This book begins with you working along as Scott Guthrie builds a complete ASP.NET MVC reference application. He begins NerdDinner by using the File->New Project menu command within Visual Studio to create a new ASP.NET MVC Application. You'll then incrementally add functionality and features. Along the way you’ll cover how to create a database, build a model layer with business rule validations, implement listing/details data browsing, provide CRUD (Create, Update, Delete) data form entry support, implement efficient data paging, reuse UI using master pages and partials, secure the application using authentication and authorization, use AJAX to deliver dynamic updates and interactive map support, and implement automated unit testing.

From there, the bulk of the rest of the book begins with the basic concepts around the model view controller pattern, including the little history and the state of the MVC on the web today. We'll then go into the ways that MVC is different from ASP.NET Web Forms. We'll explore the structure of a standard MVC application and see what you get out of the box. Next we dig deep into routing and see the role URLs play in your application. We'll deep dive into controllers and views and see what role the Ajax plays in your applications. The last third of the book focuses entirely on advanced techniques and extending the framework.

In some places, we assume that you're somewhat familiar with ASP.NET WebForms, at least peripherally. There are a lot of ASP.NET WebForms developers out there who are interested in ASP.NET MVC so there are a number of places in this book where we contrast the two technologies. Even if you're not already an ASP.NET developer, you might still find these sections interesting for context, as well as for your own edification as ASP.NET MVC may not be the web technology that you're looking for.

It’s worth noting, that ASP.NET MVC is not a replacement for ASP.NET Web Forms (aka just "ASP.NET"). Many web developers have been giving a lot of attention to other web frameworks out there (Ruby on Rails, Django) which have embraced the MVC (Model-View-Controller) application pattern, and if you’re one of those developers, or even if you’re just curious, this book is for you.

MVC allows for (buzzword alert!) a "greater separation of concerns" between components in your application. The book goes into the ramifications of this, but if it had to be said it in a quick sentence: ASP.NET MVC is ASP.NET Unplugged. ASP.NET MVC is a tinkerer’s framework that gives you very fine-grained control over your HTML and Javascript, as well as complete control over the programmatic flow of your application.