ASP.NET MVC > ASP.NET WebForms, Why?

Question

I've now completed my first web application using ASP.NET MVC and overall, I still am not grasping why this is getting all the praise and glory. Maybe I'm being stubborn. I know that what makes MVC great is that is forces separation between the presentation layer and the business object or data layer along with its stateless operation. I also know that when you are working with the view, it appears that the code is less readable (see my example below).

So I guess my question is... If the separation is the concern, why not just separate.

Web Forms View Code:

//UI
<h2><asp:Label ID="lblPageHeader" runat="server" /></h2>

Web Forms Code Behind:

//CODE BEHIND
this.lblPageHeader.Text = myObject.Header;

MVC Code View:

//UI
<h2><%= Html.Encode(Model.PageTitle) %></h2>

MVC Controller Code:

index = new Index
{
    PageText = sb.ToString(),
    PageTitle = "WELCOME"
};
return View(index);

Again, I might be being stubborn, but one of the things that I really liked in WebForms is the ease in setting object properties like DataSources and Text values. It seems like this is completely different in MVC and less readable which makes me wonder about long term maintenance.

EDIT After looking into the typed models, I think the readability of the code is substantially improved.

Answer 1

ASP.NET MVC Best Practices, Tips and Tricks

I would write:

<h2><%= Html.Encode(Model.Title) %></h2>

(it's possible with a help of typed views)

instead of

<h2><%= Html.Encode((MyApp.MyObject)ViewData["PageObject"].Header) %></h2>

I think it's all about how you use it. If you're more happy with classic ASP.NET, than maybe it will be a better idea to stick with it. Moreover, you could also take good stuff from ASP.NET MVC world (like UI and Logic separation) and bring it to the classic ASP.NET.

Answer 2

What's great about ASP.NET MVC is that is doesn't try to hide how HTTP works. To fully understand ASP.NET MVC you need to understand the technologies of the web.

While webforms are adequate as long as you work to their strengths, they're ultimately a very leaky abstraction when you don't. While the drawbacks of viewstate have been well discussed by this point I think it's the extremely unwise attempt to mimic the behaviour of Winforms that is the underlying flaw - viewstate is merely a product of that.

The web controls which ship with ASP.NET also leave a (hell of a) lot to be desired as anyone who has tried to build an accessible website can attest to. The web controls show a total lack of understanding for how frontend development is done, and frankly are a disgrace.

With ASP.NET MVC all that nonsense is done away with. You're not shielded from HTTP, HTML, CSS, or JavaScript - if you come to the party with those technologies the framework gets out of the way and lets you leverage them. If not, then thankfully it doesn't try to help you to pretend they don't exist.