Where should I store class files in an ASP.NET MVC project?

Question

I'm just starting to work with MVC and trying to understand the best practices behind designing an application. In the WebForms world, I typically just created a Classes folder where I stored all of my *.cs files. However, because of the way that MVC uses the folder structure to create different namespaces, I'm not sure that's the right thing to do any more. I can't seem to find any guidance from Microsoft on this topic, so I'm hoping someone here can oint me in the right direction.

Is there a right way to organize files in an MVC app? And, more generally, is there an authoritative place to look for this kind of best practice guidance?

Answer 1

Here's a sample folders structure:

• Controllers
• Models
• ViewModels
• Mappers
• Views
• Repositories
• Services
• Validators
• ...

Obviously those layers could be split between different assemblies.

You may also take a look at a sample MVC project structure I wrote.

Answer 2

The MVC namespaces don't dictate where your classes should be kept. However, it makes lot of sense if you store them in proper locations as per their category. e.g. if it's a controller class, you will store it in Controllers folder. If it's a ViewModel, you would store it in a ViewModel folder.

Having said that, I believe what you meant by classes were entities that you use for your business logic. If that's the case, you might want to store them in a seperate class library if you application is big enough and you are creating Plain Old CLR Objects (POCOs) by hand. This is the same as you did in the webforms world.

In case it's not a big application or you are using ORM generated entities like those generated by LINQ or Entity Framework, and not explicitly creating them, you might want to include the .DBML (LINQ) or .EDMX (Entity Framework) files in the Model folder. The Entities will then be inside the auto generated designer files in the Model folder.

Hope this helps.