ASP'net MVC in A Web Hosted World

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ASP.net MVC inA Web Hosted World
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Jeff Ammons

• The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
• Developer/DBA
• GGMUG.com
• President
• Gwinnett, Georgia, Microsoft User Group
• 2nd Thursday, 630 PM Gwinnett Tech
• Blog http//ammonsonline.com/jeffablog

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Agenda

• Define Hosted Environment
• Intro To MVC
• Define Challenges
• Explore Strategies

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What Is Hosted Environment?

• Web
• Shared Server
• Managed By Hosting Company

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Whats Included?

• Web Server
• File Storage
• Database
• Bandwidth
• Email

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Examples

• GoDaddy
• Hostgator
• DiscountASP.net
• Bizhostnet.com

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Data Persistence Options

• MySQL
• SQL Server
• File Based
• XML
• JSON

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SQL Server

• 15/month Unlimited 200 MB DBs
• Good basic set of functionality
• Choice of access methods
• LINQ To SQL
• Entity Framework
• ADO
• Etc.

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SQL Server and MySQL
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Who Is This Environment For?

• Start-ups
• Non-profit organizations
• Personal use

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Why Choose A Hosted Env?

• Lost cost (5-20/month)
• Quick Start
• Fewer People Required
• No hardware to buy
• No hardware to maintain
• No server room

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Challenges

• Server Access
• Server Options
• Server Load
• Dude, Wheres My Data?
• Dude, Who Can See My Data?

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Microsoft vs FOSSThe FOSS Advantage

• Lots of FOSS based sites (LAMP)
• Lots of FOSS sample code
• Zero start-up cost
• MS stack seen as ugly and corporate-looking

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Microsoft vs FOSSThe Empire Strikes Back

• Asp.Net MVC
• JQuery supported
• OFFICIALLY
• Visual Studio
• Express Edition
• BizSpark
• WebsiteSpark
• You CAN achieve zero start-up cost
• You CAN make good looking sites

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What is MVC?

• Model
• View
• Controller

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??

• Design Pattern
• Microsoft Web Framework

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MVC Pattern
Model Data Biz Rules
Controller Middle Man/Traffic Cop
View Presentation UI
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Asp.Net Options
SharePoint
WebForms
MVC
ASP.NET
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MVC vs Webforms

• MVC

• Webforms

• No controls
• Full control of emitted HTML
• Clean HTML emitted
• Might take longer but you have total control of
  look and feel
• Separation of Concerns
• Easier for tests, TDD
• Clean URLs
• www.myblog.com/my_story

• Lot of controls
• Dont need to do so much HTML
• Viewstate makes HTML lovers cry
• Quick but often looks like Microsoft Website
• More tightly coupled
• Not so clean URLs
• www.myblog.com/blog.aspx?permalinkmy_story

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Which To Choose?

• MVC

• Webforms

• Internet Apps
• UI is crucial
• Attracting user is crucial
• Users will leave if it doesnt look sexy

• Internal IT apps
• Developer time is crucial
• Fill biz need is crucial
• Users wont leave if it doesnt look sexy

None of these statements are absolutes!
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Demo Time

• Hello, MVC World
• jeffaBlogger

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How Do You Get MVC To Work In Hosted Env?

• Request IIS 7
• Publish Your Project
• Include MVC DLL if necessary

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Strategies For Success

• ActionLink Sucks At Virtual Directories
• www.mydomain.com
• www.mydomain2.com
• /root ? mydomain.com
• /root/mydomain2 ? mydomain2.com
• www.mydomain2.com/mydomain2/my_story

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ActionLinkV

• You can replace darned near anything in MVC
• The source is Open
• ActionLinkV replaces ActionLink
• Add Helpers Directory
• Add files to Helpers
• Register in web.config

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Cache, Cache, Cache

• Thanks to ASP.net plumbing
• You just call it differently than webforms
• Dont hit the database if you dont need to
• Set in the CONTROLLER
• Set for entire controller
• Set for individual methods
• Do NOT cache personal info!
• Options
• Set cache location
• Vary by param

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Repository Model

• Controller interacts with
• Interface
• Abstract Class
• Different implementations
• Entity Framework
• Linq To Sql
• Xml
• Mock

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Linq To Objects

• For small datasets
• Query collections of objects
• Use object serialization to save to disk
• What it wants to be when it grows up
• http//research.microsoft.com/en-us/projects/dryad
  /

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What Is LINQ?

• Language INtegrated Query
• SQL-like language construct for .Net
• Joins
• Tables
• Objects
• Both
• Aggregation
• Selection
• Go to Jim Wooleys session next!

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Example LINQ Query

• var orderedModuleList from module in
  itemList.getList()
• orderby
  module.Name
• select module

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LINQ To Lots Of Stuff

• LINQ To Entities
• LINQ To SQL
• LINQ To Objects
• LINQ To XML

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File System Options

• POCO (Built-in .Net Serialization)
• XML

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Why? Why? Why?

• Not ALL apps (or portions of apps) need
  relational databases
• Burn the heretic!!!
• SMALL datasets
• Lots of Readers/Few Publishers
• Blog
• Informational site
• Personal site
• Excessive DB Traffic

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Example

• Custom ASP.Net Membership Provider
• Basic log-on info
• Works great with 10-30,000 users
• Total DOG with 500,000 users
• No calls to DB server
• Most start-ups would KILL to get 10,000 users

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CSS Themes

• Standards Compliant
• http//www.freecsstemplates.org/
• Create base class for your controllers
• Put link into ViewData
• Since it is in the base of all your controllers,
  all controllers will pass it to the views

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Security

• HTML Encode as much data as possible
• Variety of Javascript attacks
• Use AntiForgeryToken helper

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Demo Time
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Goals For Your Project

• Website itself
• Web app others can use

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Helpful Links

• MVC
• http//www.asp.net/mVC/
• Blogs
• http//weblogs.asp.net/Scottgu/
• http//haacked.com
• http//www.hanselminutes.com/
• Sites
• http//www.nerddinner.com/
• http//stackoverflow.com/