New ASP.NET MVC Framework Preview Available

I wrote about the ASP.NET MVC Framework previously — and since then, had a chance to take a look at the source code and provide some feedback of my own. In my opinion, it has a long way to go, but it is a great step in the right direction from Microsoft. Not only are they moving toward public involvement in releases and a more acceptable release schedule, but a better overall philosophy of community involvement and adherence to de facto web application code design standards. It seems MS got the hint from the success of Open-source frameworks and felt the need to compete. Who says Open-source competition for developers hearts and minds is not a good thing?

The recent release offers the following, according to ScottGu:

• In addition to posting the source code for the ASP.NET MVC framework, we are also posting the source code for the unit tests that we use to test it. These tests are implemented using MSTest and the open source Moq mocking framework. A VS 2008 project file for the unit tests is included to make it easy to build and run them locally within your VS 2008 IDE.

• Significantly easier support for testing Controller classes. You can now unit test common Controller scenarios without having to mock any objects (more details on how this works below).

• Several nice feature additions and usability improvements to the URL routing system (more details below).

The code smells suspiciously like Ruby on Rails. That could be a good or bad thing, depending on your perspective.

Personally, I think it is fabulous. I encourage Microsoft to do whatever they have to do to step into realm of acceptable development frameworks. There is still a huge desire for .NET applications in the Enterprise and in certain circles. C# has heavy adoption and the framework is well-supported commercially and by the parent vendor. It only makes sense to offer this kind of update to the framework.

It is what The People want — and it’s what, in my heart of hearts, I want. Considering Microsoft is all about The People, they will continue to do the right thing… right?