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The ASP.NET MVC Framework is an open source web application framework and tooling that implements a version of the model-view-controller (MVC) pattern tailored towards web applications and built upon an ASP.NET technology foundation.

Microsoft ASP.NET MVC Framework is an open-source web application framework and tooling that implements a version of the model-view-controller (MVC) pattern tailored towards web applications.

ASP.NET MVC Framework provides an alternative to the ASP.NET WebForms Framework for creating Web applications and is a more lightweight and testable framework than its WebForms cousin, even though they are both built upon the same base ASP.NET Foundation. It uses existing ASP.NET features, and in more recent versions has become more unified with WebForms via Microsoft's "One ASP.NET" initiative. The MVC framework is defined in the System.Web.Mvc assembly.

releases also tend to package additional technologies, such as the Razor View Engine, Web Optimization Framework, ASP.NET WebAPI, along with tooling such as Scaffolding and integration into Visual Studio.

The Model-View-Controller architectural pattern, upon which ASP.NET MVC is based separates an application into three main components: the model, the view, and the controller. The reason for this separation is to provide a cleaner overall architecture, while improving maintainability. This concept is often referred to as a "Separation of Concerns."

A model represents the state of a particular aspect of the application. Frequently, a model maps to a database table with the entries in the table representing the state of the application. A controller handles interactions and updates the model to reflect a change in state of the application, and then passes information to the view. A view accepts necessary information from the controller and renders a user interface to display that.

Since the ASP.NET MVC 4 release, Microsoft has shipped the framework both with a specific release of Visual Studio, as well as via the Nuget package management system. This package management method allows for easier "out of band" releases (versions not tied to a specific version of Visual Studio), along with a more module release so that sub-components can be chosen to be included or not (ASP.NET WebApi for example).

The latest announcements from Microsoft regarding ASP.NET MVC usually come from the .NET Web Development and Tools Blog, Visual Studio Blog or .NET Framework Blog. Other notable blogs relating to MVC are Scott Guthrie's Blog, ASP.NET by Scott Hanselman and Imran Baloch's Blog.

Unless you have a good reason not to, try to keep your MVC version current. There are bug fixes in newer versions, as well as new features. It makes little sense to create new projects using older versions of MVC today. The first thing you should do after creating a new project is open up the NuGet package manager and apply all updates (with the possible exception of jQuery 2.x. If you need compatibility with older browsers stay with the latest version jQuery 1.x, which is feature compatible with the 2.x line).

Versions shipped with Visual Studio

  • Visual Studio 2017 - ASP.NET MVC 5.2.3 - ASP.NET Core MVC 1.1.2
  • Visual Studio 2015 - ASP.NET MVC 5.2.0
  • Visual Studio 2013 - ASP.NET MVC 5.1.0
  • Visual Studio 2012 - ASP.NET MVC 5.0.0
  • Visual Studio 2010 - ASP.NET MVC 2 (no point releases)
  • Visual Studio 2008 - None (MVC was released after 2008 was)

Requirements by version

  • MVC 5.x - Visual Studio 2012 - CLR 4.0 - Framework 4.5
  • MVC 4 - Visual Studio 2010 - CLR 4.0 - Framework 4.0
  • MVC 3 - Visual Studio 2010 - CLR 4.0 - Framework 4.0
  • MVC 2 - Visual Studio 2008 - CLR 2.0
  • MVC 1 - Visual Studio 2008 - CLR 2.0

Current Releases (Available through NuGet) * Stable release 5.2.3 (February 9, 2015)

References

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Please note that most questions that may refer to a specific version of ASP.NET MVC will likely apply to newer versions as well. So if the question says MVC3, it likely also applies to MVC4 and MVC5.x, etc.

Tutorials (High quality external articles on Frequently asked topics)

History Usage Guidance history

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