Hello,
I'm not sure if it is viable to use ASP.NET MVC 2 Preview 1 already in a production system? I would like to, because it introduces several much-needed functionalities which are quirky in MVC 1.
Unfortunately I didn't find anything about that topic or roadmap information in ScottGu's release post from 7/31. Is MVC2P1 already pretty much what MVC will be (I don't know what the MVC team considers a preview)? Does anybody have better information on this?
Appreciate your input, thank you!
Based on MVC release 1, there were many previews before the final release. The original ASP.NET MVC 1 Preview 1 was very different from the final release. The final MVC 1 Preview 5 was very similar to the final release, differing very little (if at all), and I think the primary difference was bug fixes.
While MVC 2 is a refinement of MVC 1, it does have some major new initiatives (such as areas), and there is no guarantee that how the current MVC 2 Preview 1 works is how the final product will work. If you need longevity in your production system, I would really not recommend using any preview product in a production capacity unless you are willing to deal with possibly significant changes in the final release.
A side note...if you keep your production system updated with successive preview releases, that should ease your ultimate migration to the final version of MVC 2.
There are lots of improvements to the framework waiting in line for even Preview 2. For example, client-side data validation will be introduced in Preview 2 and will come with new pluggable APIs. The team is also still refining the templated view helpers. Thus, I don't think this is what MVC 2 will be.
All the stability and API change issues aside, I think Microsoft has not release the MVC 2 Preview with a license that lets you use the bits in production environment, ie a go-live license. This seems to be true at least for Preview 1.
I gather this from Scott Gu's blog comment and Phil Haack's blog comment.