Difference betweeen WebForms and MVC – CodeProject

ASP.NET MVC and ASP.NET WebForms are the two existing essential development models that highly contribute to the technology enhancement of today's hi-tech era. Both these models have some pros as well as cons which will be discussed here in the light of comparison.

What are WebForms?

ASP.NET WebForms were first brought out by Microsoft from ASP. It solved a number of problems by creating abstraction of higher level over simulated stateful model and stateless web for web developers.

• WebForms introduce applications like self postback (post to same page form data) or ViewState (during postbacks maintain control values).
• The most interesting part lies in the fact it is not required to even a single line of code. With the emergence of Web Forms, Microsoft attempted to bring forth the Visual Basic model into web.

What is MVC?

For sometimes now the concept of MVC has been around after Microsoft introduced it. It is actually an architectural pattern and including Java it is also used by a number of developers. ASP.NET MVC is an important model required for web applications and this pattern is a solution to a context related problem. This application offers input logic, UI logic and business logic. It allows you to develop an application loosely coupled between each of such elements.

The main purpose of this pattern includes separation of concerns. It makes UI ignorant or presentation of user interaction and business logic. According to this pattern, system is divided as Model (M), View (V) and Controller (C).

• Model, considered as smart is meant to handle the logic or data as well as Business rules and will remain independent of the other MVC parts like Controller or View.
• In short, controller receives as well as dispatches the request while handling the user interaction or input logic. It knows everything about View or Model.
• A view is regarded as dumb and it is the output representation of a model data. It can be a web page or an excel sheet, showing just a simple text or list of records. View only knows about Model.

Difference between WebForms and MVC

Here are some of the very basic differences between these two major applications responsible for website development.

• WebForms use the page controller approach for the purpose of rendering a layout. Whereas, MVC offers a model which has no connection with the View, hence it becomes easier to maintain or test the applications.
• For all the pages, Web Forms use the front controller pattern in order to process the web application requests. It is also used to generate routing architecture. Where as, MVC has the View which is called before the controller that is used to provide the View, based on the action as there is interaction between user and the interface.
• Web Forms use the server based controls along with view state for managing the state of the model. MVC does not record state information unlike Web Forms.
• WebForms are basically event driven whereas, MVC is test driven.
• In case the development team is small, Webforms are mostly preferred for Rapid application development. MVC is best suited for larger project where more priority is given to testability or maintainability.
• It is easy to learn Webforms development in comparison to MVC development.

Irreplaceable depending on certain requirements

ASP.NET MVC or ASP.NET WebForms, each could be the best choice for any particular solution. Depending on the requisites of an application along with the background of the team professionals involved, both the technology can serve the best purpose for your business prospective. Hence, one application can never replace the other.

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