It all started when I was looking for a high-paying job as a software developer in Los Angeles over a year ago. I began searching the online job boards such as SimplyHired, Monster, and Dice.com and immediately noticed that the best contract jobs related to Microsoft’s stack of technologies were MVC 3.0. The pay rate was between $52.00/hour for those who were new to MVC and willing to learn at an intensive pace to $85.00/hour for those who were experts on MVC technology. I was ready to give it my all!
I immediately ordered a couple books from Amazon, started reading blogs, and watched a few free online videos on YouTube. Meanwhile, I applied for starter jobs that would pay around $52/hour and help me learn MVC in a short amount of time.
The demand for Microsoft MVC 3.0 was high at the time (it’s still very high, but now switching to MVC 4.0), and I got calls from recruiters in no time. Since my resume looked top-notch thanks to many years of experience with .NET, SQL Server, and Oracle technologies, I got job offers fairly quickly and started my MVC journey in no time.
I did want to get that high paying job –So bad!
The company that hired me asked me to do a small pilot project in three days to assess if I could learn the technology quickly and come up to their speed. Those three days were tough, and I devoured all the books I had and dedicated myself to working on the code. Let me tell you that I was pulling my hair out … but I wasn’t going to give up because I did want that high paying job so bad!
At the end of the three-day trial, I had to demo my pilot project to a couple of managers and our team lead. My hard work and sleepless nights paid off – I managed to complete the project in two and a half days! The code was not perfect by any means, but it worked. Hey, it was my very first MVC app, and I was thrilled about the progress I had made in such a short time.
So, What’s MVC?
Coming from the world of .NET and working with web forms for so long had programmed my brain to design a web application in terms of pages, code behind files, and a bunch of server controls such as grids, checkboxes, text boxes, buttons, etc.
MVC was a different world, and it made me forget about the flow of web forms and start from scratch, very much like when I started learning .NET a decade ago.
The MVC Pattern
The MVC pattern is nothing new and has been around for several decades. It’s a software architectural pattern that separates your application into three different layers: model, view, and controller. Each of these layers is responsible for a specific task.
The Model
The model is comprised of a bunch of classes that carry your application logics. For example, you might have an entity in your application called customers. The customer class with its own properties and methods is the basic customer model. You use this class in your application to work with the customer type, which is probably an object model of a database class called customer.
The View
In the MVC pattern, this is the user interface markup code, which is composed of a bunch of HTML tags and most likely some JavaScript, jQuery, CSS, and similar client side codes.
The Controller
The controllers (you will most likely have more than one in your application) handle the flow of your MVC application. Think of it as your manager; all it does is control the workload by delegating tasks (a respectable job, by the way). The controller knows each view and model in your application, and when an end-user request is made in the app, the controller identifies the right model to work with the data and responds to the request with the best view to show the result to the end user. Basically, the job of the controller, as the name implies, is to orchestrate the whole show.
Microsoft MVC Platform
While MVC is a common architectural software pattern, Microsoft MVC Platform is a specific platform that implements this pattern, supports its basic functionality, and does much more to benefit users.
Microsoft went beyond what was expected from an MVC platform and implemented some amazing features that make it not only a wonderful programming platform, but also a flexible, powerful computing tool. No wonder there is such a huge demand for Microsoft MVC developers!
Look forward to my next posts that I will be going to explain the MVC framework in an easy to understand format that you can apply to real world projects today!
Resources I recommend to learn Microsoft MVC -The fast track way
-Watch a lot of free YouTube videos
-Order this book
http://www.amazon.com/Pro-ASP-NET-MVC-Professional-Apress/dp/1430242361
-Get a mentor for a super speedy learning experience.
Find startup and tech web developer jobs in Los Angeles on the Built In LA job board.
