Questions on differences from ASP.NET 2.0 to ASP.NET 3.5 MVC

Question

We are moving from regular 2.0 webforms with no testing to TDD MVC

I'm looking to find out all the requirements for making the jump from 2.0 to 3.5 MVC.

• Does SQL Server 2000 work with .net 3.5?
• Does the MVC Framework come with .net 3.5?
• How does AJAX work with all this stuff?
• Is visual studios team suite worth the time/money?

Answer 1

ASP.NET MVC is an extension of ASP.NET 3.5, it is still in beta and voices says that it will be available before the end of the year.

For your other questions: - .NET 3.5 works well on SQL Server 2000 - The MVC framework is not part of .NET 3.5 - For using AJAX with ASP.NET MVC it's better if you take a look at JQuery (or other frameworks). The support for ASP.NET Ajax is not fully available.

IMHO the real advantanges of ASP.NET MVC are:

• Testability
• Testability :-)
• The ability to generate the HTML that you really want! No viewstate! No other noise! :-)

BTW the jump to TDD with MVC is not simple...it needs time.

HTH

Answer 2

I'm by no means an expert with MVC, having just started with it myself, but let's see if I can address a couple of your questions.

• You absolutely can use SQL 2000 with the .NET Framework 3.5. I believe the SqlProvider still works with it. (Personally, I think it's preferable to work on at least 2005 -- I haven't had pleasure of working with 2008 yet, so I can't say anything about that.)
• MVC Framework does not come with 3.5, nor Visual Studio 2008. Download it at ASP.NET. I believe it's currently at beta 1.

Answer 3

MVC is still a separate download. jQuery has been announced that it will be a part of the MVC framework. (Also MS Ajax)

SQL Server 2000 is just your persistence location. It will work with any .Net framework, and is not dependent on a specific version.

I think if you are moving from Webforms to MVC that it will be more of a rewrite than a conversion. There is quite a difference in development between the two, and I think there is a larger jump than you are anticipating.

Answer 4

To answer some of your other questions:

Is visual studios team suite worth the time/money?

How much do you have? If you are a large company with a big budget and development staff and you are focused on Microsoft technologies than I would say yes. If you answered no to any of these questions, I would go the Open Source Route (Svn or GIT, Cruise Control or Team City, MsBuild, etc.)

We are moving from regular 2.0 webforms with no testing to TDD MVC and I need to know the lowdowns as in I've never made such a jump before (not that its a huge jump but I'm a nooby programmer that has just graduated college).

This is a good time for you to learn MVC then since you don't have a deep investment in Web Forms knowledge and MVC is a much better model for someone like you to master. TDD is not something that you will learn over night but stick with it and you will become a much better programmer because of it.

Answer 5

Anybody aware of a best practices or example project out there that uses ASP.NET MVC and LLBLGEN (selfservicing or adaptor)? Possibly something similar to S#arp Architecture.

I'm new to MVC and I'm constrained to using LLBLGEN.