Differences between Asp.Net Web Forms and Asp.Net MVC
Even though both Asp.Net Web Forms and Asp.Net MVC built on core Asp.Net APIs and .Net Framework, there are some differences between them. In this article we discuss about those differences in detail. Below table lists the differences between Asp.net Web Forms and Asp.Net MVC.
|
Asp.Net Web Forms |
Asp.Net MVC |
|
Pages handles requests |
Controllers handles requests |
|
Views tightly couple to logic |
Views and logic kept separate |
|
View state used for state management |
No automatic state management |
|
Server Controls |
HTML helper classes |
|
Master pages |
Layouts |
|
Web User controls |
Partial views |
Pages Vs Controllers
In Asp.Net Web Forms applications pages (extension .aspx) handles incoming requests whereas in Asp.Net MVC Controller (extension .cs) handles incoming requests. Controllers are nothing but.Net classes but name should be ended with Controller to differentiate them from normal classes. For example DefaultController.cs will be the valid Asp.Net MVC Controller.
State Management
View State maintains state at client side. Asp.Net Web Forms has View state to maintain the state whereas Asp.Net MVC ditches the View State and become the completely stateless. You can maintain the state in Asp.Net MVC by using Session, which means we can achieve the state management facility in Asp.Net MVC by using session at server side. For state management techniques in Asp.Net Web Forms visit /post/State-Management-using-QueryString-Cookies-ViewState-Session-and-Application-in-ASPNET-2605 .
Server Controllers Vs HTML helper Classes
In Asp.Net Web Forms data binds using Asp.Net Server Side controllers in .aspx page. In Asp.net MVC HTML helper classes helps us to bind the data in .cshtml UI (In Asp.Net MVC .cshtml screens used to display the data in UI). As we don’t have View State in Asp.Net MVC, we have only HTML controls to display the data. For HTML helper classes /post/html-and-url-helper-methods-in-asp-net-mvc .
Master Pages Vs Layouts
To maintain the common layout in applications we have Master pages (.master) in Asp.Net Web Forms whereas Layouts (.cshtml) in Asp.Net MVC. Both Maste pages & Layouts behaves same to provide the consistent look and feel across the applications. For Asp.Net Master Pages visit /post/Master-Page-and-Content-Pages-In-ASPNET & for Asp.Net MVC Layouts visit /post/layouts-in-asp-net-mvc .
Web User Controls Vs Partial Views
To re-use the common functionality in several places across the application we have Web User Controls (.ascx) in Asp.Net Web Forms. Same we can achieve by using Partial Views (.cshtml) in Asp.Net MVC. For more info on Asp.Net Web user Controls visit /post/4MicrosoftSolutionsWeb-User-Conrols-in-ASPNET & for Asp.Net MVC Partial Views visit /post/partial-views-in-asp-net-mvc.
