ASP DotNET Web Forms Versus ASP DotNET MVC

In case you have considerable experience in ASP.NET development, much of the knowledge and expertise would come handy during the creation of Model View Controller application. Since MVC is a component of the .NET framework, most of the interfaces, class and namespaces can be utilized in these applications. Here we will discuss the positive aspects of both Web Forms as well as MVC models.

An overview of web forms

Web forms were introduced to solve great many problems for web developers through creation of abstraction of a higher level over stateless web as well as simulated stateful model. Concepts such as ViewState, which helps in maintenance of control values at the time of postbacks, along with self postback, which facilitates posting of form data within same page, were introduced. The striking aspect is that not a single line of code needs to be written. The Visual Basic model is brought back into web by Microsoft. Let us examine the major strengths:

1. Event Model: An event-oriented programming style is supported which is similar to Windows applications. A number of events are available. Moreover, there are server controls to render support to these.

2. State Management: The intricacy of managing state is reduced through the use of server-based controls and view state.

3. Page-oriented architecture: Here we have an architecture which merges a page having declarative markup (in fact an .aspx file) along with a code-behind file which includes functionality. This structure makes room for convenient creation of pages which implement common tasks like markup rendering from server code and responding to user gestures.

4. Extensive set of controls: A plethora of server controls as well as components that help in the reduction of development time are provided by the .NET web development community.

A glance at MVC

ASP.NET MVC is one of Microsoft’s web application framework developed with separation of concerns as well as testability in mind. It is designed on CLR and entirely revolves around MVC architecture. There is no support for ViewState or server controls. The strengths are as follows:

I. Separation of concerns: A “separation of concerns” is enforced, which facilitates the division of the application into loosely-bound and discrete parts, incorporating the view, model and controller components of the application. In this way, testing and maintenance of MVC applications becomes more convenient.

II. Enhanced control for rendered HTML: Significant boost of control for rendered HTML is realized.

III. Test-oriented development: With MVC, it is easier to go for test driven development. An MVC project as well as its test project can be created simultaneously. Following this, unit tests can be designed with respect to every action method within the application, and they can be run without the need to invoke the web application’s total request cycle.

ASP.NET framework aspects in sync with MVC

MVC and web forms might appear to be distinct technologies. However, both these technologies are developed across the ASP.NET framework. As a result, most features utilized in the development of web forms are also available for Model View Controller application design. This incorporates features like authentication, membership, configuration and roles, which work in an identical manner in both categories of apps. Most of the interfaces, classes and namespaces can be utilized in an MVC app.

ASP.NET framework aspects that are not in line with MVC

Since in case of Model View Controller, state information is not maintained by utilization of view state, other ways need to be sought for state information management, if the same is required. In addition to this, server controls relying on postback and viewstate would not operate as designed for an MVC application. So, controls like Repeater, GridView as well as DataList controls should not be used. In case of a Web Forms page, the life cycle is complex, incorporating a number of events. Model View Controller application does not render support to such events since the interactions between the view, model and controller utilize distinct life-cycle models.

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Top Advantages of building web applications using MVC framework

MVC stands for Model View Controller - this is a model used for software development purposes. It is popular among various major programming languages today such as Java, PHP, ASP.NET etc. It has a pattern followed by many of the developers for customizing World Wide Web applications at ease. Model holds the business rules, functions and logic. View represents data structure or a chart or a diagram. Controller controls the model and the view.

Today it is being used as the powerful framework for building web applications using MVC pattern. The Model represents the application core, whereas the View displays the data and the Controller handles the input. The MVC separation helps one to manage complex applications, because one can focus on one aspect at a time. For example, one can focus on the view without depending on the business logic and thus makes it simpler and easier to test a web application. Here both the view and the controller depend on the model; the model depends on neither the view nor the controller. This is one the main advantages of the separation. Hence this allows the model to be built and tested independently of the visual presentation. The separation between the view and the controller is secondary in many client applications and many user interface frameworks implement the roles as one object as one package, thus no interference in each of the module.

In web applications, on the other hand, the separation between view (the browser) and controller (the server-side components handling the HTTP request) is very well defined. The MVC separation also simplifies team development. Different programmers can work on the business logic, view and the controller logic parallel thus without interfering in each other’s work.

Introduction of MVC in ASP.Net

In ASP.Net, there was a need to change the ASP.NET development pattern because working with Webforms became a difficult task, When MVC did come, it is now instrumental in meeting different business demands and making developer work easier. Let us understand what were the main disadvantages of Webforms in ASP.NET.

1. Web forms by nature hide all the nature of HTTP.
2. The user has no more control on the HTML markup generated by Web forms.
3. There is no separation of Concerns in web forms. Presentation and business logic are tightly coupled in web form. For example, ASPX and ASPX.VB (or) ASPX.CS files are tightly coupled or depend one another. The Design (Presentation Logic) and Code Logic cannot be separated.

With each new version, MVC is getting more and more productive and helping develop richer and far more effective solutions.

Top Advantages of building web applications using MVC framework

MVC Framework is built upon a proven MVC design-pattern. ASP.NET has one of the major defects where it uses HTML size of controls and view state. View state stores all the HTML rendered data and the final HTML gets too large. If there is a slow internet connection, the load time is delayed. This has been taken care in MVC framework. MVC framework does not deal with view state concept. With MVC and JQuery integration makes it even better to write code that runs in the browser and takes away load from the server. Thus loading application quickly saving lot of development time. It also supports multiple views and unit testing as a part of Visual Studio 2008 and 2010. The MVC architecture isolates the domain logic from the user interface, allowing for quicker, more controlled development. MVC is under continued enhancements and getting finer day by day, providing more benefits with each new version.

MVC manages complexity because of its separated nature of model-view-controller makes it easier to manage the complexity of large applications and keep it well organized. Programmers are able to focus on one aspect of execution at a time, such as concentrating on the view without depending on the business logic or vice-versa. Some functions and classes of MVC can even be auto-created to save time. With MVC, it is faster test-driven development. Testing applications get easier than it is to test form-based ASP.NET web applications. This is because the separation of application tasks are all defined differently so they add no more complexity. Programmers can test their development work by writing a failing automated test case to define a desired improvement then evaluating the new code.

Because of the flexible coupling of the MVC architecture, rapid and parallel development is possible. It is much easier for more than one developer can code at the same time on the application. If one programmer is working on the view, another can work on the controller logic and the other on the business logic in the model, the application is capable enough to be completed three times faster. With model-view-controller, development gets quicker and independent, thus saving development time. The MVC framework gives full control over the behavior of their application because MVC does not use a view state or server-based forms. Since the controller uses different pieces of the model and view to create a request, many of these parts can be reused in other MVC applications. These reusable building blocks are chosen by the controller to handle specific processing and display needs.

The model-view-controller architecture also integrates with the JavaScript Framework. This means, MVC applications can be made to work with applications outside web pages, such as PDF documents, site-specific browsers, and desktop widgets. It also supports asynchronous calls to such scripts which results to faster loading.

MVC gives the ability to control the application. Rather than using Viewstate or Postback events to store the state of server controls on the page and to manage invocation of server side events, MVC instead uses different view engines to generate the markup that streams back to the browser client. The advantage here is that one can easily produce more standard markup and have greater control over what will be rendered to the client.

As a way to solve developers issues on time, everyone have been turning to MVC frameworks which promise increased productivity and maintainable code. Thus gaining more momentum in business growth.

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4 Ways to Enhance Security of DotNET Web applications

With more and more businesses going online, website development has become complex and complement. Nowadays, developers frequently look for fresh and innovative ideas to optimize the look and feel of web application. At the same time, they also need to ensure that the website is high performing, scalable and secure. As a rapid web application development framework, Microsoft Dot Net is widely used by programmers across the world to build websites, web application and web services.

The framework also comes with several features and tools that enable programmers to optimize the performance of the website without writing longer lines of code. Also, Microsoft regularly update Dot Net framework with advanced authentication configuration and security features to keep the web application safe and inaccessible. However, each enterprise must consider a number of additional factors to optimize the security of its website. Some of these points can even be incorporated in the initial ASP.NET development plan.

Enhancing the Security of Your Dot Net Web Application

1. Set Least Privileges for the Website: Often the security of a website depends on the specific privileges it has on the local as well as remote computers. So you must configure the ASP.NET process identity properly to avoid potential security threats. It is also important to minimize the practical privileges for users while running the application. At the same time, you need to ensure that the users have no option to run the application as an administrator.

Based on the resources needed by the website, you have to set permissions by defining Access Control Lists (ACLs). In addition to setting all your files as read-only, you must not allow users to access a specific a path. The configuration will ensure that the root of your sever remains inaccessible when the application is running.

2. Identify Each User: Many enterprises allow users to access the web application without providing any credentials. The anonymous access to your application resources will have a huge impact on its security. So you must restrict unauthentic access to the application both on the intranet and web. If the Dot Net application will run on an intranet, you must configure it using Windows integrated security. The configuration will allow users to access the resources using their Windows login credentials. However, you also have option to use the ASP.NET authentication strategies to compel the user to provide login credentials.

3. Eliminate the Impact of Malicious User Input: The Dot Net framework allows programmers to validate the user input using a set of advanced authentication methods. But you must not assume that the user input is safe and harmless. As the malicious users can damage your website by submitting potentially dangerous information, you have to consider several ways to eliminate the impact of malicious user input. The HTML tags can also be used to submit scripts. So you must filter user input to keep the ASP.Net web pages secure.

Also, you can encode the HTML before displaying the unfiltered user input convert the potentially malicious script into display strings. At the same time, you need to ensure that the unfiltered user input is not stored in a database. Along with filtering the HTML accepted from users manually, you can clearly explain what information will be accepted by the application. However, you should not create a filter to identify and remove the malicious input, as it is difficult to identify the user input that is malicious and harmful.

4. Keep Your Databases Secure: The security of a web application is directly related to the way your store and access data. So you must consider optimizing the security of your databases to keep the Dot Net web application secure. Each database comes with inherent security features. You must avail the feature to restrict the access to database resources according to the requirements of the application. Further, you enable integrated security feature of your website to ensure that the users can access the database only by using Windows-authenticated users.

Many security experts consider the integrated security feature to be more effective than login credential based access. If you want to allow anonymous access to the application, it is a good idea to create a single user that has limited permission to run SQL queries. Instead of processing user input by concatenating strings to create SQL statements, you can consider creating a parameterized query. The customized SQL query will receive user input, and use the information as parameter values.

Microsoft has also recommended several best practices to fix the potential security flaws. At the same time, an enterprise must avail the security features provided by the web server to deploy the website in a secure environment.

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Best Practices for Improving .NET Application Performance

Every developer frequently looks for innovative ideas to optimize the performance and scalability of his applications. Many developers also want to implement some of the best practices that have already been successfully tried and tested by others. If you are exploring best practices to make your .NET application more powerful, it is a good idea to start reading the performance best practices provided by Microsoft. At the same time, you also need to learn some of the tricks implemented by .NET developers based on different parameters. However, you must choose and use the best practices that complement the type and usage of your application.

Best Practices to Improve .NET Application’s Performance and Scalability

1. Validate Input using Client Side Scripts: The data validation technique used by the developers can boost the performance of the application by reducing the server overload. The .NET framework enables developers to validate all types of user input using a set of service side controls. However, they still have option to validate the input using client side controls in ASP.NET. It is always a good idea to maintain a proper balance between the client side and server side validation controls to process user requests quickly by reducing load on server.

2. Try Not to Throw Exceptions: Most developers use exceptions in both windows and web applications. But the exceptions often consume a huge amount of resources, and results in slowing down the application. They can alternately improve the performance of the application by incorporating try/catch blocks to monitor the control flow. As the try/catch blocks do not use high resources, they can use these again and again in your code. However, the programmer must use exceptions when the application’s performance is lost and the user needs to see some user-friendly error message.

3. Use .Transfer to Redirect to Another Page: The Response.Redirect() method is widely used by programmers to instruct the browser to redirect to another page. But the chatty nature of this function makes it usable only when the users are being transferred to another web server. You can always avoid using additional and unnecessary HTTP requests by using .transfer, while transferring the user within the same sever. Instead of transferring the requests, .transfer will simply shift the focus on your webs server. The reduced number of HTTP requests will put less pressure on the web server, while boosting the speed and efficiency of your application.

4. Disable the Debug Option in Web.Config File: When you create a new .NET application, the debug is by default set as true in web.config. The attribute will be useful for programmers during the asp.net web development phase, but the attribute must be changed to false before deploying the web application. If you forget set debug=false in web.config, it will require PDB information to be inserted into the file. The larger size of the file will further slow down your application.

5. Turn Tracing Off: Often developers are required to track the trace and sequence of the application. They use the tracing feature provided by .NET framework to easily monitor trace logging. But when you turn the tracing feature on, it will increase the performance overhead. Also, there are chances that the user might see some of your private information. So you have to turn the tracing feature on only when the application is being analyzed actively. Once the analysis is over, and you are not required to monitor tracing, the options must be turned off before deploying the .NET application.

6. Kill Resources using the Finally Method: You can further optimize the speed of your web application by killing resources like open files and database connections. The killing of these resources will reduce the server overhead, and make your application run faster. Regardless of the outcome of a Block, you can use the finally method independently. So the method can be invoked independently in the code included either in the Try or Catch block.

Each .NET developer can also decide best practices based on his personal experience in writing code. However, a programmer must share the tricks with other members of his team to reduce the normal time required to develop a robust web application.

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Best Practices to render high-performance applications using ASP.Net

Compared to classic ASP, ASP.Net is more potent. But in order to come up with high performance, reliable and robust applications, one must be well-versed with the proper means to leverage the power of this programming framework. Here, we bring to you some of the best practices that can be followed to make the most of ASP.Net.

1. Research and plan prior to development: Indulge yourself in some amount of research and find out how .Net can prove beneficial for you. There are a number of solutions offered by .Net at each level of app development. You must understand the positive and negative impacts of each approach that this development environment supports. Visual Studio offers a total development package coming up with a number of options that help in the implementation of the same logic. It is essential to carefully explore each option and determine the most-suited solution for the concerned task. Using layering, the application logic can be partitioned into data access, business and presentation layers. This not only helps in the creation of maintainable code, but also facilitates monitoring and optimization of each layer’s performance separately. Scalability and maintenance can be improved by reduction in the number of codes within the code-behind files.

2.String concatenation: Your application can record decreased performance if the string concatenation aspect is handled properly. String concatenation is done in two ways. First, you can consider addition of a new string to an already existing string. However, this operation can be quite expensive and time consuming. The second option comprises the use of StringBuilder Class which is a more efficient way for concatenation of strings.

3. Do away with round trips across the server: Do not go for unnecessary round trips across the web server. To avoid doing so, consider implementing Ajax UI in order to refrain from full page refresh and update only that segment of the page which requires change. For eliminating round trips you can also consider using client side scripts for validating client site, and this cuts down the number of round trips needed for processing user’s request.

4. Save viewstate only if the same is necessary: ViewState is mainly used by Server controls for retaining state solely on pages which post data across themselves. A concealed variable is used for transferring information to the client and reading back the same. ViewState becomes a redundant overhead in case of pages which do not require it. With the growth in size, the ViewState starts affecting the functional efficiency of garbage collection. Viewstate is not required when your page is not posting information over itself or you are not dealing with server control events or with each page refresh, you are repopulating controls.

5. Make a careful use of session variables: Session variables should not be loaded with an excessive amount of data. It should also be ensured that the session time out is sensible. This can utilize a considerable portion of server memory. Remember that data that is stored within the session variables is capable of existing for a long time even after the browser is closed by the user. A huge amount of session variables may affect the server. It is advisable to make the session state disabled, in case the session variables are not being utilized for a specific page or application.

6. Use Server.Transfer: The Server.Transfer method is a good option for redirecting between applications. If you use this method in a page where the Server.Transfer syntax exists, refrain from going for redundant client-side redirection. It is better to use Server.Transfer in place of Response.Redirect.

7. Make an appropriate use of server controls and keep away from using intensely nested controls: In spite of the stateless aspect of the HTTP protocol, server controls offer a high quality programming model capable of utilizing Viewstate for administering states within page requests. However, as server controls call for some fixed processing for establishing controls and child controls, the process becomes comparatively more expensive than static text or HTML controls. Hence it is best to use an inline representation for the user interface in place of server controls, when you do not require rich interaction.

The cost can also rise when you are using deeply nested hierarchies for creation of server control and child controls. You can avoid such nested hierarchies by going for separate designs that make use of inline controls or by utilizing a server control hierarchy that is flatter.

8. Select a suitable data viewing control for the solution: Significant tradeoffs can be obtained between performance and convenience, depending on the manner in which you wish to exhibit data within a Web Forms page. Always explore the advantages and disadvantages of the controls prior to using the same in your application. For instance, from amongst Repeater, Datalist and Datagrid, you can go for any one of the three controls for displaying data. But, at first you must carefully determine which control will prove the most beneficial for you.

The above-mentioned practices will indeed ensure that you develop high performance applications using ASP.Net. Apart from these, you can also try some other best practices such as leveraging a DataReader for efficient and fast data binding, optimization of code, pre-compilation of pages, using indexes and stored procedures, and so on. This would help you leverage the benefits of asp.net web development.

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