To learn ASP.NET MVC, we are Building an Internet application
Part II: Exploring the Application Folders
MVC Folders
A typical ASP.NET MVC web application has the following folder content:
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The folder names are equal in all MVC applications. The MVC framework is based on default naming. Controllers are in the Controllers folder, Views are in the Views folder, and Models are in the Models folder. You don't have to use the folder names in your application code.
Standard naming reduces the amount of code, and makes it easier for developers to understand MVC projects.
Below is a brief summary of the content of each folder:
The App_Data Folder
The App_Data folder is for storing application data.
We will add an SQL database to the App_Data folder, later in this tutorial.
The Content Folder
The Content folder is used for static files like style sheets (css files), icons and images.
Visual Web Developer automatically adds a themes folder to the Content folder. The themes folder is filled with jQuery styles and pictures. In this project you can delete the themes folder.
Visual Web Developer also adds a standard style sheet file to the project: the file Site.css in the content folder. The style sheet file is the file to edit when you want to change the style of the application.
We will edit the style sheet file (Site.css) file in the next chapter of this tutorial.
The Controllers Folder
The Controllers folder contains the controller classes responsible for handling user input and responses.
MVC requires the name of all controller files to end with "Controller".
Visual Web Developer has created a Home controller (for the Home and the About page) and an Account controller (for Login pages):
We will create more controllers later in this tutorial.
The Models Folder
The Models folder contains the classes that represent the application models. Models hold and manipulate application data.
We will create models (classes) in a later chapter of this tutorial.
The Views Folder
The Views folder stores the HTML files related to the display of the application (the user interfaces).
The Views folder contains one folder for each controller.
Visual Web Developer has created an Account folder, a Home folder, and a Shared folder (inside the Views folder).
The Account folder contains pages for registering and logging in to user accounts.
The Home folder is used for storing application pages like the home page and the about page.
The Shared folder is used to store views shared between controllers (master pages and layout pages).
We will edit the layout files in the next chapter of this tutorial.
The Scripts Folder
The Scripts folder stores the JavaScript files of the application.
By default Visual Web Developer fills this folder with standard MVC, Ajax, and jQuery files:
Note: The files named "modernizr" are JavaScript files used for supporting HTML5 and CSS3 features in the application.