Whats a recommended solution structure for a somewhat large website in asp.net

Question

Im currently trying to refactor a project(asp.net mvc) that doesnt have any separation at all. just folders :s

• The project has a bunch of EF Code First classes (People.cs, Exam.cs, Message.cs, etc)
• The project has several repositories (which all use EF Data Context)
• And of course a lot of controllers and viewmodels

We have a Tests Project but we arent very good at TDD so its not something we are really working on as of now.

I would like to have a clearer separation on the different responsibilities that the project has to address and would appreciate some advice on a good project structure that achieves this.

Please help. thanks in advance

Answer 1

I would suggest following a Domain Driven Design (DDD) and one suggested way of laying this out would be creating the following projects:

Company.Project.Web <-- Your MVC Application, though you can still use WebForms Company.Project.Domain <-- Data Transfer Objects (DTO's), ViewModels, Business Logic, Events Company.Project.Data <-- Repository Interfaces

Company.Project.Data.EF <-- EntityFramework Specific Implementation of Repositories Company.Project.Model <-- Your EF CodeFirst Classes

Company.Common <-- A common project of utilities and/or extensions

I would suggest you take a look at Project Silk http://silk.codeplex.com/ from the patterns and practices team. Great reference implementation of DDD, Repository, and MVC as well as mixing in HTML 5 and jQuery (vNext).

Answer 2

We use a similar design to that mentioned by jdmonty but a bit simpler. We do the following:

• ApplicationName.Web - MVC Application
• ApplicationName.Services - Business logic
• ApplicationName.Domain - EF CodeFirst classes and the repositories that act on them
• ApplicationName.Common - Classes and utilities used by multiple projects
• ApplicationName.Tests - Test for the various projects

The Web project is dependent upon the Services project. The Services project is dependent upon the Domain project.