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A lot of release notes for Visual Studio 2012 talk about .NET 4.5 and MVC4, but I can't tell if MVC4 is actually part of the .NET 4.5 release. Anybody know for sure? I would love not to have to install MVC separately on my server.

Jim
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    No, it's not. MVC is a library that is separate from the framework, much like Enterprise Library or NLog or whatever. Granted, it integrates with Visual Studio, but it's not part of the framework at all. – kprobst Aug 16 '12 at 18:13
  • @kprobst - I thought they might into the framework itself as it became more 'mainstream.' Not yet, at least. – Jim Aug 16 '12 at 18:42
  • I would hope not, there's no need for that at all. ASP isn't 'baked' into the framework, and neither are WinForms or WPF. They are just higher-level libraries that run on top of it. – kprobst Aug 16 '12 at 19:13
  • @kprobst - If I know somebody has the right version of the .NET runtime installed, I can send them a WinForms exe and know that it will run. If I know a server has .NET installed, I can't be sure that it will run an MVC app because it requires a separate installer. I'm probably misusing the phrase "in the framework." What I really mean is if it get installed when you install the .NET framework runtime. – Jim Aug 16 '12 at 19:41
  • aaaah, I get it now. I thought you wanted MVC integrated into the runtime or something.. :) But then something like MVC is inherently a server-specific piece of software. I don't think it's far-fetched of Microsoft to assume that developers have no problem with installing a package or two. – kprobst Aug 16 '12 at 20:38

2 Answers2

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No, ASP.NET MVC 4 is baked into VS2012, exactly the same way ASP.NET MVC 3 was baked into VS2010 but not part of .NET 4.0 (there was a separate download that you could install on your servers). But there will also be a separate download of ASP.NET MVC 4 for VS2010 SP1 in which you obviously won't be able to use the .NET 4.5 specific features, such as async/await, but you will still be able to develop an ASP.NET MVC 4 application and target .NET 4.0.

Darin Dimitrov
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  • Thanks. I just wish they made the server specific installation file more obvious. If I go to http://www.asp.net/mvc/mvc4, the only download options are to install it with Visual Studio 2010/2012, neither of which I have on my server. – Jim Aug 16 '12 at 18:45
  • Jim has a point, how do I get this on my server? No, installing VS.NET is not an option. I see the .NET 4.5 install, but no stand-alone MVC4 install. – mxmissile Aug 16 '12 at 19:54
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    You could use WebPI to install ASP.NET MVC 4 on your server. – Darin Dimitrov Aug 16 '12 at 20:05
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    Additionally you can bin deploy MVC with your application. We are doing this in an enterprise environment with no issues. See this SO answer for more details. http://stackoverflow.com/a/10463662/121466 – gidmanma Oct 02 '12 at 19:57
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ASP.NET MVC has made a point of NOT being tied to a particular .NET incarnation. That way, you can use the latest and greatest irrespective of what .NET version your hosting provider uses.

If the provider supports ASP.NET, that's all you need to know.

For this precise purpose, ASP.NET MVC is bin-deployable, meaning you can deploy the MVC dlls yourself, along your application - without requiring special rights from the hosting provider.

Phil Haack has a great article describing how to bin-deploy MVC3. There's even tooling support in VS for this scenario!

I assume the workflow for newer MVC incarnations is similar.

Cristian Diaconescu
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