Do you think ASP.NET MVC will compete with ASP.NET Webforms?

Question

Do you think ASP.NET MVC will ever have a significant share of the Microsoft web development market? Or will it be more like 10-15% of the market?

Answer 1

I think it will be a slow start because of the webforms install base. As unit testing and markup control starts to become more important to more people then I think you start to see a migration. I doubt that it will ever reach 100% of the MS install base for a web platform but it will be a steady rise over the next years to come. There will be the fan-boys who will say this will dominate planet sliced bread but that just isn't realistic. With that, I'm hoping not to have to use Webforms for a long, long time.

EDIT: Now that we are at Beta 1 we are starting to see the component vendors start to ship some stuff. Looks like first up to bat is Telerik with their ASP.NET Ajax Controls in ASP.NET MVC

Answer 2

Oh yes. It's going to blow web forms out of the water - we've already seen how valuable a true MVC framework can be in the Java world. In the MS world - it's really been a void that has needed to be filled.

As a former Java/Struts dude - I find it pretty frustrating doing current work in web forms - because I know that there are tools out there that would make my life so much easier.

Answer 3

I don't think so. The purpose and the goal of both solutions are different, and APS.NET Web Forms is more like a platform while MVC is architecture framework, so the question is a bit odd. In my opinion MVC in combination with good AJAX support and correct server side model structure could be the more convenient way to develop sub-range of Web application, but Web Forms are not going away and they will have further improvements in next versions.

Cheers.

Answer 4

I think that eventually, MVC will have a 100% share of the MS-web-market. It's just better.

Answer 5

MVC is great but won't become a real contender as a replacement for Web Forms until it includes it's own rich control set. As you probably already know, some of the existing controls do work with it but many don't. Regardless of this though, I still love using it.

Answer 6

As Ty said, there won't be a lot of adoption until the controls are there. I do think it will surpass webforms once they are. The webform model falls too pieces once you need to do something complicated and it is difficult to test. The ability to unit test MVC is HUGE, but people just don't know what they are missing yet.

I think that ASP.NET MVC is the best of ASP classic (lots of rendering control) and ASP.NET (the ability to have real architectures and lack of spaghetti code).

Answer 7

Well, .NET has never been able to fully counter the inertia of Visual Basic 6 (I still see a few shops here and there who are just beginning to shift to .NET), so one has to consider the inertia of ASP.NET Webforms and how it is deployed everywhere at the moment.

ASP.NET MVC will reach wide adoption, no doubt, but it will be something that is promoted by architect-conscious types: some managers and less-than-fast-paced devs won't care.

Answer 8

I think developers who like that development model will adopt it, but I prefer webforms because the lifecycle provides a great way to create re-usable controls.

And you can also maintain an MVC development style with webforms and be able to create unit tests of all your code, so being testable isn't really an argument for MVC being better.

Answer 9

My guess is that MVC is an alternative solution to "classic" Webform programming if you are interested in things like TDD, REST, write your own HTML, and so on. For the moment developers are still fond of D&D development style, because it allows quick development of applications, even then it becomes unmaintainable. As more people start adopting Agile methodologies and become more interested in writing maintainable sw versus developing quick&dirty apps, MVC will gain more user base. In a talk I remember ScottH saying that they think MVC will float around a 5-10%,

Answer 10

My guess is that microsoft would really have to stand up and say "MVC is the only way you should be doing web applications" before businesses bothered with it on a large scale. So no, as it stands now, small user base.

Answer 11

I've only recently begun working with MS's MVC Framework. I started getting into it quite a bit with the release of Preview 5. The biggest hurdle with getting people to use it is the lack of examples and useful reference material out there.

The framework itself has been a great experience to use especially when combined with jQuery and nUnit. The design for your site becomes much more natural from an OO perspective and I think that once the learning curve is reduced with quality primer material widely available then it will move towards becoming the dominant architecture for web development using MS products.

Answer 12

I think more people understand the importance of Model View Controller and the limitations of a simple Page Controller, which is what ASP.Net forms really are.

The problem, as someone pointed out, is the Visual Basic guys - you know people that came from classic ASP experience and never seen any Unit Testing and/or MVC-based Java/Ruby/PHP development. I believe that's the bulk of .NET developers out there. I read somewhere that there were 6 million VB developers in the world. Guess, what these are doing now?

People who came from Java/Ruby/PHP shops who already used to MVC apps will certainly adapt MS MVC framework.

Answer 13

I think that the webforms fulfills a security/ comfort need for those who do not have experience outside a code-behind paradigm. I am not saying that is bad, because for many tasks in business the goal is get something done and live with it. Unfortunately business is about results, and many times you are forced to ignore methods.

On the other hand, when the situation does call for complex interaction between pages, webforms introduces so much complexity with all the work arounds. Register script blocks just to be able to fire off javascript? What about when you want to windows to communicate client-side? MS should invest some time beefing up their toolset for javascript debugging, maybe even offer a series on JSON / JQuery on MSDN. Just some thoughts.

Answer 14

I think MVC will catch on more in enterprise level applications, where testability and flexibility is more of great importance compared to that of small mom & pop applications.

There are no plans to phase out the classic code-behind model and I feel that since most people are used to that technology that many are most likely stay with it.

If one has no experience with MVC, then it can be quite a paradigm shift. I don't see tons of people flocking to it. I would think the 80% code-behind and 20% MVC percentages would hold true.

Since the code-behind model has been around for such a long time, I bet there are many programmers that only have had experience with the classic code-behind event life cycle.

Answer 15

5 Reasons You Should Take a Closer Look at ASP.NET MVC

Answer 16

The place that the MVC really makes sense is if you already understand the underlying concepts of HTTP and Rest. If you are really seeking to leverage custom JavaScript and have a highly domain user optimized experience. If you like your web forms development with all your drag-and-drop controls and are comfortable with your user experience and your Atlas update panels, than you really should stick with it.

MVC is for the rest of us that want to easily leverage .NET server side and a custom client side. It is for those who have web designers and folks who want to build custom HTML as we as have those who are accomplished programmers.

If you are a solitary person (maybe the IT guy) throwing stuff together for your intranet for the front office, you may be better served by webforms. That is really where webforms and .NET shine. Some of the newer tools EF and MVC ad value for teams and larger scale development.

So no, I think they complement each other.