the-art data centers combine servers and SAN storage with full redundancy and operational tools with proprietary service management techniques. Full backup and recovery capabilities are implemented, including redundant power supplies, cooling and connectionsto major data networks.

3. “Right-size” plans for maximum value
HostForLife offers a complete menu of services. IT professionals select only what they need - and leave behind what they don’t. The result is an optimal blend of cost and performance. We offer IT professionals more advanced features and the latest technology - ahead of other hosting companies.

4. Profitable, Stable, Debt-free Business
Financial stability is the bedrock of a hosting provider’s ability to deliver outstanding uptime, cost-effective service plans and world-class 24x7 support.  HostForLife’s customers are assured of our financial integrity and stability - a stark contrast to the ups and downs they may have experienced with other providers.

5. The Best Account Management Tools
HostForLife revolutionized hosting with Plesk Control Panel, a Web-based interfaces that provides customers with 24x7 access to their server and site configuration tools. Some other hosting providers manually execute configuration requests, which can take days. Plesk completes requests in second. It is included free with each hosting account. Renowned for its comprehensive functionally - beyond other hosting control panels - and ease of use, Plesk Control Panel is available only to HostForLife’s customers.

6. 30-Day Money Back Guarantee
HostForLife 30 day money back guarantee ensures you have the ability to cancel your account anytime within your first 30 days under our full 30 day money back guarantee (less one-time account setup free). So what are you waiting for? Sign up today, risk free…

7. Simplicity with FREE 1-Click Installation
HostForLife was designed with ease of use in mind. From one click installations of your favourite website applications to our much talked about drag and drop website builder, you can rest assure your stay with us is going to be a smooth one. HostForLife offers the most extensive set of scripts on the web allowing you to build complicated websites with little or no programming knowledge at all. From blogs to forums to powerful e-commerce solutions, Super Green has something that is right for you.

Controller’s best practices

1. Delete the account controller
You will never use it and it’s a super-bad practice to keep demo code in your applications.

2. Isolate controller from the outside World
Dependencies on the HttpContext, on data access classes, configuration, logging, clock, etc… make the application difficult (if not impossible) to test, to evolve and modify.

3. Use an IoC Container
To make it easy to adhere to Best Practice #2, use an IoC Container to manage all that external dependencies.

4. Say NO to “magic strings”
Never use ViewData[“key”], but always create a ViewModel per each View, and use strongly-typed views ViewPage<ViewModel>.

Magic strings are evil because they will never tell you whether your view is failing due to a misspelling error, while using a strongly-typed model you will get a compile-time error when there is a problem. And as bonus you get Intellisense.

5. Build your own “personal conventions”
Use ASP.NET MVC as a base for your (or your company’s) reference architecture. Enforce your own conventions having controllers and maybe views inherit from your own base classes rather then the default ones.

6. Pay attention to the verbs
Even without going REST (just RESTful) use the best Http Verb for each action.

Model’s best practices

7. DomainModel ! = View Model
The DomainModel represents the domain, while the ViewModel is designed around the needs of the View, and these two worlds might be (and usually are) different. Furthermore the DomainModel is data plus behaviours, is hierarchical and is made of complex types, while the ViewModel is just a DTO, flat, and made of strings.

8. Use ActionFilters for “shared” data
This is our solution for the componentization story of ASP.NET MVC, and might need a future post of its own. You don’t want your controllers to retrieve data that is shared among different views. My approach is to use the Action Filters to retrieve the data that needs to be shared across many views, and use partial view to display them.

View’s Best Practices

9. Do NEVER user code-behind

10. Write HTML each time you can
We have the option that web developers have to be comfortable writing HTML (and CSS and JavaScript). So they should never use the HtmlHelpers whose only reason of living is hiding the HTML away (like Html.Submit or Html.Button). Again, this is something that might become a future post.

11. If there is an if, write an HtmlHelper
Views must be dumb (and Controllers skinny and Models fat). If you find yourself writing an “if”, then consider writing an HtmlHelper to hide the conditional statement.

12.Choose your view engine carefully
The default view engine is the WebFormViewEngine, but IMHO it’s NOT the best one. We prefer to use the Spark ViewEngine, since it seems to me like it’s more suited for an MVC view. What we like about it is that the HTML “dominates the flow and that code should fit seamlessly” and the foreach loops and if statements are defined with “HTML attributes”.

Top Reasons to host your ASP.NET MVC Website with HostForLife.eu

There are many reasons why so many people choose HostForLife over any other web hosting provider each year. Whether you’re beginner or an experience webmaster, HostForLife offers the perfect solution for everyone.

You’ll have highly trained, skilled professional technical support people ready, willing, and wanting to help you 24 hours a day. Your web hosting account servers are monitored from three monitoring points, with two alert points, every minute, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. The followings are the list of other added-benefits you can find when hosting with us:

1. World-class 24x7 Customer Support
Will your hosting company promptly answer questions and resolve issues - at 3 am on a Sunday? Even some providers claiming “24x7” support will not - but HostForLife will. Our outstanding uptime is backed by true 24x7 customer support. An expertly trained technician will respond to your query within one hour, round the clock. You will also get qualified answers. Other hosting companies typically have very low - level support staff during the night or weekends. HostForLife always has knowledgeable, top - level  support standing by, day or night, to give you the answers you need.

2. Commitment to Outstanding Reliability
Reliability, Stability, and Performance of our servers remain out TOP priority. Even our basic service plans are equipped with standard service level agreements for 99.99% uptime. Advanced options raise the bar to 99.99%. Our state-of-the-art data centers combine servers and SAN storage with full redundancy and operational tools with proprietary service management techniques. Full backup and recovery capabilities are implemented, including redundant power supplies, cooling and connectionsto major data networks.

3. “Right-size” plans for maximum value
HostForLife offers a complete menu of services. IT professionals select only what they need - and leave behind what they don’t. The result is an optimal blend of cost and performance. We offer IT professionals more advanced features and the latest technology - ahead of other hosting companies.

4. Profitable, Stable, Debt-free Business
Financial stability is the bedrock of a hosting provider’s ability to deliver outstanding uptime, cost-effective service plans and world-class 24x7 support.  HostForLife’s customers are assured of our financial integrity and stability - a stark contrast to the ups and downs they may have experienced with other providers.

5. The Best Account Management Tools
HostForLife revolutionized hosting with Plesk Control Panel, a Web-based interfaces that provides customers with 24x7 access to their server and site configuration tools. Some other hosting providers manually execute configuration requests, which can take days. Plesk completes requests in second. It is included free with each hosting account. Renowned for its comprehensive functionally - beyond other hosting control panels - and ease of use, Plesk Control Panel is available only to HostForLife’s customers.

6. 30-Day Money Back Guarantee
HostForLife 30 day money back guarantee ensures you have the ability to cancel your account anytime within your first 30 days under our full 30 day money back guarantee (less one-time account setup free). So what are you waiting for? Sign up today, risk free…

7. Simplicity with FREE 1-Click Installation
HostForLife was designed with ease of use in mind. From one click installations of your favourite website applications to our much talked about drag and drop website builder, you can rest assure your stay with us is going to be a smooth one. HostForLife offers the most extensive set of scripts on the web allowing you to build complicated websites with little or no programming knowledge at all. From blogs to forums to powerful e-commerce solutions, Super Green has something that is right for you.

Are you looking for an affordable hosting service? Are you looking for good service at affordable prices? Try HostForLife.eu, only with € 3.00/month, you can get a reasonable price with best service. This topic contains only brief information about ASP.NET MVC, if you want to be more familiar with ASP.NET MVC, you should try HostForLife.eu.

Introduction

Overall, ASP.NET is one of the most popular web application frameworks along with PHP, Java and others. However, the classic ASP.NET WebForms style of application development also has its limitations. For instance, cleanly separating the user interface from the application logic and database access can be a challenge in WebForms applications. Thus, Microsoft created ASP.NET MVC. MVC stands for Model View Controller.

The ASP.NET MVC technology has already been introduced earlier (see the Resources section at the end of this article), and thus this article focuses on the new and improved features planned for .NET Framework version 4.0 that should become available in Spring, 2010. Originally Microsoft announced Visual Studio 2010 would launch on March 22nd, 2010, but most recent announcements indicate delays. As far as version numbers are concerned, the next version of ASP.NET MVC will be assigned the version number 2.0. In this article, you will learn what's new and improved in the newest Release Candidate (RC) version of ASP.NET MVC 2. At the time of this writing (late December, 2009) the latest beta version of Visual Studio 2010 is Beta 2, and it doesn't yet come with the ASP.NET MVC 2 RC. The unfortunate thing is that if you are using Visual Studio 2010 Beta 2, you cannot yet test MVC 2 RC with that version (you can naturally continue to use the older Beta 2 version). Instead, you must test the MVC 2 RC on Visual Studio 2008 SP1.

Of course, the final versions of ASP.NET MVC 2 are planned to work with both Visual Studio 2008 and 2010, so the current is only an interim situation.

Exploring the New Features

ASP.NET MVC 2 is an evolutional update to the framework. The basic features of the original version 1.0 are intact, but new features make development easier and result in cleaner code. The following list summarizes the key new features:

1. Area support and multi-project routing
2. Improved syntax for handling posts (form submits) in controllers
3. HtmlHelper object improvements
4. Attribute support for field validation in models
5. Globalization of validation messages
6. Field templates with custom user controls, and more.

Let's walk through each of these in more detail, starting from the top. In MVC 1.0, each view page was thought of as being a separate unit, and served to the browser as a single unit, possibly combined with a master page. However, if you wanted to combine, say, two views into a single page, you either had to manually render one of the pages or create a user control (.ascx) from one of the views, and then use that control inside the main view page. Although user controls are a fine solution, they break out of the MVC pattern.

In MVC 2, you can utilize so-called areas to solve the problem. With area support, you can combine different view pages into a single, larger view similar to the way you can build master pages (.master) and designate parts of them to be filled with content at run-time. It is possible to combine areas into views both inside a single MVC web project ("intra-project areas"), or combine areas in different projects into views ("inter-project areas"), accessible through direct URLs in the same scope.project ("intra-project areas"), or combine areas in different projects into views ("inter-project areas"), accessible through direct URLs in the same scope.

The following paragraphs walk you through using areas inside a single project. If you wanted to combine multiple MVC web projects into a single larger application, you would need to manually edit the .csproj project files of each project part of the overall solution (the edits you need to do are documented in the .csproj XML comments), add proper project references from the child projects to the master project, and then register routes using the MapAreaRoute method of the Routes object in the Global.asax file. In this article, focus is on single-project area support.

To get started with the areas, right-click your project's main node in Solution Explorer, and select the Add/Area command from the popup menu. This will open a dialog box asking for the name of your new area. Unlike with controller names, you don't need to append the word "Area" to the name, but you can if you prefer. However, bear in mind that intra-project areas will be accessed using the default route of /areaname/controllername/action/id. Because of this, you might not want to suffix the word "Area". In this article however, the word "Area" is appended for clarity.

Once you have created your area, Visual Studio will add a new folder called "Areas" in your project. This folder will contain a sub-folder with the name of your area, and inside that you will see a familiar layout of folders for controllers, views and models. In fact, you would add controllers, views and models to this area folder just the same as you would add them to your "master" MVC project. All in all, an area is like a mini MVC application inside another. Note also the AreaRegistration.cs code file. This file's definitions are referenced to from the Global.asax.cs file.

Areas can be used in multiple ways. Because they are directly accessible using the previously mentioned default route, you can utilize them like any other link inside your application. Or, if you had an area controller action that would return a snippet of HTML code to be used inside a larger HTML page (a normal view page), you could use HtmlHelper.RenderAction as follows:

<% Html.RenderAction("NetworkStatus", "Application", new { Area = "StatusArea" }); %>

Notice how there's an anonymous object being used to specify which area you want to use. Because areas can be completely independent of the master project, you can easily create usable parts or building blocks from your MVC applications and then combine them into larger solutions.

Area support is a very welcome addition to the framework. Luckily to us developers, area support is by no means the only new feature in ASP.NET MVC 2, like the next sections show.

Handling posts and encoding

When you need to handle form posts in your MVC applications, you generally write a new, overloaded controller action method to process the submitted data, and store it for example in a database. Since you only want these methods to be called using the HTTP protocol POST verb, you add an attribute at the beginning of the method like this:

[AcceptVerbs(HttpVerbs.Post)]
public ActionResult MyAction(MyObject data)
...

Although there's nothing wrong in the AcceptVerbs attribute, ASP.NET MVC 2 allows you to achieve the same thing with a shorter attribute declaration:

[HttpPost]
public ActionResult MyAction(MyObject data)
...

Even though this is a small improvement, it is very likely that all MVC developers give it a warm welcome. Another useful new improvement is the support for automatically encoded output tags in view pages. Strictly speaking, this is not a new ASP.NET MVC feature, but instead a feature in ASP.NET 4.0. Even so, this new tag type is especially useful in MVC applications.

To illustrate the new tag, consider the following very common need to encode output for HTML:

<%= Model.CustomerName %>

This is a very simple tag, and works well in many situations. However, if the customer name were to contain certain special characters, you would need to encode the output to avoid user interface mess-ups and cross-site scripting attacks. A straightforward MVC method would do the trick:

<%= Html.Encode(Model.CustomerName) %>

All these ways to encode output are not inconvenient, but a shorter syntax would be great. This is what the nifty new “code block” tag does:

<%= Model.CustomerName %>

Notice the colon (:) immediately after the opening tag. It is a new way to encode output. The old equal sign syntax (which itself is a shortcut for Response.Write) is not going away. You can continue to use the old way, but the colon-syntax encoding is there to make the view page syntax cleaner.

Note that at this writing, you cannot use ASP.NET MVC 2 RC within Visual Studio 2010 Beta 2. Thus, you cannot effectively use this combination to test these code block tags, but you can test them in regular ASP.NET 4.0 applications (or with the older MVC Beta 2).

Using lamda expressions with the HtmlHelper object

If you have used ASP.NET MVC 1.0, then you've most probably also created a model object and enabled editing of its details with HTML code similar to the following:

<%= Html.TextBox(“Name”, Model.Name) %>

Although this is fine for many purposes, the problem is that you still have to enter a string constant. Because it is a string, the compiler will not complain if you later change the property name in the model class, but forget to change the HTML tag. Also, the syntax is somewhat verbose (at least to some developers), and requires you to manually create one field per model object property.

In ASP.NET MVC 2, you can use the new TextBoxFor method. Just like the previous HtmlHelpers methods like Label, ListBox, and so on, there are now multiple *For methods that all accept a lambda expression returning the correct object value.

Thus, to create a new editing control for the Name property, you could write code like this:

<%= Html.TextBoxFor(c => c.Name %>

Here, the lambda expression parameter "c" is replaced at runtime with the model object instance, and in addition to getting rid of the string value, you will get full IntelliSense support just like before with the model object.

ASP.NET MVC 2 also brings support for a convenient way to create editing forms for complex objects quickly. For instance, if you had a model object with three fields, you could either manually create labels and text boxes for each of the three fields, or use a new extension method called EditorForModel. This method will create form fields for each visible property in the model:

<%= Html.EditorForModel() %>

This method is really convenient, if you don't have special formatting requirements for your editing forms.

Top Reasons to host your ASP.NET MVC Website with HostForLife.eu

There are many reasons why so many people choose HostForLife over any other web hosting provider each year. Whether you’re beginner or an experience webmaster, HostForLife offers the perfect solution for everyone.

You’ll have highly trained, skilled professional technical support people ready, willing, and wanting to help you 24 hours a day. Your web hosting account servers are monitored from three monitoring points, with two alert points, every minute, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. The followings are the list of other added-benefits you can find when hosting with us:

1. World-class 24x7 Customer Support
Will your hosting company promptly answer questions and resolve issues - at 3 am on a Sunday? Even some providers claiming “24x7” support will not - but HostForLife will. Our outstanding uptime is backed by true 24x7 customer support. An expertly trained technician will respond to your query within one hour, round the clock. You will also get qualified answers. Other hosting companies typically have very low - level support staff during the night or weekends. HostForLife always has knowledgeable, top - level  support standing by, day or night, to give you the answers you need.

2. Commitment to Outstanding Reliability
Reliability, Stability, and Performance of our servers remain out TOP priority. Even our basic service plans are equipped with standard service level agreements for 99.99% uptime. Advanced options raise the bar to 99.99%. Our state-of-the-art data centers combine servers and SAN storage with full redundancy and operational tools with proprietary service management techniques. Full backup and recovery capabilities are implemented, including redundant power supplies, cooling and connectionsto major data networks.

3. “Right-size” plans for maximum value
HostForLife offers a complete menu of services. IT professionals select only what they need - and leave behind what they don’t. The result is an optimal blend of cost and performance. We offer IT professionals more advanced features and the latest technology - ahead of other hosting companies.

4. Profitable, Stable, Debt-free Business
Financial stability is the bedrock of a hosting provider’s ability to deliver outstanding uptime, cost-effective service plans and world-class 24x7 support.  HostForLife’s customers are assured of our financial integrity and stability - a stark contrast to the ups and downs they may have experienced with other providers.

5. The Best Account Management Tools
HostForLife revolutionized hosting with Plesk Control Panel, a Web-based interfaces that provides customers with 24x7 access to their server and site configuration tools. Some other hosting providers manually execute configuration requests, which can take days. Plesk completes requests in second. It is included free with each hosting account. Renowned for its comprehensive functionally - beyond other hosting control panels - and ease of use, Plesk Control Panel is available only to HostForLife’s customers.

6. 30-Day Money Back Guarantee
HostForLife 30 day money back guarantee ensures you have the ability to cancel your account anytime within your first 30 days under our full 30 day money back guarantee (less one-time account setup free). So what are you waiting for? Sign up today, risk free…

7. Simplicity with FREE 1-Click Installation
HostForLife was designed with ease of use in mind. From one click installations of your favourite website applications to our much talked about drag and drop website builder, you can rest assure your stay with us is going to be a smooth one. HostForLife offers the most extensive set of scripts on the web allowing you to build complicated websites with little or no programming knowledge at all. From blogs to forums to powerful e-commerce solutions, Super Green has something that is right for you.