MvcPages: ASP.NET MVC without routes and controllers

I like developing with ASP.NET MVC, but sometimes I feel there are too many pieces involved. To develop a single function you have to (in no particular order):

Create route (make sure it doesn’t break other routes)
Create controller/action
Create view model
Create view

… in addition to writing the model/service that does the actual work. Even though this layering gives you a lot of flexibility and testability, sometimes you don’t need it. Do you really need all of the above to develop a simple contact form? Do you ever test your controllers/views? Do you have a lot of actions that just return View()?

ASP.NET Web Pages

Web Pages has the simplicity I sometimes want, except you lose a lot of power. With Web Pages everything is parameter-based, there’s no need to ever write a single class. MVC also has support for parameter-based approach (action method parameter binding, ViewData/ViewBag), but the really nice features such as attribute-based validation and forms generation (EditorForModel) work with classes. These are the features I’m not willing to give up.

MvcPages

Forget about routes, forget about controllers, keep everything else. That’s MvcPages, a very small library with no original features, just a base page class that allows you to access MVC features directly from standalone Razor pages. For example, this is a standard Web Pages page:

@{
   if (!User.Identity.IsAuthenticated) {
      FormsAuthentication.RedirectToLoginPage();
      return;
   }

   Validation.RequireField("currentPassword", "The current password field is required.");
   Validation.RequireField("newPassword", "The new password field is required.");
   
   Validation.Add("newPassword",
      Validator.StringLength(
         maxLength: 100,
         minLength: 6,
         errorMessage: "New password must be at least 6 characters"));
         
   Validation.Add("confirmPassword",
      Validator.Required("The confirm new password field is required."),
      Validator.EqualsTo("newPassword", "The new password and confirmation password do not match."));

   if (IsPost
      && Validation.IsValid()) {

      string currentPassword = Request.Form["currentPassword"];
      string newPassword = Request.Form["newPassword"];
      string confirmPassword = Request.Form["confirmPassword"];

      bool passwordChanged = true; /* code that changes password here */

      if (passwordChanged) {
         Response.Redirect("ChangePasswordSuccess");
         return;
      } else {
         ModelState.AddFormError("An error occurred when attempting to change the password. Please contact the site owner.");
      }
   }

   Page.Title = "Change Password";

   <h1>@Page.Title</h1>
   @Html.ValidationSummary("Password change was unsuccessful. Please correct the errors and try again.", true)
   
   <form method="post">
      <div class="editor-label">
         <label for="currentPassword">Current password</label>
      </div>
      <div class="editor-field">
         <input type="password" id="currentPassword" name="currentPassword" @Validation.For("currentPassword")/>
      </div>

      <div class="editor-label">
         <label for="newPassword">New password</label>
      </div>
      <div class="editor-field">
         <input type="password" id="newPassword" name="newPassword" @Validation.For("newPassword")/>
      </div>

      <div class="editor-label">
         <label for="confirmPassword">Confirm new password</label>
      </div>
      <div class="editor-field">
         <input type="password" id="confirmPassword" name="confirmPassword" @Validation.For("confirmPassword")/>
      </div>

      <br />
      <button>Change Password</button>
   </form>
}

Ugly, long, terrible. This is the same page using MvcPages:

@using Samples.Account
@model ChangePasswordModel
@{
   var service = new AccountService(ModelState);
   
   if (!User.Identity.IsAuthenticated) {
      FormsAuthentication.RedirectToLoginPage();
      return;
   }

   if (IsPost
      && TryUpdateModel()
      && service.ChangePassword(Model)) {
      
      Response.Redirect("ChangePasswordSuccess");
      return;
   }

   ViewBag.Title = "Change Password";

   <h1>@ViewBag.Title</h1>
   @Html.ValidationSummary(true, "Password change was unsuccessful. Please correct the errors and try again.")
   
   using (Html.BeginForm()) {
      @Html.EditorForModel()
      <br />
      <button>Change Password</button>
   }
}

Same ol’ MVC. You know the features: model binding, model validation, strongly-typed HTML helpers, editor and display templates, TempData, etc.

Also, a new feature: Layout compatibility. Ever tried using an MVC layout from Web Pages? you get:

Server Error in '/' Application.

The view at '~/SomePage.cshtml' must derive from WebViewPage, or WebViewPage<TModel>.

With MvcPages it’s possible. You can now add Web Pages to your MVC app and use the same layout as your views.

Like it? NuGet it, or fork it, or whatever.