Coexisting WebForms and MVC

In addition to my previous post on the topic, here are the steps to take if MVC is to be added to an existing WebForms project:

• Add references to
  • System.Web.Routing
  • System.Web.Abstractions
  • System.Web.Mvc
  • System.Web.Helpers
• Add directories to the existing site root
  • Controllers
  • Views
  • Content (optional) for images and CSS
  • Scripts (optional) for JavaScript
• Update web.config to load the above assemblies at runtime and register the UrlRoutingModule
• Set route(s)

If you decide to keep the default route then either copy (from a blank Mvc project) or create a new HomeController and the view(s) for the actions. The best way is to do the above tasks manually and then copy the content, like controllers, views, and scripts, from a starter Mvc site.

Web.config

These are the settings to add to web.config:

    <compilation debug="true" targetFramework="4.0">
      <assemblies>
        <add assembly="System.Web.Abstractions, Version=4.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35" />
        <add assembly="System.Web.Helpers, Version=1.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35" />
        <add assembly="System.Web.Routing, Version=4.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35" />
        <add assembly="System.Web.Mvc, Version=3.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35" />
        <add assembly="System.Web.WebPages, Version=1.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35" />
      </assemblies>
    </compilation>

and also

  <system.web>
    <pages>
      <namespaces>
        <add namespace="System.Web.Helpers" />
        <add namespace="System.Web.Mvc" />
        <add namespace="System.Web.Mvc.Ajax" />
        <add namespace="System.Web.Mvc.Html" />
        <add namespace="System.Web.Routing" />
        <add namespace="System.Web.WebPages"/>
      </namespaces>
    </pages>
  </system.web>