Question

I am not starting an argumentative discussion here and this post is not about career development, but from the commercial point of view:
If a company was using ASP.Net MVC as a main methodology to build their web sites and application.
However, ASP.Net MVC takes more time to show a functional application than ASP.Net Web Forms, for example, building domain models would take some time which obviously can’t be represented on a UI at that current stage.

My question is, if a client wants to see a functional demo application (just a proof of concept) so he knows that the company he is dealing with is professional and capable of doing that. Would it be better to do that demo in ASP.Net Web Forms only to show the client, and then work on the real application using ASP.Net MVC? If not, what are the (quick) alternatives?, I mean, if we tell the client to wait till we have a working demo (by ASP.Net MVC) we may lose the client and the whole project opportunity.

Answer 1

WebForms being faster than MVC is a myth:

1. You are not required to have a domain model, just something that represents your database tables. This is the same in WebForms unless you are using SqlDataSource’s.
2. The code in your !IsPostBack or btnSubmit_OnSubmit is almost identical to the HttpPost controller actions. Except with MVC you don’t have to write left to write object.FirstName = txtFirstName.Text when you understand how UpdateModel works.
3. UI is UI. If you know HTML/CSS creating the UI is just as easy. Almost easier in MVC because you don’t have to set control properties any longer and all UI can be done in one place.

Fast MVC comes from understanding how to get the most bang from your buck using EditorFor, DisplayFor templates. You’ll need to know and understand how to customize your Object.ascx file. With this technique under your belt you won’t have to create forms by hand anymore. 2 projects ago we had a site with 100% autogenerated forms. Change a class, change a form. Done!

Another helpful MVC tool is the DataAnnotations attributes. Validation made easy. Customizing these is really easy too. Just create your own ModelMetaDataProvider and starting expanding the validations your application can handle.

The only part of MVC that is slower is displaying a grid. MVC 3 already has a useful grid tool and MVCContrib has had a grid tool out for a year now. I ended up rolling my own, its very simple actually, loop through properties, write <td />‘s. < 200 lines of code. This isn’t really a benefit to WebForms either. To use WebForms grid components means giving up a lot of quality using ObjectDataSources and the like.

To summarize fast MVC comes from these different techniques:

• Object.ascx
• ModelMetadataProviders
• UpdateModel
• DataAnnotations

If you are more advanced and know ORMS like EntityFramework and how to use Automapper your probably going to be even faster.