MVC, MVP and ASP.NET MVC: A Discussion with Greg Galipeau

In this interview, Greg Galipeau of RDA discusses three different patterns -- MVC, MVP and ASP.NET MVC with Dr. Zhiming Xue “Z”, Microsoft Architect Evangelist. Greg articulates the advantages and disadvantages inherent in each pattern, and explains when to use one versus another when creating Windows forms applications and web applications. In his view:

- MVP may be considered when you want more extensive testing, i.e. testing everything on the view. It is harder to set up, but gives you a little more on the testing side. It is very useful when creating an application for both the web side and the win form side.

- MVC may be a good candidate when testing is important but you feel comfortable testing right from the controller. It is also very useful for the win form side of things.

- ASP.NET MVC may be used when MVC is an option and you are doing strictly web development. This option is very useful because of its Front Controller type of pattern, which lets you implement a RESTful style paradigm. This option is also very useful because it doesn’t use postbacks or viewstate, which some people will like because it gets back to the traditional HTTP way that web pages were intended to be.

In short, MVC and MVP are just UI patterns, with ASP.NET MVC being a framework that implements the MVC pattern. Therefore, you can incorporate them with different data access or business layer patterns or frameworks of your choice, such as SOA and ADO.Net Data Service.


You can find Greg's view on the subject of “” at his blog.