What are the best learning resources to teach ASP.NET MVC to an ASP.NET programmer?

Question

What materials do you recommend for an experienced ASP.NET to learn ASP.NET MVC?

Answer 1

Learn some of the basics that are abstracted away, if poorly, by Web Forms:

• HTTP
• HTML / CSS
• JavaScript - client side programming
• Stateless programming

To name a few. The joy of MVC is that you get more control, but this means you need a better understanding of the core technologies you are dealing with. Learning other complementary technologies / ideas would probably be helpful too, for example the ideas behind REST effect alot of peoples decisions.

Answer 2

If you learn by reading books I would suggest checking out Professional ASP.NET MVC 1.0. It is written by Scott Hanselman, Phil Haack, Scott Guthrie and Rob Conery. Here you can download a whole chapter of the book for free which walks you through building an application entitled, "Nerd Dinner", from start to finish.

If you learn by example, then perhaps you would like to check out "Haackoverflow". It is a Stackoverflow-esque site created in ASP.NET MVC where you can post questions and answers. You can watch the video of it being created here on channel9.

Finally, if you are a visual learner I would highly suggest checking out the tutorial videos on the official ASP.NET MVC website. They cover topics such as routing, views, controller, validation, security, etc.

When searching the net or watching videos, be sure they are for version 1.0 or greater. There have been some breaking changes from the pre-release versions and they will only serve to confuse you.

Answer 3

The following list should be enough to set you on the path to self-help.

• ASP.NET MVC Home - Videos and tutorials
• ASP.NET Model View Controller (MVC) on MSDN
• Professional ASP.NET 3.5 MVC by Rob Conery, Scott Hanselman, Phil Haack

There are plenty of good blogs as well including those by the authors of the aforementioned book.

Answer 4

Read source code.

• Code Camp Server
• Suteki Shop
• Sharp Architecture
• ASP.NET MVC (when I was learning the framework having the source open was invaluable)

Answer 5

I would start here:

http://weblogs.asp.net/scottgu/archive/2009/04/28/free-asp-net-mvc-nerddinner-tutorial-now-in-html.aspx

This is the free online chapterof Professional ASP.NET MVC 1.0. It is a step-by-step walk through of creating an asp.net mvc site written by the team in charge of the project. Their individual blogs are also usually full of asp.net mvc features and code samples.

• Rob Conery http://blog.wekeroad.com/
• Scott Hanselman http://www.hanselman.com/
• Phil Haack http://haacked.com/
• Scott Guthrie http://weblogs.asp.net/scottgu/

Answer 6

If you like video training there is a pay site that I use doing a hands on series related to ASP.NET MVC.

learnvisualstudio.net