ASP.NET MVC Update

By the way my blogging frequency has declined, you can guess I’ve been quite busy here at Microsoft preparing for the next release of ASP.NET MVC.

It’s not just working on specs, design meetings, etc... that keep me busy. It’s preparing for several talks, various spec reviews, building hands on labs, demo and and app building, etc...that keeps me busy. All the while I am still learning the ropes and dealing with selling a house in L.A. and buying a house up here. There’s a lot that goes into being a PM I naively didn’t expect, on top of just how much work goes into simply moving.

Not that I’m complaining. It’s still a lot of fun. ScottGu posted an entry on his blog about the fun we’re having in preparing for the upcoming ASP.NET MVC Mix Preview.

Here’s a screenshot that shows a tooling feature I’m particularly excited about.

Unit Testing Frameworks

I’ve written about the challenges Microsoft faces with bundling Open Source software in the past and what I thought they should do about it...

What I would have liked to have seen is for Team System to provide extensibility points which make it extremely easy to swap out MS Test for another testing framework. MS Test isn’t the money maker for Microsoft, it’s the whole integrated suite that brings in the moolah, so being able to replace it doesn’t hurt the bottom line.

What we have here is similar in spirit to what I hoped for. AFAIK it is not going to be integrated to the level that Visual Studio Team Test is integrated, but it also won’t require VSTS. This is a feature of the ASP.NET MVC project template.

I’m also excited about some of the community feedback we were able to incorporate such as removing the ControllerActionAttribute among other things. A hat or two might be eaten over that one ;).

In any case, there are still some areas I’m not yet happy with (there always will be, won’t there?), so we are not done by any measure. I’ll reserve talking about that until after Mix when you have the code in your hands and can follow along.

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What others have said

Requesting Gravatar... Michael K. Campbell Feb 12, 2008 3:40 PM
# re: ASP.NET MVC Update
MBUnit Support?!

You guys rule!!!!
Requesting Gravatar... Andy Stopford Feb 13, 2008 12:27 AM
# re: ASP.NET MVC Update
Great to see MbUnit support Phil, looking forward to seeing it.
Requesting Gravatar... Gianluca Gravina Feb 13, 2008 4:29 AM
# re: ASP.NET MVC Update
We appreciate it ... so much !
Requesting Gravatar... Andrei Rinea Feb 13, 2008 11:27 AM
# re: ASP.NET MVC Update
Any date figures?
Requesting Gravatar... Michael Washington Feb 13, 2008 12:09 PM
# re: ASP.NET MVC Update
I guess this is what happens when Microsoft lets "radicals" like you on the campus in Redmond. What is everyone going to complain about if the people complaining keep getting hired and allowed to do the stuff everyone was complaining about?
Requesting Gravatar... Michael Feb 13, 2008 12:51 PM
# re: ASP.NET MVC Update
Apart from ASP.NET MVC being a good thing (tm), the way it's being developed is also very good. Early releases, input, direct feedback channels, output etc. I hope that in the future the whole ASP.NET stack will be handled like this.

If ever you have a free afternoon, invite the guys from the IE team over and show them the positive feedback and appreciation and compare it to the b*tching they get on their blog. Maybe it will open their eyes to see that this way of development (open) benefits everyone.
Requesting Gravatar... Lance Fisher Feb 13, 2008 6:08 PM
# re: ASP.NET MVC Update
I can't remember ever being as excited about a piece of software as I am about ASP.NET MVC. It is due mostly to the way you guys have been openly building, discussing, and releasing it. Not to mention it's just a nice change from web forms. Thanks.
Requesting Gravatar... Marco Feb 17, 2008 10:38 AM
# re: ASP.NET MVC Update
Swapping out MSTest (and/or) making the test attributes compatible with NUnit / MBUnit would be great.

MSTest is good for quick load testing, but is rather slow at simple unit testing within the Visual Studio solution. (The testdriven.net plugin will speed things up a bit)

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