ASP.NET MVC, Jquery, EntityFramework CodeFrist: Introduction

This post is part of a series of articles regarding how to Insert, Update and Delete data in the database using LINQ to SQL. Also for this project, I will be working with ASP.NET MVC 3, Jquery and Entity Framework 4.1 Code First. Before we proceed, let me give you an overview of the things that I will use in this project. 

ASP.NET MVC 3

It is a framework for building scalable, stadards-based web applications using well-established design patterns and the power of ASP.NET and the .Net Framework. This new release can also be installed side-by-side with ASP.NET MVC 2. Some of the features of this framework are listed bellow. 

• Extensible Scaffolding with MvcScaffold integration
• HTML 5 enabled project templates
• The Razor View Engine
• Support for Multiple View Engines
• Controller Improvements
• JavaScript and Ajax
• Model Validation Improvements
• Dependency Injection Improvements
• Other New Features

For more details about this framework you can visit the site and download the latest release of ASP.NET MVC 3.

Jquery

"Jquery is a fast and concise JavaScript Library that simplifies HTML document traversing, event handling, animating, and Ajax interactions for rapid web development. jQuery is designed to change the way that you write JavaScript0."  - Jquery site

Now here is a good thing. ASP.NET MVC 3 come with the Jquery library. I will show you later on how its done and what are the other Javascript libraries included with the MVC framework. If you want to include Jquery in your project manually then you can download it from the Jquery website for free.

Entity Framework 4.1

"The Entity Framework is Microsoft’s recommended data access technology for new applications. Entity Framework 4.1 brings a set of powerful productivity features, including “Code First” support, the productivity-enhancing DbContext API, and the ability to work with an existing database or have it created automatically." - msdn site

You can visit the Microsoft Developer Network Platforms home page to learn more about Entity Framework 4.1 and download to try if for your self. 

Throughout this project I will be using the recommended release of .NET 4 framework. You can download the installer and upgrade your .NET framework. I have been working with .NET 4 in recent projects and so far its working fine with me. Install the recommended framework and libraries and this tutorial should help you along the way. 

Overview

In this walkthrough you will build pieces of a Toy Store application. The walkthrough will not result in a fully functional application, but instead it will use the blog classes to demonstrate the implementation of the ASP.NET MVC 3, Jquery and EF Code First features. The series of articles will tackle the following:

• Creating the MVC application. 
• Define classes to represent the entities of the Toy Store products.
• Reference the Entity Framework code first assembly.
• Create a DbContext to manage the Blog classes and data access.
• Build and ASP.NET MVC 3 application that can insert, update and delete Toy Store products.
• Integrate Jquery ajax and JqGrid

The action will take place in the next post. Stay tune and watch out for the completion of this project. We will learn many things and maybe you can use this with your own project.