ASP.NET Core MVC Explained

What is ASP.NET Core MVC?

MVC (Model-View-Controller) is a pattern for building web apps that separates data (Model), UI (View), and logic (Controller). ASP.NET Core MVC is Microsoft's implementation.

The Three Parts

• Model — your data and business logic.
• View — the HTML (Razor templates).
• Controller — handles requests, returns views.

A Controller

public class HomeController : Controller {
    public IActionResult Index() {
        var products = _service.GetAll();
        return View(products); // passes model to view
    }
}

A Razor View

@model List<Product>
<ul>
@foreach (var p in Model) {
    <li>@p.Name - $@p.Price</li>
}
</ul>

Routing

// /Home/Index maps to HomeController.Index()
app.MapControllerRoute(
    name: "default",
    pattern: "{controller=Home}/{action=Index}/{id?}");

FAQs

MVC vs Razor Pages vs Web API?

MVC for complex apps, Razor Pages for page-focused sites, Web API for JSON backends. More in our .NET section.

What is Razor?

A templating syntax that mixes C# with HTML using @.