I really like the way ASP.NET MVC works. I’d love to implement it on all new web projects moving forward, but I hit a snag in a prototype the other day that I really haven’t found a good solution for, so I ask you, how would you design an MVC app that doesn’t fit the typical REST pattern? As an example, the prototype I was designing would have several pages, but the pages themselves aren’t necessarily bound to a domain model. For example, take a simple registration site, which might have the following pages:
- /Default.aspx
- /Register.aspx
- /ThankYou.aspx
Occasionally, such a program might require an admin section to deal with such details as moderating sign ups or reviewing data. In a standard ASP.NET web app, I might add the following
- /Admin/Default.aspx
- /Admin/ListRegistrations.aspx
- /Admin/ViewReports.aspx …
Would it be an unacceptable deviation from the MVC pattern, in this case, to have two controllers such as:
- Home->Index
- Home->Register
- Home->ThankYou
- Admin->Index
- Admin->ListRegistrations
- Admin->Reports
My frustration with this is compounded by the fact that there is no real solid implementation of subcontrollers and areas yet. I’m aware of the ‘Areas’ prototype put together by Phil Haack, but it’s not very mature, and quite frankly, I’m not sure I like the way it’s setup, but I don’t really know how I’d like to see that work either.
I guess when I think MVC, I tend to think REST as well, and having controller actions that represent pages rather than actual entities or actions doesn’t sit right with me. What do you think?
You can always mix ASP.NET Web Forms with MVC.
Just add
to your routing table and add traditional Web form pages to
Pagesfolder of the application.